Contest - Page 5

Bernadett Sági

Our world is way different from the world my grandparents lived in. The Big Change happened in those years when my parents were born. They don’t really remember what life was like before. The children born after them don’t even know as much as they do. The whole world changed, and everybody’s life turned to its opposite. It was a new technological invention that caused it. It looks like a contact lens, but you can’t just take it out or put it in. We got it when we were born, and everybody has one in their left eye. It’s invisible if you look at someone; people can see only their own lenses. My grandfather says that it looks like when you play a video game and you are the character in it. You have a tab or whatever floating on your side. In this tab a lot of ‘buttons’ appear with different names on them, and you can choose where you want to go. For example, if you select the one with the word ‘plaza’ on it, you can go to the biggest plaza you’ve ever seen. It’s not real, so we are not teleporting or anything like that. It’s more like a virtual world. We are in our body, doing everything we want. We are not controlled. There’s no difference between reality and these worlds, but you can tell which is the ‘original’ one; you can feel it, but it is really hard to decide. The tab does not disturb your eyesight, because you can swipe it away by only thinking of it. You control it with your brain and your thoughts. How cool is that!

I don’t really understand how anybody could live without the lens. It makes our life easier, and that’s what the State wanted too: to make our lives more comfortable. There are worlds for having fun and worlds with different landscapes. You can go from one to another easily and fast. Of course, you can also go to these places without using your lens, but who would do that? It takes more time and effort; because of this, people don’t travel anymore. With my friends Ryan and Beth we always meet in these virtual places when we are not at school. Ryan is more outgoing than Beth and me. He enjoys jumping between worlds very much and always invites us too. People who are older rarely use it and say that it’s useless and stupid. They think it’s pointless, and they rebelled many times when the lenses were invented. They said that it controls and brainwashes us. I didn’t believe them. I also heard that a lot of people went crazy at the beginning. They didn’t know which was the real world and which was the virtual. I always thought that these were just made-up tales that my grandpa told me, because he was against the lenses and the State because it invented it. You can’t die in virtual worlds, so when you jump off of a cliff or even drive into a wall with a car, you don’t have to worry about what will happen to you. But luckily you’re not doing it in your original world.

The days went on, and I didn’t see either Ryan or Beth for a long time because we were on school break. A lot of new worlds were created, and I tried a few of them and found a new favorite. I was there with my mom. This is a world where it is always summer; there are festivals and beaches, swimming pools and aquaparks everywhere you go. There are booths where you can buy ice cream, snacks and anything you want. There are colorful beach umbrellas standing in the sand. I enjoyed being there, especially because it was fall and I don’t really like that time of year.

Soon the break was over, and we went back to school. Everything was ordinary. One day I was talking with Beth in front of the school when Ryan came along. He stopped next to us, said hello. He was a bit strange, constantly looking around. He said that he was busy, so he went toward the school.  We didn’t worry about his being different. Maybe he had just had a very strange school break. We didn’t see him for the rest of the day. The next morning when I went to school, I saw something strange on the roof. I didn’t recognize it at first, but it was a person standing there. It wasn’t just a random person; it was Ryan. I ran to the door and opened it as fast as I could. I ran upstairs, went up to the roof. Ryan was in front of me. He noticed me and turned around. He was smiling, but I didn’t know why. I couldn’t think of anything but to stop him from what he was going to do.

“Ryan, what are you doing here?” I asked. He was still smiling when he answered.

“Just trying something new. I have always wanted to know how crazy it feels,” he said and turned back.

“Ryan, don’t! It’s a really bad idea. What are you thinking?” I asked him. I was really confused. I didn’t know why he was doing that. He didn’t seem sad or anything.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be okay,” he said and jumped into the nothing. I was standing there and didn’t really know what I saw. I was shocked and probably not moving for minutes, just looking at the point where Ryan had been standing a few moments ago. The next minutes or hours—I don’t know how much time passed—were very hazy. My next clear memory is of sitting on my bed. So here I am, staring at the wall and thinking about what was happening. Ryan. He jumped off the roof. But why? He had no reason to do it. Then I realized why he was weird and why he did what he did. He thought that he was still in a virtual world. Everything my grandpa told me was true. Everything. And I didn’t believe him. But now … now I do. I believe everything. The lenses are not for us; they are against us. They control us even if we don’t feel it. The State is lying to us. They say that they want us to live an easy life. But it’s not the truth; they don’t want us to live a normal life. They did this to Ryan. My train of thoughts was interrupted by the pain I felt when I ripped my contact lens out.

