Picture Story: Generations

Camille pushed her glasses up a little higher on her nose. It was a nervous habit she had picked up after she started wearing them.

She didn't really need to wear corrective lenses. By the twenty-second century, most vision problems were easily and painlessly corrected with nanosurgery. Wearing eyeglasses was just a fashion statement.

"Foi, are we ready to go?"

"As ready as we will ever be, Boss."

Camille rolled her eyes. "I told you to stop calling me that..."

Foi was the AI that ran the lab. She (Foi had been programmed with a distinctly female personality) was more or less Camille's digital assistant, and provided support for her research. Foi was the one who operated the lab's extensive suite of scanning equipment, which included a state-of-the-art quantum resonance scanner.

In addition, Foi performed the intricate calculations required to carry out the trans-temporal displacement that was crucial to Camille's research. Few humans possessed sufficient grasp of temporal dynamics to carry out such calculations, so for practical applications the work was typically left to AIs.

Oh, and Foi also ran the lab's cameras. Usually, the cameras were used to record Camille's notes as she carried out her research. Today, Foi would be filming a progress report for the organization that was funding said research. Her grant was coming up for renewal soon, and the board of directors wanted proof that their investment was well spent.

Camille smiled at the cambot and launched into her prepared intro. "Greetings! I am Doctor Camille Oduye, Associate Professor of Applied Sociology at the New Berlin Polytecnic Institute. Your organization has been supporting my research project, 'The Role of Inter-Generational Neural Pathway Divergence in the Collapse of Western Democracies in the 21st Century.' The purpose of this report is to apprise your board of directors of my preliminary findings to date, per the terms of my research grant."

She realized that she was still smiling, and adopted a serious expression more suitable for the discussion of scholarly subjects. "Over the course of the 20th century and into the first decades of the 21st, inter-generational divisions - popularly referred to as 'generation gaps' - led to a breakdown of social cohesion in the democracies of the West, particularly the United States of America..."

Camille clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace; the cambot followed her. "My colleagues, Lee Chang and Martina Obregon, have hypothesized that such generational differences were largely the consequence of a public education system that segregated children into age-based peer groups, in which they remained for over a decade as they progressed through school. Within these artificial social cohorts, the members identified more strongly with peers of their own age than with older and younger generations, a phenomenon that caused Western societies to increasingly fracture and succumb to internal divisions by the middle of the 21st century."

She stopped and turned to face the camera. "My own research builds upon their groundbreaking study. I hypothesize that the steadily escalating introduction of new information technologies during the latter decades of the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st introduced palpable changes to neural pathway growth in each successive generation, exacerbating the divisions between age-based social cohorts..."

Camille gestured toward one of the test subjects behind her. "To validate my hypothesis, I have employed the latest trans-temporal displacement technology to secure suitable candidates for neurological analysis from exemplar populations in the past. These candidates are displaced into the present and held in temporal stasis while we perform quantum resonance scans to create detailed maps of their neural pathways..."

Camille was well aware that the members of the board were not academics and thus did not understand most of the technical jargon she was using. She was counting on the fact that laypeople tended to be overawed by big words with a lot of syllables.

She casually strolled over to where another pair of test subjects stood motionless, held in temporal limbo. "These neural maps are employed to create virtual test subjects, which we then use to populate simulations where we can observe their interactions with each other under a wide array of environmental stimuli without any risk to living human subjects..."

She paused and turned to face the cambot again. "Once we have finished scanning these candidates, we return them to the exact moment from which they were temporally displaced. Since they are held in stasis for the duration of their presence here in the lab, they return to the past with no knowledge of our present - their future."

"As a matter of fact, we have just finished scanning these four candidates, and we are ready to restore them to their respective timelines. We will demonstrate the restoration procedure before moving on to examine the interaction of virtual test subjects in one of our simulations." 

Camille resisted the urge to smile. The procedure for returning the test subjects to the past did not really have any bearing on her research project, but laypeople were always impressed by flashy tech. She glanced up at the ceiling and asked, "Foi, have you finished the calculations for trans-temporal displacement?"

"I have, Professor."

"Please initiate the restoration process and send these people home."

The background hum of the machinery rose in pitch as Foi increased the power input to the implausible levels necessary to achieve temporal displacement. The thrum reached a bone-rattling pitch, there was a bright flash of light, and the test subjects were... still there. 

They were naked, but still there.

"Oops..."

"What the fuck do you mean, 'oops'?!" Camille demanded.

"It seems that I inadvertently sent the test subjects' clothing into the past without them."

"I can see that!" Camille barked in response, her voice starting to get a bit shrill.

"My calibrations were slightly off," Foi replied, adopting an apologetic tone.

"Can you fucking recalibrate and send them back? Wait!" Camille paused to consider. If the test subjects suddenly found themselves naked, they would be aware that something had happened to them. That could potentially result in a butterfly effect with unfortunate repercussions for the timeline. "Umm... can you displace them so that they reappear inside their clothing in the exact same instant that it appears?"

"That is possible," Foi replied. She sounded a bit hesitant. "However, to insert a trans-temporal displacement within a previous displacement, I would need to increase chroniton infusion above the recommended safety threshold.  Do I have your verbal authorization to do so?"

"Umm..." 

Shit. Camille had to send these candidates back. If she did not... her project would be over, and possibly her career. Not to mention the possibility that failing to return them to the past could cause a temporal paradox that might unravel reality itself.

Camille took a deep breath to steady herself. "Yes, I give you authorization to increase the chroniton infusion above the recommended safety threshold."

"Authorization logged," Foi replied. "Recalculating the displacement parameters now..."

Camille bit her lower lip as she waited anxiously for the AI to finish the calculations. Finally, after five minutes...

"Calculations complete. Shall I initiate trans-temporal displacement?"

"Yes," Camille affirmed. "Proceed."

The hum of the machinery began to rise in pitch again. An alarm started chiming. A few seconds later, sparks began to fly from the trans-temporal pads.

"I am detecting a catastrophic buildup of chronitons in the feedback buffer," Foi announced. 

"ABORT!" Camille screamed.

It was too late. There was a blinding flash of light, followed by sudden silence as the high-pitched whine of the trans-temporal generators cut off abruptly.

Camille blinked away the spots in front of her eyes, and gasped at what she saw. "What the fuck happened?!"

"According to my scans, the test subjects have been converted into pure chronitite."

"Fuck..." 

Chronitite was a form of exotic matter that was not subject to the normal passage of time. As a consequence of existing in a state of temporal discontinuity, chronitite acted as a perfect thermal and electrical superconductor and was not subject to radioactive decay. It was virtually indestructible, and had many potential uses that would greatly benefit humankind.

Unfortunately, since chronitite was created by bombarding temporally-displaced organic matter with chronitons, and there was no known way to restore chronitite to its original state, its very creation could result in a reality-altering temporal paradox. For that reason, the creation of chronitite was strictly prohibited under the law.

Camille held her breath, as if she expected reality to come crashing down around her any second... or perhaps the authorities to break down the door to her lab and arrest her. Neither event happened. 

She slowly released her breath and pondered. No way to restore chronitite to its original state was known in the present... some day, science might discover a method of restoring these test subjects to life and sending them back where they came from. Doing so would prevent any paradox from occurring.

The fact that reality had not blinked out of existence suggested that such a method would, in fact, be discovered some day, and these test subjects would eventually be restored and sent back. Right? 

Camille could not see anything wrong with her logic. All she had to do was make sure nothing bad happened to these test subjects in the meantime.

"Umm... Foi?"

"Yes, Boss?"

"Summon a maintenance drone to move these test subjects to a secure storage vault..."