A Brief Rewind

Time Space Warp #40

Hey—It’s Toffer.

I stepped into a Starbucks.
I’ve got coffee at home. But sometimes, stepping out helps you step in.

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Estimated read time: 3 minutes

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I took my usual seat by the window. First sip. Deep breath.

Then something shifted.

The room faded. The noise dissolved.
I looked up—

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Stone. Smoke. Heat.

I was in a cave.

A man struck rocks with a kind of desperate hope.

Then—flame.

The whole group stilled.

Not from fear. But awe.

The fire cracked and curled into life.

They didn’t speak.
They watched.

Fire gave us power.

We were no longer at nature’s mercy.

But it lit something deeper—
a hunger to build, to shape, to rule.

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Sunlight. Sweat. Mud.

I stood in a rice field.

Hands moved with rhythm. Someone pointed at the sky, calculating rain.

We had stopped chasing food.
Now we waited for it.

Planning had begun. So had ownership.

A man marked land with a stick. Another disagreed.

Farming made us stay.

It gave us roots.
But it also taught us to want more.

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Shouts. Clatter. A market.

Coins flashed. People haggled.

A woman offered fabric. A man weighed his money, not the cloth.

Trade had evolved.
Now, value was opinion. Negotiation. Power.

Money told us what mattered.

Not always truth. Just price.

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Smoke. Steel. Noise.

Machines roared. Gears turned. Clocks ruled.

A girl tightened bolts in rhythm. A boy fed fire into a furnace.

Speed. Scale. Precision.

Science made us unstoppable.

But also tired.
Unkind.
Alone in the race.

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Then—silence.

Clean walls. Soft lights.

A screen blinked.
“Toffer, your tasks are complete.”

I hadn’t moved.
Everything was done—meetings, emails, scheduling.

AI had taken over.

But no one was panicking.
No one was rushing.

Everyone was… sitting.

Breathing.

Thinking.

AI gave us time.

Not just to work.

But to pause.
To imagine.
To wonder again.

The world didn’t speed up.
It exhaled.

And for the first time in what felt like centuries—
we remembered ourselves.

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I blinked—

Back in Starbucks.

Same chair. Same sip. Same city outside the window.

But something inside me had shifted.

We thought we were building the future.
But maybe—we were finding our way home.

Your Friend in Time,
Toffer