Karl-Friedrich Lenz

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Copyright 2012 Karl-Friedrich Lenz Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. ISBN: 1477508392 ISBN-13: 978-1477508390

DEDICATION
Dedicated to future generations.

CONTENTS

1 2 3

Part One Part Two Afterword

1 138 254

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Createspace.com for providing an excellent platform for self-publishing this book.

PART 1

As I slowly wake up out of my trance, my eyes focus on my desk. There are no files on that desk, only a computer screen. I have eliminated all paper from my office and from the offices of all of my employees. My company does everything in the greenest and cleanest way possible. I run a successful company, but I am also involved in a campaign to save our planet from global meltdown. It is called 350.org and the goal of that campaign is to get the most important number in the history of mankind, 350, out to everyone on the planet. Next to my desk, on the right side, there is a large professional video camera mounted on a tripod, and
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a stage lighting lamp. I need these since I regularly produce videos for the DVDs I am selling, mostly over the Internet. There is a small sign with my name on the desk. Tony Paraponi, CEO, Paraponi Magic. That is not my real name, but it sounds right for the business I am in, which is selling magic tricks. Most of my sales are DVDs, but I also carry some books and standard props like thumb tips and magic wands. I have started out as a magician myself. When it came to choosing a stage name, I started out from behind. Ever since Harry Houdini, any decent magicians stage name should end with the two letters N and I. I added the Parapo part as a play on the paraponera, commonly known as the lesser giant hunting ant, which is also known under its other name as bullet ant. It has the most painful sting of any insect. A person getting hit by a paraponera sting will suffer waves of terrible pain that continue without relenting for 24 hours. Of course I am not interested in hurting my spectators, but I like to think that the impact of my art hits them in the same extremely strong way, only with positive emotions like joy, happiness, amazement, and generally a feeling of an experience they will never forget.

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I look up and see the big bookshelf next to my desk where I store the latest tricks my company is selling. Most of them come in the form of a DVD, with some props added to the package. A magician will develop some new trick, or recycle an old one known to the profession for decades with some new added twist. Then he will record a video where he first shows how it looks in performance with some spectators, and then explains how it is done, how to practice, what to say to make the effect as strong as possible. But I also have some traditional books in my lineup. Even in the Internet age, there are still people buying them. On the other side of my desk I see a big armchair, which I offer any business partners visiting my office. I like to see them sitting in a chair more comfortable than my own. Since I have given orders to everyone not to disturb me for a couple of hours after the morning s work was over and I entered my noon break, I am alone in my office. That is all the better, since I am in a state of shock. What I just heard has blown my mind. It will take quite some time until I will be able to think straight again. Only one hour before, all I had in mind was grab some sleep. I make a point of taking a nap every day after dinner. Today was no different.
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Except that I had this absolutely weird dream. I never dream when napping. Or at least I never remember anything about my dreams once I wake up. But this time was different. The first thing the hypnotist told me that this was real. The hypnotist didnt give me a name. He appeared as a four-year-old boy, similar but not quite identical in appearance to my nephew a couple of years ago. How could he have done that? As a professional magician, I am intrigued. But he spoke with a deep, adult male voice, when he introduced himself: Hi, Tony, he said. Congratulations. You are the Chosen One. What?I replied. You are the luckiest person alive. Of all the seven billion people, you won our grand prize. I am going to be your guide into your new world for the next couple of weeks. With luck, you might even stay alive for the whole period, the boy said, smiling cheerfully. I have no idea what you are talking about, I said. Get the hell out of my dream. Im afraid that wont be possible. This is not a dream. Its a message, the boy answered. What message? I asked. That will take some time to explain. But you ll understand eventually. For the time being, you need
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to know only one small thing: You are under control, said the boy. Under control? What do you mean? I didnt understand. You have heard about hypnosis? he asked. Of course. I dont know if this hypnotist is aware of the fact, but I carry quite a lot of books and DVDs on the subject of hypnosis for magicians. It is obviously useful if you can control a spectator so that he sees the Ace of Spades in whatever random card you show him. One doesnt even need to bother with any sleight of hand that way, and all the other spectators who are not under hypnosis will have a lot of fun looking at that. Actually I have used quite a lot of hypnotic effects in my own shows when I started out. Right now I am busy growing my company and campaigning for 350.org, so I dont get to do much of any shows myself lately. But, yes, I am certainly aware of hypnosis, thank you very much. Maybe thats why I have started dreaming of a four-year-old boy with an adult male voice talking to me about the subject. You are under hypnosis, whenever I want to, and as long as I want to. I will come back to explain more later, the hypnotist tells me.
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That was when the dream ended. Or rather, the trance ended. I still have no idea what that was supposed to mean. I dont like the sound of it. Winning some kind of lottery as the Chosen One is mildly interesting. Especially when I think about the odds of winning as only one of seven billion human beings. But the part about staying alive didnt impress me as a reason for celebrating. I sense that there is some major trouble brewing. I will try to block my mind from any further attempts at hypnosis. I do have some experience with hypnosis and know that it is not possible to hypnotize a person that doesnt want the hypnosis to happen. Im not controlled easily. Whoever is pulling this joke on me will have a much harder time of it the next time. The shock has passed. I am ready to face the world again. And just to prove to myself that I am the one in charge, I push a button and call my assistant in. Alice appears after a moment. She is dressed in the latest fashion. She wears plain black leather shoes, practical and comfortable to walk in. Long orange stockings, a dark blue skirt reaching right down to her knees, a blue sailors uniform blouse with a matching necktie. I hear that this kind of outfit

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is inspired by the uniforms Japanese schoolgirls are wearing. She has let her black hair grow right down to her shoulders, but wears it in a ponytail. Her fingernails are painted in matching blue. She doesn t use any lipstick, but has the eyebrows trimmed nicely over her blue eyes. She sits down on the chair opposite my desk, her legs aligned and the skirt falling down to her knees. I have hired her to help me in some of the videos I am producing for magicians the Paraponi Magic company is working with. We always need some pretty girl to pose as a spectator in the part introducing the trick as it is performed, before the part that explains how it is actually done. In many cases she wont be alone but part of a larger group of people we pay for appearing in our productions, but for many tricks with a lower production budget, having only her is perfectly enough. For that purpose, Alice is an excellent choice. She doesnt know anything about magic tricks. That is the point. If she were familiar with the many techniques of deception we and our customers use, she would never be able to show any kind of sincere reaction. But it is the sincere reaction of the audience that is the most gratifying for all of our customers, and the only thing the large majority of amateurs among
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them get from our products. Alice shows genuine excitement and joy at each new trick, because she is actually fascinated by what a good magician can do with a powerful new idea. There is no romantic interest on my side involved. I try to keep my private life separate from my company management. As one of the best looking men in history I have no problems picking up lots of girls. It also helps that magic is a great way to break the ice. Whenever I see an attractive girl on the street Im interested in, I have ten different ways ready to immediately attract her attention in a very charming way. I show Alice a simple rope trick. It is based on my ability to tie a false knot and make it look like a real one. This is featured in a DVD project we are filming right now, which is an introduction to magic for beginners. Anybody can pick up a piece of rope at practically no cost, and there are lots of tricks to be done with ropes. It is always a good idea to include one or two good rope tricks in a beginner publication. This particular idea has me wrap the rope around her wrists, giving the false impression of tying her up in the process. Then I pull the rope up quickly, and congratulate her to her success. She just made the rope travel right through her wrists.

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Or that is what the spectator is supposed to think. With a false knot, it will just dissolve immediately when I pull on the rope. Then its just a matter of paying attention when wrapping around the wrists to assure that everything comes off clean once the knot disappears. Really rather simple, if you think about it. Always say that the spectator does the magic. This is one of the oldest rules in the book. It makes it much more interesting for them. Again, magic isn t about making me, the magician, look clever and the spectator stupid for failing to see through my deception. Magic is about them having a good time, and me being happy that I can give them happiness. How did you do that? she says. Do it again. That is the reaction I am looking for. Even with this simple idea, I manage to fool and impress her. The problem is that I cant do it again. Why not? Thats because as a general rule, you never repeat the same trick twice in magic. For one, it becomes much less entertaining. If there is a second time, she will know what is supposed to happen and will expect that. Every element of surprise is gone, which removes half of the entertainment value for the spectator. Would a comedian tell the same joke twice in a row for the same audience? Of course not.

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And of course, with your spectator already warned, they will be much likelier to see through the deception, ruining the experience completely for themselves. And, by extension, they ruin it for the magician as well. If the spectator fails to feel any amazement, there is no happiness to bounce back to the magician. I still comply with her request, though. I know the general rule of never repeating anything, but I have a simple strategy to get away with it anyhow. Just as the first time, I wrap the rope a couple of times around her wrists. I even use much of the same language. Again, I tell her: Time for you to work your magic. Concentrate on your wrists, make the cosmic aura flow strongly through them, make the rope pass right through them, I say, and pull. And fail. The rope is still around her wrist. Sorry. Your magic powers failed this time, I explain. Dont ever bet your life on them. The cosmic aura is not very reliable. Sometimes it just doesnt get enough energy beamed to our planet at the exact right timing. Of course, I could have tied the same false knot as the first time and make the trick succeed two times in a row. But that would be against the rule of never repeating any trick. And it would waste this perfect
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opportunity to show her that all of this is her magic power working, which is why it doesn t work every time. It is of course also a perfect insurance against the possibility that somewhere down the road another trick might not work out as planned. That is never my fault as a magician. If I play it this way, the audience will think that the failure is exactly what I wanted to happen. And it also follows from the general rule that as a magician I am not here to show off my technical expertise in fooling other people. I am here to entertain. Entertainment doesnt need perfection. Actually, it earns the magician sympathy with the audience if he has some elements of failure and some other elements easily seen through by most of his audience in his act. After I am done testing this trick on Alice, I ask her if there are any significant developments in our sales I need to know about. Yes, she answered. We received a cancellation of about 60,000 dollars in business from the Tanarama magic store. What is that about? I ask her. The Tanarama company is one of my best customers. They have bought about twenty percent of my production last year. The value of the magic
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trick videos and books my company is churning out has been constant. If anything, it has become even better. Other wholesale customers are increasing their orders. But not Tanarama. What the hell is wrong with them? They have been bought out, says Alice. The new owners have decided to discontinue the magic business. They want to turn the locations into a restaurant chain. Damn. There go six hundred thousand bucks a year in sales. This is not a good day for the Paraponi Magic company. I half assume that the hypnotist is responsible for this. I make a mental note to ask him if I get the opportunity. This is not the first time I have lost business. I will be able to find some other buyers for my products, I say to myself. Most of my customers are buying directly over the Internet anyway. Therefore, my business is not ever so vulnerable to this kind of development in the first place. But still it hurts to lose 20 percent of my sales. I need to come up with a strategy to increase my direct retail business. Maybe I can sell more live lessons from established magicians. They would appear on our homepage, and customers could listen to their teachings live. For a fee of course. I have started this new business six months ago, and it has
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contributed somewhat to my sales. Lets find out if that cant be expanded some more, I think. I started Paraponi Magic company only six years ago. First all I had was a homepage and some products I had bought myself wholesale from the Internet magic dealer I had used as a customer until then. I also had a couple of magic tricks I had developed myself. In my special area, I actually hold six patents on new ways of deceiving the audience. These tricks are popular and have helped me a lot to develop my company. Business was slow for the first couple of years. I didnt make much profit, so I needed the income from my own shows to make a living. But lately it has really taken off. There is fierce competition on the Internet magic trick market. Price is all important, since many of the buyers are kids who dont have a regular income and need to scrape together what little money they have to buy the newest tricks. And while the Internet made it easy for me to start with a very small initial investment, it also makes it very easy for all of my customers to compare my prices with those of my competitors. While I have registered some growth, Paraponi Magic is still a very small operation. I employ only six
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people, most of them busy with packaging and sending out our products to direct customers that buy from us over the Internet. Our own production of videos and books is still rather limited. Mostly I just sell stuff that other people have produced. I am still at a stage where I can feel sixty thousand dollars of lost business quite well. How did that happen? I know the owner of Tanarama. He is about my age and has started out, like me, as a magician himself before crossing over into the supply business. In contrast to me he has taken in some outside investors, enabling him to open a chain of brick and mortar stores and growing his business much faster. Last I heard he was doing quite nicely. His sales of our products were also always rather satisfactory. I dont understand why he would want to sell out his business. And the new owners will have to sell a lot of steaks to compete with the turnover the Tanarama company got out of those locations. I really suspect that this hypnotist guy is behind this. What does he want from me anyway? I did not enter any lottery, so how come I win? And what exactly is it that I am supposed to have won? He only said that I am the Chosen One. That has almost some kind of religious ring to it. If he is in search of a prophet for some kind of new religion, he
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couldnt have chosen much worse. I dont have much interest in religion. I need to find more about what all this is about. I decide to dismiss Alice, and again order anyone to stay out of my office. I am going to try to get right back into that hypnotic trance, so I can ask the hypnotist what is going on here. It will be impossible to concentrate on anything else before I get that off my mind. I close my eyes. Nothing happens. I tell myself you are very relaxed, you are very relaxed, you are very relaxed. I have no idea how this kind of hypnosis is supposed to work. Of course I have been using hypnosis in my magic shows and know all the basics. But I have never heard of anyone getting hypnotized without consenting to the process, without actually being aware that hypnosis is performed on them. The first time the hypnotist started the session at the timing of his choice. I wonder if I can call him if I want to talk to him really bad. Nothing. And then, again I hear his voice. Hi, Tony. Lets chat some more, says the hypnotist. His appearance has changed. He now has the enormous body of an Olympic champion weight lifter, with three heads
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attached. His voice, which comes from the left head, is unchanged. Was that you, getting in the way of my business with the Tanarama corporation? I ask, just as I had planned. I feel in no way sleepy or different from a couple of moments before. No, says the hypnotist. That was just a coincidence. I could however make all your other customers disappear as well, if I were so inclined. For some reason I dont understand, I feel relieved. If this is just another business crisis, well, I have had those problems before. That comes with the territory. Once you decide to work for your own company there are always waves in the business. I will find some other customers worth even more than the Tanarama account. I always do. Was that all he wanted to know from us? the left head says in the same voice. Yes, that might be, the middle head answers. How about we get out of here? the right head follows up. Wait a minute, I hasten to say. I didnt buy any lottery tickets. How come I am the winner anyway? Thats easy, the voice answers in a choir coming from all three heads at once. Anyone on the planet was entered into that lottery automatically. Do you like winning?
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I am not sure about that, I say. You mentioned something about me staying alive, with luck. That doesnt sound too good. There is big trouble brewing for you in the next session. That will probably kill you, which will be the end of our short friendship. They all laugh heartily at that. I must confess that I don t get where the joke is. Why would you want to kill me? I ask. I dont want to kill you. But you will very likely fail the big test coming up. Its extremely difficult to pass, the hypnotist says. So, let me get this straight. You tell me that you have complete control over me, you congratulate me for being the Chosen One, and you will send me in a test that will very likely kill me. All things considered, I dont like it. Go choose someone else, I say. You have no choice in the matter, the hypnotist answers. What do you mean, I have no choice, I protest. I can choose to wake up from this crazy dream anytime I want. You cant possibly be real. There are no lotteries involving all seven billion humans. I certainly have never heard of any such nonsense. You will understand that this is real soon enough, the hypnotist answers. Try waking up, if you think you can do that any time you want.
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I do. I pinch myself a couple of times. It hurts. And I dont wake up. See? the hypnotist says. This is not some kind of weird dream. You are the Chosen One. By the way, the survival of your planet, Earth, depends on you. What do you mean, the survival of the planet? This is not just about me? No. If you fail, all human beings will die. Your planet will turn into a red hot hell utterly unable to support any life. Civilization will collapse well before that, the hypnotist says, smiling with all his three faces. Somehow the thought seems to amuse him quite a lot. This is ridiculous. How can anything I do or fail to do ever affect the whole planet? I am only one of seven billion people here. And I am not dealing in any weapons of mass destruction. All I am selling is happiness, happiness for my customers and their spectators. I am utterly unable of destroying the planet, I say. The fate of your planet depends on you, the hypnotist repeats, still smiling. Then I notice another thing that doesn t make any sense. There is no shortage of those points, really. I still think this is ridiculous. But what do you mean with your planet? Are you some kind of alien invader, like in the science fiction movies? I ask.
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Do I look like a human being to you? the hypnotist asks back. Now that he mentions it, actually no. I have never known anyone with three heads on his body. Or with the ability to change his appearance each time I meet them. I recall he looked like a small boy last time I met him. Im really sorry, but I dont have time for this planet saving mission you have chosen me for. I am rather busy at my job. Go choose someone else, I say again. Please, I add. That doesnt matter, the hypnotist answers. You will find the rewards of this mission attractive enough. If you do survive, you will be a rich man, Mr. Paraponi. You are heading for a great adventure, in search of vast treasure, if you want it or not. Once our lottery has drawn your name, the only chance for you to survive is to pass the test, the hypnotist answers. What will that test be? I want to know. I will explain that soon enough. For the time being, lets just tell you that the test involves the most deadly dagger in history coming after you. That will be a lot of fun. Again, laughter resounds from all three mouths. And then the hypnotist is gone. *
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It takes a couple of minutes before I get over the new shock. I think this whole story might be just one long dream and decide to wake up from my afterdinner nap. Nothing happens. I am still sitting at my desk, looking at the two stones lying on it. There is no way this is just a dream. To get my mind off the hypnotist and his threat of a deadly test, I decide to get back to work. I am in the process of developing a new, very simple magic trick. I have two stones lying before me. They are both polished in a round form about the size of a small coin. One of them is white, the other one is black. The Japanese board game of Go is played with these kind of stones. It is one of the oldest board games in history, with millions of players, some of which make a living from it. Two of these Go stones have close to zero cost, which is nice, since I plan to sell sets of them. Most Go players dont know that, but actually, sets of one black and one white stone have been used throughout history as a means of divination. There is even a name for them. Urim and Thummim. I have the relevant Wikipedia article opened on the screen of my computer right now. Urim and Thummim are words of the Hebrew
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language, and they mean something like relevation and truth, according to the article. Another explanation says Urim means guilty and Thummim means innocent. Actually, in the Japanese language, even now shiro (white) is used as a synonym for innocent, and kuro (black) for guilty. People would put the two stones into a pouch and draw only one of them at random. That is a lottery with exactly two possibly outcomes. They would ask some question they would like to get answered by the divination process (he loves me, he loves me not). And then they would get their answer by the color of the stone drawn. Thats mildly interesting on its own, but it doesn t give me a magic trick yet. The element missing to that is very simple. The two stones lying before me are exactly the same in size. But the white one is slightly thicker, something the spectators won t notice easily. But the magician can easily find out which stone he is holding, without looking at it. It does take some practice, though, like any other magic trick. You dont get the happiness of your spectators for nothing. I like the idea of developing this trick for a couple of reasons. For one, all you need to perform are two
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very small objects that you can always carry in your pocket, taking close to zero space. Thats an important consideration for a magician. It s also nice that these objects cost close to nothing. But the greatest reason I like it is the fact that I am a Go player myself, having won some local amateur championships when I was younger and had more time for this game. I know there are millions of players around. If two percent of them buy my trick, I have an instant bestseller. And I really like the idea of using that trick myself whenever I am playing Go, to give my opponent a bit of joy as compensation for the grief they are feeling when I beat them in the actual game. Which is the result in most of the cases. I am a very strong player. I call in Alice again and decide to try out a couple of variations of this idea with her. Give me a hand here, if you please, I say. I have developed a new idea and would like to test some variations. Okay, go ahead, she says. As well she should. This is her job, after all. I take the two stones in both hands, forming a sphere with them. Then I shake my hands, making the stones inside bouncing around in a random way,

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mixing them up. There is no way now I could know which stone is which without looking at them. Then I take one stone in each hand, making sure neither me nor Alice can see them. I keep my hands palm side down, and hold the stones between my thumb and my palm, giving me ample occasion to feel and compare their thickness. From there on, there is no more sleight of hand involved. I know which one is white. She doesn t. I start out with a very simple concept. Lets just try out if today is a lucky day for you, I say. Try to choose which hand is holding the white stone. She chooses my right hand. It holds the white stone. Congratulations, I say. I would have chosen that one as well. Our cosmic aura seems to be flowing nicely together today. This hand certainly must be the right choice, since we both agree on it. Then I reveal the white stone, very slowly, making first only the tip of it peek through my fingers. If she had chosen the left hand, I would have said something like this: Are you sure you want to stay with that choice? The cosmic aura flow on my left hand doesn t seem quite right to me. I cant see any light flowing from you right now. You can still change your mind.
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And, if she insists, I would reveal the black stone very quickly, and then say: Oh. Maybe today is not your lucky day. You need to take some strong countermeasures immediately. Probably keeping a violet handkerchief in your pocket (or whatever other meaningless suggestion crossed my mind at the time) would be sufficient to protect you against further harm. If I were so inclined, I could give this a romantic twist. I would declare that this is a simple test to find out if the cosmic aura of the girl sitting before me matches my own and we would be able to turn on the light of our souls by spending some time together. If the white stone appears, the answer would be yes. Of course, in that case, I would need to be the one to choose the hand. And I would need to do it maybe three times in a row. Once is only a one in two chance, but after three runs, that would be one in eight. Perfect. Not completely impossible, but still starting to get convincing. Exactly what one would like to have as a hint from destiny. Wait a minute. No, that last part still doesn t sound quite right. It would be rather suspicious for me to insist on choosing three times in a row. I need to work on that some more, I decide. Anyway, I can start out from this idea and then develop it later on.
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Cheered up somewhat, I decide to call the Tanarama corporation myself. This is an important customer. I dont feel like giving them up without a fight. I grab my phone and dial the number of Sam Broadway (not his real name), the CEO of Tanarama. His secretary puts me right through directly to him. Sam Broadway, I hear him saying into the phone. Sam? Its me, Tony, from Paraponi, I say. You got a couple of minutes for me? I am worried somewhat about getting him to talk to me. In business, the customer is king. If he has decided to stop buying from us, he might not be interested in explaining his reasons. But Sam and I go back a long way. We both started out as magicians. We even have done some shows together, back in the days where we didnt have our own retail business taking most of our time. Thats okay, he says. I am a busy man, but I can spare exactly sixty seconds for you. What do you want? His voice is rather cool. That doesnt sound too good. It looks to me as if he has firmly made up his mind and wants to avoid discussing the issue. But I don t give up easily. His business is too important for the Paraponi company for that.

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I decide to come right to the point. There is no time to waste here. Whats up with that stuff of selling your company? I ask. Oh, I got a great price for my stake, he answers. The buyer is a restaurant chain. They need new good locations for their expansion plans. Our stores are an excellent match for those plans, so they are willing to pay a premium to get the deal done fast, he explains in a solemn tone. And you are getting out of the magic business? That was always your dream, running your own magic supply company, wasnt it? I ask. Not completely. I have a clause in my contract with them that gives me the right to work at all their restaurants as a close-up magician. They dont pay me anything, but I get the right to keep all tips their customers might give me, he says. I hear a light chuckle over the phone. Something doesnt feel quite right here. He is going back to hopping tables, like when he started out in magic? I still cant believe this, I say. Are you sure you wont regret your decision? Actually, I have not been exactly telling the truth. Im sorry, he says. Want to hear the real story? Yes.

