Far in the future, the world population exceeded 50 billion, but within a year it abruptly dropped to less than 20 …

"Breaking news, ladies and gentlemen! I'm Rebecca Smith holographing to you live. Another mass vaporization attack has taken place, with approximately 30,000 dead. Today, we have a special guest, Dr. Eugene Ferraro, who will explain how this all began and how we can protect ourselves."

"Thank you for inviting me, Ms. Smith."

"You can call me Rebecca, Doctor. We're short on time. How did it all begin?"

"Very well, Rebecca. While researching, I found out that a lone wolf hacker didn't invent the vaporizer portable laser demolecularization weapon, but instead its plans were intentionally leaked by the government."

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"Doctor Ferraro, are you saying our own government released the vaporizer plans?"

"I believe so. I acknowledge that my colleagues call me a quack for my belief, but I have evidence based on the results. We're facing a terminal climate crisis, and our population was soaring due to human cloning and designer offspring—filtered to remove genetic defects. Since our society considers it unthinkable to mandate contraception, much less euthanasia, a covert operation ran by our government, released the vaporizer specs online—codenamed as 'Reduction.'

"Oh, I see, Doctor. You're saying they released the vaporizer specs to be 5D printed by anyone, and that's what's caused a worldwide epidemic of mass …"

"That's right, Rebecca. I've no doubt they'll try to stop me from revealing the truth!"

"Interesting, Doctor … So how do we protect ourselves?"

"Well, Rebecca, I'm glad you're asking me that. My company has developed an early interception EMP system that instantly detects a vaporizer within a 2-mile radius and sends out a burst."

"Won't that stop all of our high tech, Doctor?"

"There's certainly a risk for that, Rebecca, but which do you value more—technology or human life?"