When we returned to my room Karyn asked, "What did this do? I mean, how much has changed and how much has not
changed?"
"Good question," I said. "Seems like everyone thinks this is normal but us."
"Let's find out," Karyn said.
"But how?" I asked.
Karyn thought for a moment. She looked around the room and saw my computer. "Why don't you wish for the
computer to give us answers to our questions?"
"Hmm," I thought, "That sounds like a good idea." We sat in front of my computer and I looked at the ring.
"I wish my computer would be able to answer any questions we have about my wish."
Suddenly my computer turned itself on. It loaded a blank white screen that could have been a word processing
program, but had no options, menus or icons present. A cursor appeared on the screen, and then it typed,
"WHAT QUESTIONS CAN I ANSWER FOR YOU?"
Karyn and I looked at each other, neither of us really sure what to ask. “Uh,” Karyn said, “Is everyone like
this now?”
“YOUR QUESTION IS NOT SPECIFIC ENOUGH,” the computer typed. “IF YOU MEANT TO ASK WHETHER ALL HUMANITY HAS
BEEN ALTERED BY THE WISH, THE ANSWER IS YES.”
“So my wish that created that coin that landed on ‘Hermaphrodite’ has made everyone in the world to be like
us? All female except for a penis?” I asked.
“THAT IS CORRECT. EVERY HUMAN IN THE WORLD NOW HAS BOTH MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS AND AN OTHERWISE
COMPLETELY FEMALE APPEARANCE,” the computer answered.
“What else has this affected?” Karyn asked.
The computer typed, “UNSURE OF HOW TO ANSWER. PLEASE BE MORE SPECIFIC.”
“Um,” Karyn thought, “I guess…how has this affected history?”
“THE HISTORY YOU KNOW DID NOT HAPPEN,” the computer answered. “DUE TO THE DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN ANATOMY,
HUMANITY EVOLVED QUITE DIFFERENTLY.”
“Such as?” I asked.
“WITH NO TRUE MALE SPECIES, HUMANS WERE NOT NEARLY AS AGGRESSIVE AND COMPETITIVE,” the computer replied. “THE
EARLIEST HUMANS WERE STILL PRIMITIVE, AS YOU MIGHT PREDICT, BUT STILL KNEW HOW TO PROCREATE. BUT AS
HUMANITY’S NUMBERS GREW LARGER, RATHER THAN TRYING TO BEST EACH OTHER, THEY WORKED TO COOPERATE INSTEAD.”
“I like the sound of that,” said Karyn. “Cooperation and not competition sounds like what ‘Star Trek’ always
depicted.”
“Does this mean there were no wars or something?” I asked the computer.
It answered, “THAT IS CORRECT. SINCE HUMANITY WORKED WITH EACH OTHER FROM THE START OF ITS EXISTENCE,
CONFLICT NEVER REACHED SUCH LEVELS. DISPUTES WERE AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN RESOLVED WITHOUT SUCH ACTIONS.”
“I think you’re right,” I said to Karyn. I was just about to ask another question when an alarm blared
throughout my room. It briefly startled both of us before I realized it came from my alarm clock. I quickly
walked over to turn it off. As I did so I saw that the time was now 4:00. I wondered why the alarm could be
set for that time. Before I had a chance to determine that, suddenly…