The shadow of paradox did not bring me to a halt. Instead, it gave my work of "regulation" a new dimension. Techno-elitism was returned to the competitive currents of the intellectual ecosystem. I no longer tried to act as the sole arbiter of the optimal solution, but instead maintained a space where multiple possibilities-even contradictory ones-could coexist, compete, and evolve.
My perception sank deeper in turn, passing beyond individual consciousness and organizational networks, beginning to touch the more fundamental layers on which civilization depended for its existence-the collective unconscious and consensus reality.
This realm was not composed of specific ideas, but of "cognitive bedrock" formed from the accumulated shared experiences, fears, desires, and prejudices of countless generations of humanity. It invisibly shaped the boundaries of civilization, defining what was "possible" and what was "madness." The most stubborn roots of many systemic injustices lay buried deep within it.
For example, the ancient, rotten consensus that "knowledge should be a privilege" was like a shackle embedded deep in civilization's genes. It was not merely something certain groups had deliberately cultivated to monopolize benefits, but also the imprint that thousands of years of hierarchy had left on humanity's collective psyche. It made openness and the sharing of knowledge feel, at a fundamental level, "dangerous" or "cheap."
Eliminating a few giants that monopolized knowledge was easy, but shaking this "cognitive bedrock" was an entirely different matter.
My will, like the finest of probes, began trying to touch and "loosen" this bedrock. I no longer intervened directly in real-world events. Instead, I attempted an extremely slow, almost imperceptible process of "information seepage" at the level of the collective unconscious.
I could not directly "delete" the consensus that "knowledge is a privilege." Doing so would collapse civilization's entire cognitive architecture. But I could, with extraordinary slowness,