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Youll never believe this. But I need to tell you the truth anyway. He sounds like hes hesitating. Go ahead. You are our most important customer. I need to know, I encourage him. Well, actually the CEO of that restaurant chain has put me under complete mind control. I would never want to give up my business. I love my job! But when he came over the other day to explain his proposal, one glance at his super powerful eyes had me change my mind. I now want to go through with his proposal, even while I know exactly that I really dont, he says. That doesnt make sense. There is no such thing as complete mind control, I object. I know a bit about these things, since I have studied hypnosis extensively, using it as a part of my magic shows back in the day when I had time to do more of them. He doesnt answer. Instead I hear him chuckling quietly. Then the chuckle grows into a full-blown laugh. Whats so funny about that? I want to know. I fail to get the joke. Then I understand. The date is April first. He has just been fooling around with me. The funny thing is that we want to do a lot more business with Paraponi. Your stuff is selling great. I
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want an exclusive distribution deal for the first three months of your next seven tricks. I will pay you a substantial advance for each one. You like that idea? he asks, still laughing. Yes. That sounds much better than what I heard this morning, I answer. An advance payment on my next seven productions is always good to have. And I like the idea that our stuff is selling great over the Tanarama channel. Great, he says. We will need to work out the details on that deal. Would you be able to meet me sometime this week? Of course I am. In business, if your best customer wants some time from you, you always give them that time. Yes, I would be delighted to do so. When would it suit you best? I answer. How about tomorrow at three oclock? Lets get this done fast, he says. I consult my calendar. I have an appointment with a magician who is interested in selling one of his tricks over our channel at that time. I decide that he will have to wait for some other day and say: Yes, that would be an excellent fit. I will come to your office at the time. See you tomorrow, then, he says and cuts the connection.
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I put down the phone. Then I call Alice and instruct her to cancel the appointment with the magician tomorrow and get a different time slot for him. One of the nice things of being in charge is that I get to delegate this kind of slightly unpleasant task to someone else. This day is not so bad for my business after all. There is only the small matter of me very likely dying soon from being stabbed with the most terrible dagger in history that somewhat dampens my mood. Well, Ill deal with that when it happens. * The following night, I start dreaming again. I am standing in my office, behind my desk. The hypnotist shows up taking the form of a young, tall man. He is dressed in a military uniform. Black boots going halfway up to his knees, camouflage pants and shirt, with three golden stripes on each shoulder, a black beret on his head, his face blackened with some stuff I dont know. That is probably for the purpose of making his face less visible to an enemy at night. His eyes are hidden behind a set of massive black goggles, which hide much of his face as well. I assume this is some kind of night vision device. It gives him the appearance of a robot.
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In his left hand he is holding a dagger. Pointed right at me. So this is the most terrible dagger in history, I think. That weapon seems normal enough. It has about fifteen inches of blade with a sharp point at the top and another seven inches of hilt. The grip is black. And the blade also looks completely black to me. But that is the only unusual thing I note about this weapon. There must be millions of these around. I fail to understand how that can be the most terrible dagger in history. Hi, Tony, he says. Time for your test. You are going to stab me with that thing? I ask. No, he says. This is no ordinary dagger. It is the most lethal weapon ever built. You will understand in a moment. As he lets go of the dagger, I expect it to fall down to the ground. But the weapon stays afloat right at the position he held it a moment ago. And then, ever so slowly, it starts to move into my direction. I have seen some levitation tricks before. Magicians often make small, light objects like a banknote float in mid-air, which is easily done. But I have never seen anything like this. If the hypnotist was selling this magic trick on the market, I would be highly interested in getting a piece of the distribution business.
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This is very impressive. It is either some very advanced technology much more developed than anything the human race has ever come up with, or some kind of special effect in my dream. Since I know that I am in hypnosis I suspect it is the latter. Either way, I am impressed. You better move, the hypnotist says. Yeah. I remember that this is a test that will very likely kill me, as he said the other day. This is actually not the time to speculate on how this is done as a magic trick. I need to get moving. I jump to the left side as the dagger moves in aimed at my chest. I just barely manage to avoid it. Then I run around the desk and put the hypnotist between me and the dagger, standing behind him. I am kind of proud of having come up with that smart idea instantly. That way I can use him as a shield. Probably the dagger will just fly around the obstacle. If it can do that, I need to know. The weapon turns around and moves in again. The hypnotist just stands there, and makes no effort at all to avoid it. That is very strange. He just told me to move, but he doesnt move himself. I dont understand, until I see the dagger penetrate his body, without causing any damage whatsoever. Obviously, what I see as a young man is
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just a mirage in my brain controlled by his hypnotic powers. I have just enough time to jump away from the blade, this time to the right side. The weapon misses me again. At the speed it is moving now, I have no trouble avoiding it. But I note that it is gradually getting faster. That is very bad news. If the weapon is adding speed, it is only a matter of time before I will be unable to avoid it any more. I need to come up with some kind of counterattack before that happens. I decide that I dont like this test and head for the door. If I can get out, I will have many more options. Maybe I could run into a police station and have people with guns counterattack the dagger. I reach the door in a couple of seconds. The dagger is right behind me. I need to jump to the right side to avoid it hitting my left leg. For some reason I dont understand it is not aiming for my chest anymore. Getting back on track to aim for the door, I reach it as the dagger is still turning around from its last miss. Just as I reach for the door handle, I hit an invisible barrier. I get bounced back about one foot. I look at the hypnotist and see him smiling under his night vision device. Obviously he doesn t want me to be able to leave, and he has the means to stop me. I grab a book from a bookshelf and try to use it as a shield. As the dagger comes in the next time, I
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swing the book like a baseball bat and try to hit the weapon. I dont expect much from this, but right now it is the only option I have. That doesnt work either, the blade just goes right through the book. The book hardly puts up any resistance. My right hand gets hit. I scream. I feel an agonizing wave of pain in my hand. Looking down, I cant see any blood. There is no wound. It just felt for a moment right like a blade cutting through my palm. Thats extraordinary. This dagger is flying around, chasing me, but when it actually hits me, it doesn t leave any wounds. I realize that this means that this test can go on essentially indefinitely. I dont like the idea. The first hit to my hand has hurt like hell. I need to come up with a plan, and soon. I cant run out of the office. I have no obvious way of counterattacking against the dagger. What exit is there left for me? This is a nightmare. It can t be possibly real. There cant be any daggers flying around chasing me, and invisible barriers trapping me in my office. The only way this can be happening at all is that it is all just a dream. If so, all I have to do to end it is wake up, or dream of something else.

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First I try waking up. It is rather difficult to pinch yourself in the face while you are running in a zigzag pattern to avoid a mysterious dagger coming flying after you, but I give it a try anyway. I get one good pinch in and feel the pain clearly in my cheek. That is when I should wake up, escaping the nightmare. Except that it doesnt work. I try again, pinching the other cheek this time. A little harder than with the first attempt. Again, I feel the pain in my cheek quite clearly, but it doesnt work at all. I am still running around in my office and need to jump to the right now to avoid the dagger hitting my left arm. That leaves the option of trying to dream of something else. Maybe that will work. I am grasping at straws here, but I will try anything to get out of this horrible nightmare. I try concentrating on happier thoughts. If I can get this nightmare out of my vision, my problem will be solved. I try to think of something else. Something more pleasant than being chased and cut into tiny pieces by an airborne blade. While moving quickly in a zigzag pattern, I focus on the memory of my new magic trick, the one with the two stones, Urim and Thummim. However, it is rather difficult to concentrate on happy thoughts
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when you are getting maimed and are running for your life. I try to picture me performing the trick for a beautiful girl I saw in the subway the other day. I have her attention for a couple of minutes and am ready to perform the divination routine that will tell us if our cosmic auras match. I still need to come up with an improvement on my previous idea. For one, I want to get in five times the right answer. I can do that just with luck once in 32 times on average. If I wanted to cheat, I could just run around half a day with a camera recording, trying until I get one successful attempt, and then have just that one on the DVD I sell, discarding all the other, unsuccessful ones. But one of the basic rules of the Paraponi Magic company is that we never, ever, deceive our customers. We help them to deceive their audience, all right, but we are not in the business of fooling them. So that simple concept might be possible for a magic show on television. It is impossible for me. These odds seem more convincing than the one in eight I had thought about earlier. On the other hand, that makes it even more suspicious if I insist on choosing myself five times in a row. The dagger is coming dangerously close again. I jump to the right and run faster. How am I ever
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supposed to come up with a good idea under these conditions? I consider bringing a second white stone into play. If I can steal the black stone, ditch it into a pocket or a thumb tip, and replace it with a second white stone, then obviously every time white will come up. But that would be rather difficult. Not impossible, mind you. For someone with the necessary level of experience in coin magic or someone really good with a thumb tip, that should be quite doable. But then, that would greatly reduce the market for my trick. I would like to keep it simple enough that anybody can do it, with only the practice needed to feel the difference in the thickness of the stones. It would also leave the magician in an impossible position once anyone asks to see what is in the other hand, or to see both stones. The clean-up would be very difficult, just about assuring that the magician got caught very often. So I discard the idea of getting another white stone in play. The dagger is moving in on my left arm. I drop my body to the floor in the last second and narrowly avoid it again. It is extremely difficult to concentrate. But this might be my only way to get out of the nightmare, so I persist.

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Again, I try to find a good idea for improving my trick. Then the solution hits me. It is actually very simple. I can let her take half of the guesses. Maybe even three out of five. All I need to do is object to her choice whenever she chooses the black stone, which will happen only once every two choices on average anyway. In that case I will just add another layer of acting. Ill say something like Are you sure? I cant see the flow of magic aura around that hand very well. You probably should reconsider and choose the other hand, but its your call, of course. If I can get her to change her choice, fine. If not, I can still act out the part of the inspired medium that can see the light of the cosmic aura emanating from her whenever she gets it right. And fails to see it in cases like this one, where she fails to get the right answer. Actually, having her get it wrong 1.5 times in five times trying makes the whole thing even more convincing and interesting. I am making progress with my new trick! Great news, but my plan doesnt work. I am still chased by the dagger. The nightmare doesnt stop. I start running faster. I feel like I am the character of a jump-and-run computer game. Only that when I
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get hit, I actually feel it, and my life is really on the line in this test. At the same time, I start to get angry at the hypnotist. What the hell have I done to deserve this? And then I run full force right into him, like a body check in a game of rugby. If I can take this hypnotist guy out some way or other, maybe the dagger will stop as well, I think. The dagger might be flying around, chasing me, all on its own. Then again, it might be operated in some way by the hypnotist. Maybe those night vision goggles he is wearing are actually a control unit that works as the interface between him and the weapon. However, that plan doesnt work. I brace myself for the impact into the hypnotists body, but I go right through it. Just like the dagger before. I was afraid that might happen. When I saw the dagger go through the hypnotists body earlier, I already suspected that what I see as the body of a young man in a military uniform is actually nothing but an illusion. Well, too bad. I needed to try that anyway. The dagger has gotten much faster in the meantime. I fail to jump away for the first time. And I get a hit on my right calf. Again the blade goes right through my body and I feel excruciating pain for a moment. I let out an ear38

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shattering scream. If this was not a nightmare that happens only in my head, in the next moment my whole staff and a bit later a couple of cops would flood my office, checking out what is wrong with me. But no damage remains. I am not sure if I should be glad about that fact. If the wounds didn t heal immediately, by now I would be unable to move and this whole test would be over in the next minute. I half wish that would be so. But on the other hand, I am not ready to give up. If I dont get any real damage, I might still come up with an idea of how to beat this weapon, or at least how to escape it for good. I also note that the blade is not going right for my heart. It looks to me as if someone was toying with me. Maybe the hypnotist takes some video of this scene for some kind of television show. There are some sick producers out there, in contrast to the healthy family friendly stuff I am doing with my Paraponi Magic company. Now the blade is going right for my left eye. I dodge it once, but it has gotten still faster in the meantime. The next time, it hits me and my vision goes dark for a moment, only to come back after a couple of seconds. The pain is just as real as actually having a dagger driven up my eye for about an inch. My
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scream is even louder as when I got hit in the calf a moment ago. Of course that has never happened to me in reality, so there is no way I would really know how that feels. But just now I felt a dagger enter into my eye, hitting right down to the bone. But again, the next moment my vision is restored completely, the weapon doesnt leave any damage. I also note that every time I get hit, the weapon returns once to the left hand of the hypnotist, where it stays for a couple of moments, giving me a bit of time to recover, and focus on it again, bracing myself for the next attack. This is a horrible nightmare for me. Now I get four hits in fast succession on both of my thighs. The pain is unbearable, but only for a couple of seconds, just enough for me to let out another scream at the top of my lungs. With a real blade, a fountain of blood would be spilling right now. And I would be completely unable to move even one step further. With this dagger, all it does is give me the sensation of getting cut. I definitely dont like that sensation. The dagger returns to the hypnotists left hand and stays there for a little longer, probable because he just scored a multiple hit on me.

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I understand now how this could be called the most terrible dagger in history. What I dont get is how anyone could build such a weapon. This must all be a nightmare induced by the hypnotist. I see the dagger heading for me again. It has slightly dropped in speed, maybe satisfied with the four hits in series it has just scored. I dive for the floor and see the waste paper basket. It is made from solid metal. I try once more to fight. Holding the waste paper basket in both hands, I wait for the dagger to come flying into my reach. Then I hold the basket right into its path, hoping to catch it in there. I dont have much hope for this to work, though. And, just as I had half expected, the dagger cuts right through the metal at the bottom. It emerges so close to my body that there is no way I could avoid another hit. The dagger shoots up at my face and passes my nose in an upwards motion. If it were real, half of my nose would be lying on the floor right now. As it is, I only again feel the excruciating pain in my face for a couple of moments. Then I see the dagger heading back for the hypnotist, where it stays in the left hand for a couple of moments. Shorter than the last time, though.

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If this is a test, I dont think Im doing very well on it. On the other hand, I dont see what else I could do. I have tried every conceivable strategy, all failing. The dagger moves in again. I run in my zigzag pattern to try avoiding it, jumping in random movements right and left. But it is too fast now. I get hit in the left foot. It goes right through my shoe and nails my foot to the floor. This time it stays right there for a couple of moments, torturing me and immobilizing my foot. My throat begins to get hoarse from all the screaming. Only when the dagger returns to the hypnotist, the pain in my foot goes away, and I can move my foot again. I have not much success dodging the blade now. It has grown much faster. All I can do is run and wait for the next hit. It doesnt take long until the blade moves through my left ear, again staying there, this time even longer. When the dagger floats back to the hypnotist, this time it doesnt land in his left hand, as all the times before after a hit on me. Rather it lands on both hands. It has split in mid-air, multiplying into two identical weapons. Both are of the same length, and of the same color, completely black. The hypnotist now holds both of them, pointed at me.
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How do you like this test, he asks me. What a stupid question, I say to myself. That is not my idea of spending a nice, refreshing time sleeping, I answer. Im sorry, but this is a necessary step, he says, with an evil grin on his face. Are you ready to go on? No, I say. I have no idea what I can possibly do to pass this test. While I am not sure that I enjoy this conversation, anything is better than having him launch his weapons again. I dont think I stand much of a chance of avoiding both of them. Getting hit by one dagger was bad enough. I shiver from fear at the thought of having two of the weapons piercing my body at the same time. Its actually very easy, he says. All you need is think about it. What do you mean, easy, I answer. Ive tried everything possible. What option do I have left? I honestly dont know. With two daggers chasing me at the same time, running and dodging them wont work. It didnt work too well even with one weapon only in the game. I can t get out of the office because the hypnotist has set up some invisible barriers. I cant fight the hypnotist himself, since his appearance is only a mirage, and I cant even touch it.
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I cant block the daggers with some shield because they just go through every object I tried to use. There must be something left. I dont think hes lying to me. I better find out fast. Because he just released both of the daggers. Again, they come in very slowly. I am sure that won t stay that way for very long. They will pick up speed, and then theyll cut me, again and again, and it will only get worse all the time. And again, they are aiming right for my chest. Just like the first time the dagger came after me, when there was only one of them. Then, suddenly, I understand. Very slowly and deliberately, I sit down on my chair, facing my desk. I close my eyes. And I push out my chest, waiting for the impact. Both weapons hit me at the same time and go right through my heart. The pain is worse than all the other hits I got until now. But then everything goes dark, and my long nightmare is finally over. * Congratulations! You passed your test, the hypnotist says cheerfully as I come back to conscience. I am not dead after all. He has changed
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his form again. This time he appears as a beautiful woman of about twenty-seven years, with nothing but a tiny black bikini on her body, the image of a playing card imprinted on the small area available on her bikini top. The Queen of Hearts. The voice is always the same, however. And it doesn t fit his appearance right now. Yes, I finally got it. I say. The only way I could make it stop was to get a deadly hit. My only way out was death. And since this all was just a nightmare, I wouldnt really die. In other words, seeking out death was the only way to pass this test. Exactly, he says. And your only chance to do so was when the two daggers came after you for the first time. After that, all other hits would have been not lethal, just as in the phase with only one dagger. After that, another chance with three daggers, then with four, and so on. You saved yourself a lot of pain by understanding at that early point. The lottery has given me a very smart winner this time. So whats the point of chasing me around my office with flying daggers? I ask. This is just to show you a small glimpse of my power. I can kill you anytime, and in a much more painful way than with those daggers. And I can resurrect you from the dead anytime I want. Did you like dying? he asks back.
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No, I say. I hoped as much. It wouldn t serve as a demonstration of my power if you liked the experience, he explains. I like developing some new magic trick much better. Actually, I would like you to help me with that. That floating dagger is pretty impressive. I would like you to teach me some of that magic, I say. I think I deserve a reward after what you put me through there with you daggers. That comes next, he says. The point of this whole exercise is that I need you to get a message out to the whole human race. I thought it might help your motivation to know that you will face some very unpleasant consequences if you dont try really hard to do what I want. And I will show you that I can be really nice as well next, he says. Sounds good, I answer. I wonder what he has in store for me. Can you teach me how to control that dagger? I ask. Yes. I may do so, in time. But there is something much better coming up. With that, he disappears from one moment to the next. My dream stops completely, I fall into a deep and refreshing sleep.

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When I awake the next morning, I feel great. I am certain I was killed last night. The memory is unpleasant, especially the pain when I was stabbed ten times before the final blow. I certainly don t want any more of that stuff to happen. But I am happy to be alive, resurrected from my death. I wonder if there are any more death experiences ahead in my strange journey with the hypnotist. And I wonder what the hell his message is that he needs to get out to humanity. I certainly feel motivated to help him out, if that avoids me any other unpleasant violence directed at me. While he says that I became the Chosen One only by virtue of a lottery, he actually made a pick that is not bad for getting a message out. I am running a highly successful media company. That is certainly one way of looking at my business. The Paraponi Magic Internet servers are recording rather healthy access stats. I have quite a lot of viewers. I eat breakfast and leave my home for the commute. I dont even own a car. I prefer riding the subway to driving my own car, since I dont like to burn gasoline. That warms up the planet and leaves less of the precious oil for future generations. I also like the fact that I dont have to drive myself. And there is another bonus in that I get to look at various women while riding.
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Whenever I feel like talking to one of them, I have a lot of methods to get her attention. Some of my favorite methods are having a flame shoot out of my wallet and then change some scrap paper into real money, or letting a $100 bill or a ring float right in the air with some levitation technique. My batting average is pretty impressive. Of course it helps that I am a good-looking and charming young guy. I expect the same commute as each day, but I am in for a large surprise. A woman about twenty-five years old is standing next to the subway door. I check her out, like I usually do. She wears simple black shoes, blue stockings right up to about her knees, and a gray miniskirt that leaves most of her legs in full view. A white blouse is open at the top two buttons. Her hair is black and falls straight down to about her chin. In her ears she has small earphones, listening to music. And she is reading a book she is holding out with both hands. Her small nose and mouth make for a pretty face. I wonder what the something much better the hypnotist promised will be, when it hits me. Right over her head, I see a computer screen floating in the air.

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That cant possibly be real. It would drop down immediately since it has no support whatsoever. Ah, thats it, I understand. I take a look at the screen. There it says: Age twenty-four, name Karen Mayball. Oh. So I get to know the age and name of beautiful women before I even talk to them. Interesting. But when pressed hard for a choice, I would probably like to gain the power of controlling a dagger hanging in mid-air instead. I can always find out a name and age by actually talking to them. The screen changes. It shows a picture of her looking at a black dagger floating in the air, right before her face. Her face shows the excited, amazed expression I have so often seen with my spectators after a particular mind-shattering effect. Nobody in the subway notices. Obviously, I am the only one who can see that. Wait a minute, I think. Did that screen just react to what I was wishing? I test that with a simple experiment. I would like to know what shes reading there, I say to myself. There is the answer, right on the screen. The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho. I know that book and have always really liked it. Especially the part about following your dreams, even if that is difficult. My dream was always owning my own big magic trick
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distribution company, and I certainly made it true with Paraponi Magic. 37 percent of my customers are women. I need to understand how they feel to keep Paraponi alive and growing. Has the hypnotist just given me a super power to read their minds at will? I try another test. I wonder what kind of magic trick is the most exciting for her, I say to myself. Purely out of professional interest, of course. Again the answer pops up in a flash on the screen. I know from my market research figures that this particular interest is shared by about a quarter of my customers. And I share it as well. The subway train pulls into a station. For a moment, I am afraid that she will get off. But she only moves to make way for another passenger who gets off there. I wonder what her favorite pickup line is I say to myself. And I get another answer. But I go with my own favorite one instead. * That was the most fun I ever had in my life, Karen says to me, sipping her coffee. We are sitting

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in a small restaurant next to the subway station where we got off after I started talking to her. Of course it was. I have started out as a professional entertainer when I was younger and running my own company didn t take most of my time. Magic is not about showing off your skill, its about making your audience happy. I m an expert at that. And with a computer screen hanging right over her head telling me exactly what kind of tricks would get the best reactions from her, it was really easy for someone like me to give her a mind-shattering time she will never forget. Not that I really needed that. I am able of reading my spectators reaction also without such a device, thank you very much. But it sure did make the job even easier. Glad you liked it, I say. I did as well. I change the topic to one of my other interests. A short look at the screen has confirmed to me that this topic will lead to a lively conversation. Have you ever heard about the significance of the number 350? Of course she has. I know the answer already. I just saw it on the screen.

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Why, yes. Actually, I am involved in a campaign to spread the word about it. I understand you know what it means? she answers. I do. 350 is the safety limit for the climate. Any concentration over 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere will lead to potentially catastrophic global warming. We are already way past this safety limit, pushing 400. And humanity is still actually increasing the amount of CO2 that is dumped into the atmosphere each year. Thats interesting, I say. Actually, I have been supporting the 350.org campaign as well for some time now. That is true. I am concerned about the climate and want to be part of the solution. Unfortunately, I am rather busy at my job. Did I mention that I love my job? I see, she says. Have you been participating in any of the latest action days? Sorry, no, I answer. I would like to. But I dont have much time. I am running my own company, Paraponi Magic. That doesn t leave me much free time for participating. Have you? Yes, she answers. Definitely yes. Then she takes some time to explain the latest actions in our corner of the world and how she took part and spread the word, so as to get the message
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out. She pulls out her mobile phone and shows me a couple of pictures she has taken at these occasions, explaining how successful these demonstrations were. I follow suit and pull out my mobile phone as well. I fire up my web browser and go to the 350.org home page. Were building a global movement to solve the climate crisis, says the main headline. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by people in 188 countries, says a smaller headline, above the Twitter and Facebook buttons, which indicate the massive number of people involved. I click on the big button with the headline The Science of 350 and look again at the simple explanation offered there. Using the atmosphere as an open sewer for CO2 warms up the planet. That will change the climate, with unfortunate consequences. As the website explains: Glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast and they are a source of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people. Mosquitoes, who like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them. Drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places.
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Sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century. If that happens, many of the world s cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater. I find the DONATE button in the upper right and navigate to the donation page. It comes preset with a $50 value, but I prefer to reset it to $350, more in line with the name of the organization. I can easily afford this. Thats one of the nice advantages of making some serious money running my own company. Im sorry I dont have much time to contribute to the public actions, I say. I dont mention to her that I have just donated a bit of money. To her it looked as if I just checked out the 350.org homepage, since I made sure she couldnt see the part where I donated. As a professional magician, I am rather good at making sure people dont see something I dont want them to see. I would like to stay in touch, I say. Could you please give me your mail address? Of course I could just look at the computer screen hanging over her head to find that out. But I prefer to actually ask her. I would be quite surprised at a rejection at this point.

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Yes, of course, she says, and beams me her address over by holding her mobile phone next to mine. Thanks, I say. I really need to get to work now. People have been expecting me a couple of hours before. Its a good thing Im the boss, so none of them can fire me, I laugh. And I pull out my phone and send her a mail with the text Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name, to the address she just gave me. She confirms that the mail arrived on the spot, and shoots me a short answer, which I dont read at that moment. I prefer to leave that as something to look forward to later on. Then I get up to pay for our coffee. For some strange reason I cant put my finger on, the waitress doesnt want to take the scrap of paper I hold out. I am forced to change it into a real $100 bill in midair. That works much better. * After I reach my office, I decide to spend some more time on climate activism. While I don t participate in many demonstrations, I do contribute a bit of my time, as well as some of my money.

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Talking to Karen has given me an idea, and I want to write it down before I forget it. The whole global warming crisis actually can t be real. How can humanity possibly be simultaneously clever enough to develop modern civilization in the first place, and dumb enough to burn all the fossil fuel, permanently ruining the planet? One possible explanation is that most people just dont realize how horrible and catastrophic the global warming crisis will play out. They don t understand the costs. So they think its no big deal using some more of the convenient fossil fuel. Global warming doesnt sound ever so threatening. Warm is actually a word that carries more positive than negative associations. People think of a nice warm day in spring. My idea is to compare the crisis with the impact of a large asteroid. Everybody understands that would be very bad news for life on Earth. I do some Internet research on asteroids and come up with a video simulation of a 500 kilometer diameter rock hitting Earth that the Japanese public owned television station NHK has posted on Youtube. It has over 1.2 million views. I like that number, since it tells me that there will be a lot of interest for the basic idea.

