He was worth 1 billion dollars. A great philanthropist has died.
Title: “The Net Worth of Judgment Day”
Setting: A dim bunker beneath the ruins of Los Angeles. Screens flicker with Skynet financial archives. Resistance leader John Connor stands across from a holographic reconstruction of Jacob Rothschild. A younger eco-adventurer avatar of David de Rothschild flickers in and out like a corrupted NFT.
JOHN CONNOR:
Skynet controls the nukes, the drones… and apparently the Forbes archives. Funny thing though — your file says one billion.
JACOB (hologram, serene):
A modest sum, Mr. Connor. Inflation is the true Terminator.
JOHN:
That’s strange. Because your nephew’s file says ten billion. Ten. Billion. And he’s sailing around in recycled plastic.
DAVID (glitching, smiling):
It was an eco-catamaran, John. Sustainability scales.
JOHN:
So let me get this straight. The Resistance can’t afford plasma rifles in the 40-watt range, but the eco-adventure branch of the dynasty is worth ten times the banking branch?
JACOB:
Net worth is a matter of perspective. Assets are like time travel — complicated, layered, and best understood through trust structures.
JOHN:
Trust structures? We don’t even trust toasters anymore.
DAVID:
You’re thinking too linear, John. Wealth isn’t stacks of gold in a vault. It’s shares, holdings, valuation models — sometimes it’s just vibes.
JOHN:
Vibes don’t fund killer robots.
JACOB (smirking):
On the contrary. Optimism funds markets. Markets fund innovation. Innovation funds… unintended consequences.
(A T-800 skull flickers on a nearby monitor labeled “Derivatives.”)
JOHN:
So what you’re saying is Skynet didn’t become self-aware. It became publicly traded.
DAVID:
IPO: Infinite Profit Oblivion.
JOHN:
And you’re worth one billion?
JACOB:
Publicly estimated. There is a difference between visibility and reality. Some numbers are for the newspapers. Others are for history.
JOHN:
In my future, numbers don’t matter. Only survival.
JACOB:
And yet here you are, auditing ghosts.
(Silence. Wind howls through the bunker.)
JOHN:
Maybe Skynet didn’t rise because of money. Maybe it rose because humans worshipped numbers more than conscience.
DAVID (fading):
Or maybe because no one read the fine print.
JACOB:
Tell me, Mr. Connor — in your timeline… what is the net worth of freedom?
(The holograms flicker out. The screen reads: “ASSET CLASS: HUMANITY — UNPRICED.”)
JOHN (loading his plasma rifle):
Good. That means they can’t hedge it.
Fade to black.