On April 13, 2025, the Chinese boy Xuanyi Geng broke the world record for solving the standard Rubik's Cube during the so-called Shenyang Spring competition. The 7-year-old clocked an incredible time of 3.057 seconds. Would the Hungarian Ernő Rubik - the inventor of the cube in 1974 - have congratulated the boy? It's possible, as Rubik is still alive and active. Last autumn, he was being celebrated during the 50th anniversary of his famous cube. By the way, congratulations to the little Chinese boy would be more than appropriate when you consider that there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ways to arrange the squares...
Yes, that Xuanyi will go far; I am convinced that a loyal servant of the Chinese Communist Party has already knocked on the door of Xuanyi's parental home. The boy was, of course, immediately confiscated by the CCP after his successful world record attempt, you can take that from me. What position will the boy hold in the foreseeable future? Well, how about an employee of the (long-range) nuclear missile command center? Xuanyi is probably able to implement the codes for a nuclear missile attack into the systems with lightning speed, so that no time is lost. Because there might not be much time when China definitively proceeds to take Taiwan in 2049. In that year, the People's Republic of China will have existed for exactly 100 years, and hadn't Xi Jinping promised that Taiwan would return to the Chinese motherland in that jubilee year at the latest?
However, Xi Jinping faces one small problem: in 2049, the CCP Secretary-General – if he is still alive and well – will reach the very advanced age of 96. The questions are (one) whether he will still be breathing, and (two) if he is, what coherent words he will still be able to utter. I estimate the chance of the latter to be high, because one of Xi's predecessors was named Deng Xiaoping. Who remained the undisputed leader of China until his death at the age of 92. Medical science has not stood still since Deng's death; I can imagine that Xi will remain "medically patched up" until the year 2049.
The question is whether the United States will respond militarily when Xi, with a trembling hand gesture, directs his troops towards Taiwan. Well, that will be a "nice little dilemma” for President Donald Trump, who will be serving his seventh term by 2049. Okay, now I have to restrain myself a bit, because in 2049, Trumpie boy would be celebrating his 103rd birthday. "Would" is a realistic verb conjugation in this context, because who believes really that Trump will still be able to lie as printed in 2049? At least not in the earthly world. But perhaps he will still be able to do so in another universe....
In the year 2049, our little world champion Xuanyi will have reached the age of 31. Well, at that age, I can certainly imagine him holding the most important position at the Chinese command center for (long-range) nuclear missiles. In less than 3.057 seconds, he will implement the (nuclear) code into the systems, after which the first missile will head towards Washington. But in no time, the Chinese will realize that despite their world champion Xuanyi, the Americans have still outsmarted them.
In what way? Just this week, students from America's Purdue University presented a robot that solves the Rubik's Cube even faster than that 7-year-old boy from China. The robot solves the cube in 0.103 seconds, which is about 30 times faster! So, that American nuclear missile will strike almost 3 seconds earlier in 2049, while the Chinese nuclear missile will wipe Washington off the map 3 seconds later. The result, of course, is that both Beijing and Washington no longer exist, and the same will be true for the rest of the world a few minutes later...
Is this the expected scenario for the year 2049? No, of course not, because Trump (or his successor) couldn't care less whether China overpowers Taiwan or not. Just like Trump doesn't give a damn now if Putin were to invade NATO member Estonia tomorrow. Or Poland. Or Germany. Or the Netherlands...
The successful world record attempt by the Chinese boy Xuanyi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEONYcT9HOM
And the successful world record attempt by the American robot...: https://www.nu.nl/316857/video/robot-lost-rubiks-kubus-in-tiende-van-een-seconde-op.html