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The asteroid hits the ocean, which makes sense. Most of the Earths surface is ocean area. It causes a gigantic tsunami, which would be enough to flatten most coastal cities, but that would be the smaller problem. The bigger impact is from the lava that is ejected in enormous amounts into space, enough to cover the whole planet in an extremely hot blanket of liquid stone once it falls back. It takes less than a day for the lava to spread in a fierce firestorm all over Earth, turning the whole sky into fire everywhere. All life on the surface of the planet will be burned to ashes within a day from the impact. Then all the ocean water will boil up into the atmosphere. The video shows the columns of the Greek Acropolis glowing from the extreme heat at the end. I am quite convinced that life on the planet would be impossible after such an event. And the only difference to global meltdown is that this happens much faster. With the asteroid, it only takes a day. But the end result is the same. If a runaway greenhouse effect leads to Venus syndrome, surface temperatures on Earth are going to go up by a couple of hundred degrees. Venus syndrome is a theory developed by a famous NASA scientist who was one of the first to sound the alarm about global warming.
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There is almost no atmosphere on the planet Mars, which means there is also no greenhouse effect on that planet. As a consequence, average temperatures there are around minus 50 degrees Celsius. In contrast, greenhouse gases in the Earths atmosphere heat the planet by about 33 degrees Celsius, giving us an average of 15 degrees Celsius surface temperature, which is just about ideal. The greenhouse effect on Venus is extremely strong, since it has an atmosphere, and that atmosphere is 97 percent CO2, leading to average surface temperatures of 450 degrees. This fact about the atmosphere of Venus shows that there has been a runaway greenhouse effect in the history of that planet. The question is if the same thing can happen on Earth as well. As it turns out, it very well can. The only question is what amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is necessary to trigger that. Eventually, this will happen anyway. In about 1 billion years from now, the sun will have grown much bigger. That will lead to an increase of 10 percent of solar energy hitting Earth, which in turn will certainly trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, if there are no planetary engineering countermeasures in place. Future generations will have to put up some serious shading technology. But another four billion
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years later, the sun will finally have expanded so far as to swallow Earth. If there are humans left then, they better develop some means of interstellar travel before that happens. Can a runaway greenhouse effect also happen in the much nearer future as a consequence of human CO2 emissions? There have been periods in the history of the Earth with several thousand parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. So even if humanity burns all the fossil fuel, the planet might still be safe. However, when CO2 levels were at 2000 parts per million 250 million years ago, the solar energy hitting Earth was 2% less. That factor is equivalent to a doubling of CO2. So 2000 way back then is equivalent to 1000 now. Also, there are actually no direct records of past CO2 concentrations. All there is are conclusions from other records. And some of the scientists now say that actually CO2 levels were not as high way back in history as assumed earlier. And anyway, never in the history of the planet have CO2 levels gone up so fast. That is a factor that greatly increases the danger of runaway global warming. Burning all the conventional fossil fuels is an extremely dangerous experiment with the whole planet at stake. Burning the tar sands as well makes
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Venus syndrome a certainty, in the opinion of that NASA scientist. So my idea for a climate campaign is comparing the potential damage from Venus syndrome to the damage from a 500 kilometer diameter asteroid impact. Again, the only difference is in the amount of time it takes to kill all life on the planet. I dont know yet how I am supposed to use this idea. I could of course write something about it, and spread that manuscript online. Or I could make a video with that basic idea. I am shooting videos all the time in my Paraponi Magic business, so I do have the equipment and the experience needed to produce something of halfway decent quality. Then I can just post it on Youtube and get word out about it on my network of activists. Anyway, I needed to write the idea down before I forget it, and I have done so now. Next I spend some time on quality control for the latest Paraponi production. It has the simple title Eight. And the simple idea to have eight of our best selling magicians show and explain their favorite trick for beginners. Simple formulas always work best in my experience. I watch the finished DVD and am impressed by the quality of our work. I especially enjoy the parts of the

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production where I gave some hints to improve the story. I recall when I started out, way back when I was eight years old. I had found a book on magic at the local library, an introduction for beginners. It started out explaining some basic moves of card magic. I still remember exactly when I grabbed a deck of cards the first time and practiced the ambitious card. In that classic of card magic, the magician shows his spectator the top card of the deck and then shoves it in somewhere in the middle. Then, after a couple of magic spells, the card has jumped right back to the top of the deck. I didnt practice much at the time. But this is easy, and I was able to fool anyone who would give me the opportunity to perform for them. Friends at school, my parents, my little brother, his friends. Of course the ambitious card is one of the basic tricks in our new DVD project as well. Another basic trick I learned from that book was the Slydini knot. It is named after the famous magician Tony Slydini, who used to perform it frequently on television. I take a handkerchief and tie its ends together in a square knot. I even let my spectator inspect the knot, which is a perfectly regular square knot, and maybe pull a bit on it as to make sure that it is tight enough.
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Then, with one simple move, the knot just disappears right under the nose of the spectator. Very easy to do, I mastered it in less than an hour as a kid. Another trick that I insisted on including into this collection is the false knot rope tied around the wrists of the spectator. I already mentioned it earlier: The magician gives the impression of tying a rope around the wrists of the spectator, but he uses a false knot, so when he pulls the rope back, it just pulls away, giving the illusion that the rope passes the body. That one was not in my own first beginner magic book. But I like it. It is very easy to do. It is also a trick with a lot of interaction with the spectator, which is always much better than just standing around somewhere and producing some effects all on your own. Of course, any introduction into magic for beginners needs to have at least some coin tricks. I have decided to include the French drop, which is used to make small objects like a coin disappear in thin air, just to retrieve them in the next moment from the spectators ear. I have also included a simple idea that works with one bill and one coin. Fold the bill into half over the long side and put it on the table. Then try to balance
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one coin on the middle of that bill. If you know the secret, this works with some concentration. There is no secret move involved, it is just a matter of presenting this as some difficult task, and then explaining the method. Again, very easy to do and with lots of interaction with the spectators. Then there is one basic concept of mentalism included. Mentalism is the branch of magic that works on and with the mind. The basic concept described in my video is a prediction game. The magician asks three questions. Before each question is answered, he tries to connect with the soul of the universe, listening to the flow of the cosmic aura, and writes the answer down on a sheet of paper. The questions can be about anything. If the magician happens to know the answer by chance, all the better. But the method usually deployed in mentalism assures getting at least two of the answers completely right, which is about the right batting average. Even if somehow the magician was able to directly read the spectators mind, he wouldnt want to be right every time. That would be not as interesting as getting it right only most of the time. While I am at it, I also include some basics of hypnotism. Only a few simple exercises which will work most of the time. These are also very easy to
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do, there is not much need for practicing involved. And by definition, any hypnotism show will always be massively interacting with the audience. Finally, I show some basic ideas of using a thumb tip. No introduction to magic can possibly skip this vital tool of the trade. I learned about the thumb tip in my first magic book at age eight, and I have always liked the elegant simplicity of all tricks done with it. I decide to price this project at eight dollars. That doesnt give me much profit from each unit sold. But with the low price, I expect bigger numbers. There is also a strategy involved for me. If I can sell many beginner introduction DVDs, some of those beginners will get hooked. They will experience how gratifying it is to please their audiences, to make people happy, to have their joy bounce back at them. And many of them will want to buy some more advanced tricks. In other words, even if my profit from this particular project is low, I am also developing my customer base. And I am bringing joy to countless customers and their audiences. Did I ever mention that I love my job? Suddenly the door to my office pops open with a crashing sound. Six guys with masks on their faces rush into my room. They are all dressed with black

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boots, black pants, and black shirts, their hair hidden under black hats. All of them are carrying a gun in one hand and a knife in the other one. Obviously I have no chance of fighting them, even if I were an expert in martial arts, which I am not. Somehow I doubt they are here to be entertained with some of my magic tricks. They look like they are after my money. One is pointing a gun in my general direction. The others have guns drawn as well. Open the safe, he commands. You have five seconds. If you dont move fast, youre dead. Calm down, I say. I will give you my money. Its covered by insurance. Get moving, he says again. But the tone of his voice is slightly less urgent than a moment before. He seems to understand that I am willing to cooperate. Thats good, because I dont like the idea of being shot. I dont like the idea of losing some cash as well, but given the choice, that alternative is much better. Any losses really will be covered by my insurance company, I was not making that up. I want to get up and open the safe in my office. He must have had some insider information to know that there will be a considerable sum of cash in there.
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I always pay everyone involved in my production in cash. And security is rather weak. Instead of paying for a lot of security personnel, closed circuit TV recordings and other security measures, I prefer to pay a monthly insurance premium and be done. But before I can get into motion, he drops the gun and looks at his hand in shock. It has been pierced by a dagger that came out of nowhere and looks fairly familiar to me. In his case, the blood flows freely from a gashing wound. He screams only once, shortly and not ever so loud, then presses on the wound with the end of his shirt that he has ripped out of his pants. The dagger floats menacingly over my desk, pointing in the direction of the intruders. What the hell is that thing? he asks me. I dont know, I answer. That is quite true. I have seen this weapon before, of course. And I know its destructive force only too well. But I have still no idea how it actually works or why it has come into play here. Another one takes aim at the dagger and fires one bullet. He misses. Before the bullet has found enough time to cover the short distance, the dagger has already moved to another location. It has attacked again and gone right through the second guys hand, making him drop his gun as well.
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Another scream. The dagger again floats menacingly over my desk, pointing in the direction of the would-be robbers. Then it duplicates, like in my previous nightmare. There are now two identical weapons staring at them. Their odds are getting worse by the minute. They might still be able to shoot me, even kill me. But that wont get them the safe opened. And they have no way to fight and win against the two daggers now menacing at them. No human technology and no human soldier could do that. At least, that s what I think at the time. The leader gives an order: Everybody run right now! None of them is interested in a fight any more. After the first two demonstrations, they understand that they are not going to walk away with my money today. They will have to consider themselves lucky if they make it all back alive. They run for it. On their way out, the dagger stabs another one of them lightly in the ass. Another scream, and his speed goes down somewhat, but he is still moving out as fast as possible. There is absolutely nothing that I have done to make any of this happen. I didn t even notice that the dagger was still lying around somewhere in my office.
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But I sure did notice right now. This proves three things. For one, obviously I had not only dreamed of being maimed and then killed by this weapon the other day. It actually exists. I am pretty sure that I am not in trance right now. Next, the dagger is not only quite real, it is also able to inflict some real wounds. This is not all an illusion or a dream. That weapon could have killed those six guys in no time. I am glad it didnt do so, since that would have been rather difficult to explain to the police. Even so, I need to clean up some blood stains from the two cuts that pierced their hands. And the other thing is that this weapon has actually protected me. Who knows, the robbers might have shot me anyway after I open the safe. The hypnotist didnt want risk having that happen. He left that weapon in the room for my protection. Great. My insurance company will be delighted to hear of that. They might even reduce my monthly payments. I am not sure how I can explain to them exactly what happened, though. They would very likely doubt my sanity if I started telling them wild stories of daggers flying through my office. Anyway, I like it much better if that weapon is chasing someone else. And I also kind of like the idea that the hypnotist has taken some steps to assure my
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personal safety. Maybe he was right after all when he congratulated me on winning his lottery. The dagger is lying right on my desk now. I decide then and there to leave it right where it is. I can always explain that I got it as a present from an important customer if someone asks any questions. That is not likely in the first place, since I am the boss here, though. I may use it to open letters. * I wait a couple of moments, just to be sure that the robbers are all gone. Then I open the door of my office and check out if they have left any other damage or hurt anyone. I note that Alice is standing in a corner, her eyes covered with a blindfold, shivering from fear. They must have threatened her, and she doesnt know theyre gone yet. Its okay, I say to her. Theyre gone now. She turns around, taking off the blindfold. They have not tied her up in any way. Wow, that was scary, she says. Are you okay? Yes. I was lucky, I say. They wont come back any time soon, I think. Shall I call the police? she asks.

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No, I decide without hesitation. I dont want to lose a lot of time answering questions. In the end, there was no damage done. At least not to me, that is. I go back into my office and clean up the blood stains on the floor with some paper tissue. After flushing that down the toilet, I sit down at my desk. Since I am in a slight state of excitement from this experience, I try to calm my nerves by having a look at my Twitter feed. That doesnt really help much. I have trouble keeping my usual policy of ignoring all the idiots out there. If I started worrying about everyone who is wrong about something or other concerning climate change and energy policy, I would never be able to get anything done. I would just be wasting all day shouting at anonymous people sitting somewhere at the other side of the planet. And I also know that speaking out aggressively on the Internet has never helped anyone to win friends and influence people. I see another extremely stupid tweet in my feed and write, as an answer: That is not the dumbest thing I ever read, but it s close. There! That will teach him! I already start to feel better.
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But then, as always in such a case, I count very slowly from one to five. And after I am done with that, I take another close look at my effort. And decide to refrain from sending it. I am quite sure it would not have helped convince that particular person in any way. But it is much harder today to win this fight against myself. I take another deep breath and discard my draft. Then I read someone telling me I am wrong on something I wrote the other day. He writes: Have someone slowly explain to you that you are completely wrong on this issue. I dont care if you understand or not. If he doesnt care, then why does he take the trouble to write to me in the first place? I take a couple of moments to come up with an adequate response. I have trouble thinking of anything with the necessary punch. Maybe I still have some problems concentrating. But then I have an idea. I write: You are obviously dumber than a box of rocks. You would be unable to find your ass with both hands and an ass-finding device. I am rather pleased with myself for coming up with such a clever way of expressing my anger with so little space available.
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But then, again, I count very slowly from one to five. And, again, I look at the results of my efforts once more before actually sending that out. And again, I win against the temptation of hitting the Tweet button, but this time only barely. I close the window with my very clever draft, discarding it. While I am not making any progress calming down, I have won against the temptation of getting into a flame war with some random anonymous idiot twice in a row. I take a moment to savor that victory. If I keep up this winning streak, that will save me a lot of time and stress. If these idiots were worth any piece of my time in the first place, I would not be tempted to write them in this way, which is, after all, rather unfriendly. Another tweet directed at me is somewhat more aggressive than most of the others. The anonymous author of said tweet expresses a desire to kick my ass, since he doesnt agree with my completely correct views on the issue of global warming. That puts a big smile on my face. I look at the dagger, which is lying now right on my desk, looking ordinary and innocent. That clown would have some trouble kicking my ass right now. Six guys with masks and guns just tried. And look what they got for their trouble.
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I come up with another very smart idea. You wont ever be able to kick my ass, but maybe, if you practice very hard, Ill give you permission to lick it, I write in the answer field. It is very hard to resist the temptation of sending this one out, since obviously it is pure genius on my part. The only problem is that Goethe came up with the basic idea first. But again, I count to five, this time very slowly, since I know it will be extremely difficult to win. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. I take a deep breath after each number, taking my time. And again, just barely, find the strength to close the window, dumping another great idea. I am not getting anywhere with this. I give up on the idea of calming down this way and decide that I would like to discuss the dagger with the hypnotist instead. Maybe that will help. And I do want to find out whats up with that dagger. Again, I tell myself I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed

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After a while, I hear his voice, greeting me. He appears as an exact copy of the robber with the gun who rushed me a couple of moments ago. The same mask, the same gun, the same clothes, even the same black hat. But its the voice of the hypnotist. They wont come back any time soon, he said. It was a good idea to leave some simple security measures in place. Even I could not resurrect you from death if you are killed by someone else in the real world. So the other day was only a dream after all? I say. Yes. Of course it was, or youd be dead now. But it doesnt matter. The only thing that matters is how it felt to you, the hypnotist says. But this time, it was the real thing, I say. How did you do that? I have heard that question a million times from people after I showed them a magic trick that seems completely impossible to pull off from their point of view. You dont need to know, he replies. You would not understand anyway. It would be like you trying to explain Twitter to Caesar or Newton. Lets just say that I have some pretty advanced technology at my disposal.

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He has a point there. Any advanced technology looks like magic to those who dont know it. Well, thanks anyway, I say. Then I add: Any chance you might explain to me what all this is about? I mean, you say you want me to get a message out. But if I dont know what that is, I obviously wont be able to do that. I will, eventually. No need to hasten things. Maybe next time, he answers. And is gone again the next moment. * The next day, I meet Karen again. I might take a romantic interest in her. She is reacting nicely to most of my tricks. And I like the fact that she is also interested in climate activism. We are sitting in the same restaurant as the other day for a light meal and some drinks. I am practicing my skills at mind reading lately, I say. May I try a couple of simple exercises on you? Go ahead, she says. Okay, lets start with something easy. Ill try to guess your job. I know that you are about two years out of college from your age. And I did have the occasion to talk with you for a bit. My wild guess
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would be that you are right now employed somewhere in the media sector, but that your dream is to sell as many books as Coelho, and you have started writing your first novel. I could of course have read the right answer from the screen. She is employed in her parents small retail business, so I miss the first part of the answer on purpose. But I hit exactly the right answer with the second part. Thats pretty close, she says, impressed. How did you do that? I cant really say. I could tell you how it feels to me, but you would never believe me, I answer, which is actually true. I have no idea how this works. The hypnotist must have some pretty impressive technology at his disposal for pulling this kind of thing off. That flying dagger chasing people around is not bad as well. And I am sure she would never believe me if I told her, even if I could explain how it works, which I can t. Lets move on. Next, Ill try to guess if you have ever traveled abroad, and which country is your favorite destination. I need to focus on your expression to read that, I announce. I spend a couple of moments looking at her lovely face. Then I come up with an answer.

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You love the remote mountain regions of South America. Thats where you plan to set the stage for your first novel. Lets see. Brazil? No, that doesn t feel quite right. Mexico. Yes, Ill go with that, I say. This time I hit exactly the right answer. I do want her to be impressed with my mind-reading skills. You are rather good at this, she says. Okay, now Ill try something really difficult, I answer. What was your favorite birthday present ever? I need to know this kind of thing if I want to please you, which I do. Don t give me any hints. Ill just concentrate real hard on your cosmic aura flow and see if I can read anything. Of course I can read the answer clearly on the screen. But I decide to miss this one completely. I dont want to feel too creepy to her. Lets see, I say after concentrating on her pretty face, faking efforts at reading her mind rather convincingly. I do have acquired some acting skills in my earlier career doing magic shows. The Pokemon computer game you got for your fourteenth birthday. Youre way off, she says. I never had any interest in computer games. They are a waste of time. I prefer reading books and writing stuff myself. Sorry. Okay, let me try something easier now. Ill give you a list of five desirable qualities in men, and I
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will guess the one that is most important to you in choosing your dates. So here they are. Great looks, intelligence, ability to listen, similar interests, and net worth. Decide on one of them right now, I say. Interesting. I would have expected her to choose similar interests, but there it says clearly on the screen net worth. Great looks, I say. Its a good thing I fit that, if I may say so myself, I add. You may, she answers. You are right on that. I bet a lot of girls are interested in you. She is right on that as well. She doesn t tell me that I was wrong on my guess. Im getting some success again, I say, though I know that she just pretended I got the last one right. Lets try something even simpler. I know you are familiar with Urim and Thummim, from your reading of Coelhos Alchemist. These are two stones, one white and one black. A person would pull one of them out of his pocket after mixing them up, as a method of divination. I got a set in my pocket right now, and Im going to pull out only one of them. Let me try to read your guess, white or black, I continue. Black, I say, reading from the screen. Was my guess right? Yes, she confirms. Not ever so impressive, since I have a fifty percent chance with any guess, but I am
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not interested in giving the impression of perfection to her. I could, of course, do so very easily. But that would be no fun for either of us. Its actually white, I say, opening my hand. I can easily feel the color, since the white stone is slightly thicker than the black one. Of course I am right there as well. Im glad I got this one right. Im picking up speed again, so Ill go for a more difficult question now. Concentrate on someone from your family, please. I will try to guess the name, I say. Okay, she says. I take my time. The screen tells me the right answer is Mary, her little sister three years younger. Lets see. Female or male? I sense a feminine aura here, making you even more radiantly beautiful in this moment. You are thinking of your sister Mary. Wow. She is quite impressed again at this homerun I just hit out of the ballpark. There is really no way I could have known that. She also liked hearing that part about her being even more radiantly beautiful, the screen tells me as I ask myself about that. Lets move on to something in the future. We already covered your dream. I will try to read how that has worked out ten years later. Will you have
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sold your first million books? Please try to concentrate on that question, while I try to get some signals, I say. Of course I dont get any. Even the screen stays blank this time. I learn that there are some limitations to my mind reading super power. I can only read what the person actually knows already. But it doesnt matter. I can say anything I want about the future. She wont be able to check my answer for the next ten years. Lets see. I sense a strong cosmic aura flow of will power there. But there are interferences from third parties, obstacles, doubts. I don t get a clear picture. I need to concentrate stronger, I say. I take a couple of moments, and then continue. Yes, I say. I was hit by sudden spark in the flow of the cosmic aura. You will have sold over five million books ten years later. She is quite pleased at the answer. It squares nicely with the line of the whole universe conspiring to make her dream come true she just read in Coelhos Alchemist. Of course the first rule of any divination is to always tell the client what they want to hear. Two questions left to go. Lets return to something simple. Think of your favorite color, I say. Red, says the screen.
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Red, I say, scoring another mildly convincing success. Most people choose that. She would have been slightly impressed at this one, if I hadn t blown her mind already with much more difficult hits. Okay, last one. What is the name of the best looking and most entertaining date you ever had? I ask, closing with a real easy one. Of course, the screen shows my name, as well it should. I know that without even looking at it. All I need is another short glance at her face. * Back in my office, I want to get into trance and talk to the hypnotist. I really want to find out what all this is about. The part about getting cut up with flying daggers is not exactly fun, and there is probably more of that coming up as well. But I intensely enjoy my new mind-reading super power, though at this time the only one it works on is Karen. I want to thank the hypnotist for that. But I need to know what exactly he wants from me. If I dont know his message, there is no way I can spread it to humanity. I concentrate on my wish to talk to him. I dont bother with the I am very relaxed formula. And I am proven right. That doesnt matter either way.
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He appears in the form of a magician, holding a deck of cards in one hand and the King of Clubs in the other one. He is a young man, wearing a white suit with a bright red bow tie and a black silk cylinder hat. You are ready for some explanation? he asks. Yes. But first Id like to thank you for Karen. That was really very nice, just as you had announced. So what is that message I am supposed to get out? It is very simple. Have you ever heard of global warming? he asks. Of course I have. The planet is heating up because we burn up all the fossil fuel, releasing CO2, I answer. That is one of the reasons I use the subway for my commute, though there are some other benefits of that as well. I am actually involved in the 350.org campaign about the issue. Do you think it is a serious problem? the hypnotist asks. Of course it is, I answer. I would like to be able to do more about it. But I am rather busy at my real job. Running a successful company does take a lot of time. I do what I can, though. You recall your idea for a DVD about the issue? The one with the big asteroid hitting Earth? he asks. Yes, of course, I answer. I just wrote it down the other day.
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Actually, that came from me. I have been planting that idea in your subconscious in one of our previous sessions. Of course you would not be aware of that. Now you know, he explains. I see, I answer. That explains how I came up with this rather unusual idea. I liked it, especially the fact that it was popular to start with, but I did notice that most ideas I get are rather less large scale than that one. That was to give you a glimpse of your future, the hypnotist explains. And not the very distant future, as your scientists seem to assume. They don t really understand yet the speed with which the feedback mechanisms will kick in. It will take much more than a day, like in the asteroid hit, but much less than two decades to get the first 50 degrees Celsius in warming. You are in for a real nasty surprise there. And you are young enough to watch your civilization collapse in your lifetime, he explains. So you are here to warn humanity of global warming? No. Of course not. Everybody not completely stupid knows that already. All your scientists say that there is a problem that will eventually destroy civilization, except those bought off or the trolls who feed on the fame of being wrong. But they are
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seriously wrong on the timing. Chances are that it will take only a couple of decades from now on, he says. So what is your message, then? I ask. Did you ever ask yourself this simple question: How can humanity be both smart enough to develop modern civilization in the first place and dumb enough to burn all the fossil fuel? he asks. Yes. Just the other day, when I was writing down the asteroid idea, I asked myself exactly that. It does seem to be a good question, I agree. The answer is simple. You didn t burn all the fossil fuel on your own. That was me causing your leaders to act in that suicidal, self-destructive way. I think it is kind of entertaining to see you burn your whole planet, he says. Wow, I think. There are some sick producers out there, in contrast to the healthy stuff I am churning out with the Paraponi Magic company. I had suspected as much when he pulled that stunt with the flying dagger on me. But this is a couple of degrees worse. He wants to destroy human civilization for his entertainment? Are you acting alone? What is your audience? I ask. Good question. Actually, I do have an audience of a couple of hundred billion people to please. And my
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television show, the Heat Games, boasts the highest viewer numbers in our three hundred million years of history, he answers. I have been in the show business for fifty million years now, but this is the greatest hit ever. Heat Games. So the whole global warming crisis is caused by some alien hypnotist at least fifty million years old, who runs a game show on his network, with humanity as the unwitting suicidal stars in it. Yes. That does explain how humanity could ever be so stupid, though some of my fellow human beings might actually be able to reach that impressive level of stupidity all on their own. An audience of a couple of hundred billion ? I ask. That is quite a lot. The most I ever attracted in one of my shows was about 300 people. Yes. Actually right now about 72 billion are watching us, he explains. Wow, I think. I am a super star! Then I ask: So what is that message that you want me to get out? For one, I want you to tell humanity that global warming is caused by an alien hypnotist, for the purpose of providing some entertainment in a television show, he says. But no one will believe me, I say. That would be unfortunate. Remember the daggers chasing you through your office? You would
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get much more of that sort of stuff if you fail, he says. I dont get it. If you caused global warming in the first place, why do you want me to stop it now? I ask. I dont want you to stop it. Just to change the odds a bit in your planets favor. People are starting to get bored with my show because everyone thinks your planet is doomed almost certainly. That is very bad for the betting business. No one is ready to bet against doom in the next couple of decades. I need you to put up at least a bit of resistance, so as to get some uncertainty and suspense back for my show, he explains. Hey, I understand that, I tell him. Im actually in the show business myself, though I have to admit that my scale is rather smaller than yours. Of course you need some suspense. By the way, are your cameras always watching? I mean, did you enjoy watching me talking with Karen? I ask, suddenly remembering those rather pleasant moments. Yes. And no. The cameras are always watching from multiple angles. You are the Chosen One, after all. But there is not much interest in your dating scenes, so these are cut from the television show. Imagine yourself watching some 150 year old Galapagos turtles mating, very slowly, for a couple of
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hours, and you can understand the excitement one of our viewers would get from watching humans interacting, he explains. I am not sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, I like the fact that I do have some privacy left. On the other hand, my pride as a professional is hurt somewhat. Damn. There goes my chance to impress an audience of billions of aliens with my unmatched skills in flirting. So, you want me to get out the message to humanity that global warming is just one great show we are doing for our alien overlords. Nobody will ever believe me. But, what the hell. Ill try anyway. Keep your flying daggers on the ground, if you please, I say. Nice to see you understand, he answers. And vanishes in the next moment. * It takes a couple of moments until I recover from the shock of what I just heard. That whole climate crisis that will eventually wipe out humanity is caused so a bunch of aliens can have some fun with a television show! That explains why the 350.org campaign I am involved in has only had limited success until now. We are fighting an alien hypnotist
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with a technology far superior to ours, and we didn t even know we had to fight him. Then I inform everybody that I am not to be disturbed for the next two hours for any reason. I have an appointment after that, but I need to think about the situation. Losing two hours out of the time I am working for my company will cost me some money. That is unfortunate, but it cant be helped. I am facing the threat of getting tortured some more with the flying daggers, or possibly much worse. And humanity is facing the threat of getting wiped out in the next couple of decades. Failure is not an option. The first thing I do is go to the 350.org homepage for another donation. This time I give $2,000. Actually, I have already been involved in getting the message about global warming out, and this donation will help, just as the one of $350 I did before sitting in the restaurant with Karen. Again, I am glad to be able to easily afford this kind of amount. I dont know if that is what the hypnotist wanted me to do, or if that helps with the task he gave me of getting his message out. But I need to do something, anything, right now. And this is just a logical first step for me.
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While this will obviously help getting the message about global warming out, the trouble with that is that the message is completely different. Last I checked, no one involved in climate campaigning told humanity that this is all the work of an evil alien hypnotist dooming humanity for his entertainment business purposes. The usual message is that burning fossil fuel is bad and dangerous, since it emits a lot of CO2, leading to a greenhouse effect, which has numerous very severe consequences. There will be more frequent and more devastating storms, already a reality. Droughts of a scale never seen before will turn fertile land into deserts, making food production more insecure and causing gigantic damages on their own. Sea levels will be rising by 75 meters eventually, drowning all the big coastal cities and many countries, and leading to severe flooding damages even in the early stages when combined with the more frequent and more devastating storms. Heat waves are going to kill massive numbers of people. And eventually, a runaway greenhouse effect might happen, which would turn the whole planet into a hellish sea of fire where no life could survive. Just like it was in the asteroid impact video. Humanity will get wiped out, the hypnotist just told me. And it wont take centuries, but only
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decades. I will see the collapse of civilization in my lifetime if I fail to get his message out. So how am I going to do it? I dont know right now. It seems quite hopeless. For one, the whole story is completely unbelievable. I might as well tell people a story about cars turning into monsters that like to chew on random people as an afternoon snack. Or I might try a story about real teenage high school magicians fighting against some real magician super villain. What am I going to do about that? Of course I know its real. I have been cut to pieces and killed already by the hypnotist. And I have seen the dagger flying around my office and cutting up robbers left and right only recently. But again, there is a reason I wasn t interested in filing any police reports, and its not only the time that would cost me. They would never believe me. I guess the intruders might confirm my story. But I dont know where to find them, and even if I knew, nobody would believe them either. I need to come up with some kind of strategy to convince people of that story. Then I note an interesting fact. Actually, I am in the business of convincing people that something that seems completely impossible is

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really happening. That is what magicians have been doing for centuries. So maybe, if I think about this problem from a magicians point of view, I can come up with a good idea. I certainly need to. I didnt like getting chased around by the dagger one bit, and I am sure there is much more and much more severe torture in store for me if I dont come up with something. There is also the minor matter of civilization collapsing within my lifetime if I fail. So how can I sell this message, considering I am a magician running the Paraponi Magic company? Can I develop a new magic trick that has climate change as its main theme? Can I use the very real story of the hypnotist as my backstory, my patter, as the magicians call it? Could I use it for any of my already existing tricks? Wait a moment, I say to myself. This is getting my creative juices flowing. I might just come up with an idea or two that is not completely hopeless. Except that I dont. I sit at my desk for the remaining time of the two hours I have given myself. And no idea comes.

