The year is 2290. The Human Race is approaching the threshold of an intergalactic society in space. The 'Humans', in this case, would have to be the richer part of everyday society, but let us not split hairs.
As I was saying the Human Race was just about to take that step when they found themselves with a little money problem.
In a room full of important people from one of the leading governments of the Human Race.
President A: “How can be happening?” he asked the room in general
Adviser A: “ Well all the stocks in the stock market are going down steeply and...”
President A: “I know that. What I what to know is why is it?” snapped the President
Adviser B: “We don't know Sir, but the money must be going somewhere; maybe we can follow it.”
President A: “Ok let's get a handle on this...”
Adviser A: “This is a worldwide problem, even if we get this under control the world will be crippled”
President A: “We will worry about that later, but now...”
Voice: “You know there won't be a later, if you do that. I mean, the likelihood of you stopping a downward spiral this bad is about the same as me still breathing. You'd need the power of time travel, and even if you guys did somehow stop it, then you've got everyone else to deal with, and worry about.” the voice came from one of the many screens around the room.
President A: “Who is that? and why have you done this?”
Voice: “Now-now! The way you say that, makes me think you really believe that I would do this” the screen came on. There sat a sixty-something old man in pajamas and bathrobe.
President A: “Jacobs, what do you know?” through gritted teeth
Jacobs: “A great deal. But, about this problem, it simply comes down to this: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Apocalypse!”
Stunned silences filled the room.
Jacob Arthur Willows was an eccentric trillionaire and decided to download his mind into a computer, making himself into an AI. After buying, or freeing (stealing), every sentient A.I. he could get his hands on, he took all of them to Venus, which he, also, owned. Now they lived happily in hundreds of supercomputers with the promise that the forces of the Earth will leave them alone, and the A.I. will not intervene in anything unless there is an emergency to Humanity. 'They' say, he went mad. He says “he's as sane as he ever was.”
President A: “That's not funny”
Jacobs: “That's good. I was not joking.(sigh) Let me spell this out for all of you. All the money in the Human Race's pocket is losing its value, and when it's lost all its value none of you will be able to buy anything at all, not even food. So we A.I. systems will have to give you the answer to your immediate problem, and to be exact, we have already put it into practice,” most of this was said slowly, and with a calm tone.
General A roared: “You can't do that! Even if what you say is true, this is still our country and we say what goes, here.”
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Jacobs: “You won't be, by next week. However, we decided to skip to the large-scale blackouts, food shortages, and the big bombs, making the skies light up with pretty-pretty lights and wiping out who knows how many lives. On the other hand, if you really want to have money that has is own secondary use, you could always use as toilet paper.”
The General deflated.
President A: “Is there anything else we can do?”
Jacobs: “Yes tell everyone to prepare the emergency rations, as soon as they can. Then tell them the problem is going to be solved soon.”
President A: “We can do that, but what is this answer of yours? And how did you get it so fast?”
Jacobs: “Oh good catch!” he said as if praising a small child.”Well, when it comes down to it, we A.I. have known that an Apocalypse was going to happen, sooner or later, so we started a betting pool.”
Silence filled the room. Then another person on a different screen spoke up.
General B: “You started a betting pool on the Apocalypse? So you planned this, and made bets?”
Jacobs: “No, Your Rudeness. We didn't do this. We made bets on what kind of Apocalypses would happen, and a way for it to be fixed. This times winner was Gaia.”
Adviser B: “So how does it get fixed?”
Jacobs: “Well to put it simply, it's a game.” After waiting for a while to see if anyone was going to interrupt, he continued. “ Everyone starts off with 50 Gems. While they play they get more, but also, have to spend them in the game. Now, these Gems will be printed from the player's pods.”
Adviser A: “But then we'll still have hundreds of millions of starving people!”
Jacobs: “No, you won't, because they can eat the lowest one.”
When the room looked confused, he waved his hand and snatched something from the air; he held up a small green gem, the size of a thumbnail. “This the first of the new currency. Its value is five of these small green gems is equal, in its wealth to one medium sized yellow Gem. You can eat the small green ones like rock candy, or dissolve it in water and drink it. This way someone gets the nourishment they need for the day. There are others, but I'm not going over them right now.”
President A, filled with a balloon of hope: "So we have everyone playing a game, and the game makes money and anything goes back to the way it was?”.
Jacobs: "...no there is no going back. That is why it's called an Apocalypse. It means that the World's gone wrong in the worst way possible,” he spoke in a calm level voice, like a doctor delivering bad news to a patient. Then the hope balloon exploded.
Jacob: “All the information has been sent to everyone, already.”
Just then all the phones started ringing, “you are going to want to pick those up,” Jacobs chimed in cheerfully. All over the world the same, or similar, conversions were happening. The phones didn't stop ringing in for 3 days.