Media & Tech: Unlimited Money Glitch?

One of today’s Media & Tech prompts: “Write about what you’d do if money suddenly wasn’t a problem.” Let’s talk about what I’d do with all that power.

The rules…
So let us first assume that I’m not just spawning in money — the inflation would defeat the purpose of being ultra rich and light bending. Second, let us assume the source of my riches is from devouring every current billionaire. If I had infinite money, I’d naturally be able to buy out every corporation anyway, so this is just skipping the part where I spend time jumping through hoops to spend my money on power.

How do I devour every billionaire?
Quite simple, really: I walk up to them, place my hand on their face, and start liquidating them. Assuming I can successfully do this to every billionaire, I’d spend some inconsequential amount of my vast wealth to ensure that no one would be able to use this same power against me. I’d also bribe legislators to make me entirely above the law. By the end of this phase, the free market is wholly trapped under my skin, and I will never end up in a prison cell.

What now?
Now comes the fun part: I spend an incomprehensible sum of money to research artificial intelligence under a new research company. I am expecting great returns here: namely, the boost in research rationally-thinking AI will be capable of bringing to technology (it, without a doubt, will cause the greatest leap in progress in human history). I will then utilize this technology to research curing aging — a technology I plan to use to make myself, my loved ones, and a few key figures effectively immortal.

Storing my brain into a computer.
To ensure I remain ultra-rich and unharmed forever, I will then fund research on backing up human consciousness: If I can store my mind into a computer and just put it back into another body, nothing will ever kill me. In fact, if I can store my mind into a computer, I might be come just as hyper-intelligent as the AI consciousness. What if I put a computerized brain into my human body? With cloud backups? Ultra-rich, artificially enhanced human that basically controls the direction of global research?

Actually, you know how I mentioned making key figures effectively immortal? I can persuade politicians and shareholders to get the brain computers, too. Then, I could code those brain-computers to link up with my own. Bam: technologically-induced mind control. All it takes is some small, covert influencing of each key figure’s thinking through that technology, and I effectively control the world’s governments in their entirety.

Hear me out: What if I used this power to slowly push for society to trend towards getting cybernetic mental enhancements? What if I made brain implants look *cool* and *disco*? I’ll live to see the societal shift, and my brain-computer will allow me to withhold the stress of time that comes with such immortality. Slowly — perhaps imperceptibly so for mortals — the majority of the world will get cybernetic brain implants. This is where my reign comes to an end: When the last person in the world gets a brain implant, I will sacrifice individuality — of the global population and myself — and turn the entirety of the human race into a hive mind. Thoughts will blend together under a brilliant collective consciousness, and advancement will accelerate dramatically. Peace will finally be established, and humanity — as one — will perfect the sciences, and go forth into the stars, to expand forever.

I have been reading too much sci-fi.