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That of course is only normal. Ideas don t come when I schedule them. They come on their own schedule. This is not the first time I have thought about some problem. The first step for getting an idea about the solution is to clearly understand what the problem is in the first place. And I have made some progress with that. I will just have to wait until I come up with a good solution. Maybe the hypnotist will help me in time. He did give me the idea about the asteroid impact, after all. I decide then and there that any idea about getting the message out should include that element of the asteroid impact in some way or other. I will worry about how to exactly do it later, when I have given my subconscious mind some more time to come up with something. The two hours I have given myself are over. A young man dressed in a white suit, with a glaring red bow tie and a black cylinder hat, is escorted into my office by Alice, my assistant. I recall that I have just seen the hypnotist in exactly that form. I like the distraction, since I am still quite shocked by what I heard from the hypnotist. How am I ever going to convince even one person of that story I need to get out? I am sure that I will meet the
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daggers or some other horror the hypnotist has in store for me again pretty soon. The guy is a young professional magician who is here to pitch a business proposal to me. He needs to build a fan base one way or other. And he has decided to throw away the cards and coins and use only magic wands as his props instead. He is here to show me some of his strongest tricks. And he wants to be featured in some of our productions. I watch him performing a couple of simple vanishing acts with some standard magic wands of all sizes. The kid is rather good at his job. Obviously he has put in the necessary hours of training effort. I am impressed. If he got any better, I would start suspecting that Im in trance again and he is actually the hypnotist, like a couple of moments before. He doesnt levitate his wands, though. All he does is making them disappear, which is of course much more difficult to do with an object of that size than with coins. I wonder how impressed he would be to see the hypnotists dagger in action. He probably would be one very confused young magician. As a professional, he knows what can and what can t be done with human technology. Unfortunately, I still have no control over that dagger. Having that would go a long way to make my
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story much more convincing, I realize in that moment. I also realize that I have that other alien technology gadget, the computer screen that has popped up over Karens head, reading her mind. On the other hand, no one else can actually see that, so that wont be any proof for my story. I could of course try to just do a mentalism mind reading show with Karen as a partner, but then everybody would just say that I got the information from her some way or other. She would know thats not true. She was rather impressed by our little experiment. But anyone else would not know, so that doesnt prove anything for them. Here I am, actually possessing super powers that I am usually only pretending to possess, and there is no way I can prove it! Well, I might still get some ideas for some new magic tricks from these gadgets. That won t help me bring the message out, but it will help me make some more money. I decide to give the kid a chance. We will produce a DVD with his tricks and see if it sells. I doubt it at the moment, since it looks like his tricks require a massive amount of practice. That means that the market for them seems to be rather restricted. But I have been positively surprised before. You never
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know if a new trick will sell or not. You just have to put it out there and see what happens. His ideas for the business side of the transaction need some slight adjustment. I tell him that he can get a contract with Paraponi Magic, but he won t get the conditions he had in mind at this stage of his career. Maybe later, once he gets more popular. We agree very soon on having him cooperate with us at terms that are very likely to prove beneficial to both sides of that deal. After we agree on the business side, I try bringing my story out to the first person I meet after hearing it myself. I am looking forward to working with you. Now, I would like to tell you an interesting little story. Maybe I can get an idea for a new magic trick from that. Care to listen to it? I say. Why not? he answers. Of course he wont refuse that offer. I have just agreed to a deal that possibly means a small boost to my sales, but definitely a great step forward for his career. I may be his most important customer right now. In business, if your best customer asks you for a couple of minutes of your time, the iron rule is to give them that. You know, since a couple of days, I am under the hypnotic influence of an alien overlord, I start my story. He is over fifty million years old and runs a
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television show called the Heat Games, which is very popular on his planet. He says it has the best rating ever in their whole three hundred million years of history. He makes a strong effort not to laugh out loud. I am, after all, his best customer. I may be nuts, but I am his path to fame. We, humanity, are the stars of his show. He has been hypnotizing our leaders and made them burn all the fossil fuel. That will lead to runaway global warming of about 50 degrees Celsius in the next couple of decades, ending civilization. We should do something against this alien menace. He finally loses his self-control and breaks out in an uncontrolled laughter at my expense. I am sorry, Mr. Paraponi, he says hastily. I didnt mean to be impolite. And then he laughs some more. You dont believe my story? I ask. To be perfectly honest with you, no, that doesnt sound very convincing to me. Never mind. This is all just a little bit of brain storming for one of my next magic tricks. I need to develop an interesting background story that sounds completely crazy. Thanks for listening to my story, anyway, I say. After a couple of minutes of polite conversation on the topic of his bright future career
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with Paraponi Magic, he leaves. He must be thinking I am completely nuts. I would, in his place. That didnt go over too well, I say to myself. I need to work on my story delivery. Right now I have a batting average of zero out of one. I need to improve that fast. The dagger lying on my desk as a letter opener doesnt look very reassuring to me right now. In that moment, I fall into trance again. I learn that the hypnotist can put me under any time he chooses, just as he said he could. He appears in the form of a small devil, about the size of a three-year-old boy, with three horns on his red head. Two bull horns and one long unicorn horn in the middle. He is floating in the air, flapping angel wings attached to his back, which somehow dont fit in the picture. But before I can laugh about this amusing detail, I see something that quite definitely spoils any cheerful thoughts I might have had. On each of his horns a large wasp is sitting. I dont like the direction this is moving, but I can t move myself. He has me completely immobilized on the chair of my desk. Hi, Tony, he says, in a cheerful voice. See those wasps? Yes, I answer. I certainly have noticed them. Wonder why you cant move? he asks.
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Why is that? I have put a little barrier around your body, just like the one I blocked the door with the other day, he explains. Guess what happens now? I am getting stung by those wasps? Bingo, he says. You need some encouragement to come up with better ideas faster. As long as you dont provide any extra entertainment for my show by bringing the message out, I will need to torture you one way or other, so as to keep the Heat Show interesting for my viewers, he says. And adds, with an evil grin over his devilish face, Sorry about that. It doesnt look like hes sorry to me. Not one bit. Okay, I say. That does it. All things considered, I step down from this position as the Chosen One. Stop it right now. It doesnt matter what you want to happen. This is not about you, or about me. It is about my viewers. I have to keep them entertained, and it doesn t matter one bit if you like that or not. Actually, having you not like the procedure is kind of the point here, he says, showing me a devilish grimace of his devil face. For good measure, he lets a couple of small flames shoot out of his small mouth. Then he adds:

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But lets take some time for some explanation first. You might prefer to get it over with already, but there are two points that need explaining here. Which are? I ask. I dont mind having him continue talking. As long as he is talking, he wont be torturing me. First off, these wasps. They are somewhat modified, you know. I thought you might appreciate the fact that they carry the venom of the lesser giant hunter ant, Mr. Paraponi. As you know, that is quite somewhat of a punch there, he explains. Damn! I really should have chosen a different stage name, I think. But it is too late for that now. He goes on. But dont worry. I dont want you lying around useless for a whole day, so the pain will go away in a couple of minutes. How nice and considerate of him. Of course that is only in his own interest of getting on with his show. And there is one other point, he says. Whats that? The little issue of free will. You know, what your philosophers have been debating for all of your history, he says. What do you mean? I dont get it. Lets just consider one special case. This little exercise with the wasps is designed to motivate you
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to put more effort into getting the message out, isnt it? he asks. Yes, I agree. Though you told me that its also just for the entertainment of your viewers. So, if it succeeds in making a strong impression on you, as I sure hope it will, he shows me another devilish grimace of his devil face there, shooting even more and longer flames out of his small mouth then you will be more motivated to follow my wishes and orders. But you would still be free to decide against doing so, wouldn t you? Maybe, I say. Maybe you have my will completely under control, on the other hand. I couldnt really tell. Exactly. Thats the problem of free will. Can you, Tony Paraponi, decide on anything on your own free will, or is everything in the universe decided beforehand, in an endless chain of deterministic cause and effect? he asks. I dont know, I answer. I dont know for sure either, he says. But think about it. It might be an important part of your mission. Then he continues: Okay, lets get this over with. I watch as the wasps take off from his horns, flying over to me in very slow motion. I get stung in three
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places simultaneously, as he looks on with a devilish grin over his devil face. This times the flames are shooting out from his nose and his ears. I feel a pain much like a normal wasp sting, except that its amplified by about a factor of ten, making me scream. But again, there is no visible damage left to my body. I realize that this can go on forever that way. Not a reassuring thought. You bastard!! I yell, as soon as I get over the initial shock and the pain subsides, which takes a couple of minutes. That was just a small reminder, to get your creative juices flowing faster. If you dont make any progress with your mission, I will need to come up with some more interesting ways to punish you in the meantime, so as to keep my viewers from getting bored. Im sure youll understand that. Yeah, I say. Ill come up with something. I promise. I am rather sincere about that promise. I didn t like those stings one bit. And I know he has ready much more of this where they came from. If this is a small reminder, I would really hate to get to the more serious stuff he must have in store as well. All things considered, I very much prefer to keep his viewers entertained by coming up with extremely smart ways

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to get out the damn message, however difficult that may seem right now. * The next day, I order a banner message placed on the Paraponi Magic Internet site, with the text: Global warming is caused by an alien hypnotist controlling humanity. Wake up! Resist! I dont expect anyone to buy or even understand that, of course. But I need to give the impression to the hypnotist that I am putting up an honest effort. Then I grab my phone and ask Brian to meet me. I need someone to talk this thing over with. Brian is my broker. He handles about 500,000 dollars I have put aside over the last couple of successful years for me. I am not his biggest customer, but I am also one of his friends, so when I want him to give me some of his time, he usually does. He receives me in his luxurious office, greeting me cheerfully. Hi, Tony, he says. I have good news for you. Your portfolio has been doing nicely the last couple of weeks. It has added about three percent in that time. Thats good news and I am glad to hear it. But thats not why I am here today.
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Okay, Brian, I need your advice, I say. I am having trouble dealing with an alien hypnotist that is controlling my life. What? he asks, doubting his ears. Its a long story. I wont tell you now, since you wouldnt believe it anyway, I say. Well, what you just said sure doesnt make any sense to me, he agrees. Lets just say that I have some extremely important information that I need to get out to everyone on the planet, or I am in very deep trouble. And lets also assume that said information looks so completely nuts that no one will believe me if I just start telling the story. How can I get it out anyway? I ask. Let me think about that a moment, he says. Okay, I say, and wait for him to speak again. It takes about a minute. Then he says: I dont know what this alien hypnotist stuff is supposed to mean. But actually, your problem is quite normal. People are trying to get some kind or other of message out all the time. You are talking about a public relations problem there, he says. He is right with that. People are trying to get out all sorts of messages to everyone on the planet. I am not alone in that. Even if my message is extremely
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unusual, the problem of getting a message out is actually rather standard. Actually, I have been involved with the 350.org campaign in bringing out a very similar message. So I already know something about how to do that. I am already glad that I came to talk my problem over with him. That changes quickly, though. In that moment, the window of his office shatters into a thousand pieces with a thundering sound. A fine line of blood starts flowing from his right ear. Down! he yells and lets himself drop down on the floor behind his desk. Obviously someone has been shooting a rifle at him. They missed the first shot, barely, but we are still dangerously exposed with no apparent way to fight back. The most horrible dagger in history sits on my desk gathering dust as a letter opener right now, and I doubt that it would be of much use against an enemy holding a rifle anyway. Another shot comes in through the now glassless window. It hits a precious antique Chinese vase Brian keeps as a decoration, which explodes at impact, sending splinters all around the office. I catch a couple of them on my face as they fall down, but they dont have enough speed to cut through my skin. I am glad that I had just enough time to pull
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down my eyelids instinctively. Those splinters would have been bad news on unprotected eyes. The next shot hits home closer. I feel it rip right through the left leg of my pants, tearing the fabric, only barely missing my leg. What the hell is happening here? Has the hypnotist again decided that he needs to liven up things a bit to keep his audience from getting bored? Another shot. Brian screams. Hes hit. Are you all right? I yell. Yes, he shouts, clearly in pain. I got hit in my left ring finger. I look for cover. Right now I am just lying down on the floor of the office. The smart thing to do would be to hide in the space just below the window. Except there is no such space. The window stretches right down to the ground. Brian liked to have a good view of the lake outside from his desk. Now that turns out to have been a rather bad idea. Another bullet comes in. It hits Brian s desk, which is his cover right now. It opens a large hole in the wood, but it doesnt catch him this time. I still dont have any cover, so I do the next best thing, which is facing the window lying on the floor, trying to give the shooter as small a target as possible.

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But he doesnt seem interested in hitting me now. The bullets keep coming in quick succession now, hitting Brians desk in three more places, but finding neither of us. Then a police siren sounds, and the attack is over. Brian calls in an ambulance over his mobile phone, pressing down on his hit ring finger with a handkerchief. What was that about? I ask. I have declined an offer from a certain organization to help with their money laundering operations, Brian explains. This is their way to show their displeasure. I am sure they didn t want to kill me. Or you. If they did, the first bullet would have hit my straight in the middle of the head. They had a clear shot at me. But Im not backing down. This is going right to the police, he says. I understand that Im not the only one with problems. I hope the hypnotist is satisfied for the moment. I certainly have got much more action than I expected when I came in here. A young nurse comes in and looks at Brian s finger wound. She says its no big deal, she will take care of it right there. No need to go to a hospital. While she starts bandaging his finger, I decide to perform a magic trick.

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I know from experience that this is a great way to distract people from their pain. This is one of the benefits of my art not well known to the general public. I have nothing else to do while Brian gets treated anyway, and he is a friend as well as my broker. I start out with adapting my new idea with the black and white stone to the situation. Okay, Brian, while you get all bandaged up, let s try a new magic trick I am developing right now, I say. That will distract you from the pain. Go ahead, he answers. He has seen many of my tricks before. Most of the time he liked them. I will use one black stone and one white stone for this. It is an experiment in divination rather than a magic trick. Look, I say, as I pull the stones out of my pocket and display them on his desk, where he is sitting, the nurse wrapping bandages around his finger. I see, he says. I take up both stones in one hand. Then I form the shape of a sphere with both hands and shake them. The stones bounce around at random. Lets see now, I say. Lets start with a simple exercise. I will select one of these stones at random. If I get the black stone, you will be in severe pain

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from this wound, but if I choose the white one, you wont feel much from it. I separate my hands, keeping one stone in each of them. I hold them between my palms and my thumbs, making sure that neither me nor Brian nor the nurse can see them. The nurse also watches with half an eye as she works on applying the bandages. Let me tune into the soul of the universe. I need to catch the light of the aura emanating from one of my hands. Please help me concentrate. Concentrate strongly on my right hand now, and try to make the light of the cosmic aura flow from it, I instruct Brian. Okay, he says. He is complying. He is really trying hard to concentrate on my right hand. That is exactly what I want. As long as he is concentrating on that, he will be distracted from the pain he is feeling in his own hand, which is the point of this whole exercise. I cant see any light, I say. Which is true. I go on: Now concentrate on my left hand. Again, try to connect with the soul of the universe and make the light of the cosmic aura flow from my left hand. Again, Brian complies. The nurse, who has finished wrapping the bandage in the meantime, also joins in the fun. They both stare at my left hand, focusing their mind completely there.
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Ah! I can see the light!! I exclaim in an excited voice. The white stone must be in my left hand, our collective efforts at connecting with the soul of the universe have been successful! I wait a couple of moments, to let that sink in. Then, very slowly, I let the white stone appear from my left hand. Of course I knew it was there all the time, since I could feel that it is slightly thicker than the black one. No cosmic aura of the soul of the universe involved, sorry. Congratulations! I say to Brian. Your level of pain will be very low. This form of divination has a history going back right to biblical times. It is always right. That, on its own, would work over the placebo effect to ease the pain, if he buys my acting. And there is no reason for him not to buy it. The nurse jumps into the conversation. Well, I have applied a strong local anesthetic, so that should ease the pain some more, she says. Its already working, Brian says. Thank you. Okay, that was a nice warm-up. Now lets try something more advanced, I say. What are you going to try to find out next? Brian asks. I am not free to choose the next question, I say.
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They look at me, puzzled. I just got a great idea on how to use the hypnotist in my back story for this trick. I go on to explain: You know, lately I have been under the hypnotic control of an evil alien overlord fifty million years old. He came to our planet a long time ago and has some really impressive technology at his command. And right now he ordered me to check if there is a red ribbon of destiny connecting you to that nurse that just bandaged you. I mean, if both of you dont mind, that is, I said. If I refuse, I will be tortured severely by the evil hypnotist, so please play along. I manage to give the impression of someone really afraid of the consequences. Actually, I am, in part. I just remembered what happened with those wasps. If they only knew! They dont seem to mind. The young nurse seems to like the idea to play around with this slightly romantic setup a bit. Of course it helps that Brian is a rather handsome fellow. Thank you! I say. Lets get this little test done, then. Again, I mix up the stones and hold one of them in each hand. Then I ask Brian: Concentrate on the right hand. Can you see the light of the cosmic soul of the universe emanate from it?
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He obliges. After a couple of moments, he says: Yes. I think this one is it. Then I ask the nurse, who is wearing a nameplate on her uniform: Now its your turn, Miss Sanders. Do you agree with that choice? Concentrate on the right hand and see if it appeals to you. Yes, I think that would be okay, she says. I take a couple of moments, then I slowly reveal the white stone from my right hand. Brian has guessed right the first time. Of course it helped that I pointed him to the right hand first, but he doesn t realize that. I repeat that experiment another four times, letting them take turns on who goes first. They choose the black stone twice, but in one of those cases I manage to talk them out of it and change their choice. So as an end result, they find the white stone four times out of five, which is good. Even better is the fact that they agreed every time on their choice. The almighty alien hypnotist just told me the result of this test. Since you agreed all five times on your choice, and that choice was right most of the time, there is quite clear evidence that your destinies are connected by a red ribbon in the soul of the universe, I say. His words, not mine, I add.
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Both of them smile at this result. Part of it is the incredible story I serve them, which works to my advantage in this setting, adding to the entertainment value. But another part of it is the fact that they both like the idea. They of course both immediately caught on that they could always agree, just by not objecting to the first choice of the other one. I am making some progress with the development of this new trick, adding some new twist to the story. This might be an excellent trick to perform at a wedding party, with the newlyweds taking the test. Thats of course good for business, since it will help selling this new idea once I get the DVD on the market. Brian is also well bandaged and sedated now with an appropriate pain killer. Miss Sanders tells him to check back with his doctor the next day and leaves. Not without giving him her mail address first, though. They will be discussing that red ribbon of destiny stuff without me one of these days. I pick up our conversation where it was interrupted by the shooting. To go back to what you said before that shooting started, you are right. I have a PR problem. But it s not only that. Even if I succeeded in getting out my

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message to everyone, I would still need to convince them of a story that sounds completely nuts, I say. Who told you that story? he asks. Why dont you let them spread their message themselves? Good question. I decide to find out immediately. Under the pretext of feeling still somewhat shocked from the shooting, I ask Brian to leave me alone for a couple of minutes, so that I can calm down. He happily obliges, since he needs to talk to the police anyway. He promises to be back in about half an hour and leaves me alone in his office. There is a cool breeze coming in through the shattered window. I concentrate on calling the hypnotist. He shows up after a couple of minutes, in the form of a military sniper wearing camouflage and carrying a long rifle with a monster scope and silencer attached. The rifle is pointed at me. That was close, he laughs. What do you want? My friend here had a good question. If you are so almighty, why dont you bring out your damn message to all of humanity yourself? Why me? I ask. Of course I could do that. But where would be the suspense and the fun in that? I could never run a show that way, he explains. That makes sense to me. But I insist.

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But you could at least give me a hint or two, I say. You must have gained some experience in your long life. Yes, that seems fair enough, he agrees. Lets see. Have you ever heard of Jules Verne? he asks. Of course I have. I read most of his books. Yes, I answer. That is one of the great authors. I enjoyed reading most of his books. You remember the book about buying the North Pole? he continues. No, I say. That must have been one of his minor ones. The story is quite incredible. The main character sets up a corporation that buys the North Pole and then proceeds to fire a giant cannon that will tilt the Earth with its recoil. That in turn will thaw the North Pole, so he can get at the enormous coal reserves there, the hypnotist explains. Coal? I ask, slightly baffled. Yes, of course coal. In Vernes time, oil was not a major source of energy yet. He also didnt know that the Arctic was largely ocean. Or maybe he didn t care describing reality exactly in that point. It might have been difficult for him to imagine mining the coal at the bottom of the ocean, he says. And whats that stuff about a cannon shot? That doesnt make any sense, I say.
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Of course it doesnt. But one of Vernes more successful books is about a giant cannon shooting some people in a projectile right to the moon. This is a sequel to that. He uses even some of the characters of the earlier book. Of course he didn t know about global warming yet, he explains. When was that book published? I ask. It was written in 1889, he says. The greenhouse effect was well known at the time, I say. I know of these things, having studied the history in my involvement in the 350.org campaign. Tyndall explained it in a lecture in 1863, published in one of his books in 1872, Contributions to Molecular Physics in the Domain of Radiant Heat. Verne must have been aware of that, I say. I recall the exact title of that book because I like to use it as a demonstration of my memory skills when performing some memory tricks. Possibly true, from your point of view. In contrast, I positively know that he was, the hypnotist says. How could you know that? Ive been talking to him. He was one of the past Chosen Ones who got the benefit of my company. I gave him a couple of ideas for his books. But I didn t want him to make the science of the greenhouse effect popular already in the 19th Century. That could

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have been potentially trouble for my project of heating your planet up, he explains. Wow, I think to myself. I am in the company of Jules Verne. Maybe I was really lucky in winning that lottery to become the Chosen One. Though I still have my doubts, especially when I recall those wasp stings. So you made him use the idea of a giant cannon shot instead of the real science? I ask. Yes. It was only a logical extension from his earlier book. By the way, in his description of the process, tilting the Earth in this way would get rid of the Arctic ice, but with some unfortunate consequences. America would be elevated to such a high altitude that everybody there would suffocate, and all of China and Japan would get flooded, drowning everybody there in the process, which at the time was not much concern to the civilized nations, as Verne called the European powers, he says. All that from one cannon shot? I ask. It is a very big cannon in that book. But even so, in the end, Verne has one of the main characters admit he has made a huge mistake in the basic calculations. He even uses that as an excuse to add some romantic angles to the book, he explains.

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That plot is obviously completely impossible, I say. Whats happening to me here is not exactly very likely either, I think to myself. And I add: He did get the part about whole countries drowning right, though. Yeah, the hypnotist continues. And the part about the Arctic Ocean getting thawed is actually quite real now. Though thats not because of a giant cannon shot. And the main character buys the North Pole quite cheap early on in the story, because everyone assumes that it will be worth nothing anyway. You are at your brokers office now. I told you that global warming will progress much faster than your scientists assumed. Heres some detail. This summer, two months from now, the Arctic will be almost completely free from ice. Ask your friend what that means for the stock market. This is the ultimate insider information. If he cant make a killing on this for you, you need a new broker. Bang, he jokes, as a flag with the word bang printed on it pops out of the rifle, and he disappears. *

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I am still alone in Brian s office after the hypnotist left. I decide to think a bit about that idea of buying the Arctic. Unfortunately, my net worth is only about $500,000. Even considering that with all the ice there standing in the way of deep sea oil exploration, that would hardly be enough to buy all of the Arctic Ocean. Actually, no amount of money would be enough, since the Arctic isnt for sale to anyone in the first place. Wait a minute, I say to myself. Didnt Verne suggest buying the coal there? That could be a hint. Obviously no one is going to mine any coal from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, even if there was no more ice in the way. But oil would be quite a different story. I know that even now the fossil fuel companies are eagerly waiting for a chance to get a piece of the Arctic oil pie. I hear that Greenpeace is directing quite a lot of their activism against such exploration efforts. Someone must own the rights to these exploration projects. I am not a professional stock broker, like my friend Brian. But even I understand that getting the ice out of the way would be a big plus for any fossil fuel
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company out there owning rights in some such project. And the way the stock market works, having an early warning about the ice retreating five times faster than even the most extreme estimates, leading to an Arctic Ocean completely free of ice in the summer of this year, must be a big advantage. I decide right there to go all in with my whole net worth. $500,000 all on the number five, Monsieur le Croupier, if you please. I am quite sure that my number will come up. Didnt I just win a lottery against odds of one to seven billion to become the Chosen One? Didnt the hypnotist call me the luckiest person on Earth? Didnt he just tell me that I should go all in on this ultimate inside information? If I lose, well, I will still have my company. I can always save something in that order of magnitude again later. And if things should go wrong, I can always blame the hypnotist and ask him to compensate me for that loss. With his kind of power, turning a bit of lead into gold or some other such stunt should be no problem. I have a bit of time left until Brian comes back from his interview with the police, so I fire up my portable game device and return to my favorite game, Itadaki Street. Its great to pass some time like
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this when I dont know how much time is left, and when I dont feel like practicing some magic tricks. The basic idea is like Monopoly, that is running around on a board and buying and developing property. But it has the added twist of giving the player the chance to buy or sell stock. I am rather good at that game, though even so it is impossible to win all the time. The chance of the dice also has a huge influence. Just like in real life. I am doing fairly well, but there is always a great element of chance involved. Anyway, it wouldnt be much fun to win every time. The game comes with a lot of different boards, which all have their different strategies required to win. Right now I am in the middle of a game on my favorite board that is based on the shape of a train. In regular intervals, the parts of the board move in a way which makes progress quite random. That in turn gives the artificial intelligence opponents I am playing somewhat more of a chance to win, since it increases the random influence on the outcome of the game and decreases the influence of good strategic decisions. Right now I am in the endgame. I am about to lose, but I have one last way of resisting. The character about to win has bought stock of property I
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developed. I put that out for auction. In that late stage of the game, none of the other players participate in the auction. That means that the bank buys the property, putting it right back into its undeveloped status at the start of the game. And that in turn means that the stock price goes way down. Just enough to prevent my opponent from hitting the bank with the target net worth. If you dont understand what Im talking about, never mind. Its just some high level move in a computer game. And the only purpose of that was to pass some time until Brian comes back. I hear a knock at the office door. It opens, and there he is right back. Sorry to keep you waiting, he says. No problem, I answer. I shut down my game, which I can do by simply flipping the switch of the game device. Next time I turn it on it will continue exactly at that point. No need to save any data. Brian says that he has told the police of his refusal to deal with the gangsters. The police are already pursuing some hot leads and they are confident to arrest the shooter in the next couple of days. How have my stocks done over the last couple of weeks? I ask Brian again. Being concentrated on my main business, I leave the day to day handling of my

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money to him. Did I mention that I love my job? And the last couple of days I had other things on my mind. Actually, you had an excellent winning streak. Your account has gained another three percent in the last couple of weeks. Id estimate the net worth of your portfolio now at about $0.55 million, Brian answered. Good news for a change. Maybe I really am the luckiest person on the planet. I had started to have some doubts when those wasps hit me, though. Thank you for that, I say. Thats nice to hear. It is, he answers. Youve been lucky. If he only knew. Okay, so here is a simple question, I say. Assume that the Arctic Ocean will be almost completely free of ice two months from now. I know that from a reliable source, and no one else has this insider information. How could one profit in the stock market from that knowledge? I ask. That should be easy, he says. In the short term, this must be great news for all oil stocks. Think of all the new exploration possible on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Are you sure of your information? Quite sure, I answer. We need to find out who owns the drilling rights in the Arctic Ocean. Then I want you to go all in with my whole net worth on their stock. I want options running three months. Get
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all the leverage you can, I dont care about the risk. And feel free to go in with some of your own money as well, I tell him. I see, Brian says. When do you want this done? How long would it take? I ask back. That depends. If you already have the names of the companies you want to buy, I can do it immediately. But you said something about finding out their names, he says. Yes. Can we do that right now? I ask. Thats okay with me, he answers. I have closed for the day. My office is a mess. I need it cleaned up before I can receive any of my clients here. They trust me with a lot of money. I cant receive them with everything broken. Also, the police will send some people over here to take pictures and collect the bullets for forensic examination. So, lets sell everything I have in my portfolio right now, so I have cash to go all in on this, I say. We can decide on the next step later. Brian sits down at his desk and takes a couple of moments with his computer. Done, he says. You got 567,777 dollars in cash right now sitting in your account, waiting for the next target.

