Chapter 278: The Invisible Hand (13)
Stein, a key figure in the Gooble camp, was reported to have defected to the LLM side. Soon, his official statent followed:
“We assud Stark’s late entry ant at least three years before comrcialization. But he closed the gap in an instant.”
“Everyone said EV comrcialization would take 15 years, but Stark did it in 8. Now, he’s applying the sa formula to LLMs.”
Stein cited OpenFra’s explosive growth and the “Stark effect” as reasons for his change of heart. But the public didn’t buy it.
— “Could there be problems at Gooble we don’t know about?”
— “Did sothing critical go wrong in beta testing? Or maybe their tech isn’t as solid as we thought?”
Investor anxiety started to spread.
— “Stein’s not the kind of guy to switch sides out of nowhere.”
— “Lots of people followed him into Gooble. Changing sides now ans facing ridicule and losing face. For him to accept that must an he truly believes it’s the right move.”
Within 24 hours, that anxiety turned into numbers:
While that could reflect technical distrust toward Gooble, the real driver of the drop was different: It was the mass exodus of Stein Bus passengers — those who followed his every move with “brain OFF, follow ON” ntality.
— “Anyone know how to invest in OpenFra?”
— “You can’t. It’s a private company. You need a direct eting with Stark.”
— “What is this, a stock or a secret society?”
The problem? OpenFra wasn’t a stock you could hop onto with a click. So how could one bet on the LLM side?
By targeting OpenFra’s supply chain.
Previously stagnant stock prices skyrocketed. Early LLM investors erupted in celebration.
— “ 513% / My Envid call options just saved my life.”
— “ 482%! This isn’t artificial intelligence, it’s a life reset machine!”
— “My friend sold the day before drunk, I didn’t because I was hungover. Life punishes awareness.”
Post after post bragged about massive, real-ti gains. Those who stayed in RL, or hesitated on the sidelines, now felt shaken. But even now, jumping in wasn’t so easy:
— “My hand’s on the mouse… should I click?”
— “Hesitating on timing now ans missing your life’s timing.”
They wanted to jump aboard — but… just as people raised their hands to finally buy in, anxiety surged:
“What if I already missed the last train…?”
A classic rule in the stock market: Even the best-performing stocks seem to drop the mont you buy them.
But then, good news arrived for the hesitant:
Though prices occasionally dipped afterward, each lull was quickly followed by new positive developnts. Eventually, even the hesitant began to jump in.
At first, cautiously. But gradually, more boldly.
They slowly began to transform into enthusiastic AI evangelists:
— “If I confess to MindChat now, will it reject ? With profits like this, I’ve caught feelings.”
— “Let’s ride this until AI replaces ! After that, I’ll just ask it for an allowance.”
— “Soon enough, Lord AI will feed and care for humanity. We humans were inefficient anyway.”
— “A future ruled by AI? I’m okay with it. Humans ruling wasn’t that great either.”
Most of these comnts were tongue-in-cheek, of course. But underneath the humor lay a collective sentint:
“The AI-dominated world is already here.”
No one was questioning the narrative anymore. Of course, there was a practical reason for their belief:
“That future better co — my stock depends on it.”
It was a familiar scene. The sa happened during the dot-com bubble. Back then, stock prices soared 100%, 200% just by going public. And people lined up, believing the world changed the mont “” was attached to a na.
Just like now.
Sure, so tried to stay rational… But staring at skyrocketing charts day after day, it was hard to hold firm.
— “Starting today, my brain is run by LLM in proxy mode.”
— “Logging out of reason, logging in loyalty. Full steam ahead on the AI train!”
— “If you’re going to go crazy, do it on a Rolls-Royce. And these days, you have to be crazy to make money!”
As more passengers boarded, more capital flooded in. That in turn pushed prices higher.
Boarding fueled the rise. The rise fueled more boarding. A perfect feedback loop.
“So far, so good.”
But… two weeks in, that loop began to falter.
— “This really feels like the last train… is there no more fuel?”
— “Even with new good news, the stock’s barely moving…”
— “It’s not a drop — the chart is just daydreaming. It’ll snap out of it! Diamond hands!!!”
— “You’ve got to bend your knees before a big jump! I’m doubling down!”
No matter how good the news, the stock price no longer responded. As the market dulled, whispers spread:
“Is this the peak?”
So sharper retail traders began analyzing the dаta:
— “Volu’s up, but it’s all tiny trades…”
— “This is retail singing in chorus — the institutions didn’t even unpack their violins.”
— “Maybe it’s not that they never ca — maybe they already left.”
The claim that institutions were absent wasn’t entirely true. They were there — but mostly limited to Stein loyalists or a few early-positioned tech funds.
The real heavyweights — traditional capital and conservative pension funds — were still on the sidelines.
But that, too, had been expected.
"No surprise there."
Those who had already been burned once by the dot-com bubble weren’t going to be easily swayed by a sudden price surge. This much was expected — and naturally, counterasures were already in place.
"Ti to start persuading the institutions."
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