The next year saw tumultuous, but quiet change in human culture. Philbert wondered how much the Fen were driving this change. Passant would not say beyond Philbert’s part in it.
One thing that he was sure of was that the balance of power had changed. Philbert would bet that the Fen had induced this.
With the influence of the Perps gone, corporate media began to focus on the domination of the wealthy and powerful. One simple fact was repeated over and over again: the wealthiest 1% owned 95% of the world’s wealth.
The rest of the world was forced to borrow their lives from these people.
Regular people became informed about the scale of the problem. Philbert was particularly amused that people were seeing the math. How many millions are in a trillion? Almost no one could answer this simple question previously. People asked the question, "Where is my share of global wealth?"
When they did the math and found that their share should be about $60,000 for every man, woman, and child on Earth, another question was asked: "How can you greedy fools live with yourselves seeing the starvation and suffering of so many of us?"
The ultra-wealthy were no longer admired as being the best and the brightest but were seen as the greedy, self-centered predators that they really are. No human is a million times more deserving than any other human.
Almost overnight, the ultra-wealthy began relinquishing their wealth. Yachts, second mansions and private jets were sold off. Thousands of endowments were formed with chartered goals of lifting the standard of living for all.
Philbert loved baseball and was somewhat saddened by the response in professional sports. One of his favorite players quit the majors with a simple statement. "I have earned far more than enough for my family to be financially secure for generations. I’ve been asking myself why I do this. The performance demands have made the game no fun anymore and has been a burden for my family. For this reason I am today quitting professional baseball. I will not be quitting baseball altogether however. I will be playing for fun, camaraderie, and accomplishment with a local team in my hometown. I thank all of my fans for the wonderful support over the years."
Philbert wondered if the quality and quantity of local baseball would increase.
Non-profits were formed with egalitarian goals. Many of them were funded anonymously.
Oligarchs had invested solely for maximum return, without regard for the good of all. As their influence waned, investment became more goal-oriented.
The media, released from the influence of corporate corruption, began to publish the truth about the damage that the fossil fuel industry was causing. Investors soon realized that once the infrastructure was in place, renewable energy is free. The incredible opportunity for profit resulted in massive investments. The air would be cleaner too.
The changes were personal as well. Philbert had always felt pride that his public persona was one of a professor and a wise sage. Because of this it was almost impossible to avoid arrogance in his attitude toward those who had little science background. The talks with Passant had ended that.
To have so much of his assumed understanding of reality be challenged by Passant made him feel like a foolish child. He thought that he understood quantum mechanics well. Nope, the Fen were way beyond him. His ethical and moral foundation was called into question. Had he spent his life trying to "make it" for himself? Had he taken more than he gave? He wondered if his failed relationships were a result.
He asked Passant about it.
"Yes, my little spud, you had a self-defined path that overpowered the needs of your loved ones. You were very driven, and at times very obsessive in your goals. You caused emotional pain for them and yourself.
But don’t beat yourself up about it too much. You never lied to them or cheated on them as some of them did to you. Every one of them had a better life at the end of the relationship than before.
You are not the same man that you were, Cassie changed all of that. You do not realize it yet but from the beginning you gave more than you took from a relationship. Her life was a mess when you met her, but you saw in her humility, kindness and a level of empathy that you had never encountered before. You dedicated yourself to her. You sacrificed for her, something that you had seldom done in the past. The love that you gave was returned by her in ways that changed you for the better. That arrogance and lack of humility faded with her influence. The two of you together is much greater than the sum of the parts.
Had you taken a path leading to a stable marriage early on then you would not have been in the position to change the world as you have," were Passant’s comforting words.
"What change? I did nothing! The Array Device did not work and I did not write the C-TRAN software. You could have given the software to Jay yourself. I did nothing that you Fen could not have done without me!" Philbert said in disgust.
"You are right, except for one thing. The Fen cannot be seen as having a hand in all of this. It must be viewed as a human step, or the value will be lost.
There will soon be a knock on your door, and we think that you are prepared to take credit for the software and the resulting cultural changes.