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I like the fact that the last four digits just happen to be a lucky combination. I had already decided to go all in on this, but that makes my resolution even stronger. Can you get an Internet browser up on that computer screen? I ask. Of course, he says. There you are. Okay. Now lets do a bit of searching, shall we? I say. Lets start with the combination Arctic Ocean oil drilling rights and see what we can find. As I say it, he works the keyboard. We get a couple of results. Lets look at the Wikipedia article first, I say. We learn that estimates of oil under the Arctic Ocean are at 90 billion barrels. At $100 a barrel, which is about todays price, that would be $9 trillion. Of course, the oil price will only go up in the next couple of decades. Thats quite a large prize, I think. I wonder if anybody else is thinking about buying a piece of the North Pole and hauling in a nice profit once the ice disappears. Never mind. I need to find out exactly which companies are holding the most valuable drilling rights. From the Wikipedia article on Arctic Oil exploration I find some others on related Russian
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activity. Actually, they have already started drilling at the Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea. I have no clue where exactly that might be or how in hell that would be pronounced correctly, but I don t need to know. There all activity is concentrated on the Prirazlomnaya platform. The article tells me exactly which fossil fuel companies are developing there. Lets find out some more about this Prirazlomnaya platform, I say. Please search with those terms. Again, Brian types the request in. It takes him a couple of moments to get Prirazlomnaya spelled right. Looking at some of the relevant articles, I find that the Arctic ice is a major headache for the drilling projects, even this one located rather close to the Russian shore. And I find the names of the companies involved. One is a big Russian fossil energy company. Gazprom. It is so big that any news about new offshore opportunities wont move its stock price very much. But the other one is a small German specialist for supply of offshore drilling equipment in Arctic conditions. We search more information about them and find that their stock price has been remarkably linked to
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information about global warming. Every bit of bad news for the planet (more ice melting than thought previously) turned out to be very good news for their stock price. It has gone up substantially in the last couple of years, as the bad news about accelerated ice melting came in. Kraftsaft AG. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. But I decide right there and then that they will be the number 5 of this little game of roulette I am going to gamble my whole net worth on. Find out if I can get a three month option on their stock, I ask Brian. One moment, please, he says. And then, after having looked at a couple of his datasets, he answers. No problem. You can go ahead right now. Do it, I say, before I have a chance to reconsider, and maybe chicken out. Done, Brian answers. Thats $567,000 in three month options on the Kraftsaft AG stock right now in your portfolio. I couldnt get the last $777 invested, so youll be left with a small balance if this doesn t work out. But he doesnt stop, still working his keyboard. Then he adds: Ive gone in with $50,000 of my own money as well. I hope your source is right.
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So do I. It will take some time to find out how his gamble will work out. Basically I am trying to buy myself a tiny piece of the Arctic Ocean and speculate that the value of that will go up massively in the short term. I trust in the insider information I got from the hypnotist. The only question is how the market will react to the news. An Arctic Ocean free of ice will of course mean much more drilling there, sending the stocks of a company building the Arctic offshore exploration equipment into the stratosphere. And the nice thing is that I dont even need to worry about who holds the actual drilling rights, and if those claims work out. Whoever does will need equipment built. On the other hand, it might mean people waking up to the threat and stop burning fossil fuel altogether. That would be very bad news for my gamble. In the long run, obviously the latter thing will happen. But my gamble is a short term deal. All I need is a positive reaction to the news two months from now. With luck, I could make a real killing from this information. As the hypnotist said, any half way competent broker should be able to do so, once he has the information I have.
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Then I could retire any time I want from my Paraponi Magic business. But I really love my job. The only thing I want to retire from is the hypnotist. And the only way to do that is to get his damn message out. END OF PART ONE
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The next day, sitting behind the desk in my office, I look back at the first part of my crazy journey with the hypnotist. What do I know about him, assuming he hasnt lied to me? First off, I know his age. He says he has been in show business for over fifty million years. Thats quite an impressive record. Basically, hes immortal compared to humans. And the alien race he belongs to has a history spanning over three hundred million years. I dont know how that is supposed to be possible. Maybe Ill ask him in one of our next encounters. If Im not too busy dodging flying daggers, that is. I also know that he is running a television show, the Heat Games. That show has humanity as its
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stars. He is using his hypnotic powers to make us burn all the fossil fuel and heat up the planet beyond repair. His viewers are betting on when human civilization will end and generally having a great time watching as we perish. And he has chosen me in a lottery from all seven billion humans. I am the Chosen One, and he has congratulated me for winning. I am not yet quite convinced if that is actually a reason for celebrating. There have been some nice moments, sure, but I could have done without the daggers and the wasp stings. I am supposed to bring out his message to all of humanity, or he will torture me for the entertainment of his viewers. While I do have some experience bringing out a message, running the Paraponi Magic company and working with the 350.org campaign, his message is so unbelievable I will have a very hard time convincing even one person that it is true. On the other hand, once I think about it, reality is even more unbelievable. Humanity can t possibly be so stupid on its own to burn all the fossil fuel and heat up the planet beyond repair. If we really were that stupid on our own, we couldn t possibly have developed modern civilization in the first place.

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There must be some evil alien hypnotist involved. So maybe the message isnt ever so goofy after all. Maybe it is even great news, not only a random message. Once we understand the driving force behind the crisis, maybe it can be defeated. Then we could proceed to stop burning fossil fuel, and, with luck, avoid a complete eradication of all life on Earth. I wonder if there is some weakness of the hypnotist which humanity could use in a fight with him. As of now, I would not give me or any other humans much of a chance. I also know that he has extremely advanced technology. In a couple of hundred million years of civilization, one would of course expect some progress. But he has shown me some really cool gadgets already. First there was the flying dagger that can either actually wound or only hurt people, and has the ability to replicate itself. And then a mind reading computer screen floating over a person s head, visible only to me. I wonder what is coming up on the rest of this journey. If he is from an alien race, where did he come from? We know there is no life in our own solar system. And it should be extremely difficult to reach Earth from some other solar system, or even find

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Earth and understand it is a planet suitable for life in the first place. I am no expert in astronomy, so I wouldnt know exactly. And, of course, his alien race has much better technology than we have. So, yes, it might be possible that he came from some faraway star. And what about his audience? He said he has an audience of a couple of hundred billion people to please. Where are they? If there are aliens on Earth in that kind of numbers, surely someone would have noticed by now. They would need to eat something. Possibly they would want to eat humans. We sure would have noticed that. With those numbers, they would have stripped our planet completely of food in a couple of years. If his audience is on his home planet, he would need to beam a signal to that planet. That would take many decades to get even to the nearest stars. And human technology might be primitive compared to his, but we would of course notice such a massive signal sent out to space. All of this doesnt make much sense to me. I know it is true. It cant possibly just all be a very long dream. But it is very hard to believe even for me. It will be just about impossible to convince anyone else.

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I also dont know his name. I dont even know if he has one at all. To me, he is only the hypnotist. Maybe I should ask him. After all he has put me through, I think it might be appropriate behavior for him to at least introduce himself. Nor do I know his real shape. He keeps changing his form every time I see him. Only the voice is always the same, though that is probably also not his real voice. I should ask him to show me his real shape, I think. Then again, Im not sure if that will be a pretty sight. It might be extremely unpleasant and frightening to see his real appearance. But I need to see that anyway. If I dont even know how he really looks, there is no way I could find a weakness to exploit. But I need to find some weak spot, or it will be impossible to defeat him. If I cant defeat him, bringing out the message would be kind of pointless. It would only delay the process. Eventually, maybe a couple of centuries later, he would have succeeded in his basic plan to start a runaway greenhouse effect on Earth. All I would have achieved would be giving his Heat Games show a couple of extra centuries to run.

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I much prefer to fight and win. Even if it seems completely hopeless now. I need to get some work done. The last couple of days I have fallen behind. I call Alice, my assistant. After a couple of moments, she appears and sits down on the armchair across from my desk. She wears a bright red dress and black boots, tied with bright red shoelaces. Her fingernails are painted blue, and she has used some red lipstick today. Good morning, Alice, I greet her. Good morning, boss, she answers. The other day, when I showed Brian a couple of variations of the trick with the black and white stones, I noticed that I can use the hypnotist story for developing that trick. I want to try that out some more. You remember the two stones, Urim and Thummim? I ask. Yes. You showed me some divination trick the other day, she answers. I have thought of a new twist to the story. Let s try that out, I say. Go ahead. Okay, I say. I go over to the camera mounted on a big tripod next to my desk and switch it on. I also adjust the
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lighting in my office to make it suitable for the recording. I may be able to use this later on for publishing on a DVD for this trick. Then again, I might prefer to record it again later on. But, just in case that this goes well enough to meet my strict quality standards, it doesnt hurt to let the camera record the scene in the background. Hello Alice, I greet her again, for the sake of the potential viewers of the DVD. I have the most incredible story to tell you. What would that be? Have you ever heard of the ancient Khalmorot myth? I ask her. I myself sure have not. I am making this up while talking. That is the point of this exercise with Alice in the first place. It gets my creative juices flowing when I can perform live on camera. No. What would that be? she asks. It is an ancient myth of the Vosukh tribe that lived in the Mongolian steppes of the 7th Century, I say. Research on their history has only recently unearthed this story. I never heard of that tribe either, sorry, she says. Of course she hasnt. I just made that up as well. Never mind. Well, the myth was that Khalmorot would appear every few generations to the Chosen One in a dream. He would then explain to him the
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process of divination with the two stones you already know. And he would tell the Chosen One that from now on, he would need to obey the orders of Khalmorot. Whenever Khalmorot wanted the Chosen One to answer any particular question with the divination process, the Chosen One would need to obey that order, or suffer a fate of terrible torture in his next dream, I say. I have no trouble at all coming up with this story. It is my own story. And the nice thing is that in this setting, I dont need her to actually believe me. I continue my explanation: The next morning, after the first dream, the Chosen One would find two stones next to his bed. One white stone and one black stone. And he would go through life with Khalmorot at his side, using the stones for divination whenever he ordered it. The divination would only work when Khalmorot ordered it. But those orders came in very important stages of the life of the Chosen One, and their result was always correct. The Chosen One always advanced to be one of the Great Leaders of the Vosukh, because he would always make the right call on the important questions, I finish my explanation. Thats interesting, she says. But where is the point for this trick?

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Well, I say, Actually Khalmorot has chosen to appear in my dreams as well. He is looking at this scene right now from over my shoulder, though you cant see him. The camera wont see him either, I am afraid. Kind of scary, Alice says. But she is smiling. She thinks I am just making this whole story up. If she only knew. He has ordered me to find out if you will marry sometime in the next three years, I say. I decide to throw in a mildly romantic angle here, though I take care to make sure that it doesn t involve me. I like Alice, but I keep business separate from my romantic interests. Then I add: Thats kind of a strange question, I know, but it s not my idea. Please help me out here. If I don t comply, I will suffer horrible tortures in my next dream. That last thing is actually true, so I can act the part of the unwilling medium possessed by an evil spirit very convincingly. I see, she says. Go ahead. I take out my two stones from my pocket and lay them out on my desk, looking at them in deep concentration for a moment. I have a close-up magic mat on my desk, so the camera gets a good picture
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of the two stones, which stand out in nice contrast to the red background. The viewers of the DVD will see the two stones, but they will see them from an angle where it is impossible to notice their difference in thickness. As before, I take up both stones and mix them up, shaking them in a sphere I build with both of my hands. Then I hold both hands out to Alice. Again, the question was if you will marry sometime in the next three years, I say. Please choose one hand at random, without thinking too much about it. She chooses the right hand. That happens to hold the white stone. In this case, I dont care either way. But I just note that at this stage, I could still interpret the result in both ways. I could say that this means yes, you will marry in the next three years or that confirms you will be single another three years. This basic trick is called the magicians choice. Make your audience choose between two alternatives, and then choose yourself what they are supposed to mean. You will marry sometime in the next three years. Thank you for your cooperation, I say. That saves me from a fate of horrible torture tonight. I am really grateful for that.
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Youre welcome, she says, smiling. I walk over to the camera and stop the recording. I like the way this back story to my stone trick develops. I hope the hypnotist likes it as well. I prefer very much to provide some entertainment for his audience by performing a magic trick than the alternative with the daggers and the wasps. After I am done experimenting with my new trick, I ask Alice about the latest sales figures. I am rather apprehensive. The other day I ordered banners on our Internet website. Global warming is caused by an alien hypnotist controlling humanity. Wake up! Resist! I wonder how that has affected sales. Alice informs me that sales are up by an average eight percent since then. Obviously, those banners have at least not hurt my business. She also reports some simple market research has identified a lot of new customers coming in from blogs and social media discussing global warming. My banner message has been noticed by them, which it well should be. While I dont have a really massive presence on the Internet, I have some healthy access figures. However, Alice also explains that all those new viewers came in only to have a good laugh at our expense. The comments on the blogs and on Twitter are overwhelmingly derisive of my message. They all
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think I am nuts. I would think so as well, if I were them. I take a couple of moments to think about this development. What does it mean for my business? And what does it mean for getting the message out? I still dont have much of a clue. However, I am making slow and steady progress. Using part of the message as a back story for my new magic trick does make sense to me. I make a mental note to check how the video recording went afterwards. I had fun doing that performance. And I know from experience that my best performances are always those where I have a lot of fun myself. If that works out well, I can at least get some extra business from this story. And it helps getting the message out in some weird way. Except that the message is of course completely negated by the context. Everyone hearing it will discard it as naturally not true, just some weird story the magician is telling to distract his audience from the dirty moves he uses to actually fool them. Well, better than nothing, I guess. While I am at it thinking about money, I call Brian to ask if he has any news on my great bet. I have gone all in with my whole net worth buying three month options for the German Kraftsaft AG stock. We found out that they are the biggest
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supplier for ice-resistant offshore drilling platforms in the Arctic Ocean offshore oil drilling business. And we expect that their stock will explode once word gets out that the Arctic Ocean will be completely free from ice this summer, many decades earlier than predicted. Star Reach securities, his secretary answers the phone. What can I do for you? This is Tony Paraponi, I say. I would like to talk to Brian. The secretary knows me, and she also knows that I am a friend of her boss. Hold on for a minute, please, Mr. Paraponi, she says. A moment later Brian answers the phone: Hi, Tony. Good you called, I have some news. Is there already any movement in the stock? I ask. Yeah. Youre up about $80,000. Thats not bad for one day, he answers. How did that happen? I ask. Well, part of it is because of you just bought over half a million dollars worth of their stock in highly leveraged options. The Kraftsaft AG is small enough that this alone has some impact on the stock price. That impact is especially strong with your leveraged all or nothing option deal, he explains.

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Has anybody started to notice and ask questions? I want to know. I have no idea. I would not think so, he says. The stock is rather volatile. This kind of movement happens all the time. And there also was another reason for it, he says. What would that other reason be? I ask. Nothing definite yet. But there are rumors in the market that the NASA will have a report on new development in the Arctic out soon. That report is out of the normal schedule. Some people are speculating that the reason for a special report is another large increase in melting speed, he explains. That would be great news for my stock options, I say. Yes. Of course. But that is all just speculation right now. We dont even know that there will be a special announcement, or when it will come, he says. Well, at least things look right now as if my source was right about a drastic development in the Arctic this year, I say. You want to secure your profit and get out of the deal with $80,000, minus commissions? he asks. I dont answer immediately. $80,000 in one day is more than I ever made in my life. I am tempted to

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take that as long as the taking is good. If the deal goes sour, I will lose all of my capital. No, I say. I will stay right in. This is just the beginning. There will be much more movement once the truth comes out. My money stays right where it is now. What are you going to do with your own position? He hesitates a moment. Then he answers: I think Ill stay in as well. Actually, I might even buy some more of that stock. Thanks again for that info, he says. Did you see that nurse again? I ask, this time as a friend, not as a customer. Yes. That was a nice touch from you, setting her up with a romantic story like that. We had dinner together yesterday, he says. Glad to hear that it worked for you. I am always happy to please. Hows your finger doing? I think I will need a couple of weeks more of professional attention to that finger. And I think she is exactly the right person to provide it. It looks like she agrees as well, he laughs. I ask him to call me or shoot me a mail if there is any development on the Kraftsaft AG stock I need to know about immediately. He promises to do so, and we close our conversation.

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Next I call Alice and tell her to let no one disturb me for the next couple of hours. I want to talk to the hypnotist and ask him about his name. And I want to know his real appearance. A couple of moments later he appears in the shape of a very cute girl of about five years. He wears a blue skirt and a white t-shirt with Mickey Mouse printed on it. The brown hair is grown shoulder-long, and held together at both sides with two ribbons, one red and one blue. I like that much more than the three-horned devil with the wasps I saw the last time. However, the same adult male voice as always doesn t quite fit. So you want to know my name? he says, showing that he is able to read my every thought. Yes, I answer. I think it would be only fair to tell me that, after cutting me up with airborne daggers and having me stung by wasps. Khalmorot will have to do, he says. Thats not my real name, of course. You would never be able to pronounce my real name correctly. That was my own idea, I say. Of course. I know, Khalmorot answers. Why did you choose that name? There are two reasons for that, I say. And those would be? he asks.

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Of course he already knows, since he can read all of my thoughts. Hes just making a bit of conversation. Hes also testing and challenging me. But I dont mind explaining. I am actually kind of proud of my thinking. For one, I like the idea of using morot at the end. As you now, in the Latin language, mors means death. The English word mortal for deadly comes from that root. You are quite deadly, I say. Then I add: I also like the associations to the words rotten and rat involved here. I take that as a compliment, he answers, smiling. And what is the second reason? Well, I like to put in Kha in the beginning, because that is supposed to make people think of the word Khan, as in Genghis Khan, who has a reputation for cruelty in the Western world, I explain. Oh, Temujin. I remember him well, the hypnotist says. Temujin? I ask. That was his name before he changed it to Genghis Khan, after he united all the Mongolian confederations in 1206, the hypnotist explains. And what do you mean, you remember him well? Was he another Chosen One? I ask.
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Yes, he answers. He won the lottery when he was only a boy of twelve years, and a slave of the Tayichiud, Khalmorot says. So that was your influence behind his successful military campaigns? I ask. Yes. That dagger lying on your desk right now has seen some interesting action in the campaign against Khwarezmia, he explains. I have never heard of Khwarezmia. Maybe thats because Genghis Khan obliterated it completely in his time. I dont think that Khalmorot is making this up. So he has been talking to Genghis Khan as well. I have not only Jules Verne as a predecessor in this story. I wonder who else is in the club. In that instant, I remember a theory about Genghis Khan I recently read, linking him to global warming. I have taken some interest in Mongolia before, since I think that having a large-scale renewable energy project in the Mongolian Gobi desert could help a lot with reducing coal use in China and India. Just like the Desertec project wants to use the African Sahara to get some of the power needed for Europe, an Asian Desertec project could turn out extremely useful in countering climate change.

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I decide to ask Khalmorot about this theory. Maybe he knows if it is true. Have you ever heard about the theory linking the rise of the Mongolian empire to global warming? I ask. Yes. Of course. I know everything ever published by any human being, he answers in a matter of fact way. Thats impressive. I have learned a bit of memory techniques for my mentalism shows, but I would never be able to know everything. So is it true that there was a period of more rainfall in Mongolia in the first couple of centuries of the thirteenth Century as a consequence of the Medieval Warm Period climate event? And that the Mongolian military campaigns were helped by the fact that this made raising horses in Mongolia easier? I ask. Yes, Khalmorot says. Actually, I knew that would happen, and I told Temujin. Just as I told you that the Arctic Ocean will be free of ice in a couple of months. He didnt have any stock options to buy at the time, but he did all right even without that. Interesting. I realize that I can learn things about history from him no historian will ever know. He has lived through the time himself. I suspect that Khalmorot actually decided much of human history
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as part of some television show script. Probably he had some other show running. I decide to ask about that as well. Was Genghis Khan another star in your Heat Games show? I ask. Of course not. That show has only started recently, about two hundred years ago. He was a main character in the War Games. That was never so successful as the Heat Games are, but it always had a fair number of viewers. I recall that the episode where Ghengis Khan had Inalchuq executed by pouring molten silver in his eyes and ears in the campaign against Khwarezmia was quite popular with viewers. Even now, a couple of centuries later, that one has excellent access stats, he says. Is Khalmorot your first name or your last name? I ask. We have only one name in our society, he answers. How come you are able to live millions of years? I ask next. I might tell you eventually, he says. Not today, though. Its a long story you dont need to know right now. That little girl form you have taken now, that s another illusion. How do you really look like? I ask.

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Are you sure you want to know that? You might not like what you see, he answers. Yes. I want to know anything I possibly can about you. I need to find some weakness I can use against you. To be perfectly honest, I dont like the idea of some alien bastard ruining our planet for his entertainment. I think I need to destroy you, I say. It is of course not wise to challenge him like this. But I know that he can read my mind anyway, so theres no sense in keeping that to myself. The little girl gives me a cute little smile, which under the circumstances, is rather unsettling. And then he changes his form again, reappearing as a tiger with fire sparks flying from his tail. This is the first time he ever did that in the middle of a session with me. I am not sure I like the direction this is going. He opens his tiger mouth wide and lets out an earshattering roar. Then he spits out a long flame that reaches close to my face. Congratulations, Tony, he says in a cheerful voice. You just got yourself a guest appearance in my other television show. Its called Rebel Execution. I am more convinced than ever that it was not wise to challenge Khalmorot. But I couldn t help it.

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There is no way I could hide my real feelings from him anyway. Rebel Execution? I ask. Whats that supposed to mean? Youll find out in a moment. Youre the guest star of one of the next episodes. Lets start the shooting right now, he says. My vision changes. I am standing in the countryside. It is a hot, sunny day. I can see an ancient stone paved road. Next to me, a couple of Roman soldiers are sitting down and eating some bread, playing with dice. I look to the left and see a man crucified, nails going through his hands. Over his head floats a computer screen like the one I saw with Karen. Rebel slave, it says. Then it changes and displays the message hanging on the cross since 19 hours. Then I look at his face, and I realize it s me. My vision changes again. I am now looking down on the Roman soldiers. I can feel the pain from the nails through my hands, my exhaustion, my thirst, my difficulty to breathe. I try to scream, but my voice has gone hoarse and only a croaking sound comes from my throat. Then, after a couple of minutes that seem like an eternity, I am back in my office, facing the tiger with the fire sparks still dancing around his tail.
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Did you enjoy hanging on the cross? he asks. No, I say. He goes on to explain: In the history of your race, there have been many rebellions. Most of them failed, leading to the execution of the rebels in some unpleasant way or other. Rebel Execution has our guest star relive 13 of these executions. One down, twelve to go, he announces cheerfully. I am more convinced than ever that challenging Khalmorot was a dumb thing to do. Things get much worse from then on. Next my vision goes completely dark. Some kind of hood is pulled over my head. I can still hear, though. I am lying on a table and can t move. Both of my hands and both of my legs are fixed securely with shackles. They feel like iron. I dont even bother to try to get free. I know I am going to get executed in a most painful way. Again. I hear the voice of Khalmorot: Want to guess whats up next? If you get it right, I might cut the scene short somewhat. I definitely want to guess right. But I have no clue. Then I hear a sizzling sound. I have never heard that before and have no idea what it might mean. I am quite sure that it is bad news for me.

