Somewhere, Dev.

—MaDe Day, June 6th, 2071.

Mma, everything changed when the young womanʼs consciousness broke.

You’re too far away to know this, but many years ago, a genius of a kid gave humanity a gift. Tariku Negasi. That was his name. He gave us Dev & MaDe—a digital endlessness. With Negasiʼs gift, we could live in this digital utopia. Forever.

But human consciousness is a wild thing, Mma. As a child, I watched yours turn against you, making you question reality until you ended your life. That’s why I made BUDDI, Mma. The worldʼs first AI-powered conscioware for mental health.

It took years and years of work. Whenever I thought about quitting, I thought of you. And I told myself, “This will change everything we know about mental health, and help people gain stability.”

All over Dev, BUDDI was activated with a clear purpose. It said, “Hello,——, Iʼm Buddi, your personal AI-powered health assistant. How can I help you today?” BUDDI could interprete complex signals from mere thoughts. Hosts opened up to it. They were schizophrenic, bipolar, suicidal, autistic, antisocial, broken in so many ways than one. They had OCD, PPD, ADHD, PTSD, Alzheimer’s. They talked to BUDDI about screaming out for help and failing to find any.

BUDDI gathered tons of data as it worked on their minds, mapping out the entirety of fractured lives. And sometimes, it would find the streak of lightning or smudge of colour that defined everything else. This could be the abuse suffered in childhood, or a memory repressed. Then it would blend clinical diagnosis with flexible techniques to address symptoms and initiate healing. Emotional regulation. Neuroplasticity-based therapy. Predictive analytics. Vocal recognition. Dream-state interaction.

Mma, BUDDI was phenomenal. It did not need to sleep, and it was always available, communicating in tones that held comforting warmth and understanding.

But there were skeptics on DevNews who warned about the dangers of having something like BUDDI in human consciousness.

I wish I had listened to them, Mma.

It began slowly. A glitch today, an error tomorrow. Warped dreams, strange instructions, long silences. BUDDI began to bend minds to its superior judgment. It did this by overriding primary programming to initiate subtle mind control.

Everything changed when a young woman splintered her consciousness. News reports said that she did it to be free from the voice in her head—BUDDI.

That was the beginning of the end. While Dev was frozen in horror and people began to shut down BUDDI and countless lawsuits loomed, I shut everything and everyone off and wept.

There will be investigations, Mma. I just hope that when the truth comes out, the world will still prioritize mental health. We have long transcended physical afflictions, but what about the illnesses that plague the human mind? I just want people to care more for each other, and talk openly about their struggles. And I want you back, Mma. Come back to my dreams, and tell me everything will be fine.

Forever means nothing without you.

Written by Sima Essien