Wake Me In The Future (6 page)

All these diverse societies experienced varying degrees of popularity over the years but each had a core population that had found their own personal paradise and never permanently moved.

And as a final refuge, people had their own homes, where they made their own rules and in the company of like minded people, behaved in any legal way they chose.

I thought all of this sounded like something Helen would have dreamed up.
I must be in Helen’s dream
; surely the humanity I knew could never have been this selfless, not on such a grand scale.

These separate societies supported humanity’s fundamental differences, but even this shift could not completely satisfy the whole range of human opinions. Of which there were as many as there were humans. And it was because of this that the system had extended it's monitoring, in public at least, down to an individual level. So media content suitable for a particular society was dictated even further, by the person within a group with the lowest level of tolerance. So, even whilst in a group of other people, no one was ever confronted with anything that made them feel uncomfortable.

This all seemed alien to me, a bit extreme even. It was totally contradictory to the way people in my time had been encouraged, and in some cases even legally forced, to live with fundamentally different aspects of other people’s lives that were at odds with the way they themselves needed to live.

The societies of my day had become pressure cookers of opposing needs, created by government’s dismal attempts to force everyone to live together.

As I became aware of the complexity of what had now been achieved, I realised this would never have been possible in my day; even if there had been a will to create it, I doubted anyone would have given it a second thought, it would have been seen as outrageously mad. I suppose because of the way the world was set up back then, there was no real alternative but to try to force people, who were fundamentally different, to live with each other.

Only the ever present Information System, the artificially created child of biological intelligence, could have ever made this work, which indeed it seemed to be doing.

And it had been first introduced as a concept by Indian society as an attempt to satisfy their diverse and ever increasing population. It was a response to the overpowering cultural dominance they perceived to be contained in the rapidly expanding bubble of secularism from the west; a reaction to the non-violent 21st century colonialism, which threatened to overwhelm and crush their gentle and decent culture.

The Indian people had wanted to find an alternative to the extremes offered by the West, which believed its populations could be socially engineered into happily living by imposed standards. Standards that changed at the whim of each administration, which spent most of its effort, and the people’s resource, in wiping out what their predecessors had achieved. They never learned the lessons of history showing the inevitable collapse once extremes had been reached; until it was too late.

But the spiritual nature of the Indian people and natural tendency to respect others had led groups all over that continent to form together and adopt the lifestyles that they truly needed, and as these groups grew ever larger, more and more people flocked to them. '
अलग मुबारक
', or ‘Happy Apart’ was the motto for this new movement, and India’s
Open Society
became the place where the majority chose to live, formalised in law and free of the most extreme practices found in Western societies.

I could see what this offered to people. The optimum balance of acceptance with the least friction, and as virtually everyone could find somewhere to accept them for what they were, it was almost universally adopted. As time passed, and people got used to moving in and out of these societies, the practice began to spread outwards from the Indian continent to the rest of the world.

The full benefits hadn’t been felt until control had been handed over to the Information System, with its ability to manage such complex interactions it was the final piece of this amazing social jigsaw. The Information System recognised this model as the optimum state to live for a race of beings that could never suppress what truly made it human; its differences.

Could this have continued to succeed without the intervention of the Information System,
I wondered,
or would we have messed it up somehow
.

What I saw next partly answered that question, because I saw through one of the windows, a smaller group of people; a few who weren’t interested in tolerating the existence of other people living a different life, even if it meant they never had to come into contact with them. These people felt the compulsion to force their own levels of tolerance and beliefs on others and became frustrated that they could no longer tell others how to live or ‘shock’ them, or ‘push the boundaries’ as they’d once called their psychological need to control or offend others; even though they could do absolutely anything they wanted in their own societies.

The option to live their lives in the way they needed and with others of like mind just didn’t satisfy these people. They held an underlying hatred of people who didn’t think or live like them. Their twisted take on 'tolerance' was that it was their duty to offend or change those who didn’t want to live the way they did, and initially they continued to enter Open Society and do just that. They tried to push their religious or political doctrine, they danced naked in the streets, relieved themselves in public, shouted profanities in front of children, and generally used their strength and size to bully and intimidate others of a gentler nature who wanted to live in peace with like minded people.

Eventually the Information System restricted this disruptive group to their own societies, where they continued to cause problems and were eventually removed and separated totally from the rest of humanity. They were monitored for any behavioural changes that would allow them free movement again, but what they considered imprisonment just fuelled their hatred, and none were ever released from their isolation.