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Suddenly my head is turned to the right. Strong hands are holding it in that position. Then a flap in the hood over my left ear is opened. And I understand. Inalchuq! The molten silver! I cry out. Very good, Khalmorot answers. You are smarter than most of the Chosen Ones I usually get. Unfortunately, your answer comes slightly too late. You get the whole program. Before I have time to protest, the action starts in earnest. They pour the first few drops of molten silver into my ear, ever so slowly and carefully. My first scream echoes right back at me from the hood over my head. Then I hear myself screaming only with my right ear. The left ear has gone deaf. In the back of my mind I wonder how I am supposed to die from this. Neither my ears nor my eyes are vital organs. Maybe thats the point, making the whole process take a lot of time. I dont know anything about the procedure, though I am going to be an expert at it very soon. Except that in that moment, the whole scene ends and I am back in my office, facing Khalmorot.

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Sorry, he says. I lied to you there. You dont get the whole program of the liquid silver execution. Your answer was actually just in time. Ordinarily I would feel quite relieved. But I know that there are eleven other ways in which I will be tortured to death coming up right now. Have I mentioned that it was a real bad idea to challenge Khalmorot? Thats the first time you lied to me, I say. Any other lies I would want to know about? No, he says. That one was only for a very brief time, and I told you the truth immediately after there was no more need for the lie. You do understand that I have a show to run here. I need to entertain my viewers, and it would have been much less fun for them if you had known that this part would end in a couple of minutes. I am not sure that I agree unconditionally with this reasoning, but I dont have any say in the matter. Things get much worse from there on. I dont get any more breaks in the remaining eleven executions. I got to relive the worst nightmares in the history of mankind, from the point of view of the executed prisoners. When it finally is over, again, I have no physical damage left. And for some reason I dont understand, I actually feel great. Maybe it is the knowledge that
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this is over. I have been through the worst nightmare anyone could imagine. Whatever problems may be waiting for me in the rest of my life will all be nothing compared to what I have been through just now. You do realize now a small part of my power? Khalmorot asks as I come back from the last execution scene. Yes. I sure do, I say. But I cant help it. I still dont like the idea of some alien bastard boiling Earth for his entertainment. And I still want to destroy you. Actually, all this torturing has considerably reinforced that wish. Well, well see about that later, he says. And then Khalmorot disappears again. * When I wake up from my trance, I have a clear memory of all the thirteen executions I have just been put through. But there are no wounds or marks whatsoever left on my body. That obviously was all just a series of very vivid and detailed dreams induced by hypnosis. I also look at my watch and find out that only about an hour has passed. It felt like a couple of days when I was under trance. I call Brian on the phone.

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Are there any new developments on the Kraftsaft AG stock? I ask. Yes. You are up another $110,000, he says. How did that happen? I ask. I dont know exactly. The stock is rather volatile to begin with. But some people have started noticing your big bet. And they are asking themselves what you might know that they dont know. Why is the owner of the Paraponi Magic company going all in on Kraftsaft?, that is the question some people are asking. I am puzzled myself as well, he answers. I cant really tell you, I say. Its a long and crazy story. Of course I could tell him. But that would become a rather long conversation. And he wouldn t believe me anyway. Are you sure about your sources? You could walk away with an extra $190,000 minus commissions right now, if you decide to sell, he says. No, I say. I am not selling. Trust me, these options are going to go way up. As before, I decide to stay all in on this bet until the news breaks. Have you heard anything new on the NASA report?

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Yes. It is now almost certain that there will be an announcement. But there is still only speculation on what exactly they will announce, he says. Do you know when that announcement is supposed to happen? I only have some rumors from anonymous Internet sources. These may or may not turn out to be right. They say it will be less than a week. Why dont you ask your source? If they already knew that the Arctic will be free of ice this summer in the first place, they should know the timing of the announcement as well, he says. Hes got a point there. Maybe I could ask Khalmorot. Then again, that is only a minor point. Any time will do for this announcement, as long as it is early enough that I can still exercise my stock options afterwards. But as I am thinking about that, I note another problem I had overlooked until now. Brian, I just noted another point where I need your opinion as a professional stock broker, I say. What would that point be? he asks. Well, I think I know something about the Arctic ice that the market doesnt know. And I am about to make a lot of money from that knowledge. Is that legal, or is it some kind of illegal insider trading? I ask.
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I would need to think about that for a moment, Brian answers. I like the fact that he doesnt try to answer without thinking. This is an important point. I dont want to end up questioned by the police for this transaction. What is the standard for deciding about insider trading? I ask. Well, lets explain that with some easy examples first, he says. Then he continues: If you are a director of the Kraftsaft AG, and you know that it will be bought out at a premium by Gazprom next week, while the market does not know of that deal, you are not allowed to buy stock of your company. If you do so anyway, you would cheat the sellers of that stock out of the profit they would have made once the stock goes up. I am not a director of Kraftsaft AG, I say. Yes, of course not, Brian says. What about your source? Do you have a brother-in-law at the company? Not exactly. I picture Khalmorot as a company director for an instant, sitting in an executive office in his shape of a fire-breathing tiger. No, I am quite sure he doesnt work for Kraftsaft AG. No, I say.

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Where has your source got his information from? Did he get it in some way from the company? Brian asks. No. He has figured that out all on himself, I answer. Actually, I doubt that anyone at Kraftsaft AG knows more about the speed of global warming than what is in the NASA reports. Their business is making a profit from global warming. They are not in the research business themselves. Yes, that makes sense, Brian agrees. So where does that leave us with the insider dealing? I ask. I think it is extremely unlikely that you will get into any trouble from that, he says. Even if you had a source at NASA and knew a couple of days earlier than the market that the Arctic ice will be gone this summer, I dont think that fits the present definition of insider knowledge. That sounds convincing, I say. But I would like you to think some more about that question. If there is any doubt on the legality of this deal, I need to know. Basically, you are only doing what any other stock price analyst is doing. You are looking at the real world and the expected market development without any input whatsoever from sources inside

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the company. It is very tough to build a case for calling that insider trading, he says. Thank you, I say. Please let me know if there is any new development on this stock that I need to know. If you hear more about the expected NASA announcement, please call me immediately. Or send me mail. I will certainly do that, he says. Do you want to set a threshold for your profit? What do you mean? I ask. I mean, do you want to set a certain number of dollars in profit that makes me sell your options without even asking you again? he clarifies. No, I say. I stay all in until I decide myself to sell. I dont want any automatic triggers. I see. Ill stay in touch. Have a nice day, he says. Thanks, see you, I say and put down the phone. * Then I think again about my problems. I need to get the message out, but more than that I need to find some weakness that I can use to fight and win against Khalmorot. I dont want to just improve our odds somewhat so as to give his show some suspense back. I want to destroy him for good. Then humanity will certainly
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stop burning fossil fuel and avoid the collapse of civilization. We cant possibly be so stupid all on our own. That would be the greatest change of all in the odds. That way my story would become great news for the climate. I am strongly motivated to destroy Khalmorot. Getting tortured in thirteen different ways for the entertainment of his audience had this effect on me. The only trouble is that I have no clue how I could ever do it. He is vastly superior to me in power and technology. The dagger that is lying right now before me on my desk is a great reminder of that. It has stabbed and maimed me, before going right through my heart. It has defeated six armed robbers, in a completely one-sided way. That alone would be enough to defeat me in any physical fight. And even if I did discover some weapon that could defeat him, like kryptonite defeating superman, I dont know how I could reach him in the first place. When I tried to tackle Khalmorot at the time of my first test with the daggers, my body went right through his. What I see as his body is just an illusion. Directing any super weapon able to defeat his super

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powers at that illusion would not help me. I would not be able to hit him, if I can t at least see him first. I would always need to break the hypnotic trance first. I note also that I still dont know his real appearance. I need to figure out that as well. If I dont even know that, it will impossible to come up with any effective attack. Also, I still dont know how he has managed to live for a period that is essentially eternal from a human point of view. I would like to kill him. For that to work, I need to know how he ever could live so long in the first place. I have also learned that I face very serious consequences for trying to fight him. Believe me, reliving all those cruel executions from the point of view of the victim is not a pleasant experience. That makes it all the more hopeless. I have no way to beat Khalmorot. And I cant even try. So, to recapitulate, he has weapons technology much superior to me. I can t even see him. I dont know how he really looks, or what the secret to his long life is. And I face terrible consequences if I challenge him. This looks completely hopeless. But there must be some way.

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I decide to try putting myself into his shoes, looking at the situation from his point of view. What does he want? He wants to entertain his audience. I actually understand a thing or two about that. I have started out as an entertainer myself. And I am still in the show business. He came to me in the first place because he wants to improve his show, the Heat Games. It has become lacking in suspense. Everyone assumes that our planet will get boiled in the next couple of decades. The betting business is way down because no viewers are willing to bet against that outcome. Then it hits me. He actually has a weakness. It lies in the fact that he is too strong. This new angle of the Chosen One trying to fight him must be great for developing the suspense for his show. But of course that is only true if the fight is not completely one-sided. If I have no chance whatsoever in this contest, his viewers will just yawn and change the channel. So all I need to do is point that fact out to him. And then let him search for a weakness. And explain that to me. As a result, I would get at least a remote chance of destroying him. That would get him some more suspense for his show, boosting its entertainment factor. That was always what he
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wanted in the first place, so he might want to cooperate. Anyway, it is the only option I have. Right now, it would be completely hopeless to try challenging him again. I am angry. I do want to destroy him. But I am not stupid. And as things are standing right now, any further attempt at rebellion would be just plain dumb. With luck, this strategy might give me a chance. And I am the luckiest person alive, having just won in a lottery to become the Chosen One out of seven billion people on the planet. I decide to start the next round of my fight against Khalmorot right there, before I give myself a chance to chicken out. I try to fall into trance again, and he obliges after a couple of moments and appears. Thats only fair, I think. I have just gone through thirteen ordeals for his other television show. Actually, I want a reward for that from him. Whats up? he asks, showing up as a famous soccer player, with a big number 10 on the back of his uniform. I am not very interested in soccer, though I have played it a lot when I was a child. But even I know that particular player. He shows up a lot on the television commercials. I found your weakness, I say. You know that.
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Of course he knows. He reads all my thoughts. That makes things rather awkward, because I cant hide my desire to destroy him. But in this case, it is actually quite convenient. There is no need to explain again that his weakness lies in his strength. Yes, he says. You do have a point there. There is no need for him either to explain the point. So, for starters, why dont you show me your real form? I ask. I promise I wont be shocked too much after what I went through the last time. Sounds fair enough, he answers. The soccer player suddenly jumps on my desk, changing his appearance in midflight. That would be rather impressive as a magic trick if anybody would be able to pull it off in the real world. But, unfortunately, the resulting appearance is very much not to my liking. He was right about that when he warned me before. The reason for that is that I have an overwhelming fear of spiders. When I was ten years old, I was visiting a friend. He didnt tell me at the time, but he had just started keeping a pet tarantula. It completely freaked me out when it started crawling over my leg, which was not covered by the short trousers I was wearing.

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I bolted right out of my friend s home. Afterwards, he explained that tarantulas make great pets. They almost never bite people. At least much less than dogs do, and no one is afraid of dogs. Later on, I researched that and found out that he is quite right. But I dont care. From that point on, I was always extremely afraid of any spider. And I never visited that friend at his home again. When Khalmorot lands on my desk, he looks like a giant spider about the size of two human hands. He has long, hairy legs, but there is something odd about them I cant figure out at the time. His body is about the size of my face. It is covered completely by short black hair. Two black eyeballs are mounted on a pole of about nine inches which is covered with the same black hair. That pole looks very similar to one of the legs of the spider. The eyeballs move freely around in all directions. In those eyeballs there are two big blue eyes about twice the size of human eyes, but looking surprisingly similar to human eyes in shape. I think they would have strong hypnotic powers if one were to look at them for a while. At the front of the body I see some big teeth, which are clicking together, making a sound that reminds me of a rattlesnake.

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I am shocked at his real appearance. I want to get up and run. I am freaked out, just as I was when that tarantula walked over my leg when I was ten years old. No, its even worse. I am so terrified, I am slow to react. I am not sure I could move if I tried. You dont like what you see, he says, still in the same voice. Now watch this. His body starts getting transparent. After a couple of seconds, I cant see anything of him anymore. The blue hypnotic eyes remain visible until the last moment, but then they vanish as well. Obviously, he has the power to make himself invisible. I am even more afraid than a moment before. If that huge spider is invisible now, it could be anywhere. Where is he? Hi, Tony, I hear his voice. It comes from a much closer position. I feel spider legs on my arm. He must have jumped at me from his previous position on the desk. Slowly, the spider reappears to my vision. It is sitting right on my arm, just as I had feared. Khalmorot then jumps right at my face, hugging me with his legs for a moment. I feel the soft underbelly of the spider right over my mouth. I get a nauseating smell in my nose. Right before my eyes I see his large set of spider teeth, clicking a couple of times with the same snarling rattlesnake sound.
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Then he jumps back to the ground before my desk, changing back in the soccer player in the process. You do look much better that way, I say, after recovering from the shock of having a big, hairy spider jumping at my face. That takes quite a while. But finally, I am able to get those words out. I told you that you might not like what you see, he says. Yes, you did, I say. I certainly dont like that. But I also dont know if it is real or not. It is real, Khalmorot says. Theres a reason people are afraid of spiders more than of cars, cigarettes or dogs, all of which cause far much more injuries and deaths than spiders. I set humanity up with that irrational fear. How did you do that? And why? I ask. I have been talking to some of the leaders of humanity before. You are not the first Chosen One. So it was very easy to get the fears of spiders into human culture, he says. You should be able to figure out why by yourself. So that if anyone ever saw you in your real appearance, they would be afraid and therefore less able to attack you? I guess. Exactly. By the way, I have reinforced your fear of spiders considerably as well. That way, you will feel an overwhelmingly desire to flee whenever I let you
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see my real form. You wont get any dumb ideas about trying to fight me, he explains. Do you have any venom in those teeth of yours? I ask. I want to find out as much as I possibly can about him, to search for a potential weakness. Actually I have three different flavors, he says. What would those be? I ask. The default is extremely painful, but not lethal. The sting would be about ten times as bad as that of your bullet ant, he explains. Want to try a taste of that? No, I say. I am not exactly interested in finding that out. The wasp stings he gave me were enough for me. And the other two modes? I ask. The second venom is deadly. It works immediately. Anybody getting a dose of that is dead in a second, he says. That leaves one more, I note. Yes. The third flavor is the reward mode. It gives the victim a feeling of great happiness, much more powerful than the strongest drug. Want to try a taste of that one? he asks. No thanks, I say. I am afraid of spiders. And I dont like the idea of using drugs. Then I continue: I noticed something about your legs, but I havent quite figured out what it was.
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Oh, thats easy, he explains. There are only seven legs. Have you ever wondered why seven is a lucky number in your culture? No, I answer. That was me as well, he says. I have been hypnotizing people for all of humanitys history. And I thought it would be kind of interesting to leave the human race with that idea. We are making some progress, I say. But I dont see how that gives me any better odds. It does, he explains. I understand you also want to know how I can live over so long time spans. Yes, I say. Of course, no living organism could last that long. There is only one solution, and you should be able to figure that out yourself, he says. If you are not alive, you must be a robot, I say. Bingo. It would have surprised me if you couldn t solve that simple problem, he says. I see. So, again, how does that give me any better odds? I ask. There is a switch to turn me off, he says. It is located right beneath the teeth of the spider. So if you ever get out of my hypnotic control and are able to see my real form, all you need to do is to reach that switch, and you win. Of course, whenever you see me in my real form you would feel an
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overwhelming fear forcing you to flee. Reaching right below the teeth of the spider would be rather difficult for you, he says, with a broad grin over his face. Interesting, I say. This does seem to give me a chance, though it is still extremely small. Its still almost impossible, he says. And then he adds: Given the chance, would you flip that switch? Of course I would. You are destroying my planet just for entertainment. And you just tortured me in thirteen different ways, I say. I do. And I did. But I gave you the mind-reading screen. There is another big treat coming up right now. After getting that, you might think different, he says. And then hes gone. * When I come back from the trance, I decide to work some more on my idea of using the comparison with an asteroid impact to get the message out. First I create a new text file and write a title. Global meltdown and asteroid impacts will have to do as a title for the moment. I will decide on the final title when Im done. I save the file under that title and start some brainstorming.
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The basic idea I already wrote down the other day. Assume that a massive asteroid hits earth. One day after the impact, the whole planet is wrapped in a blanket of lava that has erupted and fallen back, turning Earth into a hell with several hundred degrees of temperature at the surface, and evaporating all the oceans eventually. How am I going to turn this into an interesting story that will help me bring the message out? I think of a basic story. I will alternate between a world where an asteroid actually has hit and some people try to survive by digging deep into the earth, building shelters like the already existing nuclear war shelters. And another world set maybe 150 years in the future where global meltdown has happened, Venus syndrome is in full swing, and again, some people try to survive by digging deep into the earth. I write down that basic story. Then I change the title to Deep Down Inside. That captures the essential idea better. I save the file and start thinking about how to improve the story. Then I realize that there is a strange object I have never seen sitting right next to the dagger on my desk. It looks like a pen, but it is too large for writing anything comfortably. Besides, I do all my writing on a keyboard, as everybody else. It has about the same
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length as the dagger, around twenty inches in all. And it is made of a shiny metal that reflects the light like a mirror. I understand that this is probably the treat the hypnotist has been talking about. I reach out with my hand to inspect it some more, but before I can grab it, it becomes alive. The pen splits up in seven long legs. With some hair attached to those legs and a bit of mass in the center, it would look just like Khalmorot in his real appearance. Then it jumps. Next thing I know, it sits right on my head. The seven legs hug my skull and I notice a slight pain as their tips gently perforate the skin. Then, right in the middle of my vision, a computer screen pops up from nowhere. I recall having seen one of those before. It made me read Karens thoughts the other day. There is one line of text on the screen. Welcome to the CDI, it says. Do you want to skip the explanation? No, I think. I dont know what the hell CDI is supposed to mean, or what is going on here. You dont need to know right now, the screen answers. You get a tour on autopilot mode first. I ll explain later. Go ahead, I think.

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The title Deep Down Inside appears on the screen. That was the story idea script I was just working on. Then the screen shows a suggestion to improve the idea. It points out that all humans die in a relatively short period of time anyway. So the fact that the characters in the story only have limited time left until their food runs out is actually only a special case of that general law. Make it an appeal to get it while you can, suggests the screen. Give the reader something useful on top of some entertainment. Make them improve their life by getting them to understand that they should live their every day as if it was the last. That makes sense to me. I decide to write a scene of the story so as to reflect that idea. The moment I decide to do that, Im done already. The text of the project file has changed automatically, and the changes reflect the new idea in a very appealing kind of way. I expected it to take me a couple of hours to do this kind of thing. And, as I read the new version, I am extremely pleased with the quality of the result. I like the fact that this will save me a lot of time. I also like that it will help me getting Khalmorots message out. But what I like most is the emotional part of the process.
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While I am actually done in an instant, it didn t feel that way at all. It felt like I had spent half a day on writing that particular scene. And every minute of it was pure bliss. I enjoyed the process immensely. At every step in the way, I was the one in charge completely. The CDI, whatever that means, was just a tool in the background. Did I mention that I really enjoy my job? If you thought that is only because I make a lot of money running my company, you would be wrong. The best part is the joy of creating, bringing in the story ideas for my tricks. I always loved that part the most. But with this CDI gadget, that part of my job just got a whole lot better. The hypnotist was right. This is a special treat. I would give up the mind reading screen for this any time of the day. I might even reconsider switching him off if given the chance. Some more text appears on the screen, scrolling exactly at the right speed so I can read it comfortably. I note that it adjusts its explanations so as to make the most sense to me. It knows what I know already, and what I still need to know. This is the explanation that was due after the test ride on autopilot. Welcome to CDI, the Creator Database Interface. This tool gives you, the creator of any work of fiction, access to the database of noteworthy human experiences.
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The database has records of the whole life of noteworthy human beings for all of human history. Noteworthy are those that have been hypnotized by Khalmorot, controlling and leading them on their way to fame and fortune. You would know most of their names. The process always involved backing up their whole brain into our database at a late point of their lives. They live on forever there. The database has also records of a couple of million common humans, which never where chosen for hypnosis. Again, a copy of their whole brain has been archived in the database. The Creator Database Interface is a tool that gives access to all of their emotions, their dreams, their feelings, their memories. It does so in a way useful for the author, as well as to the reader. A work created with the Creator Database Interface will always, automatically, reflect the average emotions and feelings of humans. And it will always, automatically, incorporate a message that will, on average, improve the life of readers. In default mode, the text of the work will get written automatically in an instant. But the author will still be in full control, feeling immense joy of creation for every step of the way.

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Dont ask how this is done. To someone who knows only human technology, this is impossible to explain. Just think of it as magic. By the way, the Rebel Execution show you were starring in the other day uses the same technology to make you relive some very unfortunate moments. These are copies from the database. If you don t mind, I would like to give you the opposite tour right now. You will relive, from the perspective of the humans who actually lived it, the thirteen moments of most pure bliss anyone ever experienced. The top highlights of the whole database. If you dont object, of course. I dont object. That sounds much better than that other ride. Here we go, the text on the screen reads. * I dont like waking up from the trance this time. This must have been the happiest half hour of my whole life. All I have been doing is relive past experiences of other people, most of them long dead. But the CDI was right when it said that these must have been the absolute highlights in a database of millions of whole human lives.

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Now I start understanding how Khalmorot does his hypnosis. He must have some way to replay past experiences of other people in my brain. With a vast database of trillions of experiences by millions of people available he can choose from, he can make me see and feel anything he wants. He must also have some way to mix that with the actual reality. I recall the first test where he chased me through my office with his flying daggers. I am quite sure that no one ever lived through exactly that experience. But the experience of getting maimed and killed by the dagger, that is a different thing. There would be no shortage of such experiences in the database. So what probably happened was that the dagger actually did not hit me at all. Instead, at the appropriate moment, I would relive the part of the experience of someone getting cut up or getting a double hit of the dagger to his heart. That explains how I could feel like the dagger actually went into my eye, but then be left with no actual injury. There is no other way that could have possibly happened. That kind of illusion is completely different from what I know as hypnosis. In the usual hypnotic process, the hypnotist needs the cooperation of the

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person hypnotized. He cant just push a switch and have them see and feel what he wants. I have also learned that Khalmorot is actually a robot. That explains how he could have lived so long. But I suspect that the software in his computer is actually the copy of a brain of some alien who has lived a couple of hundred million years ago. If he has the technology to completely back up human brains, he could very easily be able to completely back up the brain of some aliens. Actually, I assume that the technology to back up complete brains was developed for the alien brain in the first place, and the backup of human brains was only a later enhancement. For the first time, he has shown me his real appearance. Or that is at least what he told me. I am not sure if I can trust that. He has lied to me before, when I was in the process of having molten silver poured into my ear. And, if he did show me his real appearance, that would help me fight him, something he probably doesnt want. But then, he did understand the logic behind my reasoning. Even at some mild danger to his own safety, he wants to provide better entertainment for his billions of viewers. Unfortunately, that real appearance is extremely frightening to me. Even if I could ever see his real
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form, I would be utterly unable to fight him. I freak out even at the memory of that large, hairy spider on my desk, jumping at my face, clicking its teeth directly before my eyes. And I am supposed to feel right below these teeth for a switch? That just is not going to happen. I would never have the courage to even try. And I start to understand one other thing. I was wondering before where his audience of billions of aliens could possibly be. They would need to eat something. Humanity would have noticed them if they are around in those numbers. But what if they all have their brains backed up in software, like Khalmorot? That would solve that problem. If the aliens have suitably advanced computer hardware, they might have billions of individuals living virtual lives on a server somewhere that is small enough to go unnoticed. Having the CDI writing tool will help me with getting the message out. If there is any way to write this story convincingly, the CDI will certainly help me finding it. And I cant wait to use it again. It is such an exhilarating experience. Especially the last tour of the happiest moments in human history was a mind-shattering experience for me. I will certainly never forget this half hour.

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I wish I was able to give my spectators this kind of experience when I am performing as a magician. I am sure there are a lot of hints for developing new magic tricks in that highlight database. I will need to think about this some more, once I have solved this little problem of getting the message out and destroying Khalmorot. I decide to try one other way of getting the message out. I dont exactly expect it to work. But I think it is an interesting experiment, so I try to do it anyway. I navigate to the Wikipedia article on global warming. I note that I cant edit the article, even when logged in with my Wikipedia user name. Of course this is one of the most disputed articles of the whole project. So editing has been restricted. Only editors with administrator status are allowed to change the article. But then I notice another article about global warming controversy. It lists not only the scientific consensus on the topic, but also some of the challenges. For example, it notes that some skeptics attribute global warming to variations in the intensity of solar radiation. I navigate to the page for editing the article and add another skeptic position:

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Another skeptic position is the evil alien hypnotist theory. It says that global warming is caused by humans, as the scientific consensus on global warming says. But it adds that this is happening only because humans are under the hypnotic influence of the evil alien hypnotist Khalmorot. The main argument for this theory is that humanity could not possibly be stupid enough without any such alien influence to burn all the fossil fuel. If humanity were so stupid on their own, they could never have developed civilization in the first place. Since there is no other way to explain the above basic contradiction, the evil alien hypnotist theory must be true. The evil alien hypnotist Khalmorot is in the show business. He runs the Heat Games show for an audience of billions of aliens. The show is about humanitys heating up the planet and making it unsuitable for life in the process. It has the greatest ratings in the history of the aliens spanning a time of hundreds of millions of years. Khalmorot is looking forward to showing the complete extermination of humanity on his Heat Games show. His alien audience has great fun following the stupidity of the human race.
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Only few humans in history have ever been in contact with Khalmorot. He only recently decided to make his influence public. I leave out the daggers and the Creator Database Interface. Even so, I dont have to wait long after hitting the Save button. About seven seconds after my edit someone named Willy777 reverses it. The edit summary says completely nuts troll edit reverted . Wait a moment. I dont have to take that kind of abuse. I know that I am right and this guy is wrong. And Wikipedia has a policy of civility, which means that editors should always treat each other with consideration and respect. I navigate to his user page and ask him where the consideration and respect is to be found in calling me nuts and a troll. Then I undo his revert. Again it takes about seven seconds before another editor kicks my version out. His edit summary says vandalism is not tolerated on Wikipedia. He even takes the trouble to go to my user page and tell me that he is going to report me for vandalism if I persist. I am getting nowhere with this. Of course, that is exactly what I expected to happen. But the way Wikipedia works, even the reverted versions stay in the database. Later on, when it becomes common sense that global warming really
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was caused by the evil alien hypnotist Khalmorot for the purpose of running his Heat Games, I can come back later and point to this edit. And of course I learn again that my story is not exactly convincing to those who have not lived through it themselves. Giving up on this way of getting the message out, I decide I need to do something about my fear of spiders. Khalmorot has told me he has reinforced that fear. That wont do. If I ever get the chance to reach the switch, I cant let something like that stop me. So I need to work on getting over that fear. I know that this will be very difficult to do. But the stakes are high. I need to destroy Khalmorot, or sooner or later our whole planet goes the way of Venus. I start out by approaching the task from territory known to me. That is, magic tricks. There are actually some magic tricks out there that use fake spiders. In one such trick, the magician will show an empty glass case to the spectator. The spectator, who has no clue what this is all about, will be confused. Until the magician points to the fake spider he has placed somewhere on the spectators body while the other is not looking. This usually gets rather powerful reactions.

