JK: Thought you might be amused by some resonance between your recent tweet and our New Year Editorial...

@KingOfHits: @ElonMusk The problem with #Twitter is that it was invented to give a voice to the voiceless where most people do not deserve to have their voices heard, when opinions are based on shallow thought and tabloid headlines or slogans. By promoting superficiality it became dangerous. 9:35 AM · Dec 27, 2022

NN Editorial: Once upon a time there was life on Mars. The most irritating Martian was an entrepreneur called Lône Sküm, so everyone encouraged him to go on long space voyages. While surveying Earth for things to exploit, he noted that the higher mammals lived in harmony with nature and each other through an interconnected heart intelligence. Sküm thought: “I wonder what would happen if I gave them all minds of their own?”.

He ordered his slaves at STEAL to design a neural implant to give the creatures a stronger sense of individuality - the Ego Chip. It was a disaster. The ego-chipped bipeds developed uncontrollable competitive and violent urges, and a few escaped the lab. Sküm was shot into the Sun by his former slaves chanting “You’re Fired!”.

The Law of Karma is unavoidable, even for Sküm, so it came to pass that he was born into the very race of Earthians he once implanted. Their population had reached 8 billion, and they were suffocating the planet. He believed he alone could save humanity - by letting all the 8 billion voice their opinions, with himself as Moderator. So he spent his fortune on the I-ME-MINING program. Another disaster. It instantly split humanity into opposing camps and they set about pulverising each other. Worse, he was now almost bankrupt and couldn’t finance his other lifelong obsession: to populate Mars.

Happily, his workers at SpaceOut unanimously elected him to be the first Earthian to be sent off to Mars. Thus he returned to a world where he was still remembered as “Sküm of the Earth”. Even more happily, many indigenous peoples on Earth had avoided the Ego Chip, and were still able to set aside their own personal fancies and speak with the One Voice - so Earth was saved at the last minute.

Great fun.