Lilla Kassai

Have you ever wanted to own a dragon? Are you a fan of Eragon, Game of Thrones, or How To Train Your Dragon? Do you like magical fantasy books, or fantasy worlds with all types of mythical creatures? Now, it’s possible even to own them, because now, dragons are real.

The process of bringing them to reality was extremely long, and criticized by  GreenPeace activists. It was a mutation between lizards, iguanas, geckos and various sizes of bats. Since only bats have wings made out of leather that could possibly look good on a dragon, scientists made a fetus out of a regular bat’s and a Armadillo lizard’s genes.  

The results weren’t the same, as we originally expected: the first few fetuses weren’t capable of living, but later on, they became stronger and stronger. The first dragons that could use their wings for flying were approximately the 20th experimental fetuses. As they grew older, a few more problems occurred: they weren’t capable of reproduction, so their offspring were still made in incubators.

The thirtieth generation of the experimental dragons was the first that finally became fertile and could use their wings for flying. The first dragons that could be kept in a household were finally circulating on the common market, as pets. But the dragon fans wanted more: bigger dragons that could be ridden.

The scientists accepted their challenge: they took a few hundred of the dragon prototypes and brought them into the laboratory again, where the new mixing of the genes began: the genes of a dragon mixed with the genes of varanus and crocodile, to make them grow bigger with stronger and thicker skin.

The first experimental fetuses weren’t the best ones: their wings were too small to bear the weight of the bigger dragons, so they tried again with the bats, but even the biggest species didn’t have wings big enough to enable the new mutant to fly. The final solution seemed to be the genes of a dinosaur, more specifically a Pteranodon. The result was better than the expectation. The new prototypes of dragons were bigger and could fly and reproduce, so their offspring could give better genes for the next mutation with the smaller species of dragons. After mixing their genes, and adding some pigments to them, they started to form different subspecies. To make the evolutionary process faster, the scientists started to make artificial dragon babies, because the mutants, who were now finished, weren’t as prolific as desired.

As soon as the dragons were ready, they were out on the market, but the big ones were extremely expensive and required lots of space, so they were given to farmers, who started breeding them in open air, where the animals were a lot happier than in a science lab.

A few of them still escaped. They mainly flew to mountain forests in the North, where their thick skin protected them from the cold. They lived in the mountains of Siberia, where you can rarely find a human. Just the raw savage and endless forest.

Deniz Pala

Dear Mum and Dad,

I need money.

I’m sorry for the lack of communication ever since my arrival at this fancy boarding school. The honest truth is I haven’t been adjusting well and was embarrassed to tell you all about it, especially my academic performance, considering how much you value it. The classwork is very difficult here and I felt like despite being the hardest working person I saw, I always ended up with the lowest grades. Well, I’m writing to you now because I figured out how that happened.

Thanks to my drawing skills and a group project in arts class, I ended up being invited to the dorm room of a girl in my class named Alyssa. Her roommate Becca was also there, studying by reading her textbook aloud while were drawing on Alyssa’s side of the room. About half an hour in, I spotted Becca pulling out a diffuser. I didn’t see what she put in it, but was excited for the room to smell a bit nicer, if I’m being honest. 

Skip forward half an hour, the room smelled worse, when Becca suddenly called out my name to ask me… to describe the relationship between appearance and reality as described by Pluto, Russell and Descartes. And I started answering.

As you know, I don’t take philosophy. I don’t like philosophy. I could’ve sworn I had never heard those names before, let alone their ideas. And yet there I was going on about them with all the details, like I was… reading from a textbook.

After having a good long laugh, thanks to whatever facial expressions I was pulling, they explained it all to me.

