The Dream Factory

Black Swan

Black Swan 

In 2025 a single event occurred that when judged from a historical perspective should have been foreseen but at the time led to a series of events of unprecedented significance. 

In Ohio a young student returns to the counter of a certain well known burger chain and complains about some foreign matter in his burger. The counter assistant, having worked eighteen hours at minimum wage feels he is not inclined to offer a refund. He removes the offending substance, reheats the bugger and offers the half eaten burger back to the youngster.  

Rather embittered, the young man goes home and Vmails the CEO of the burger chain. The CEO having more important issues with the Board that day passes it to her Secretary, who passes it to customer relations, who pass it back to the store manager. He shows it to his offending employee and shouts at him to, 'sort it out.' 

The undeniable charismatic , slightly obese and rather wayward burger employee, Earl Chuggins records a V-Rap at work detailing all the offending items customers had previously found in their burgers and with some satisfaction quietly Vmails it to the student. 

The student, suitably insulted, uploads Earls V-mail with a holo of his burger taken at the time with his Triscene pad, onto Vroom, InsUP and Ee-z-Now. The V-mail goes Viral, getting half million hits within thirty minutes and fifteen million by the end of the day. 

The following day the CEO of the burger chain faced with a 95% drop in footfall in stores worldwide and a 30% drop in share price offers an abject apology streamed live from his plush corporate offices in the Cayman Isles. 

Earl Chuggins having lost his job in the burger bar agrees to take part in the American show Realt-it-E for a reputed fee of thirty thousand coin bits (CnBts). 

Two weeks later the burger chain, its reputation fatally damaged, files for Administration and begins to pursue a lawsuit against its ex-employee Earl. Financial institutions wary of this sudden demise withdraw their investment from the Food retail sectors of the market. Further bad press associated with the incident means that within fifteen days a further three major food chains have gone into Administration. 

A major IT investment program being undertaken by the collective chains is halted, causing cash flow problems for a global IT Development company which subsequently declares itself bust. Over the next eight weeks, three USA and five European banks admit to overextending themselves in loans to the Company and seek Government assistance. 

Earl Chuggins announces a Virt Tour-a mixture of sketches and music based on his experience in the food industry and gets five million subscribers on the day of the announcement. 

American and European governments led investigations uncover a web of unsustainable covert loans between worldwide banking institutions. Panic hits worldwide stock markets leading to a drop of 70% in overall stock values. Unemployment in America soars to 25%, Europe 33%. 

Within four months the G8 countries have all moved into recession. USA into depression. China's manufacturing output growth goes negative for the first time in thirty years. 

Earl Chuggins successfully defends himself against the Burger chains lawsuit and then buys the food chain he once worked in to run as a veggie burger outlet, all produce to be ethically vetted by himself.

World demand for manufactured good slums, oil and coal prices soar, worldwide food wholesale prices double every twenty days as computer systems automatic trades force up commodity prices.  

Earl Chuggins buys a beach front home in California for a reputed one hundred million CnBits . 

America experiences home unrest. Unable to fund its civil workforce it lays offs half its employees impacting health, defence and policing. Shortly after it withdraws its troops from overseas, halts all foreign aid and announces a string of protectionist polices.  

Earl Chuggins begins the world tour of his, 'In the presence of' shows. 

There are widespread food riots across Europe. Japan and China close their borders to imports. 

Earl Chuggins appears on the cover of V-Time magazine under the title 'Phenomena'. 

Famine and disease spread unchecked across wide swathe of sub continental Africa, leading to a significant increase in internal conflicts. Radical religious groups overthrow ruling powers in Egypt, Malaysia and Iran.  

Earl Chuggin's Veggie food chain goes back into administration, its employee's citing unpaid wages, poor senior management, lack of focus and inept industry knowledge. 

Within a year the Indian Government is overthrown by the World Stability Order, a tight knit group of radicals rejecting technology and sanctioning the return to early nineteenth century technology. The Russian Premier, in the face of mounting internal strife announces the formation of the 'New Communist Pact' which eight other countries including China and Germany join. 

Earl Chuggins retires from public life with an estimated fortune of ten billion CnBts. 

In Ohio a student sits behind his double padlocked door, stares at his cold veggie burger by candlelight and listens to the gun shots outside. He resolves to record a Vmail of complaint and send it to the Governor.

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The Black Swan theory describes an event that has an unexpectedly large impact on history, its influence often missed at the time but rationalised by historians at a later date.