“What?’ Ethan asked.

‘I think you came back to close a door on yourself. You're creating a recursive loop on whatever it is you came back here to change. Coming back to a previous place and time is a recursive act in itself. It’s activating the repeat cycle of duality That repeat cycle may go on forever, and each time, just like now, you’ll be here to greet it, and change it, providing you change it this time round. You’re closing the door on something ever coming back. Interestingly, you’re doing it in the past, so it will never enter your present. It’ very clever.’ Dawn replied. ’So what places you here? Why here Ethan? How are you tied to this scenario and how important is the door you’re about to close?’

‘It’s a big door,’ Ethan answered. ‘I’m Whitehead’s future self’.

‘Whoa,’ Jimmy exclaimed. ‘I’m going to get my bong. This is getting trippy’.

‘That’s a big door,’ Dawn agreed. ‘How do you know this? Did you know you were Whitehead before you came here?

‘Nope. Figured it out yesterday.’

‘But you’re certain.’

‘I’m certain’.

‘So part of your reason for being here is to discover your identity, but upon discovery, you haven’t returned to your place and time. There’s more to your visit than this. You’re presenting as placing yourself here in retrocausality time. By coming back from a future time, you are the effect. You said you can potentially reaffirm an outcome through your actions, but you can’t change it. You’re the effect and you came back to ensure the cause stays the same, or even gets strengthened through the refinement of recursion. On the one hand, you’re here to reaffirm something, but the duality says you can do something to prevent an event if that event will cause change to the future effect. I think your purpose here is to do something that prevents the alternative outcome to your future. Probably preventing Whitehead from using StarForce. You seemed to have placed yourself in position to do so. The mechanics that define your experience provide for you to do this.

‘But that’s only one side of the duality that comes out of being here,’ Dawn continued. Are you here for yourself, or are you here for all of us? If you’re here just to resolve your own conflict, you can simply prevent Whitehead from using StarForce and go home. But that wouldn’t solve our problem, would it? Zhang would become the ruler in the absence of Whitehead’s influence. You’re here for yourself and you’re here for humanity as well. That’s a duality that comes out of being here. You came to stop Whitehead and Zhang. I wonder how you do that? What did our species gain by stopping Whitehead and Zhang?’

‘Abstract transcendence,’ Ethan answered. ‘By neutralizing Whitehead and Zhang we enabled the people’s uprising to take effect and experience transcendence.’

‘Hmmm,’ Dawn reflected. ‘That’s something I’ve never considered. I must admit Ethan, just by coming, you really brought a lot of information with you. So humanity transcends?

‘Yeah, at the same time as the singularity’.

‘Oh so we have another recursive duality. Transcendence for one, and consciousness for another. ‘And transcendence was evolutionary for the species?

‘Well most of them. I didn’t quite get there.

‘Well then, it would look like you came back to reaffirm transcendence, perhaps find your own, and to remove forever those things that block it. Judging from Whitehead’s and Zhang’s characteristics, that would be something along the lines of narcissism without conscience. This appears to be your mission. Remove the defining characteristics of Whitehead and Zhang from the human race and reaffirm transcendence. Well that seems easy enough to do. There’s only one thing missing.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘What’s that? Ethan asked.

‘You’re not capable of doing anything to usher in the singularity. That would take a computer genius. This isn’t a solo act. If you came back to change you, I’m willing to bet Zhang came back to change Zhang. That means Zhang is among us.’

Ethan and Dawn both looked at Jimmy.

‘What? Jimmy replied defensively.

‘Well, do you have any idea how boring it is to live in a dictatorship?’ Jimmy asked. ‘I hate that place right now. There’s no freedom. I have complete control over the entire country. My surveillance equipment is on every street corner and in every bedroom. I restrict people from doing anything and everything. If they act out of line, I don’t even ask questions, I kill them with impunity. I can’t tell you how that dampens the mood of a country. Everyone’s scared shitless. No one knows how to party anymore. That’s for damn sure’.

‘Wait a second Jimmy,’ Ethan interrupted. ‘Are you telling us you’re Chairman Zhang and you’ve come to America so you can party?’

‘Pretty much. Yeah’.

Dawn didn’t seem taken aback by this information as Ethan, but unfortunately she did have more of the backstory on Jimmy than he did.

‘Well, it’s really boring over there. Seriously, you do not want to run a dictatorship. They suck. And by the way,’ Jimmy just remembered. ‘I’m also provoking a revolution among my people. I can’t be there when I'm stirring them up to overthrow me. What if they overthrow my palace?’

‘Well, you are one hell of a martyr Jimmy. How are you doing all this anyway?’ Ethan asked.

‘I got AI running things back home. I have a VR room set up, which I never leave for security reason’s and the hierarchy is such that i don’t have to interact with more than a handful of people. I’m connected to my AI through a microchip I implanted in my brain. It communicates on an elementary frequency and is undetectable to Whitehead or my people. It’s pretty cool.

‘Yeah, but, how come you’re always here. Even as Jimmy Wang, shouldn’t you be in China selling shit once in awhile?’

‘No,’ Jimmy replied. ‘I exiled myself from China by having Zhang expropriate a percentage of my holdings. It was such an aggressive move, I had to flee because I feared my personal safety’.

‘Okay, let’s just stop it here,’ Dawn said. ‘There’s starting to be too much information to process. We need to look at this from our various perspectives, and come back with some ideas. I say we go away, think about things, and come back to it in a few days. Jimmy, I’m sure we can’t get away with meetings of this length for long before Eldon starts asking questions. What can you do about this?

‘Well, up until now, we’ve only been monitoring Ethan. I suppose we could upgrade this floor into a VR simulation like I have back home. AI will just take over Ethan’s entire function here. Everything Eldon sees will be AI generated. He can even come down here and there will be simulations of both of you. He won’t be able to tell them from the real thing.’

‘How long will that take?’ Dawn asked.

‘Oh,’ Jimmy calculated. ‘We have the materials. I’ve been planning something like this for awhile now. AI’s already immersive. No more than a week’.

‘I suggest we carry on as always for a week and meet back when Jimmy has things in order,’ Dawn motioned. ‘Can you build a private room somewhere for meetings?’

‘No worries, Jimmy gave her a thumbs up.’

‘Alright,’ Dawn tabled. ‘Let’s meet back in a week’.