What Becca put in wasn’t an essential oil, it was the voice recording she made while reading her textbook. The “diffuser” converted the sound into a smell. The sense with the weakest link to memory to the one with the strongest. That’s why they simply called it a “converter.” Two men made it for their son who had a condition that made it especially difficult for him to memorize things for school. When he started at this school, the other parents tracked the diffusers down and pushed until they began mass-producing them. Although knowledge of this product stayed within a very elite group of people, the two men became rich, and the school the hardest in the country, as the students just kept getting good grades no matter how much more material the school put in the curriculum.

And that is why I need money, and lots of it, if you insist on keeping me at this school.

With sincere appreciation,

Your lovely daughter Max

Ahmet Yavuz Kaya

It’s a story about a crazy scientist grandfather and Jimmy, his grandchild.

Jimmy: Grandpa! Please do my science homework!

Grandpa: Jimmy, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t enter my workshop without my permission. I almost broke my new invention.

Jimmy: What is that helmet, Grandpa? It looks like a coke box on a helmet.

Grandpa: Well, I call It Muter3000. In a simple way, it’s something like a real-life mute, like you young people do on social media, but if I have to explain in a more scientific way—

Jimmy: No, I don’t need to know any more.

Grandpa: Aaa! You younglings’ impatience has made me a misanthrope! At least listen to what you asked for.

Jimmy: Fine…

Grandpa: Then, it propagates waves in a 10-meter radius to people’s brains in that area and prevents their brain’s communication and pattern recognition areas from making any movement or contact related to the person who wears it. So I don’t have to deal with people when I am not in a good mood.

Jimmy: But if there are some  people whom I want to exclude from the blocking, what will happen?

Grandpa: Did you really think that I never thought of that? Well, Jimmy, as you said before, that part which resembles the “coke box,” it’s a biological filter that you have to put something into, like a few hair strands, etc. For example, if Nietzsche were resurrected somehow with science, and if I put in the filter some piece of his cool mustache that was stolen from his coffin, I would be able to communicate with him even if I were wearing Muter3000.

Jimmy: Who is Nietzsche, anyway? Never mind, drop it. How did this Muter3000 come into your mind?

Grandpa: Oh, you will see. (He wears the Muter3000 and starts walking toward the door.)

Jimmy: Hey! I thought  you would do my ho— (Jimmy is stunned; he can’t move or appeal to his grandpa.)

At the front of the door, Grandpa smiles and says:

See you later Jimmy, Do your homework by yourself.

Kázmér Kaposvári

Our story begins in the twenty-first century: to be exact, in 2044, where we humans have extended our discovery of horizon to the sky. We have built efficient ships capable of bringing people to other planets.

The only planet we have ventured to so far is Planet Mars, as this seemed to be the best one to conquer because of its similarities to Earth. Because of the vast environment, we have only built homes, habitats, and domes underground. This process took an immense amount of money, resources, and energy. Mostly scientists are living there so far and are constantly battling the problems of the unpredictable red planet, such as the sandstorms that can block light, thus preventing it from reaching the solar panels. For this, small nuclear energy generators are used, but they are not for all eternity, as the storm can even stay on the whole planet for months and, very rarely, years.

A new ship was about to land on one of the landing pads: a small team of scientists was to arrive from a nearly six-month journey in space from Earth. This small team included Jackie, Bill, and Robert. During the long trip, they discussed all the problems and difficulties of space travel: loss of muscle mass, their lack of personal belongings from home, homesickness, the awful solution for toilet usage. They also agreed that the journey they were taking was really the future, but here it took such a long time for everything to happen. Even on the Mars base they could only send short messages and videos back to Earth, and depending on the current orbit of Mars and Earth, it could take hours to get a response from the home planet. This small team of three were technicians whose job was mainly to repair electronics. A few weeks later, a disaster struck the Mars base. The dome where the fruits and vegetables were planted and harvested in quite a great number, had an attack by an unknown disease, and most of the greenery died out. The base had only fifty people at that point, yet a mass destruction of plants like this would have an influence on the overall food supply. The reserved food was estimated to be enough for three weeks, and then slowly all that remained would be consumed until it was all gone.

