I grew up in a wealthy family but my parents were not around, always busy making money. I went to one of the top universities to earn their love. I got a PhD in neuroscience at Harvard at age 19, the youngest Harvard graduate in history. After my first wife left me for my friend I locked myself out of life and devoted myself to science. I became the driving force in the field of human brain research.
I started by helping people with depression and anxiety, the biggest market in the US obviously. I formulated a groundbreaking drug to treat them. Multiple iterations and side effects of this drug were that it was pumping endorphins into the brain, making our brain high so our brains felt pleasure. In order not to make people high all the time my team made adjustments, added another component that would make the drug not last more than 5min, otherwise people would be taking more and more and be high all the time.
After 5 years, black market labs reverse-engineered the drug and took out the component so people could buy a modified version of the drug that would stimulate the brain all the time. Imagine that; you don’t have to win the lottery, you don’t have to have sex, buy expensive stuff, achieve anything or be recognized – your brain will get endorphins all the time. Cheap. Real cheap.
Most people were getting paid Universal Basic Income because of the rise of robotics. In the beginning only poor people were taking the drug. Then middle class. Wealthy people would get different variations of the drug that would stimulate certain parts of the brain mimicking specific pleasure types. After 10 years, 80% of population was high all the time. They stopped working, stopped going out, stopped achieving anything, stopped reproducing, they just lay in the bedroom day in, day out.
After 20 years, most of the world had this drug. Now I’m 80 years old and I don’t remember when I last saw a real person. Just robots and empty streets.
My name is Ark and I destroyed humanity.