New World

Vishnu Rao was a brilliant boy in school. More than his abilities his dreams and ambitions made him a scientist. Though his parents had named him after a God, once he was a teenager he stopped believing in God’s existence. Ironically the science he learnt talked about the big bang theory which indirectly said the universe was somehow ‘created’. But Vishnu claimed that since he had not seen God, he did not believe in his existence.

He called himself an agnostic.

He had everything going fine for him since childhood.

Vishnu was born in 2012. In 2020, when he was eight years old he finished his high school studies for which other ordinary students would have taken another eight years in normal circumstances. He remained only few months in any class. As per the new government education policy, he was promoted to the next class after writing exams even in between the academic year.

From eight to sixteen years he studied as many things as he could and was allowed. Then he did his doctorate for two years. He was awarded his first doctorate for the thesis- ‘How human mind responds to computer and its applications and how mind can be aligned to computer code’. That was only the beginning. Like Albert Einstein’s ‘Theory of relativity’ his theory in the thesis was also not understood by many people. Due to other commitments he could not do anything further in his first thesis. Though he did many PHDs after that, his first thesis always remained his favourite.

Indian Government offered him a special contract. He declined the offer and flew to the USA. He did not have love or hatred for any nation. He did not understand why people were patriotic. He considered all the nations as same. He only liked the weather in the USA. He was made one of the advisers to the President. He would not accept any lesser job.

If you travel by a supersonic aeroplane at more than 1200 km per hour speed, it takes more than eighteen hours to reach America from India over the Atlantic or Pacific depending on your destination. While the faster planes take less time, the ordinary ones take more time.

Space is only above 100 kilometers from earth. It takes only ten minutes to reach the space above 300 kilometers from earth by rocket. This altitude is ideal for the spacecraft to travel at 28,000 km around the earth. If you position your spacecraft at a right place and reenter the earth, the maximum time taken to reach the even farthest place is only 30 minutes. The theory was always there. But nobody tried to make it a practical for different reasons.

But Vishnu tried. In 2030, the mission was completed. He had combined the rocket, spacecraft and aero plane. He named it Rocket Aero Spacecraft (RAS)

He took only 40 minutes to reach India for his dad’s funeral. The President had given him a special RAS as his contribution for the development of USA was immense. He was the first adviser of the USA president who was practical in his approach. He was not a scientist who only advised. One needed to have combination of good brains and hard work to be a great adviser. Vishnu had both of them and much more than expected from anyone.

One evening Vishnu phoned the President Abdul Quadar and said that he wanted to see him as soon as possible. The President postponed his trip of Philadelphia. The President knew that when Vishnu wanted to meet him, he meant some business. The President had so much faith in Vishnu.

Vishnu’s helicopter landed at the White House. The President was waiting.

“If it was not so important you would not have come” Abdul Quadar talked.

“My new research says that all minds can be brought together. They can be connected.” Vishnu said.

“You have proved it?”

“My own old thesis says so. But it has remained only a theory for years as I could not devote time. I feel it is 100% achievable. Time has come to make it practical.”

“I have faith in your abilities. How it is going to benefit us?”

“Thousands of benefits are there. We can understand human mind. A mega super computer collects all the data. Every thought of a person is processed here.”

“Elaborate please.”

“Some decades back, six super computers were installed in different locations of the earth. Those computers collected weather data from particular areas and processed them. Even now they are doing it. With the help of this processing, weather pattern for some days can be forecast.”

“Only for some days?”

“Yes…. You cannot predict for very long. Even some days forecasting is useful. And forecasting of six months weather in advance is of no use any way.”

“But human mind is not like weather. It’s different.”

“Yes. Human mind can change. But we can know about a human mind at a particular stage and process the thoughts. We cannot ask the weather to change the pattern. But we can certainly ask a human mind to change. All human minds are under our control.”

“What’s the use?’

“Very simple. Let us assume that someone in California is thinking negatively about you, the President, we can arrest him, detain him or change his views.”

“Do you know every thought of a person?”

“Yes. Even if someone wants to sleep with his wife, we will know about it. If someone wants to travel from New York to California, we will also know about it. If someone wants to go by his car, we can pool others together and make them go by a single car. No one has to book the bus, train or air tickets .The moment we come to know that someone wants to travel somewhere, the system books the tickets. The same thing applies to cancellation”

“Ok. That’s good. So we also know if someone wants to sleep with his wife. Why do we need that information?”

“Well. You will know later that we need this type of information also for some reasons. Anyway we can filter the information and we can make only concerned department to know the information they want or need. If someone needs emergency services only the nearest hospital will know about it. If one wants to withdraw some cash from the bank only the bank knows about it. We programme the computer as per our needs.”

“But how will you bring human minds together?”

“It’s a network like the internet. We bring them together like a chip in a computer or like a SIM in a cell phone.”

“You are going to insert a chip in every human body?”

“Yes, as per the theory. But practically it is not possible to insert a chip. How will we do it? Very simple.”

“How”

“By an injection. We have to inject everyone. Then we will get the unique number.”

“Very good. Will you be able to do it?”