The morale of the society was disturbed deeply, though everyone knew that the moment they set foot on the ship on Earth, there was no guarantee that they would ever return in one piece. Jackie and his friends were here for only a few weeks, and they already felt the death that was just waiting for them. They also knew that the main problem here was: the time of transportation. Unfortunately, they could not wait for another ship with supplies, as it was many months away. Everyone was trying their best to fix the crisis, but as the days went by, the nights got more difficult to sleep through.

One night the three friends were fixing the long-range transponder system, and they suddenly received a strange transmission from an unknown location from space. It seemed this came from the uncharted regions in the universe. This message they accidently received was more like an instruction for a technology yet to be discovered. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, they were able at least to translate and understand what it was about. Jackie immediately realised that this was the key to the problem. The plans they were seeing were for a strange gate: more exactly, two individual gates connected by a strange phenomenon they did not understand. These gates were able to transport matter from one place to the other in no time. They shared the news with the rest of the base, but as expected, not everyone was pleased by this great plan. Some thought this alien tech was here for a reason and maybe to destroy us. As no one had a better idea and time was running out, they started to build it. Luckily, there were many resources for building, as Jackie’s team, when they arrived, brought some supplies. The plans were also sent to Earth, and the construction has begun.

In a few days after the exhausting hard hours were behind them, it was ready; the only step was just to insert the code provided in the plans for connection. The moment of the new era of space travel stood before them, and they were only a press of a button away from unleashing the great changes of the future, as they all knew what this discovery would do. After activation, just as if through a window, they could see their fellow friends on the other side of the gate. It worked like a simple gate, and they could easily hop from Mars to Earth and vice versa. Jackie and his team received a Nobel prize for their discovery for saving the people on the base, but they were never allowed to speak of the signal they received, nor of anything regarding that matter.

The three friends were rich, but they also wondered what they had brought upon humanity: a bright future, or the end of their civilization by another one.

Gergely Sülye

What is the end-goal of being a human? To live a fulfilling life? To indulge in pleasure? To leave behind a legacy so great that it will be remembered for millennia? The common answer would be that it is all subjective, and our purpose is to find out what we want to do. But we believe there is a unified upper limit to what a person can accomplish in a lifetime, and this destiny is by nature something that every creature strives to achieve. Some may consider it forbidden or blasphemous, but in the end the arms race of humanity is to surpass, or even become, god itself.

Of course this is nearly impossible by conventional means, unless we move the goalpost and redefine what a god is. The ability to do anything, anywhere, and by any means would be enough to make an entity the supreme lifeform in the entire universe. And it just so happens that this doesn’t have to be our own plane of existence. After all, creating a new dimension from scratch is something that should be very well within the capabilities of a god. All of this is in an arm’s reach.

Introducing the means to become the god of your very own world inside the most high-tech commercially available supercomputers. The development of these machines has been completely perfected by artificial intelligence, to the point where even if we simulate a higher intelligence inside of these computers (which, by the way, the user can also do), it won’t be able to produce a higher-performing alternative. Thanks to the revolutionary customer-friendly user interface, anyone can create anything simply by thinking about it.

Want to simulate the real world? Well, not sure why anyone would want to do that, but it is possible! But if you happen to want to alter this copy of the real world to your liking, you can go right ahead!

Perhaps you want to simulate a completely different world of fantasy or an alternate history? It is all possible! Have real relationships, interact with real people, beings, animals, incomprehensible cosmic horrors, anything you can imagine!

And if you somehow run out of imagination, you can try out our marketplace with pre-made situations, worlds, characters, and all kinds of assets produced by our professional staff, updated with fresh content every weekday!

Other alternatives are available, but for full immersion it is required to have a full-interface brain implant to establish the best possible connection between the user and their world. Classes containing information about customer safety procedures are required by law to be taken before usage.

Innovating the future.

Lili Forgács

There was silence when the man in the chimney-pot hat appeared on the stage.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Federico Vespucci and I am going to introduce the invention that will change the world for sure and solve the problem of understanding languages in the easiest way. This is the language-capsule.”

