Sprouts of hope

By: Chiong Wei Qian, Chevelle

No one thought this was possible.

It was 2130. Paddy fields, some 100 years ago, were abundant. Now, against the

sweltering-hot heat, whittles of dried-up crops stood in their place. Climate volatility, the

extinction of pollinators and erratic growing seasons had shattered traditional agriculture.

Now, people rely on eating insects for protein and seek out alternative sources for grain to

satiate their stomachs.

That’s when the first sighting of greenery, of life, gave the people some hope of another

alternative source of food.

The seedling was grown using Timeless Seeds – seeds that grow against time. At first

glance, they look ordinary: grains, legumes, and even fruit trees. But their DNA contains

something no organism had ever carried before: time-folded RNA, created through a

hypothetical process called quantum entanglement. It potentially plays a role in

photosynthesis, where energy is transferred across molecules in a manner that suggests

simultaneous existence in multiple states.

The core mechanics are that Timeless Seeds will exist in a biological time loop, meaning

parts of their development occur in parallel timelines. The roots of the Timeless Seeds

sapling may be absorbing the nutrients that its leaves require for photosynthesis tomorrow.

Saplings grow in three days, pulling temporal “credit” from their own biological future. This

allows Timeless Seeds to grow in harsh climates, making it a viable source of food to grow.

For farmers, Timeless Seeds sparks a hope in them. They can sow these seeds and harvest

the grains, earning a source of income. Timeless Seeds also revitalised a huge and vital

industry that was extinguished due to the harsh climates. For the rest of the people, it

allowed them to savour the harvest and get the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

However, everything may not be as rosy as it looks on the surface. The invention of Timeless

Seeds may inadvertently widen socioeconomic inequality. In the Global South, Timeless

Seeds are hailed as salvation. Yet access was tightly controlled by a small consortium of

biotech firms and quantum research institutes in the North. Firms may choose to hold on to

their patents or only sell these seeds to the approved regions, which pay whopping amounts

of money to receive the seeds. In wealthy nations, Timeless Seeds Farms began

outproducing entire countries, deepening global food inequity under the guise of innovation.

While Timeless Seeds remains as fiction for now, world hunger is very much a living reality

for many today. According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), acute hunger

has grown in 2024 for the sixth consecutive year. Around 295 million people are now facing

high levels of acute food insecurity.

Access to food is not merely a commodity or privilege, it is a basic human right. Until the global community can ensure every individual, regardless of

geography, socialeconomic status or political power, has reliable access to sufficient and

nutritious foods, even the most extraordinary inventions, such as Timeless Seeds, risk

perpetuating inequalities rather than solving them.