Another Satoshi

Enjoy a Guest Contributor, Jim Price, and his excellent MultiVerse Biography. Another Satoshi.

Murakami Corporation’s founding sprung from tragedy and isolation mixed into the mind of a young dreamer. In the 1960s, Satoshi Murakami was raised into a life of privilege in Shibuya, Japan. Never attending school like all the other kids his age, he instead received high-level private tutoring from his father, Yoshi. The owner of a highly successful construction business in the area.

Taught well in the basics, math, science, and reading. He was schooled most in economics, honed toward business strategy, the arena where his father wanted him to succeed.

Educated like this until age 14, things changed abruptly when Yoshi was found dead. A seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound at a nearby hotel.

Wrecked with guilt, depression, and endless questions, Satoshi’s life turned upside down. Soon after he was forced to leave the protective bubble of his house, and venture out into a real school. Channeling his energy, he excelled, taking to the fields of science and engineering.

The complexities, work, and creativity going into these subjects captivated his mind. His love of discovery would stay with him for life. But, school was not all computers and double lunches. Satoshi was often bullied by the other boys for his social anxiety and physical weakness.

Rejection from his peers brought dark places closer, and Satoshi engaged in a myriad of acts to buttress his crippling loneliness. Asking attractive classmates, who would later be in loveless marriages, to go out on a dates even though he knew the answer was already no. As the years went on, the bullying became more prevalent, and his activities became morally grey.

Childish pranks committed on people who had wronged him became crueler. He began to steal food from convenience stores. In an accident trying to rob a motorbike, a friend of his sustained life-long injuries, and Satoshi was arrested. He was immediately bailed out by his mother.

Jail was a short, but lasting experience. It inspired Satoshi to clean up his life. He entered college. Laser focused on little else but study. In honesty there are few records, or written remarks outside private class materials than can be attributed to Satoshi during this time. He became an academic ghost.

Graduating in 1974 with a triple major in engineering, economics, and rocketry. Taking over the remnants of his father’s construction company, it was retooled into a technological innovator.

NEO MURAKAMI CORPORATION

Only 5 years after taking control, Murakami Corp completely shifted from construction to technology. During which, Satoshi had been designing the first incarnation of his greatest work, “Nana.” The earliest commercially available artificial intelligence computer board ever made. Supposed to be market ready in the fall of 1980. Artificial Intelligence had been discussed, but hadn’t been delivered into the average home.

Nana would be an artificial friend, one who could comfort someone lonely, tell jokes, listen, talk, anything. The pc and its a.i program were released 2 months early.

When Satoshi began seeing newspaper reports about lonely Japanese men began marrying their computers running Nana, he realized he had a sensation. A real societal change based on his code.

He decided to export Nana to the rest of the world, where it took on many different purposes besides artificial friendship. Being highly adaptable to various jobs. Taking orders at restaurants, driving, being a 911 operating, running a bank. Supposedly some countries handed it over to their military leaders.

Success of Nana gave Murakami Corporation enough money to expand their horizons even further. Their first innovations already changed the world, setting a high bar for the rest of the 1980s.

The company spent heavily in planning its next step, a hands free cellphone slated for 1983. Marketing spent millions on subversive advertisements.

While Murakami released more a.i programs, pc’s, and phones, the company did well, but struggled for a follow up hit. In the 90s, a failed disarmament treaty, and increased political tensions between the two biggest superpowers on the globe spurned an idea for Satoshi.

Earth might not be the best planet to do business on in the future. So in secret, Satoshi began drafting the Satori-10 plan, what he believed would be his legacy

Satori-10 blueprints laid out an interstellar human society, it’s constitution, equipment needs, and its social ethics. With permission from the Japanese Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, Satoshi launched hundreds of experiments. Many failed. Once he locked a test subject and his family in a perfect reproduction of their apartment for 20 days in a floating capsule. The result was the near catatonic state of the family inside. The family did make a full recovery, but he was immediately ejected from the JPSA laboratories.

After repeated failure, and the cold war’s deescalation, his faith in the Satori-10 plan corroded.

Approaching bankruptcy the interstellar endeavor was formally put on hold. The Murakami Corporation focused on providing tools to companies who developed their own products, and their main competitors began to flourish.

Satoshi lived in luxury, unofficially retired. Hiding out, sunning in Daytona Beach, trying to forget his failures with excess.

Opening his news feeds on June 21st, 2035, Satoshi dropped a breakfast tray right on his big toe. The pain and spilled food flashed backed memories of bullies past, but the tears in his eyes were from the headlines. Earth faces destruction. Asteroid Maven 172b, the size Australia is on a direct collision course. A threat from space looms as the world’s natural resources are low and permanent damage has already been done. US, European, Chinese, and Japanese politic leaders all seem stuck in slow motion. Unable to lurch their giant nations into action.

Standing on his pier, Satoshi looked off into the blue ocean and cloudy sky. He promised himself, his younger self, he would restart the Satori-10 project. Humanity will escape Earth before Maven hits.

By Jim Price. TUMBLR