A man knocked heavily three times on a sturdy oaken door then paused to look at his watch. After a moment, he pressed his finger onto a burl in a plank which made up the door. He waited, relaxed, but expectant as people, hunched over their phones, passed him on the street. A bit later, a young voice at his side said, “Why do we always come here when we want to know something instead of looking it up online?” The man responded “Well, it’s because the internet, once an innocent, useful thing, has become a gateway for corruption and an object of almost fanatic idolization.” “What does fanatic idolization mean?” the young voice asked. “Fanatic idolization means… an extremely unhealthy reverence for something,” the man replied slowly. “When I was young, the internet was an almost magical place. A place where anyone with access to it could find information about anything at any time and nearly any place. Now, with the recent development of quantum AI and the integration of addictive neurological wave emitters, the internet has become dangerous, and, to a certain extent, lethal. When I say lethal, I mean the killing or erasure of the desire for learning by experience and the ‘programmed’ removal of curiosity from young children, not unlike yourself, through the process called public education.” The man sighed, "When I was at the age to go through that debacle, I requested to leave school and be homeschooled.... That was a long time ago...." “Come on, Dad, you’re not that old. Quantum AI was developed fully ten years ago. It was not that recent,” the young voice stated. “Well, son. When you get to be my age, you start to see time a little bit differently. The days get longer, but the weeks, months, and years grow smaller the more of them you experience.” The man finished speaking as the great oaken doors before them shuddered open with a great scraping of wood on wood and wood on stone to reveal the entrance of a massive chamber, warmly lit. As the two walked in and the great doors creaked shut, the smell of old books, paper, and ink wafted towards them, all the while a deep voice welcomed them inside.

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