On March 17, 2022, Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a “nine-minute video message” directed to Russians talking about the War in Ukraine. DW News reported at the time that there were many “Whataboutism” comments dealing with the US’s involvement in Iraq and Syria in reply to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s post.
 
This social media war got the ire up of Razin Rustem Olegovich, also known as the Mad Russian, on YouTube. Razin always expressed he had no love of Ukraine, but neither did he love Putin’s government, which he saw going back on his claims of “stability” by constantly waging invasions into former Soviet territories. Not wanting to serve in Putin’s army is why he left Russia in the first place, and immigrated to the U.S. where he had a great uncle. In the US he started a YouTube channel. Razin’s channel was highly critical of both the left and right in America for their various positions as being hypocritical, which he claimed made him a focus of an FBI investigation.
 
After the Schwarzenegger post, he published a round of video rants countering the morality of the “Whataboutism” posts. He went comment by comment, calling out each commentator by name, called them a derogatory cuss word in Russian, and then proceeded to his rant in English. His main counter argument was if Russia could invade Ukraine, then the US is allowed to do conscription, bolster deployments in bordering NATO nations, and ramp up nuclear weapon production so it can destroy Russia into the next dimension all because Lenin caused the death of the Czar’s family and Russia preserved his body as a tourist site. Adding to this snarkiness he quipped in one video, "Well, if you believe Putin is right that US-NATO expansion promises were broken, then you must also believe that Black Americans are owed unpaid promised reparations." Which was his way of being both serious and sarcastic at the same time.
 
Weeks earlier, he did rants about those complaining about the West pulling Russian State media sources, noting that most Americans didn’t have enough smarts to tell the difference between propaganda and truth since they think everything from their own Government is propaganda. He cited Nixon as responsible for this belief in America since he wanted investigative journalism dead to ensure his political party can get away with crimes. As Razin noted, “Who knows what crimes Obama or Trump did in office? But it doesn’t matter ‘cuz no one would trust honest investigative journalism about it.”
 
It was shortly after his Schwarzenegger rants he stopped posting. Several months later, other YouTubers speculated that either the FBI or Putin took him out. Some said YouTube cancelled him.

I’m finding it hard these days with Russian-Ukraine War taking place in Europe to write anything for Rosella Tolfree’s World. I predicate a lot of her world on current events and extrapolating them into the future. But I do not know where this war is going. I see multiple possibilities from a negotiated peace and cease fire for the next ten to twenty years to Putin getting everything he wants to all out thermonuclear war (which in theory is the least likely).
 
While many think-tank pundits thought the War in Ukraine was inevitable, for me, it was a shock. The invasion of Crimea was back in 2014, but it didn’t make a dent in my consciousness, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic and the events of 9-11. And I was old enough to pay attention back in 2014, but clearly it wasn’t a big enough thing in our nation to leave an impression.
 
As a fiction writer using current events, I’m simply going to wait it out. Work on some other projects for a time. If we all don’t get blown up from a nuclear holocaust before then.

During the late 1st Age of Humanity, but before the formation of the Social Media Net, humankind was increasingly incorporating cybernetic components into human biology. Most cybernetics were focused on cybernetic limb actuators and specific organs being replaced, such as eyes with cybernetic eyes. But the idea of directly connecting the mind to the internet had always been a goal of many in the cybernetic field. It wasn’t until Samuel Conner, a cybernist specialist, had developed the cognitive interface processor (CIP) did the idea of “jack’n” (a cybernist colloquial phrase for connecting to the internet) become possible.

The CIP allowed the compressed data stream of the internet to be processed by the human brain at a rate that allowed for comprehension and control. Then it would send out the instructions to the internet in a way that commands could be executed. By simply closing one’s eyes, it was now possible to surf the internet with your mind through visualizations and voice commands.

The Experiment

Conner was a firm believer in experimental ethics and refused to test his invention on animals or others. Instead, he surgically had himself adapted to use his own device.

His first dozen attempts were uneventful, but it was after that he suffered from mental problems when removed from the CIP. He suffered from periodic blackouts finding himself in unusual locations; he suffered from intense mood swings and outbursts around friends and co-workers, and many times he would find himself in mid-process of destroying his apartment’s furniture.

The breaking point was when he was arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault but recalled none of it. He couldn’t even remember the time he waited in jail pending the trial. The Court found him competent to stand trial, and the jury acquitted him. Determined not to see Conner again in her Court, the judge ordered Conner to seek medical and/or psychiatric treatment for his condition. It was discovered that Conner’s personality had been shattered, and he had lost control of his own identity because of the experiment. The official diagnosis was he was suffering from an internet induced form of dissociative identity disorder. Psychiatric scholars speculated the CIP couldn’t filter out the vast amounts of personal information available on the internet. At least enough to ensure one would maintain identity cohesion. What literally happened to Conner, according to these scholars, was the neural pathways that formed his identity were re-written by the direct access to the internet. They speculated it was done via a maladapted form of neuroplasticity caused by the CIP itself.

End Results of Conner's Experiment

Conner’s financial backers urged him that the best course of action was for him to be placed in cryogenic storage while being permanently “jacked in.” In doing so his mind would still be active despite his body being in cryogenesis. Keeping the mind active through stimulation was seen as key to survival in cryogenesis. At least this was the operating theory at the time. The hope was that this issue with the technology could be resolved, and they could revive Conner later. Conner agreed with his backers.

After Conner was put on ice, it became apparent to Conner’s staff that the information of the internet was too much for the human mind to handle, despite the CIP’s ability to buffer it. They couldn’t come up with a solution to the problem and they shelved the idea. They left Conner in permanent cryogenic storage.

The result was that cybernetic technology continued its path through the cybernetic augmentation of the human physical form without direct mental connection to the internet or artificial intelligence. Only briefly did humans attempt to augment the human mind with artificial intelligent processors, but societies quickly outlawed this around the world after an extremely violent incident in Los Angeles, California.

Later, humans attempted fully converted cybernetic bodies with the human brain still intact. Thus, creating a true cybernetic organism. This caused the full cyborg to lose their humanity via a condition known as cyberpsychosis, where they would become increasingly intolerant and violent against flesh-based humans. The net result was the global banning of this procedure.

Humans then turned their attention towards manipulating the human genome and androids for its technological solutions in these areas. This still hasn’t stopped a political dissident group operating in Europe, during Rosella’s time, from trying to merge with android technologies and become fully cybernetic.​