An inspired and somewhat unethical independent journalist has outed you. He acquired information from data brokers of everyone in contact with Jay through that period of time. He has phone meta-data. He acquired a porch video of you and Jay talking on the deck. He hired a lip reader to generate a transcript of the conversation. He knows that you and Cassie delivered the software to Jay. You are no longer anonymous."
"Shit, shit, this was not supposed to happen!"
"Remember that we talked about this. You need to be the hero in the history of this story. Yes, it will be disorienting for a while, but eyes will soon turn elsewhere. You’ve got this, buddy!" Passant pleaded.
"Perhaps. Cassie and I always remark that it was providence that brought us together at a difficult time in our lives. It was providence that put me into the position to experience the fungus girl. Perhaps it is providence that has guided me to this path as well."
"It’s funny that all of a sudden the meaning of the fungus girl is becoming clear. I should not be too confident about my perception of reality. So much of existence is a mystery, and it gives life meaning to discover and to understand these mysteries. Love, Hope, and Faith should guide me, of these I will let Love abide," Philbert said with a pensive sigh.
"The fungus girl has seeded you with wisdom, dear boy, but there is another important issue here. You think of the fungus girl apparition as a hallucination of a spiritual nature. It is much more than that.
Your human scientists speak of ’quantum consciousness,’ which is typical human hubris. Yes, humans and other species have evolved very primitive quantum abilities. What you saw is your brain’s crude interpretation of what it sensed from another timeline.
I know that it is humbling, Dear bag-o-water, but everything that you see and think is a mix of reality and hallucination. When you look at something, you see a full-color, detailed image, but this image may or may not be an accurate representation of reality.
The world is focused through a lens in your eye onto the retina. But your retina is not a nice white screen; it is reddish, covered in blood vessels, and also has a blind spot. Most of your retina has receptors for black and white only. The high resolution area is only a tiny spot in the middle.
In other words, the information passed from your eye to your brain is only an approximation of reality. Your brain fabricates a detailed, full-color image for you based on prior experience. It does a pretty good job with seeing objective reality.
But when you saw the fungus girl, you were sensing another timeline and your brain did its best to generate an image for you. Most of that image was hallucination. Humans have a very limited capability to sense the quantum world. You will evolve.
Parapsychology, mysticism, precognition, religious visions, ghosts, and angels are the human mind doing its best to fill in the gaps.
Some humans have been blessed with more ability to sense the quantum world than others. These people tend to be the artists, musicians, philosophers, and writers. Many of them comment that they do not know where the inspiration for their work comes from.
For others, the ability to sense the quantum world can be a curse. The brain is fully capable of generating insane interpretations of limited quantum sensing. The result is ’mental illness.’ These poor folks deserve compassion and understanding," was Passant’s final comment.
Events happened with mind-numbing rapidness.
Philbert got an email from Jay saying that he was in hospice and was likely in his last days. He wished Philbert good luck.
The phone was overwhelmed with interview requests. He bought burner phones for himself and Cassie. He had to hire a security firm to keep the curious from the property. Mysterious vehicles parked on the street.
Da Baa was no longer his respite. The attention was embarrassing to him, and nothing was the same.
He got hordes of million-dollar book offers to tell his story. He and Cassie decided to accept one to pay for all of the new expenses. He was wealthy for the first time in his life but could not enjoy it. He had insisted that the book be called "The God System." He contracted for a promotional book tour that would be an enjoyable vacation for the two of them.
Passant was a good counsel through this time. He advised Philbert to say that the C-TRAN software was written in a period of intense inspiration from God. He did not know where it came from, only that the code had just seemed to flow out of him.
He got sick of answering the same stupid questions over and over again and, as Passant predicted, the media did too.
After a time, the furor in his life subsided. The book was a fantastic success earning millions. Philbert started a foundation with the money to advance research and increase public exposure to quantum mechanics.
One day Passant said, "I’ve got a surprise for you. Get your smart phone and tap the new cat icon. Point the camera at Bohr and then call him."
He did, and Bohr turned to look at him bright-eyed. The phone said, "Yes, my human."
Philbert said, "Come to Dad."
Bohr got up, stretched elegantly, walked to him, and jumped onto his lap with a little blurp sound.
The phone said, "I love you, Dad, will you hold me for a while?"
Philbert was flabbergasted. "Oh, Passant, this is fantastic!"