“Otherwise I would not come to you Abdul Quadar.”

Vishnu always called him ‘Mr. President’ in front of others. That was a formality. But in private, he would call him by his name. After the USA changed over the years, Abdul Quadar from Saudi Arabia a pure Muslim became the president of the USA. The Vice President was Anna Patil from India. They say some years back race, tribe, national pride all existed. Now people hardly care about these things.

The world is not one despite many calling it a global village. But the most powerful nation for years had been trying to make the word one nation. But there was no powerful weapon to unite the world. Vishnu thought by his research and efforts it would be possible and easier to bring the world together by a network. They knew nobody dared to object.

“May Allah bless you” Abdulla said. He did not believe in Allah, Jesus or Ram. Only that he was accustomed to taking Allah’s name. Neither of them cared about God but trusted each other.

There were so many meetings. There had to be. Only meetings bring clarity to any proposal. A task force was created.

On a trial basis it was decided that ten human minds would be brought into a network.

Everything happened as Vishnu wanted. The trial was a success.

Then they decided to bring all the people from Washington area into the network. They won.

There was no resistance. Everybody said it was fine for development. Even if someone in Washington coughed, they would know about it. If one required a doctor, he or she would be provided that service in minutes. They could stop diseases from coming in. Human mind responds to every incident. Every human thought about even the slightest pain was recorded.

Later, Vishnu’s team brought the whole of America into network. Even the people who entered the USA were injected. That became a condition to enter the country.

Almost the whole world saw the development. They sent them requests to include them into the network.

“We want to join you” They said.

NATO, SAARC, SADC, ASEAN and hundreds of organizations just disappeared or stopped calling useless meetings. ‘One Nation One Computer Organisation’ (ONOCO) came into existence. Only the nations who agreed for network were allowed to join them.

Vishnu knew it would take few more years to include other countries into the network. But those were made members to wait in the queue. The task team wanted to concentrate on the USA first.

His teams went even to jungles of the USA to bring people into the network.

A person from Philadelphia had four children. He wanted to have the fifth.

They came to know about it immediately.

They sent a communication to him- ‘We cannot afford to look after your fifth child’. He wept. They sent a message again-‘We do not allow weeping people to live.’

Abdul Quadar’s wife Mumtaz had a crush on her driver. Vishnu came to know about it, but he did not tell Abdul Quadar.

Vishnu visited Mumtaz.

“When will you stop doing this Mumtaz?” Vishnu asked her.

“How will you control human feelings? Abdul Quadar is only after power. You also know about it. But you do not tell him. Who will satisfy my body?” Mumtaz said and just hugged Vishnu tightly.

“This is not right Mumtaz” Vishnu resisted.

“Do not tell me what is wrong. Nobody reads your mind. You have the control over everyone.” Mumtaz tightened her hug.

They slept together. It happened many times.

Nobody could know about the Presidents and his family. The president would know about everybody except these two families. And he absolutely did not have control over Vishnu. He had designed the system that way. Vishnu’s defense was that there should be a single ultimate controller. The president trusted Vishnu to be the ultimate controller.

Vishnu could even make the system stop working for a while or forever. But nobody willingly could come out from his control.

Every person had a codeword. For Vishnu it was AAAHL01X0502XP and for the President it was ABHL5628XPLMJ. There was no chronological order here. No relationship with name, place or birth date. The reason was very simple. There was no point in following an order. 12345678 and 83452176 were the same for the computer. It did not want any lessons on mathematics.

Even if Vishnu could know anything, he had programmed the network in such a way that he would get only the information he needed. Other information which was of no use for him was filtered. If he did not have time, he could retrieve the information from the archives. What a particular man was thinking on 21-03-2035 at 23.25? The whole day how many people thought about sex and how many of them had it? He would know about it only going by the magnitude of human feeling. If anybody wanted to murder someone they would know. How many people want to eat mutton? Who wants to go to California? What quantity of medicines, flour, tomatoes and of which type? They would know about everything. How many people want children? Even if husband and wife do not discuss these things they know about it by their emotions. – Every thought was recorded.

In short, Vishnu laid a foundation for a perfect world. No one could conspire against the state or stage coup. Nobody could conspire to murder or rape. They could stop them from committing crimes. Concerned departments would monitor or arrest them.

Once some terrorists sneaked into the country without their knowledge – since they were not networked and none of the agencies saw them with any suspicion, the system did not come to know about it. It was once by chance a security officer bumped into one of them and became suspicious. The security officer’s thoughts were picked up by the network. The whole security system was alarmed. They caught that man and came to know that he was a terrorist. And with his help they caught all of them. The terrorists were all given injections and brought into the network. Agencies came to know that these terrorists were conspiring to carry out terrorist activities. This was a huge success story.

Vishnu thought- ‘If at all God did exist he might also have this type of network. But I do not believe in God. A day every person on the planet and if possible all the animals were brought into the network, then I would be the so called God.’

