The label on the top of the brown cardboard box simply read "Harris Newick".

I'd not ordered anything. I lived alone, so nobody could have gotten in my house and the postman couldn't possibly have squeezed a box the size of a television into my flat. But there was no sign of forced entry.

The existence of the box, however, was the least of the mysteries that day. It was filled with polystyrene peanuts and a sealed envelope -- also addressed to me, by name only.

I pulled the thing open, poured the last remnants of the cheap whiskey into a glass, and sipped as I read the letter.

"Dear Harris,

Please read this letter completely before you pay any more attention to the other contents of this box. The information inside is very important and will very likely take some time to digest. We suggest that you find somewhere to sit down and perhaps a hot drink before you continue.

The contents of the box should include:

• this letter
• a device resembling a crash helmet with dials on the side
• eighteen dossiers
• one time-locked safe.

The crash helmet is an advanced information-delivery device. Adjusting the dials will give you intuitive understanding of the sciences of physics, chemistry, mathematics, psychology and social engineering. The dossiers contain details on eighteen scientific breakthroughs, including a cheap and renewable source of energy, cures for the most virulent virii and diseases which have troubled us (including cancer, AIDS and Saladin-Fire) and a sociological program designed to eradicate intolerance, crime and hatred. Coupled with the information the helmet will deliver, these should allow you within your lifetime to usher in a new age of enlightenment and prosperity to your world. The time-locked safe will open in approximately ten years from now, containing the details of the greatest technological advancement we have created: the power to break down the barriers between different realities; to open portals into other universes and transport items into them.

At this point it is likely that you are wondering why you have been chosen to receive this gift. The answer is quite simple. Our world is a utopia. We have eradicated hunger, poverty, disease and hatred, and we have turned our attention elsewhere. There are many other universes such as yours in which the planet Earth is nearing a state of mutual nuclear destruction, gradually choking itself with poison, and tearing itself apart with its own hatred. As a society with the capability to help others, we see it as our duty to prevent your people from experiencing the disaster that nearly destroyed us.

This, of course, does not explain why you in particular have been chosen. I have to concede that in this matter I have exercised something of an ulterior motive. My name is Harris Newick. I recall my life in my world before the breakthroughs were provided to me through a carboard box identical to the one you have just opened. It was empty, bleak, and meaningless and I spent every waking moment pondering on how I could have been so much more. You deserve this more than anybody else I can think of.

Our technology -- again, this will be detailed in the locked dossier -- allows us to observe other universes; to locate ones sufficiently similar to ours in which another Harris Newick deserving of my gifts exists; and to transfer to him the technology which has saved our world. But each universe can only be located once. There are an infinity of other worlds out there, so many that we cannot hope to find the same one twice. The most we can do is open as many gates as we can, find as many other Harris Newicks as we can, and send them the means to save their world.

So, to conclude: in this box is the technology that will allow you to change your world for the better. Use it wisely. In ten years' time, the time-locked safe will open and allow the utopia you have created to seed itself, to spread the gift further, to save other worlds as we have saved yours. I wish you all the best.

Your friend and brother,

Harris Newick.

And so, more than ten years later, I find myself the ruler of the planet. There is no hunger. There is no war. There is no disease and no hate. People live as gods, and I am a god among them. The knowledge, the understanding I have brought people has united the world. There are no countries any more; we work together, we are united.

A month ago the time-locked box opened and with its gifts we created countless portals, discovered countless other worlds and sent countless packages to countless other Harris Newicks. The empire is spreading, and we are bringing hope, peace and freedom across the multitude of universes.

But with this work, people are starting to realise. They are starting to understand that I did not create the world that they lived in, that I am not its architect. That I was handed on a plate the secrets that have made it a utopia, that they are not my own work. People are questioning my fitness as a ruler, calling for a dissollution of the world state I created. They are trying to tear apart the world that keeps them safe, that watches them while they sleep, that prevents them from destroying each other in a pointless and futile war. And I cannot allow that. After all I have created, I will not let their dissent destroy my Utopia. The gifts I have been given -- my gifts, not theirs -- give me ample ability to silence them, to enforce order if order needs enforcing.

And yet Utopia is no longer the same with my police on every street corner. Sacrifices have to be made, of course. The advances I have been given need to be protected; I will not let everything I have worked towards come to nothing. But this is not the world I intended to create. And I know, bit by bit, that the packages I have sent out to other worlds will be doing the same. My empire is spreading. A thousand million Harris Newicks will discover a cardboard box. A thousand million Harris Newicks will build a utopia. A thousand million Harris Newicks will find themselves the head of a crumbling empire, fearing for its future, turning to desperate measures. And I hope that some will be able to make the decision I could not, and abandon the reins, and let the world succeed or fail on its own merit.

But in my most private moments, I have to admit that I don't think that's very likely.