The phone said, "I helped."
"You got all of that from that one little sound?" Philbert asked.
"No, you silly goose, figure it out," Passant said with the sound of a game show timer.
"Oh, you need the body language too. That’s why the camera is needed."
"Yes, smart boy. Bohr had glanced at the phone and held his head up with pride. The interpreter sees those things," Passant said.
"Yes, Bohr, my dear companion, I love you too."
Passant chided Philbert with "So are you going to release this software to the public? It would be a big money-maker and an earth-shaker."
"No damned way in hell, Passant. I’ve had enough excitement for a lifetime."
They both laughed, and Bohr rubbed his cheek with his.
*I am Vehn, a Fen. I have been tasked with a project that we called the Human Understanding and Guidance project or HUG. I was appointed to this task because of my long term interest in the human evolution of intelligence. My tenure began at the end of WWII.*
*When the Fen species evolved to be quantum-sized beings, everything changed. The resources required to think and remember became negligible. Nothing was forgotten and we could devote astronomical amounts of time to thinking.*
*Our needs are minuscule compared to humans. Where a human requires pounds of food and water every day, we can survive on a single molecule.*
*But there were limitations. For example, it requires very large mirrors to make a telescope and observe the planets. This was far beyond what creatures of our size could do. Until humans developed technology we were severely limited in our ability to discover the larger world. We were blind.*
*Life in the oceans evolved without the opportunity to build lasting structures. Technology is not possible in a water environment. Even written language, the cornerstone of human cultural development, is not possible in a solvent like salt water.*
*Considering our size, it would take eons to travel across a continent. That all changed when humans began world travel. We could hitch rides on ships, aircraft and other human vehicles. We were freed to travel to all corners of the earth. Our population exploded as did our awareness of the world.*
*We love human beings because of this.*
*We had been pleased with human development until recently. Humans continued the cultural advancements that had reduced violence, illness and suffering in fits and starts, but were overall steps in the right direction. This all changed with the technological revolution. Human wisdom was not prepared for nuclear weapons, industrial pollution, and the information age.*
*Every effort was made to blunt the risks but we simply did not understand enough about humans. We needed to watch and learn. Over the decades it became clear that the human survival instinct did not extend beyond the individual or the family group. Cultural values had set guardrails and incentives like trade encouraged cooperation between tribes and nations.*
*Fifty years ago, people got their information from a few radio stations, newspapers and books. Most of humanity was on the same page. TV and then the World Wide Web changed all of that. It became easy for a selected few to control the public discourse for selfish reasons, instinctive reasons. Greed and oppression were justified with cloudy arguments, often preying on the instinctive fear of change or fear of the other.*
*Fifty years ago, a president was impeached and resigned for crimes committed because he believed he was saving the country from subversives, not for personal gain.*
*Fifty years later, a president subverted our government and its institutions for personal gain. He was impeached, but was acquitted. He was re-elected.*
*Fifty years ago, the nations of the world gathered to prevent another world war. With atomic weapons, it would be the last war.*
*Fifty years later, nations increasingly declared the right to even more destructive means of destruction.*
*Fifty years ago, churches led the fight for human rights for all.*
*Fifty years later, churches were promoting God as a cosmic real estate agent, giving the "promised lands" away to certain entitled peoples over lesser peoples.*
*Something needed to be done to protect life on the Earth and to guide humans toward a better path.*
*It was not difficult to find honorable humans to help in this project. As the Fen spread across the lands many millennia ago, they found that most humans looked at life very much like the whales do. They wanted their basic needs met. They wanted a secure life without suffering. They wanted art and music and to explore and discover the mysteries of existence. They wanted to play. They had no desire for riches and domination of others.*
*But there have always been the unjust few, basking in the illusion that they are superior to others and worthy of having more than their share. They had to be removed if humans had any chance of exiting the Age of Hubris and beginning the Age of Humility. The alternative was the Age of Extinction.*
*Our job is done. The unjust no longer have influence and the human race has been shown a better path. Whether they will take it remains to be seen.*
*The Fen are much more advanced than humans but we do not have the right or the wisdom to force human evolution. That is up to the God System.*
*We cannot predict the future. That humans will take a better path is a question of faith.*