Vishnu and the President did not have anything against people having sex. But they wanted to control the population. The Parliament decided how many children could be allowed to be conceived in a particular year. They did not want more than necessary. If less were born that was fine. Hence they could plan everything. They could decide how many tons of tomatoes and wheat to be produced, how many schools to be built? How many doctors & engineers the country needed. Based on the number of people they did the forecasting of production.

If any couple wanted a child, they did not allow them to bear it as they wished. There was a rationing here. The computer decided whom to allow. The race of a person, history of that person, intelligence, age and various other factors were all taken into consideration. Accordingly the computer allotted the people the right or privilege to have children. They wanted good children who would become responsible and productive citizens. They did not want any imbalance of race. They knew everyone wanted a child. There was no harm in it. But nobody could go against them.

Once a famous Pastor named Winston Jones came to Vishnu with an appointment. Vishnu already knew why the pastor wanted to meet him. He could have refused to meet him having known the purpose of meeting. But the catch was Vishnu absolutely did not know what the pastor would talk. A person can talk anything and change his plans any time.

“I know why you have come” Vishnu said.

“You know it because you know how to read minds. And that itself is a mistake. So you knew about it in advance. And I am aware that there was no need to come to you while you know why I have come” Pastor spoke.

“But you have come. And you have come to warn me. I know all your past emotions and opinions. Only that I do not know about the future.”

“You are not God to know about the future.”

“But by behavioral pattern even an ordinary person can predict 90% of the future actions. And you corrupt Pastor…..keep in mind. Religion is corrupt now. After we brought all human minds under one network people have lost faith in your God. We know about your plan also. You people want money. We have the recordings of all the Pastors. I can show you if you want.”

“Yes, you know the plans of Pastors. But of how many people? Can you tell me? What percentage? Every group has some bad people. So we have and always had. You please just look at my record. Was I corrupt? Did I ever have wrong plans? Do I have?”

“You do not have. But you have bad people. Forget about money matters. Keep in mind just coming here to warn me itself is an offence. You are against the state.”

“But you are against God. Communists once tried to do it. Now you are doing it. It’s against God’s plans.”

“Where is your God? What are his plans? What mistake we do commit by reading minds?”

“You should not read at all. Everything against God collapses one day. You also have weakness in your system.”

“What weakness?’

“I do not know. I am not God. God gave you too much of brains. But you did not use it for good purpose. I am leaving. You will regret.”

“I can arrest you.”

“You have arrested the feelings, emotions and dreams of people. What will you achieve by arresting a body?”

Vishnu was very angry with the pastor but kept quiet. The pastor went.

‘The pastor is really mad. System cannot collapse just because one complains.’ Vishnu thought. In fact the pastor was the first person to complain.

Vishnu kept on meeting Mumtaz.

He kept an eye on his wife. He knew that she too had bad feelings like others and also crush on some people. It was natural. He wanted to know if it exceeded a limit. He knew that she wanted to have a child. But he did not have any desire. He believed he had many other things to do. He wanted get more fame. Till the system allotted them a chance to have child, they would have had to wait.

One morning when Vishnu was coming out from his house, he saw a small girl aged around six, just falling down on the road. Her legs bled. Vishnu saw her father running towards her in a moment who was watching her from few meters away. The father hugged the girl again and again and kissed her with love and concern.

Vishnu started reading the girl’s father’s mind.

‘My daughter….My baby.. If anything had happened to you, I would have died.’- The father said to himself.

Vishnu was just stunned to read and see the feelings of a father towards his daughter.

Vishnu’s father too showed same type of concern for him and his sister. His mother too did the same. They loved them more than anything on earth.

‘If I had a baby...or two? Or more than two?’ He just imagined children in his mind.

“I can afford” He shouted. Nobody heard him. Nor his feelings could be recorded in the system.

There was a big change in Vishnu. He became a human being. Humans feeling disturbed him a lot. He could not sleep peacefully for days.

Vishnu could not wait. He decided to see the president.

Vishnu went to the President. The conversation was different this time. It had emotions unlike before. He explained his desire to have a child.

“I do not like you talking like that. To process your application as per the rules you obviously need to wait for some more years. We cannot bypass the rules. Secondly if you start loving a child, you cannot work. I reject your request” Abdul Quadar said.

Vishnu was disturbed. He revolted. He even threatened that he would switch off the network.

“If you switch it off, I will order you to restart it or we will repair it.”Abdul Quadar talked in a raised voice.

“Nobody has a code. We should have done something only for development purpose. It’s wrong to read minds.” Vishnu said.

“It was your idea. Do not talk now. Just think about it. You are a brave and wise man. You will not do anything against your brainchild… Just to have a child”

Vishnu did not remain there for long. He knew he would fail to convince Abdul Quadar.

Vishnu made a decision to leave the country.

He took his wife to the Airport and boarded Vishnu’s personal RAS. They headed to their homeland.

‘I will never meet Mumtaz again. I have a wife….. I want a baby. I am safe in my homeland.’ Vishnu said to himself when RAS took off.

RAS entered the space. It took few orbits around the earth before positioning itself to enter the destination.

It was only a few minutes journey after the deorbit burn.

RAS was getting ready to land.

Vishnu switched off the network and hugged his wife.