Light applause could be heard at this point. Mr Vespucci wasn’t bothered by the lack of enthusiasm from the audience, and he went on.

“Do you know what it is?” he asked. “It enables you to understand languages that have not been learnt by you before. But this is not all! You could understand what your own pet says, as well. Isn’t it interesting?”

I thought it was, but also creepy. Rather creepy.

“You don’t have to do anything special to use this magnificent, unusual ability, just take one language-capsule. The pill makes some modifications in that part of your brain that is responsible for learning and understanding languages. Your brain will interpret the ‘programmed’ language as a familiar language, and you can then understand the meaning of it.”

It sounded absolutely weird. What if something goes wrong? It would be too risky. Your brain is not a toy. However, the crowd was all ears and listened carefully. I could see on their faces how much the idea appealed to them.

“Twelve types of language-capsule have already been invented, tested and produced. One type enables you to understand only one language. There are capsules specialised in the seven world languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin Chinese. The other five make you understand what the most common pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits and fish) say. I am sure that if there is huge demand for other types, their development will begin.”

Talking with my dog? It’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I know what it says, and I also know that it understands me. I feel it without any pills.

“It sounds amazing, doesn’t it? The idea comes from my little son, who always wants to know what is said if he does not understand it. I know he is not alone. I know you have already felt it at least once in your life.”

The audience started to bestir themselves. They liked the whole intention; they smiled and whispered. They couldn’t wait to get the pills. Mr Vespucci sensed the passion too.

“You can check our website on the Internet if you wish. www.my_language_capsule.com. Your orders can be sent through it, but you can also visit our shop at 23 Kings Street, Washington D.C., USA. I hope I will meet some of you in the near future. Thank you for your attention. Goodbye.”

The crowd broke into loud applause. They believed every word he had spoken. I did not. I tried to leave the room as quickly as possible to escape the brainwashed mass.

Eszter Aletta Hevesi

In every city, regardless of whether it is small or large, there are several portals, generally on the two opposing sides of the settlement, at the ambulance stations, the country’s Parliament, the homes of powerful politicians, and in schools. Of course in major cities they are located in the banks and other important institutions.

But let’s talk about what a portal actually is. It can teleport people, cars and nearly everything, depending on the size of the portal (of course a portal in the bank won’t teleport a truck, just money and people). It helps city life immensely: the citizens don’t need to use the bus, trains or planes, because they can easily commute between cities, counties, even between countries, continents. The ambulance doesn’t need to take a relatively long road to save a person’s life; they use the portal and arrive in a maximum of 10 minutes after the call. I could list a thousand other benefits of this invention, but I think everybody can imagine how useful it really is.

The portal works in a complex way: the person walks into the black hole— which is noticeable from any distance—and types in the destination of his or her journey. If it is a reachable destination from the first teleportation, the system automatically shows it as an offer, but if it isn’t, then it shows the number and the name of the portal the person needs to go through along the way. After he/she chooses a destination, the portal breaks him/her into tiny particles, transfers him/her into the nearest quantum world, and sends him/her to the outportal of the chosen place, builds him/her up again, and extradites him/her to the given city/county/country/continent. To come back to the hometown, we need to take the same steps, because the outportals work as inportals too, depending on where we approach them from.

The portal was invented in 2084 by a woman named Elizabeth Safarg. She was a very intelligent, smart girl since birth, and everybody knew that she was destined for major things in the future. She worked on the portal absolutely alone and received numerous awards in the following years.

She agreed to have an interview with us, and we asked the most popular questions.

—Thank you, Elizabeth, for having us in your house and letting us ask some questions.

—Of course, it’s my pleasure.

—So first of all, congratulations on the awards you got this year, it is wonderful to see that a young talent’s breakthrough work is recognized, which is as it should be, because your invention is everywhere.

—Yes it means a lot for me to compete with my idols in the same field of technology that I have been interested in since middle school.

—How did you get the idea of the Portal?

—When I got into high school, I needed to commute to get anywhere. By commuting I mean at least one hour a day to get to school and back home in the afternoon. It was a big struggle for me, and I knew I was not alone. Unfortunately, my grandpa passed from a seizure because the ambulance could not arrive in time. At that exact moment I knew that a portal would be an amazing invention and would be used by everybody.

