Genius at Risk

When I woke up from my coma, I knew that I was the most intelligent person on Earth.

I also knew that I had only 12 minutes to live.

But it is apparent that I survived, which you may find rather obvious as you read these words. And it is a good thing that I am alive, too, for I have already ended war and brought global peace, cured many incurable diseases, and discovered amazing laws of science, physics, and mathematics.

But let me not bore you with my numerous exploits as the Smartest Man in the World, for they are so redundantly wholesome and virtuously patriotic as to dull even my enhanced mental senses. Let me rather tell you about how I came to be the Smartest Man in the World, and how I survived the resulting effects.

I had worked for a very long while at an organization that experimented with the brain: neurons, nerves, cerebral aerobics and such. The organization had already created a system that could read many simple thoughts of the mind, identify feelings like anger and happiness, and even stimulate the mind to perform certain actions with increased intensity for limited amounts of time. They worked with the human brain, trying to discover how it worked, and trying to cure diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

But soon they came across a startling discovery: that it was possible to make a man smarter. To be precise, they found that the neuronic brain-paths in the human mind could be stimulated to such a point that they worked permanently faster and more efficiently, by as much as 330%.

This was incredible news. The company I worked for immediately strived to achieve this goal, now that they knew it was possible. They experimented without rest, perhaps for the greater good, or perhaps for their own selfish purposes of fame and fortune. But once a group of human minds have set themselves towards a goal, however small those minds may be in comparison to mine, they will find a way to achieve that goal. And they did.

They figured out how to enhance the brain, and they made a machine for that purpose. But everything comes with a price. The price of the machine was a small chance of total brain death. I knew this going into the machine. It was the risk I took.

But contrary to what you may be thinking, I was not the first to use the machine. Sadly, I was the sixth. The other five did not survive.

Using the data from the five unfortunate ones who didn't make it through the process, they upgraded the machine until they were sure that it would work. They promised me that I would be rich, they promised me that I would be famous. As unethical as it may seem, I took the chance. Would you not take that same chance to be the smartest man in the world?

I used the machine. It was made up of a complex and intricate jungle of wires and tubes, all connected to my head. I was terrified.

When the operators flipped the switch, I felt energy surge through my brain. It was an indescribable feeling, like my brain was swelling and shrinking at the same time. And then- a vigorous surge of sharp pain, creeping slowly through my whole head. I screamed for the operators to stop the machine, but once the process had started, there was no going back.

I remember darkness sweeping over me, with tiny specks of light piercing through the shadows into the deepest parts of my head, and exploding into brilliant colors. But darkness overcame me, and I remembered no more.

They later told me that I was in a coma for several days. They decided to stop using the machine until I either woke up or died. And it looked for a while that it would be the latter of the two options. But something in my mind struggled for life, something unnaturally intelligent, something smarter then any person on the face of the Earth. And after a fierce struggle from that speck of life, I woke up.

I remember being alone. I gave a sharp yell, and fell off of the bed that I was lying in. For a while I couldn't see at all, and then I started to see faintly, as if through distorted glass. I began to think. Using my newly enhanced mind, I could think faster then I ever imagined. It was like time was slowed down. And I realized that there was so much more for us to learn!

I felt like a child, learning so much about the world around me all at once, discovering new facets of nature at an astonishing rate.

My reflexes were faster, as was my vision. My brain could now process images and information 330% faster then before. I felt amazing. But then it hit me- something that I hadn't thought of before- something that no one had foreseen-

My brain was decaying 330% faster as well.

And it was worse then that. If my brain decayed at that fast of a rate, then my brain cells could not be repaired at the speed that they were aging. If I lost brain cells, it would speed up the process even more. I would die at an exponential rate.

Using my powerful mind, I quickly calculated that I had 12 minutes before I lost too many brain cells and went past the point of no return. It seemed hopeless. We hadn't thought of a solution for that, and how could I think of one in 12 minutes?

Then I began to laugh. My brain power had been enhanced! I could find a solution with my super-fast mind! Perhaps it would be impossible for a regular human, but nothing was impossible to me anymore.

I immediately set my mind to work on the task. It didn't take long for me to find the solution. I could rewire the machine in a special way, known only to me, and resolve the issue by enhancing my whole nervous system. I quickly got to work.

I didn't even stop to look at the clock, I was so busy working. It seemed to take a long time, but I rewired the machine, with only 2 minutes to spare. I strapped myself to the machine, flipped the switch, and it worked!

So that is the story of how I came to be the Smartest Man in the World. I did receive my fame and fortune, although I quickly discovered that money and popularity were not the purpose of life. I prefer to help out wherever I am most needed, and be a friend to everyone. You may wonder why others have not used the machine, why all of humanity has not been made more intelligent. The reason why this has not happened is because, with my amazing mind, I foresaw the severe consequences of what would happen if we let the public use the machine. There are far too many egotistical, pig-headed figures in society, who would try to keep the rest of society from using the machine, while with their smarter minds, would secretly conquer the world. Needless to say, I destroyed the machine and it's supplimentary blueprints, so that no one except me knows how to make it. I prefer to be the solitary Smartest Man in the World.

I always like to think back to this story, about how I became smarter and used that ability to save my own life that was endangered by becoming smarter. I guess it was the risk I took.