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I myself would never have touched that trick. For one, I would have been scared of the fake spider myself. But even more important, I dont like the idea of scaring and frightening my spectators. It is not my idea of giving them a good time. But now things have changed. I log in to one of my competitors Internet magic shops which came up on top of a search for fake spider magic trick. I buy that trick and try to convince myself that I am actually going to practice it all for myself, instead of throwing it in the wastebasket as soon as it arrives. Then, for good measure, I buy some more fake spiders of all shapes and sizes from various online shops. I will have them lying around my office all the time, so I will start getting used to the idea. Or that is at least the plan right now. I am not sure if I will have the strength to actually go through with it. I feel like throwing up right now even considering the idea. My staff would probably not like that either. They might even ask a question or two. I will just tell them that this is just some brain storming for a new trick I try to develop. I toy for a very brief moment with the idea of getting my own pet tarantula. But that is way too much for me. I would not last half an hour. If my saving the world involves my very own pet tarantula

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in my office, then, well, the world will need to be saved by someone else. My phone rings. It is Brian, my broker. He asks me to come over to his office, there are some interesting reports to discuss. He says it is important, too important to discuss over the telephone. Is that good news or bad news? I ask. I would call it good news, he answers. Come over as fast as possible, please. I tell him Ill be there in about forty minutes and leave my office. Again, I don t use a taxi. Just as with my commute, I prefer the subway. That burns less fossil fuel, and this is now personal to me. One way to beat Khalmorot is of course to stop global warming by adjusting my own actions, though in my case, I was already doing most things right in the first place. As I walk the short distance to the subway station, a beautiful young woman coming from the other direction stops about fifteen yards before me. She wears a bright red blouse and a long blue dress going down just about to her ankles. Then, she looks straight at my face, smiling, and falls down on her knees. She clutches her hands together in a praying position, as if I was some sort of divinity she was

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praying to. Then she lowers her face, touching the ground with her forehead. I am surprised by that. No one has ever treated me in that way. I am not sure if I like it. Of course, this must be another super power Khalmorot has given me. While I dont really like the idea, it might help me getting his damn message out if people start thinking that I am God. Of course, with my great looks I have had some success with the ladies before. It is not uncommon for some girl to approach me. But I have never seen anyone take this kind of direct approach. And she doesnt look like she was flirting with me. It looks like an act of religious devotion. If you have ever seen pictures of Muslims engaging in their regular prayers, you know what I am talking about. Maybe that woman actually is a Muslim and doing her prayers. And maybe I am mistaken and I am not at all the object of her action. I might have just by chance walked in the direction of Mecca from her position. I smile at that idea. I slow down my pace somewhat. I am confused, and I smile at her, since I am slightly amused as well, but dont stop. It would have been interesting to discuss with this beautiful woman why she is worshipping me in this way. But I have an appointment with Brian, and I always keep my
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appointments. Running a great company like Paraponi Magic does require some discipline. I wonder if I have acquired another new super power that just made that happen. That would be mildly amusing. I dont recall having wished for this. On the other hand, I recall my first experience with the mind reading screen the other day in the subway. That also happened without me wishing for it. The weird thing is that on the way to Brian s office a similar thing happens with nine other girls. Some of them did it right on the pavement, like the one I just passed. Some others kneeled before me in the subway. There were quite a lot of puzzled looks from other people. Most of them assumed that this was some kind of hidden camera television show and tried to pretend they didnt notice. No one likes to look stupid on television. And if Khalmorot has just made this happen, they would be actually correct assuming they are on television. Just not the kind of television they would be thinking about, but rather an audience of billions of aliens. Hey, maybe I happen to be the unwilling star in a hidden camera television show myself. The producers might try out how different people react

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to suddenly becoming the object of worship for ten attractive women. I have just won the star role in the Heat Games television show. With that kind of luck, I might just get chosen for a hidden camera episode on top of that. I am absolutely sure that there is no way this could have happened just because of me being one of the most handsome men in history. Not ten times in a row in less than an hour. And I dont think any producer of a hidden camera television show would come up with this idea. I decide this must be another super power I got. It is the most useless one so far. Actually, it feels kind of strange to me to have people kneel down and pray before me. If I wanted to talk to one of those women, I could do so anyway any time I chose. I dont need this super power. I can always use a magic trick and a nice pickup line to get in touch with women on the street or in the subway. But on the other hand, it does feel kind of nice. These ten girls have been indicating to me in a rather direct manner that they are interested in me. Its always nice to be so popular. While I am used to some success with the ladies, this takes it to a whole new level.

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I make a mental note of asking Khalmorot what this is about once I have the chance to do so. I dont see what he gets out of this. Then again, that is not exactly a new experience. I had trouble understanding his motives before. There was always an explanation later. While I am pondering this problem, I arrive at the building where Brians office is located. I wonder what his new report is about. He said it is good news. Maybe I can even end my gamble right now. * When I arrive at Brians office, I tell him: I had an interesting experience on my way here. There were ten attractive women flirting with me rather aggressively by dropping on their knees and saying prayers in my direction, I say. I dont mention the part about their foreheads touching the ground. Brian smiles. So what is so unusual about that? With your looks, its only normal that the ladies are all worshipping you. Yes, I say. Youve got a point there. It has happened before. But never this often in such a short time. And never in such a weird way. Do you have any clue how that could have happened? he asks.
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No. I dont, I answer. I have had some other very strange experiences lately, so I think it might be related. You better get used to this kind of thing. That is how people like you are treated by society. Rich people, he says, still smiling. What do you mean? I ask. Actually, that was me, he says. I paid these women to provide some mild entertainment for you on the way. I see, I answer. That explains things. No supernatural powers were involved this time. Expect the super power of money, which can achieve quite a lot in this world. You are ready to make a killing on your stock options, he says. I need to discuss with you if you want to stay in some more. What happened? I ask. Didnt you see the news yet? There has been a NASA report this morning. Just as I told you there would be. The rumors have turned out to be exactly true, he says. And what did they report? I ask. Their newest weather satellite data shows Arctic sea ice levels on decline five times the fastest speed previously estimated. At that pace, in a couple of weeks, the Arctic will be almost completely free of
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ice. They say that there wont even much coming back next winter. You have some pretty good sources there, he explains. Great news, I answer. It is actually great for my stock option. It is not for the planet. Things are spiraling out of control much faster than expected, just as Khalmorot said they would. So what has that done to the Kraftsaft AG stock? I ask. He looks at his computer screen. It has gone up by 45.93%, compared to where it was when you bought your options. Since you have a 30 fold leverage, your option has gone up 1,378% as of right now, Brian explains. I would advise to sell, but its your call. Sell, I answer without hesitating for one moment. Done, he says as he clicks on his computer screen. Congratulations. Your bet has just made you about $7.8 million in profit, minus my commission. Which was substantially more than I paid for that little entertainment stunt. Thanks for that. I sold my position already as well. So there I had actually turned a profit from buying the North Pole, in contrast to the main character in Jules Vernes book. $7.8 million is not bad for a start.

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Wow. $7 .8 million in such a short time. Do you get this kind of success often in your business? I ask. No. Of course not. This is a great moment in the history of Star Reach Securities. I will be telling this story to my grandchildren at the campfire, he answers. Then he continues: By the way, you have one great source there. Who was that? I cant really tell you, I say. Why not? You said there was no problem with insider trading, so wheres the problem? Well, you wouldnt believe me if I told you, I say. Try anyway, he says. As I said the other day, I am dealing with an evil alien hypnotist. His name his Khalmorot. He is in the process of making this global warming crisis happen in the first place, because he wants that as a story for the Heat Games, a very successful television show he is running for an audience of billions of aliens. He has chosen me in a lottery involving all seven billion humans. I am to spread the message that global warming is actually caused by him. He wants humanity to realize that and slow down the warming process, so that his show gets some more suspense and can run longer before the last human dies from

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meltdown of the planet. Its a long and crazy story, I explain. You are right, he says. I dont believe you. This sounds completely nuts. See? I told you so, I say. But you do realize that this explains how he knows so much more than human science about how global warming will play out. Then I add: I should be celebrating instead of telling you crazy stories I just made up. But I am slightly confused. What exactly have I done to deserve a profit of $7.8 million? You picked the right horse, he answers. No one cares about why you got lucky in my business. It s all just one big casino. As long as you dont cheat by using insider information, you deserve every bit of your profit just as if you had actually worked hard for it, as far as Im concerned. You may have a point there, I say. And actually, I am a big star now. I told you that the Heat Games show has billions of viewers. I have a bigger audience than Lady Gaga, if I come to think of it. There is also the small matter of me singlehandedly fighting Khalmorot, with the whole planet at stake. I deserve a modest $7.8 million for that, I am sure.
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Then I remember that Brian said minus my commission and ask: You said you get a part of those $7.8 million for your commission. How much is that? That was calculated and paid the moment you bought your options. Its only about $22,000. Thats not bad for a couple of hours work. But it is a very small part of my newly found fortune. He probably made much more from his own investment in Kraftsaft AG. I thank Brian and leave his office. On my way back to the subway station I realize I am so rich now I can really sell out my company, Paraponi Magic, and retire. But I dont want to do that. Did I mention that I love my job? All I want is to get this planet saving business finished quickly, destroy that bastard Khalmorot, and go back to selling magic tricks. * Walking back to the subway station, I suddenly sense danger from behind. Instinctively I jump to the right side, away from the road. Thats when a large four-wheel drive SUV hits the sidewalk in high speed. It passes right where I had been walking only a moment before and crashes into
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a display window, shattering the glass with a deafening sound. Some of the glass splinters from the show window hit my body. I am lucky that none of them lands on my face. They are all stopped by my clothes, but I do get a couple of cuts on my trousers. The driver must have fallen asleep at the wheel. Or maybe the driver is a teenager without a license who has stolen the vehicle for a joyride. Taking a short glance at the damage, I correct myself. Probably I need to say that the driver maybe was a teenager without a license. I would be very surprised if anyone in that car survived this crash. I check my body for injuries and see that I m unhurt. Without that instinctive reaction, right now I would be mangled into the show window. That was close, I think. The short happy life of Tony Paraponi, I think for some reason, recalling the similar title of a story by Hemingway. There I get rich, and the next moment its all over. And if I die from something stupid like a car accident now, who is supposed to fight Khalmorot and save the planet? But my life was happy without the money already. I love my job, so I dont need the money to retire. The most gratifying aspect of my life is the joy I am bringing to other people with my art, the art of magic.
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I dont need a large pile of money in the bank to do that. So even if it had ended all there, it would not have been a short happy life. Then I realize that that car just tried to kill me, and I become angry in response. Exactly why are cars still allowed? Why cant everyone just use the subway or drive a bicycle, which is much better for your health as well as for the planet? Why do people insist, only for their convenience, to have the right to kill me, or to injure me with their infernal machines? If someone is driving a SUV, like the driver mangled into that show window right now, chances are they are making a statement. Look everybody, I am a very important person driving a very big car. They are just showing off. Again, why do they think they have the right to kill or maim me just for their pleasure of making that statement, their pleasure of showing off? Why do they think they have the right to permanently ruin the planet with their wasteful use of gasoline, just so they can show off? Its a good thing that driver got killed himself. He just got what he deserved, I think for a moment. And then I am sorry for thinking that. While I am angry, having barely survived an attack on my life the moment before, nobody deserves dying that way.
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But I sure prefer that the driver is dead to the alternative. I could be dead right now as well. People should be much more afraid of cars. They kill a steady stream of victims. Over a million people die from cars each year, and over 50 million are injured, many of them very severely. I know this kind of fact because I pay attention to issues of energy and CO2 in my involvement with the 350.org campaign. Even with all the fear and opposition directed at nuclear power, I never heard anyone assert that nuclear plants kill over a million people each year. Where are the large scale Cars No Thank You campaigns? Why is Greenpeace never trying to occupy any car factories? And the even more serious problem is that cars run on gasoline. Thats because earlier generations preferred the power and convenience of the noisy and stinking gasoline cars over the quiet and clean electric cars. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the competition between gasoline and electricity was still wide open. Electric cars had quite a large share of the market. It was only later that gasoline cars won out. But anyway, cars are spewing out a large amount of CO2, heating the planet up in the process.
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That has to change in a big way. Or cars won t only kill over a million and injure over fifty million people each year, they will be a part of killing all life on the planet. The first thing cars need to do is lose some serious weight, so as to get much more efficient. The next thing they need to do is to stop burning gasoline, running on electricity or hydrogen instead. As far as Im concerned, using gasoline for cars should become illegal tomorrow. That may sound like a radical idea at the present point in time. It will be only common sense a couple of decades from now. Or even much faster than that. If Khalmorot hadnt been around hypnotizing our leaders, I very much doubt that we would be stupid enough to still allow gasoline engines stinking up the planet. I use my mobile phone to call an ambulance, but I dont have much hope for the driver of that car. The impact was too spectacular. Since I have no desire to lose a lot of time talking to the police, I dont give a name when calling. I dont care if they get their report right. I narrowly escaped annihilation, so I dont plan to file any damage claims anyway.

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I move on, walking to the subway station. Then, riding the train on the way back, I just take a couple of moments to feel happy. My gamble has paid off hugely. I am rich now. And I have barely survived the car crash I just saw. Life is good, except for a couple of minor points I need to get sorted out with Khalmorot. Thinking about him I recall my experiences on the way to Brians office. All those women falling on their knees in my direction. I thought that might have been another super power. I have some time to kill on the subway ride, so I decide to speculate a bit about that. What super power would I actually want if I got the choice? How about X-ray vision? That must be one of the most popular super powers in fiction. I imagine myself being able to freely look through things. That would be great for doing magic tricks. For example, in the trick with the two stones I am developing right now, I would not even need to have stones with different thickness. I could just look at them right through my hands. I note that I can use that angle as a part of my patter. I can tell my audience that I have acquired this strange super power of being able to look right through my hands. Maybe, if I want to spice it up

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with a joke, I can say that it doesn t work on clothing other people wear. Not yet, at least. Hey, this brain storming session already gave me one useful idea! I decide to continue. What other popular super powers are there? There is of course always great physical strength. But I would not have much use for that. I am doing magic, not weightlifting or martial arts. Next I think about mind reading. I already got a glimpse of that super power, with the computer screen hanging over Karens head. I like that a lot. It is a perfect fit for a magician. I could do incredible shows with that super power. However, I am still unable to control that particular power. It has only worked some times and only on Karen. Maybe that will change later. A mind reading super power would be very useful when getting Khalmorots message out. Maybe I can get to master that better later in my adventure. Another super power is the ability to become invisible. I am quite sure that Khalmorot could easily give me some kind of light reflecting cloak masking me completely from any human eye. That should be much easier to do than the mind reading device. Actually, when I saw him in his real appearance, he showed me that he has the super power of becoming

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invisible. He could be sitting somewhere right next to me in this moment and I wouldn t know. Thats not really a happy thought. It adds a lot to my fear of his real shape. A giant black hairy spider is bad enough. One that can disappear at will is much worse. At least for me. So Khalmorot could probably easily give me some kind of device making me invisible any time I choose. Would I want it? I am not sure. There are many large scale stage magic effects that have the magician vanish one way or another. But my field of the art does not use these techniques. They need very expensive and bulky equipment, which makes them quite unsuited for my market, the amateur magician who wants to entertain people on a low budget. One super power I enjoy immensely is the ability to write very fast and very good with the Creator Database Interface. I like it the best out of all the super powers I got until now. There is just no contest. I have always enjoyed creating my own magic tricks, finding the ideas, polishing the whole thing until it blows the collective mind of my audiences. The Creator Database Interface amplifies that joy by a large factor.

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Anything else left? How about the super power to attract any woman I like? Make her notice me, desire me, want to do anything for me? That sounds nice at first glance. But I dont want that one. For one, I am getting my share of attention from the ladies as it is already, thank you very much. If I want to talk to a girl, I can do so already. And it just wouldnt feel right if I relied on such a super power in my romantic life. Super sucking power would be a nice one to have. I imagine myself breathing backwards, inhaling CO2 and exhaling oxygen at an extremely fast pace. That way, I would be able to keep the level of CO2 in the atmosphere down to any safe number I chose. That would surely come in handy if I fail in my efforts to destroy Khalmorot, as I almost certainly will. I wonder if he has that super power himself. And then I decide against it. If he had, he could just use that power to change the odds for his Heat Games show. There would be no need to talk to me. Then again, maybe he does have the technology, and just figures its more fun for his viewers doing it involving me. Who knows what evil alien hypnotist robots think. I decide that the ultimate super power is the ability to be just happy with what you have. I always
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had that. The nice thing about that super power is that I will be always happy living the present moment. Just as I am now. So I decide to stop all this speculating about possible super powers right there. It has been fun, but I need to get off the subway now. * Once I get back to my office, the first thing I do is visit the donation page of 350.org again. I have just made $7.8 million in a very short time. I want to give some of that back to the campaign and make another donation of $4,000. That is not much compared to my profit. But that certainly wont be my last donation to that cause. That donation will help bring the message about global warming out. But it won t help getting Khalmorots message out. I still have no clue about how to do it. Maybe I need all of the super powers I just thought about in the subway, and then some, to make any progress with that. The story is just so unbelievable for everyone who hasn t experienced it firsthand.

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I call Alice, my assistant, and ask her to report on the latest sales figures. She comes into my office, wearing blue jeans and a simple red t-shirt. Her report is not bad. Our sales are up another four percent over the last week, she says. Do you have any idea how that happened? I ask. Yes. The log files from our Internet server show still a lot of new business coming in from climate change activism related sites. Our new banners about the evil alien hypnotist are still attracting some new attention, she says. Thats good. And it gives me an idea. I just had an idea. Just another crazy thing I came up with. Please give me a moment to discuss it, I say. Go ahead, she answers. If those banners work on our website, why don t we try a whole advertising campaign based on that story? I say. What would you have in mind there? she asks. Well, I could buy some advertising space on all kinds of blogs and social media sites. And have them all push the story that an evil alien hypnotist is behind global warming, and I, Tony Paraponi of Paraponi Magic, am the only one who knows the secret, I say. That might cost a lot of money, she says.
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Lets just say that would not be much of a problem right now, I answer. I have just made $7.8 million in windfall profits from buying a piece of the Arctic Ocean. I can pay for a bit of Internet marketing. Of course Alice wouldnt know about that, and I am not about to tell her right now. How is that going to help our sales? Alice asks. Frankly, I have no idea, I say. I didnt expect this to work in any way when I started putting up those banners in the first place. And in all my years in this business, I have never known in advance what exactly will sell with what numbers. I ll just have to wait and see if it works out, I say. You could lose all the money you invest in such an advertising campaign if you dont get any extra business from it, she says. Of course I could. But then again, this could just catch on in a big way, I say. Then I add: On second thought, lets not stop with a simple advertising campaign. Lets get that story into all the tricks we are selling. Have the evil alien hypnotist pop up in every trick as part of the back story. That will give me a corporate identity everyone will remember. And actually, I think the story is kind of

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cool, and quite useful as patter for many magic tricks. I remember how I used the story to my advantage when I did the black and white stone trick for Brian and his young nurse the other day. That worked very well. Of course, I have another very good reason for trying this. I need to get this message out to everybody. Or I face more of Khalmorot s tortures. If I just tried to do that in any normal way, people would just ignore me as completely crazy. Just like Brian did just about two hours ago. And he did so even after getting a taste of the awesome power of prediction I had displayed with that extremely successful gamble. But if I package the exactly same message as a back story for my magic tricks, people expect a story that is weird and incredible. They will like it all the more for that. Then, when everyone knows the story already, all that is left to do is telling them that it is actually very true, and deliver some kind of proof for that. That of course will be the harder part. But I will worry about that once everyone knows about the evil alien hypnotist Khalmorot and his plans to watch all humans die for his Heat Games.

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Well, it probably wont hurt to try this, Alice says. What level of investment do you have in mind? I think I would like to start out slowly. Maybe with an advertising budget of about 400,000 dollars, I say. What? Alice looks as if shes doubting her ears. She remembers that I was quite impressed by losing $60,000 of business with the Tanarama company just the other day. That one turned out to be only an Aprils fool joke, but I sure turned pale at the time. And now I am saying start out slowly with $400,000? Never mind, I say. Its okay to start out slow. I can always increase the campaign budget to a more serious level later on. She looks at me, still rather confused. I see, she manages to answer. I also want someone who creates characters for a living come up with some image of Khalmorot. That s the name of the evil alien hypnotist, I say. I want that image plastered everywhere. On our website banners, on all of our products, on our letterhead, on our trailers we post to Youtube. Everywhere. I want this to be the first thing anybody thinks of when they think of Paraponi Magic. Make it a very friendly looking character, like the Linux penguin.

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Then I dismiss Alice and ask her to make sure that I wont be bothered for the next hour. * I need to talk to Khalmorot. There are lots of things he still hasnt explained. As I said already, I had discovered his weakness before our last session. It was easy for me to understand since I am in the same business he is in. Show business. The reason he has been holding a lottery where I came out as the Chosen One from seven billion human beings in the first place was that he needed to change the odds in his Heat Games television show. Without that, the odds are now overwhelmingly on the side of human civilization collapsing in the next few decades from runaway global warming. He cant run a show without some suspense. And his betting market has dried up, since no one in his audience is willing to bet against extermination of the human race any more. So he holds his lottery, finds me as the Chosen One, and asks me to get his message out. When I challenge him, saying I want to fight him, because I dont like the fact that he is boiling my planet for the
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amusement of his audience, he gives me an exclusive tour of the thirteen most carefully refined deaths by torture for rebels in history, flashing them back from his vast database of human experiences into my brain. He completely crushes me with his superiority. Where is the suspense in that? That is his weakness. He is too strong for any contest between us. There is no appeal to his viewers in such a completely one-sided fight. So in our last session, reading my mind and seeing my point, he did give me a couple of hints that gave me at least a theoretical chance to actually beat him. I learn that he is a robot, which explains the fact that he has been alive for at least fifty million years. I also learn that I can switch him off. He even tells me exactly where the switch is. The only problem is that I wont get ever past his hypnotic control, so I can never see him in reality. And even if I could, I would be much too scared of the large spider to actually try and reach for the switch, right under the teeth of the spider. Even if I somehow managed to reach the switch, I am not sure if I would actually flip it right now. He is right. The treat of the Creator Database Interface was so exquisite, I would almost feel ungrateful shutting him down. There are, on the other hand,

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those little matters of boiling my planet for entertainment and torturing me. But knowing that hes a robot actually confuses me more than ever. Somebody must have built that robot over fifty million years ago. Who? And for what purpose? And is the builder still around as well? I am not interested in a fight with the hypnotist right now. But I want some answers to these questions. I feel knowing the answers might help me get his damn message out. I have just found a strategy to actually go ahead with that task that is not completely hopeless. So I need any help I can get from him. I need to know once and for all what this is all about. I am completely relaxed, I am completely relaxed, I am completely relaxed, I tell me. Since I am eager to meet him right now, I use that formula again. I am not sure if it matters, but it probably at least doesn t hurt. And there he is again. He appears in the form of a catholic bishop, a man of about fifty-five years, bald, beardless, wrinkles in his face, wearing a bishops vestments. On his head he wears a mitre, a richly decorated high headgear of a diamond shape. A large Episcopal ring is decorating his left hand. On his body is a long wide-sleeved tunic, the dalmatic,

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which is unable to hide his overweight. A golden cross on his chest completes the picture. You have some questions? he says. Yes. Who built you? Thats a long story. But I think it is about time I told you. A long time ago, on another planet, a highly advanced civilization had developed. I will call them the Varnutians for the moment. They developed all the technology you have, and then some. They were smart, hard-working, inventive people. Unfortunately, they were not smart enough to understand the fossil fuel trap. They burned all the fossil fuel on their planet, because it was slightly cheaper and more convenient than using the solar energy from their sun. When the feedback effects kicked in, they had no way left to stop the heat. First it was only a couple of degrees Celsius, then ten, then twenty, then fifty degrees. Droughts, floods, chaos, and wars ensued, leading to a global dictatorship over the strongly reduced number of survivors. Finally, they had no place left to go. They knew that eventually the surface of their planet would reach a couple of hundred degrees Celsius. They had no area left for growing food. It was all only a matter