—My condolences for your grandpa. How did you start the process of working on the Portal?

—At first I didn’t tell anyone about my plan, because I worried that somebody would try to talk me out of it. I did a lot of research, read a lot of interviews of different inventors and physicists, and tried to make small steps forward after compiling all the information about anything that would help me make the first portal. After that, a long road of failures made me restart the whole process, but I didn’t lose my focus on the original idea.

—And approximately how many times did you need to go back and start over from scratch?

—At least a hundred times; don’t forget that I worked seven years on the first working Portal, which is not even the one that we use today. I had enough time to fail as many times as I wanted. But the 101st time, the Portal worked. I could go from my room to the backyard. Once the machine worked, the only thing I needed to do was experiment with both the distance and the capacity of the portal.

—When did you announce the Portal or even the plan of the portal to your parents?

—Of course when I lived in my parents house, I couldn’t keep it a secret for long; they figured it out pretty quickly but thought that I would give up. When I was very close to my first teleportation, they realized that it was not just a game anymore.

—If you didn’t get any support from anyone, how did you get the components for the Portal?

—I worked at the Component Store for a long time, and they gave me the ones that weren’t selling.

—How did you get the governments and the whole world to use it?

—When I had the final working Portal (which we use today), I took it to the Parliament of Inventions and asked whether they would like to use or try it out, and they said yes, even though they were skeptical. After a few months, they offered me a partnership and a dealership, the first one to be their partner in developing the Portal further, and the second one to sell it to them. I agreed and sold it to them. After two years it appeared in the main countries, and slowly but surely it expanded throughout the world.

—You are just twenty-six now; what are your plans for the future?

—I would like to start a company where I can work with young talents on their inventions and a charity too, to donate to countries that are not developed.

—These are remarkable plans. Thank you for your time and answers! We look forward to your new inventions.

Defne Lal Koçer

Sometimes life comes with many options. You suffocate in thoughts and you can’t pick one. Deeply you want to but you just can’t. There are some scenarios where I have observed people and myself trying to decide something important (maybe the chances of their lives).

You are between two possible life opportunity options;

1. You sit, think, then you suddenly realise what you actually want and you choose.

2. You sit, think, you can’t decide. You go and talk to your family, they convince you, you choose.

3. You sit, think, you can’t decide. You watch a film, the character suffers from the exact same situation as you. You like his/her choice, it influences you, and you do the same thing.

4.You sit, think, you can’t decide. You write everything down, it just makes everything more complicated and you can’t decide or you make the WRONG DECISION.

So, these are some of the scenarios that you can easily observe in people trying to make the decision of their lives. I want to ask you something: what is a WRONG DECISION? How can someone know if they have made the wrong or right decision?

The only way to figure this out is to EXPERIENCE it. Do you regret or are you happy with the decision? That is the way you understand it.

“But no more worries!” I would say if I were an advertiser.

With my invention, people won’t be worrying about regretting or being stressed.

How did this pop into my mind?

A couple weeks earlier, I learned that I had passed an exchange program exam. So I might go, but I can’t decide, so I would love to have this app.

It’s called “lifeconsistsofchoices.” You will upload it to your cell phone. So, how does it work?

Unfortunately the only thing which knows you better than you is your phone (unless you’re a wise person).

It keeps every single detail about you, your life, your passion, your animus, your social interactions, where you live…

This app will offer you two or more blanks into which you will write the options you can’t decide between.

Let me explain with an example:

Let’s say you passed an exchange program exam but you can’t decide whether you should go or not. So you write in the first blank: I GO

Second blank: I STAY

And then, the app does a miracle for you. On your screen, you see your future self doing the first and the second choice. First, you see yourself gone with the program, and you observe yourself. Later, you see yourself when you have stayed.

You can now see where you are happy as you always deserve to be!

The only condition for making this work is that you should have been using that phone for at least a month, as it will need to know you.

If you say “No” to regression and “Yes” to a stress-free, happy life, use the app for just two dollars per month!