A story exploring time travel and societal issues in the wake of 9/11. This is chapter 14. See previous posts for chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
The first Federation Assembly was convened at a karaoke bar on Chicago's west side. TAP and NIS associates from across the country occupied the better part of a nearby hotel. The mood was one of building anticipation. T2 stood near the stage in the bar, waiting for Thomas to introduce him.
"... And now," said Thomas. "I give you my future self from another timeline. Old Thomas, or as you know him, T2!"
Taking the stage, grabbing the microphone, T2 wished his younger self hadn't improvised that last bit. "Hi everyone," he began. "Glad you could all make it. I've brought you all here to celebrate the creation of the Anything Federation Blockchain's Genesis Block. Does anyone know what that means?"
"It's the ledger?" said someone in the crowd. "Our unified ledger."
"That's right, Reed," said T2. "Our unified public ledger. And the TAP Token. That'll become important in ten years. But instead of jumping ahead to the future, consider the recent past."
T2 paused, noticing a camera pointed his way. "Prescott Bush was a Nazi collaborator," he said. "The current president belonged to a secret society called Skull and Bones. Some say The Bilderberg Group is secretly in control of society. Others say a transnational superclass of influential individuals runs the show."
The audience had gone from casual to attentive. "There may be truth to all of that," continued T2. "The elite may drink together at Bohemian Grove, but they cannot control everything. The world is simply too big. Too deep. And we can thrive in those depths."
A glass shattered by the bar and the room fell briefly silent. T2 shrugged and went on. "What we're doing, together, is creating new options for the future," he said. "Giving people a chance to live their own dreams, not the dreams imposed on them by central planners. Instead of playing their game, we're inventing something new. Something better."
"I have a question," came a man's voice from the back of the room. "How did you predict the tsunami?"
"I did issue a thirty day warning about that, yes," said T2. "Unfortunately, almost no one paid attention."
"Nina Debs, Chicago Post," said a woman near the front. "Mr Barabos, what is your net worth and where did your fortune come from?"
"There'll be time for more questions at the end," said T2. "The point I was getting around to making is that all of us, together, are in uncharted territory with this endeavor. As you meet one another for the first time, you might find that you have little in common with each other. It's true that many of you are artists and many others are in tech. But TAP has also provided funding for activists, home buyers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and of course, Food Not Bombs."
"Wooo, Food Not Bombs!" came a cheer from the center of the room.
T2 smiled broadly. "Since some of you are wondering, my money comes from the markets," he said. "Stocks. Commodities. Currencies. I'm amassing quite a fortune. My whole plan is to pull as much money as I possibly can out of Wall Street, and to use these funds to finance important work, like the work that you all do. Some of you help people meet their basic needs. Some of you make things with your hands. Some of you add to humanity's shared base of knowledge or its vast tapestry of artistic expression."
"In other words, all of us here bring something unique to the table," continued T2. "There are cultural and religious and political differences between us. But we're connected by our Federation. Like in Star Trek. Only without the uniforms. And with it still being okay to smoke."
T2 had been hoping someone would laugh at that but no one did. He pressed on. "The Anything Federation Blockchain will connect our national network in a new way, by serving as a single source of irrefutable truth when it comes to agreements or financial transactions," he said. "Every dollar that passes through TAP will be mirrored with tokens on this blockchain, including grant payments. Grant recipients will be encouraged to create accounts and claim tokens along with their legacy system payments. Unclaimed tokens will go into a common fund. In the future, use of this common fund will be controlled by a participatory network governance process."
The audience was mystified. That was fine, thought T2. None of what he'd just said would be important this year or next. The idea was to start getting them used to the concepts and language. Trish and Thomas returned to the stage and they opened the floor to questions.
A man T2 didn't know took the microphone first. "I just wanna say," began the man. "That 9/11 was an inside job. Jet fuel can't melt steel beams!"
This received a few claps of applause. The man handed the microphone to the reporter from earlier. T2 prepared for the worst. "Mr Barabos, how many properties do you own?" she asked.
"I honestly don't know," he replied. "Is that seriously what you find interesting here?"
"Seriously, I'm wondering where you came from," said the reporter. "The earliest record of you I can find is 2001."
"I came from the Midwest and my private life is private," said T2.
"Have you ever been married?" asked the reporter. "Do you have kids?"
"No and you've used up all your questions," said T2.
Grudgingly, the reporter handed the mic over to a woman named Cherish that T2 had met in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. "Hi," she started. "So every node has a website and a blockchain ledger and a physical space to maintain, right? But what happens if you go belly up after we've done all that work?"
"All official nodes are funded through 2011," said T2. "There's plenty of time between now and then to consider that problem."
A man T2 recalled from Boise took the mic. "I want to know what you're doing to prevent TAP grants from going to illegal immigrants," he said. "Immigrants and terrorists."
"As you know, the application process is the same for everyone," said T2. "And we comply with all legal requests from the authorities. Node operators are responsible for verifying grant applicant information. Though, considering your comments as a node operator, I'm wondering now if we need a better policy."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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