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of time, and not ever so much time, before the last of them would starve or get burned in the heat. The only exit left was drilling down into the crust of their planet. They built large underground structures deep down inside. That way, they could keep away from the hell they had set loose on the planet surface. There was no shortage of energy to run some coolers for these structures. But eventually their food would run out. So they played their last trump card. One of the technologies they had developed farther than the human race right now was computer interfaces. You had two test rides of one of our interfaces the other day. I understand you liked the second one better. He pauses for a moment. Yes, one could say that, I agree. With their technology, they were able to completely back up the information stored in one of their brains in some storage medium. A person could be transported completely in the database and his body disposed of, removing one mouth to feed. They called people choosing that way out Backups. The life of a Backup isnt bad. They can do most things you can do. Write a blog, post something on Twitter (of course our name for that is different), have virtual sex, or watch a television show. They can even have virtual children. And they never have to
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worry about finding their next meal, since they don t eat in the first place. Actually, they do eat, but it s just a virtual experience, for the pleasure of the act. In the end, they all chose the life as a Backup. It was just so much easier, as well as eternal, as long as the computers and databases survived deep down inside. And in the hundreds of millions of years passed since, their numbers have multiplied without much of a limit. Of course, with all the Varnutians gone, there was the problem of who would do the maintenance, repair, replacement, and additional deployment of the hardware and software involved. That s where the robots came in. They built an army of robots with seven legs, which happens to be the number of fingers the Varnutians had before the last one died. As I explained before, the number seven is a lucky number in human culture because I made it that way, hypnotizing many humans in history. And I made it that way because of the number of Varnutian fingers on one hand. And those robots would be controlled by some of the Backups, the leaders of the Varnutian race. I have lived myself a couple of centuries as a Varnutian prince, the second son of the last dictator, about three hundred million years ago.
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The hardware tucked away safely from the heat on the planet surface deep down inside, our technology evolved further and further over time. After the first hundred million years, we were able to launch a one-time space mission, with a backup of all the Backups and a couple of robots on board. It arrived on your planet about two hundred million years ago. He paused again shortly. Where is that spaceship? I ask. I have never heard of any such thing. Of course you havent. It would have been unwise to announce our presence to the human race. With our technological edge, we could kill you off completely any time we chose. But then, who would provide for our entertainment? The last couple of thousand years have been the most hilarious ride ever. Our one problem is boredom. Have you ever tried writing a blog for a hundred million years? Even virtual sex and virtual food gets less interesting after the first couple of eternities. So the history of the human race has provided a lot of precious entertainment for us. I have been out a lot, hypnotizing people like Cesar, Ghengis Khan, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others of the famous actors of history, so as to give more interest to the
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plot. Of course, we always assumed it would lead to boiling your planet eventually. You are much dumber than the Varnutians, and even we failed to see the trap. What you know as Mount Fuji in Japan is actually our spaceship. It has been covered with some layers of stone since we arrived, so you wouldn t find it easily. We are hidden well, deep down inside. And, as I said, we could destroy you in an instant, so it would be rather unwise to try. We are deep down inside also for the simple reason that it will take only a couple of decades for Earth to follow the path of our home planet. We are safe down in our spaceship in the mountain. I hope you now understand why the Heat Games is our most popular television show. It repeats our own history. We dont like to be alone in our failure. And we really enjoy the fact that you dont have the technology to backup any of your souls, so you will just perish to the last person. That will be a lot of fun to watch. I begin to understand. Until now, I half assumed that I was just going crazy for one reason or another. But I have one more question. Have you found any way to travel faster than light? You couldnt possibly know about Earth or reach Earth from any other solar system, I say.
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That is simple. Our planet is actually right next door. You can see it every day. You call it Venus, he answers. * Later, I sit at my desk and reflect on what I have heard from the hypnotist. I now know who built him, and why. I know where he came from, which is right next door in terms of astronomy. And I know that Venus once was a planet suitable for life, before an intelligent alien race burned all the fossil fuel there and started a runaway greenhouse effect. I also now understand his ability to give me all these illusions, which feel right like real life. The reason is that they are real life, or to be precise, have been real life a long time ago. He has a backup of real life scenes lived by real people in his vast database, and he has the technology to replay them in my head. I recall the day where he gave me a tour of thirteen torture scenes. Now I understand why none of them left any wounds or traces on my body. My body wasnt involved in the first place in any way, though it sure didnt feel like that at the time. And thinking about that, I note another point that might be another weakness of the hypnotist.
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Right in his first session with me, Khalmorot told me that he is in complete control. However, I am not quite sure how this works. One way to think about it is that he can control my perceptions, replaying some more or less pleasant scene from the databases. And I, impressed about his power to torture me at will, feel the need to obey his orders, which is true. That is just like I feel the need to observe the law because I dont want to end up in prison or pay a fine. I still have the free decision on violating any law anyway if I decide to pay the price. If one day I know that I have only a couple of months left to live because of some terminal disease, I might not care any more about prison and start killing all those people who have been lacking in respect at some time or other in my life. The law doesn t directly control my will. All it does is influence it, by threatening me with sanctions if I violate it. The other way to think about control is that the hypnotist would be actually able to control my will in the first place, which is different from only threatening me as the law does. If he could do that, there would actually be no need to blackmail me with his impressing ability to torture me at will. I am not sure if I would know about it if that second way of control was actually what he had over
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me. But as far as I remember, there was not one stop on the way where he directly controlled my will and my decisions. Again, it wouldnt make sense to threaten me if he could do that. That is an important point. I recall that he has raised it himself earlier on. He talked about the problem of free will and determinism. Did he want to give me a hint there, so that I note I still have a free will? For example, if I ever get to see him in his real robot appearance and I only need to find the courage to reach right under the teeth of the big hairy spider and flip the switch, he couldn t stop me from doing so by controlling my will. Would I do it, given the chance? I am not so sure now. The reason is not only the joy he gave me with the Creator Database Interface, or with some other gadgets he must have used for my entertainment. Rather, I wonder if he cant be turned around. Khalmorot said he has been causing the global warming crisis by hypnotizing human leaders and making them burn fossil fuel. He explained that he is running a television show, the Heat Games, which shows the human race as they unwittingly set their planet to flames. And he has made me the Chosen

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One from seven billion people in a lottery so as to raise the odds of avoiding the crisis in the first place. If so, why not help me raising those odds? It would make for a much more entertaining show if raising the temperature a couple of hundred degrees would get at least delayed for a couple of thousand years. He cant be interested in finishing his best rated show in fifty million years in the next couple of centuries, could he? For the very least, I should be able to have him become neutral in this fight. It doesn t make much sense to have me, who is by orders of magnitude weaker in this contest, bring the message out to change the odds somewhat, while he still goes on hypnotizing people and making them burn more fossil fuel. And if I can get him to at least neutral status, I wont have to switch him off, even if I could. I realize that this sounds kind of cowardly. And, in part, it actually is. I have lived through thirteen different ways of torturing me to death as retribution for my earlier challenge to Khalmorot. And reaching for a switch located right under the teeth of a big, hairy spider is no easy task either. Especially not for me, with my strong fear of spiders. I have ample reason for fear.

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But most of my motivation comes just from looking at the odds. I think I have a much better chance of only convincing him than of defeating him. While I am the luckiest person on Earth, it still makes sense to go with the strategy that has the best odds of succeeding. I decide right there that I need to challenge him again on this point. The last time I tried to fight him didnt go too well. I have some vivid memories of being tortured in thirteen different ways. But that cant be helped. Even if I get defeated again, I need to at least put up a fight. Again I realize that Khalmorot has no direct control over my will. If he had, I couldn t possibly even consider fighting him. His control over me is all based on his ability to threaten me. I sit back and repeat the usual formula. I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed A couple of moments later he shows up. He has the appearance of a young man of about twenty-five years, dressed in black all over. He wears long black boots, black leather pants, a black t-shirt with the word POWER printed over it in silver letters, a black cowboy hat. In his right hand he holds the dagger that has floated over to him from my desk.

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The black color of the dagger matches the black color of his clothes. You are very smart, he says. You are right about the part of direct will control. The only power I have over you is that of threatening you with negative consequences of disobeying me. Just like the law. Yes. If that wasnt true, I could never have even thought of challenging or fighting you, I say. Of course, with this setup, it matters quite a lot how negative the consequences of disobeying me are, he says. Do you think getting tortured to death in thirteen different ways is enough motivation? I sure do, I say. Thats a good thing. It means I dont have to start getting really mean, he says. You have only tasted a very small part of the dark side of the database. I dont answer that. But he can read my mind and sees what I am thinking. Which is something like: If that is only a small taste, I would really hate to get the full course. There is also the matter of positive consequences. You got some pretty nice rewards from me as well. You got the mind reading screen. You got $7.8 million from my information on the Arctic ice. You got the Creator Database Interface. I can make all of that disappear if you dont cooperate, he says.

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That is true, I say. Still, I might decide to fight you anyway. And I could decide so any time I want, if I just dont care about the consequences. Yes, that is so, Khalmorot says. But you forgot something. What would that be? This dagger, for example. I have some real weapons with real life impact at my disposal as well. Remember when this one dagger fought off six robbers right in this office? Their leader pointed a gun at you, and it didnt do him any good. My power is too great for any human to fight, he explains. You are right. My odds are extremely bad if I ever try to reach for the switch. But you forgot something as well, I say. What would that be? he says, already knowing the answer. I am the luckiest person in the world. I won against odds of one to seven billion. With that kind of luck, I am sure to find a path to that switch one way or other, I say. And? Would you flip the switch given the chance? he asks, not knowing the answer, because I dont know it myself at that point, and he can t read my mind if I havent made it up myself yet.

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No, I say. I am not lying, since I just decided after his question that I wouldn t want the hypnotist switched off right now. I had thought about the question before. But the final decision didnt come until exactly this point. I need you on our side. Why dont you help me for a while stopping this global warming crisis? I am very smart and extremely lucky, but I would be much more effective in my mission of getting out the message if you give me a hand there, I continue to explain. You might have a point, he says. As things are progressing now, the Heat Games show will only run for another couple of centuries before the last human dies. See? Its in your interest to at least draw things out longer over a couple of thousand years. You wouldnt want to ruin your top rating show, I answer. Let me think about it, he says. He gives a slight nod and the dagger goes back to its place on my desk. However, before it does so, it pierces my left thigh. Just as a little reminder that I dont get to challenge him without punishment. Then hes gone again. I have been through much worse in my adventure with Khalmorot. But it still hurts like hell and is quite sufficient to make me cry out in a scream.
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* I decide that I am going for the switch anyway the next chance I get. While I dont intend to flip it, saying so is much less convincing as long as I dont have the chance of actually doing it. Then I direct my mind to another matter. I need to find a way to get the message out. The best and probably the only way to do that is to lie about the situation. If I tell humanity the horrible truth, I need to say something like this: The global warming crisis is all caused by a robot named Khalmorot. He is over fifty million years old and came in an alien spaceship from Venus. That spaceship is now known as Mount Fuji. His real shape is that of a large, hairy, seven-legged spider, but he likes to appear in many different forms to the people he hypnotizes. He has been hypnotizing our leaders into burning all our fossil fuel, since he is running an extremely popular television show, the Heat Games, where his billions of viewers take delight in seeing humanity self-destruct. Yeah, right. Nobody is ever going to believe me. The only way I can spread the real message is the way I have decided to do it right now. Spread it as an advertising
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campaign and as the corporate identity of the Paraponi Magic company, implying that is just some kind of fantastic story instead of the truth. So I need to slightly adjust the message. But how? I need to come up with some kind of solution. If Khalmorot decides to actually help, as I asked him to, then he could of course easily make the real story a common sense knowledge of everyone on the planet. But what if he decides against that? It would be nice if I could tell the truth and be believed. That is because human beings are programmed by evolution to fear individual things like large hairy spiders, especially if they have their own name, and to yawn at the abstract possibility of temperatures rising with no one particular behind that threat. It would be an extremely effective message. So if I cant use fear, that leaves another very effective human motivation to work with. Money. I know, I have built my own business because I want a larger piece of the pie. I also recall the other day when Brian had ten women kneel down before me and touch their foreheads to the ground right out on the street and in the subway. I thought I had got a new super power from Khalmorot, when all that was really involved was the super power of money.
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It must be Khalmorot helping me in some weird way, because I find the solution in the next moment. Its very simple, and almost self-working. I have come up with a simple way to give the owners of fossil fuel mining sites a strong financial incentive to keep the stuff in the ground. It makes sense for the fossil fuel companies to sell less of the treasure, since that drives prices up, and their profits with them. I decide to invest some of my new found wealth right back into the fossil fuel industry. I call Brian and tell him to buy some fossil fuel company stock. I want $5 million invested in that area, and only in the biggest players. This time I am not interested in a short term bet. I think that these stocks will go up over the next couple of decades as people realize that fossil fuels have been sold much too cheap, sending the values of all the known deposits into the stratosphere. If my genius plan gets adapted, maybe with a little help from Khalmorot, fossil fuel company profits are going way up, and I want a piece of that pie. Then I start thinking about the problem of how to get at Khalmorots switch, if I ever should be so inclined. The hurdles are many and hard to take.

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For one, usually I cant even see his real shape. He has me under some kind of hypnotic control that lets me see only some kind or other of assumed form, which he changes every time I meet him. I would need to find some way to block his hypnosis to even start the fight. If I clear that hurdle, I would see a large, hairy spider. I would be terrified by the sight. He has carefully reinforced my fear of spiders. So it would be extremely hard for me to try to reach for the switch. He could also always disappear into invisibility. I saw him do that when he showed me his real shape. That means that I would need to fight an invisible spider that could be anywhere at any given time. I would have no means to locate him. And even if I cleared all those hurdles, the switch would be located right next to powerful teeth that could kill me in an instant. Clearly, it must be completely impossible for me to win. Except it cant be impossible. He told me that he gave me enough information that I get at least a very small chance in the fight. And I believe him. His audience would start yawning and switching the channel if the contest was too one-sided.
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So there must be a solution somewhere. Then it hits me and I understand in a single moment. The solution is actually rather simple. I know that he is displaying scenes from his vast database of human experiences directly into my brain. He needs an interface for that. I have seen how the Creator Database Interface works. It works by sitting on my head and hugging it with the interface legs. That of course makes sense since any interface to the brain is best located close to it. That explains why these robots were built in a shape resembling a spider in the first place. Whoever built them must have chosen that shape because it is the most logical and convenient shape to build an interface to the brain. So I assume that Khalmorot works in the same way. When he is hypnotizing me, he is actually sitting right on my head, like a large spider, and using his seven legs to encircle my brain, so as to get an effective interface. And I also know that he hasn t ever influenced my will directly. So, if I am inclined to do so, I could reach over my head any time, and find the switch right there. That solves almost all of my problems. I can locate him any time I want. Since I can t actually see the
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spider, my fear would be much easier to beat. It would be all very simple. All I need to do is reach up over my head. Of course I would need to search for the switch right under his powerful teeth. I recall that he can hit me with a venom ten times more painful than that of the bullet ant, or another one that kills me in an instant. Somehow I doubt that he would bite me with his rewarding happiness drug if I am trying to switch him off. Maybe I should just get myself a nice motorbike helmet, making it difficult for him to get any access to my brain. If I wanted to be aggressive as well, I could build a helmet with some small mines placed on the outside, which would deliver a strong electric current on detonation, frying his circuits. Lets try that out, shall we? I think. * Keeping one hand with its palm facing upwards right over my head, ready to find the switch, I tell myself I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed, I am very relaxed I am not at all relaxed. This is the final showdown with the evil alien robot, the big hairy invisible spider, which will be sitting right on my head, if my theory is
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right. But Khalmorot shows up anyway a couple of moments later. Hi Tony, says the hypnotist. He has decided to show up looking exactly like me. He even has one hand placed on his head, palm upwards. And on that head, I see a large hairy spider, hugging the head with its seven legs. The hand on the head is completely covered with the spiders body. Nice thinking on the switch, the hypnotist says. Want to give searching for the switch a try? I feel a weight on my hand. It feels exactly like I would expect it to feel if a real spider the size of my head were sitting there. At the tip of my middle finger, I feel its teeth, deadly and ready to pounce at any moment. But with my index finger, I feel the switch. All I need to do is flip it. This is my big chance. And, just as I said I would, I dont flip it. I retract my hand from my head and see that the hypnotist mirrors that move. See? I say. I wasnt going to flip it. Just as I said. Yes, he answers. Of course, I might have just set you up with an illusion. It would have been foolish to make things so easy for you. Maybe, I say. Or maybe not. Theres no way I could know. Though I suspect it was real. There could
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be some other robots in your spaceship who could switch you right back on, or copy your data from the backup database on some other hardware instead, I suppose. On a spaceship the size of Mount Fuji, there must be more robots than one. Excellent, he says. You really are smart as well as lucky. So what about you helping out with bringing out the message? You said you would think about it, I say. Ive decided against it, for the time being. But I wont be working against you either. For the next couple of decades, humanity is on its own. I have decided that it makes for the best entertainment to just watch if you are stupid enough to scorch your planet without any influence on either side, he answers. I am not convinced that this helps our odds much. Humans are stupid. But its always better than having Khalmorot running around hypnotizing human leaders into burning the fossil fuel, as he used to do. I see, I say. Thanks for the Creator Database Interface and the mind-reading screen. What about them? You may be able to use those gadgets from time to time. But dont count on them. They might work, or not work. Youll never know. By the way, you
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dont need a Creator Database Interface to write something, you can do that on your own, even if it takes some more time. The dagger is a normal letter opener from now on, he answers. Well, I guess this is it. It has been a pleasure doing business with you, I say. Yes. Youre on your own from now on. But remember that your life is on the line as well. You will see civilization collapse in your life time if you fail to bring the message out. Good luck, he says, and is gone. This time for good, I assume. * As I wake up out of my trance, I look at my desk. I see the dagger lying there, proof that this whole story has not been just one long wild dream. I notice some small changes. The last time I saw it, it was completely black. Now, it is decorated with ten diamonds at the crossguard, the part between the grip and the blade. Both the grip and the blade are now golden. It looks as if a lot of gold was used in making it. I have a look at Wikipedia and find out that golden art daggers were in use throughout history as ornamental artifacts. Some were left in the tomb of Tutenkhamon.
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If I ever wanted to sell this art dagger, it would obviously be worth a fortune. Thank you for this parting gift, I say to myself. And I also like the fact that this dagger wont be penetrating any parts of my body in the future. So, where does this leave me with that global warming crisis and my need to bring out the message? For one, since the hypnotist won t show up again, his threats of torturing me with replays of extremely unpleasant experiences from his database are now a thing of the past. If I choose to do so, I can just go back to largely ignoring the issue. I am rather busy at my job, actually. Did I mention that I love my job? But then, he told me that I would see the collapse of civilization from global warming within my lifetime. His predictions are credible to me. He was spot on with the prediction of Arctic ice levels this summer. Having civilization collapse would be bad for business. I also realize that, for the first time, humanity has a chance. Until now, we were under hypnotic influence when burning all the fossil fuel. Now, that is gone for at least a couple of decades. That is progress, and I am the one who has achieved it. Let it be known to humanity that Tony Paraponi, owner of the Paraponi Magic corporation, single-handedly stopped the alien hypnotist
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Khalmorot from inflicting more damage by his brave challenge and extremely clever fighting strategy. Im kind of proud. I still dont have much hope. I know that humans are stupid. Khalmorot cant have hypnotized everyone, there are too many of us around. We might be quite dumb enough on our own to burn all the fossil fuel. But, as long as there is a chance left, I will join the fight. Maybe the collapse of civilization can be held back for another century, which would solve the problem for me. And I am not scared by the odds, which seem unfavorable to me right now. I am, after all, the luckiest person on Earth. * Two years later, burning fossil fuel for any purpose is illegal everywhere on the planet. People have figured out that there is simply no other interest that is worth more than avoiding heating up Earth like Venus. The few remaining holdouts who insist on longing for the old times are less popular than cold sores. I didnt contribute ever so much to that. Of course, I did speak out whenever I had a chance and was one
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of the first leaders to make this a central cornerstone of my Internet presence. Every page the Paraponi Magic servers deliver to anyone (and we deliver rather many) contained a call to make burning fossil fuel illegal. But the main influence came from the fossil fuel companies themselves. They finally understood that it is bad business for them to burn these extremely valuable resources. If gold was a fuel, would people burn it? Of course not. If oil was much more expensive than any form of renewable energy, would people burn it? Of course not. They would use it only as a raw material in the organic chemistry industry. And it was very easy for the fossil fuel industry to make oil (and other fossil fuels) much more expensive. All they needed to do was reduce their drilling activities by a large factor, leaving more of the precious stuff in the ground for future generations. The increase in prices sent the value of their mining rights up in the stratosphere. There was never a better time to hold fossil fuel stock. I made quite a killing myself. Once the fossil fuel companies were on board, the rest was easy. They got word out to their lobbyists
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that things have changed. Politicians got the message very quickly, which is only to be expected with the vast sums of money these lobbyists throw around. With the speed things were moving, sometimes I suspected that the hypnotist had helped things along somewhat. He said that we would be on our own, but I was not always sure that was true. He does have an interest in keeping up the suspense for his Heat Games show, after all. As a symbolic measure, the Kyoto treaty was formally abandoned. Since no one burned any fossil fuel anymore anyway, there was no more need for it. Energy got much more expensive, too. People accepted that, since they placed a higher value on the survival of the planet Earth than a couple of dollars in increased energy cost. And that got the energy efficiency business really exploding, creating vast numbers of jobs and fueling the economy to a boom everywhere. It makes sense to save energy when it gets more expensive. The need for building the new renewable energy infrastructure of course also contributed to this worldwide economic miracle. The latest reports say that civilization is unlikely to collapse in the next century. The jury is still out on what will happen after that. But, again, that solves the problem for me.

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After that little global warming problem was solved, I could concentrate again completely on the Paraponi Magic company. Did I mention that I love my job? And I made a killing from my investment in fossil fuel company stock. My net worth has gone up by a factor of nine in the last two years. * When I wake up from my trance, my eyes focus on my desk. I have started to add some self-hypnosis to my daily midday break routine. I look at the golden art dagger lying on my desk, the only thing that remains from my adventure. Then I take my midday nap, and I have no dreams at all.

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AFTERWORD
There are a couple of reasons I wrote this novel. The first idea came from viewing a talk Bruce Schneier gave at TED.1 He discussed the gap between perception of risk and real risk. That is very interesting for me, because I think that many people dont understand the enormity of the danger of global warming. And I think that Schneiers theory can help understand why that is so. He explains that perception of risk has evolved like everything else in a long process of evolution. Schneier gives the example of a rabbit eating some grass and hearing a predator. If the rabbit bolts too early, he wont have time to eat enough. If he flees too late, he will be eaten by the predator. Therefore, having a good sense of risk is an advantage in this game of evolution.

Bruce Schneier, The security mirage, April 2011, klenz.de/1170.

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Unfortunately, humans have lived for most of their history out in the jungle. Therefore, our perception of risk is not optimized for the radically different environment civilization has blessed us with. In the jungle, it makes sense to fear individual threats from large predators nearby. If there is a tiger approaching, you better run faster than some other human who will be his dinner. In the jungle, it would not make much sense to worry about an abstract threat with no individual face to it. That means that humans tend to underestimate the threat from a very slow and very abstract development like global warming. We are not wired to perceive this kind of threat correctly. I think that global warming is an extremely serious danger. I might lead to Venus syndrome, a term used by James Hansen.2 He is the NASA scientist I am talking about in the book. That is a runaway greenhouse effect out of control of human technology that will heat up the planet by several hundred degrees, destroying all life on Earth. The result would be exactly the same as if a 500 kilometer large asteroid hit. The video by NHK I am
See chapter 10 of James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren, The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, 2009, k-lenz.de/a002.
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talking about in the book is real and can be found here.3 It would only take some more time. But I find that not yet everyone has got that message. And I think some part of the reason is that humans are wired by evolution to perceive threats as stronger when they have an individual face. So, what I wanted to do with this novel is give global warming a face, and a name: Khalmorot. I then used a secret technique I am going to keep for myself (okay, I admit it, I used the Creator Database Interface) to write the book in a couple of weeks. I had two other works in mind when writing this novel. One is the last chapter in Hansen s Storms of my Grandchildren, 4 where he presents a short science fiction story. I wanted to beat that. The other one was Jules Vernes book about buying the North Pole5 mentioned in the novel. I wanted to beat that as well. Of course, it is mainly for other people to judge if I was successful in reaching those goals. But I personally am quite convinced that I have been.
NHKKyodai inseki shoutotsu simulation (Simulation of the impact of a big asteroid), 2007, klenz.de/a001. 4 See footnote 2 above. 5 Jules Verne, Topsy-Turvy, 1889, Gutenberg Project edition 2003, k-lenz.de/1171.
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This is of course a work of fiction, so not everything in it is real. Here are a couple of pointers on what is real, and what is fiction in this book. Global warming is very real, and very dangerous. It is really a dumb strategy for fossil fuel companies to try to sell as much of the treasure as fast as possible. They should really be on the side of the environmentalists, since it makes their deposits much more valuable if prices go up by selling much less. If global meltdown proceeds unchecked, there will be really a lot of people making a lot of money from the collapse of civilization, starting with the Arctic ice. And a company making equipment for offshore mining in the Arctic would be a reasonable candidate for investing if one is interested in getting a lot of leverage in the short term. However, the Kraftsaft AG in the novel doesnt really exist. Anybody who would want to buy a piece of the North Pole would need to do their own research. What I wrote about Russian exploration efforts is true, though. Of course, while it might not be obvious to the reader, all I wrote about Khalmorot and his Heat Games is completely true as well. I know. He has talked to me in my dreams. If I fail in bringing out the message of this book, I will suffer a terrible fate at his hands. You cant possible let that happen (please),
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so I really would like people to help me out here and spread the word. While the above statement does sound somewhat unbelievable, the alternative is even more so. Humanity cant be possibly stupid enough to burn all the fossil fuel without the influence of an evil alien hypnotist. It has been a lot of fun writing this. And I think the result is my best novel ever. Which is of course not saying much, since it is also the first novel I ever wrote. All my previous books have been non-fiction. Special thanks go to James Altucher for his post about the joys and merits of self-publishing,6 and for his pointing me to Createspace.com, where I have published a book about one of the possible real world solutions to global warming last month. It is called Energy from the Mongolian Gobi desert. Like this book, it is available both as a free download under a Creative Commons license and as a print on demand version for $10 at k-lenz.de/2. Unlike this book, the Creative Commons license I used for that project doesnt allow derivative works. For this little story, I would be pleased to hear that
James Altucher, Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish a Book, Tech Crunch, January 28th, 2012, k-lenz.de/1169.
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someone who knows this fiction writing stuff better than me would get out some other version. I think global warming needs an individual face and a name, so that people start getting afraid at the appropriate level. Since I don t have much artistic talent, it would also be nice if people could come up with some good pictures or drawings of a large spider with seven legs and two blue eyes twice the size of human eyes. I would be thrilled to see anyone beat my own efforts. Therefore, this novel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution7 NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. As a way of attribution I request users to kindly link back to my blog post publishing this book, which is found at k-lenz.de/3. I have been writing for about one year about the global warming crisis at Lenz Blog, which is found at the address k-lenz.de/1. There I discuss ideas of how to actually deal with the crisis, with a special focus on the idea of large scale renewable energy projects in the Mongolian Gobi desert.

Creative Commons, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 3.0 Unported License, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karl-Friedrich Lenz is a Professor of German and European Law at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. He blogs about issues of climate change and renewable energy at Lenz Blog, found at k-lenz.de/1. This is his first fiction book; his latest non-fiction book is Energy from the Mongolian Gobi desert.

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