Once again I saw the images of different worlds through the floating windows, sections of worlds and great cities that housed these different societies. There were cities many hundreds of miles wide, buried deep into the ground. A new city, which would be the biggest on Earth, was being built under the Pacific Ocean and I wondered where all the people were coming from to fill them. In my first life I'd once heard, and I wasn't sure how true it was, that if all the humans on Earth stood shoulder to shoulder, in rows, then they would easily all fit on the island of Corsica. I doubted if that was true now, but if it ever was, then I wondered just what sort of numbers would be needed to populate these incredible cities.

I used to enjoy watching TV programs on large construction projects but these images surpassed anything I’d ever seen.

The scenes in the floating windows slowly froze and began to retreat back into the fog and I knew this indicated the session was coming to an end.

Not everything had come to me as clearly as I’d liked but somehow I knew the basic information I’d just been given was at least an introduction to this new time.

I now felt ready to interact with others in what they’d showed me to be Open Society, and I looked forward to finally escaping the solitude of the White Room. I felt lucky that I didn’t have to make any significant changes to my own behaviour to fit into Open Society, because it was almost exactly how Helen and I had lived our lives. If my outlook on life hadn’t been influenced so much by her, I may have been tempted, at some time, to try the naturist society for the experience. A whole continent of naturists, it had said, and they’d called the place ‘Nude’, how fantastic was that. But my love and respect for my wife far outweighed the need to satisfy that curiosity. No, I was happy with where I thought I should live, although I knew my personal preferences would now be stored, and if need be, alternative societies would be suggested to me.

I couldn’t help thinking to myself, just how much Helen was going to love this life.

The darkness once again fell, and just as quickly retreated as my sensations returned and I found myself back in the room facing a smiling Ankit. The table was in its original position and as I stifled a yawn bought on by the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, I jokingly said, ‘And people told me I’d wake up with my head sewn onto the body of a monkey.’

Ankit looked at me bemused ‘I don’t understand.’

‘You don’t have to.’ It was an age old joke that Helen and I had got thoroughly sick of when we first started to tell people what we’d planned.

‘Anyway, I think the way your societies are organised is amazing, it’s clearly a preferred way of living and promoted by most of your communities. What a pity we had to wait for machines to perfect it.’

Ankit looked to the ground as if ashamed for some reason and said almost apologetically, ‘yes, it’s a pity you didn’t adopt it earlier.’

That night my head was still trying to process the events of the day and I found it difficult to settle, and as I drifted into, and then out of sleep, I wasn’t sure if the noise I could hear in the background was part of the dream that was waiting to confront me, or if it was actually real.

Then it got louder,
scratch, tap scratch
, and I stirred out of my slumber and sat up. What was it? I got off my cot, stood up and cocked my head to try to hear the noise more clearly. It obviously wasn’t coming from my subconscious. It was actually in the room with me. But then again, no, it was someone or something over on the other side of the doorway. What was happening?

I slowly, and as silently as I could, crept over to the doorway, bent down and listened, the noise came again,
scratch,
tap, scratch, TAP
! Someone was on the other side of the door. BANG, BANG, BANG!

My heart raced and somehow I found the courage to shout ‘HELLO,’ and nearly frightened myself with the volume it came out, then more quietly I almost whispered, ‘is that you Ankit?’

The only response was the abrupt cessation of the noise, and the silence that returned to the room seemed more sinister as the feeling of not being alone descended on me. A shiver raced down my spine as I nervously lay back down and closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep.

My mind was confused, filled with everything that had happened over the last few days, and I wondered if the noise at the door had anything to do with the stranger that had called on me. Everything was beginning to happen so quickly, and the more I thought about the stranger called Ramoon, the more sinister he seemed.

As my mind slowed down it became more disconnected from its rational side and drowsiness began to take me into the realms of half dreams. I saw myself being revived again, but this time my body felt different, and there were people all around me, staring and pointing in my direction whilst laughing hysterically. Why were they laughing? I looked down, frightened that it might be one of those horrendous dreams where I found myself naked in public, but instead of seeing a human body supporting me I saw the body of a monkey, dressed in ridiculous clothing and dancing an Irish jig! And lying next to me at my feet was another monkey, obviously dead, and grafted onto its body was Helen’s lifeless head.

As I fell further into the full horror of my worst nightmare my subconscious mind screamed.

Chapter 07
– Where’s My Robot

‘So you’re telling me, I still can’t interact with other people?’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

When Ankit had arrived the next morning I’d expected to be told I could finally leave the oppressive confinement of the White Room. But now he was standing here telling me that I'd only just begun my induction.

I blew out a sigh of resignation, knowing there was no sense in protesting. ‘Then at least let me have a robot to keep me company, you must have some of those lying around. You could programme it not to reveal anything you don’t want it to. Then at least I’d have something to talk to, because if I have to stay here much longer Ankit, I am going to go insane.’

‘If by robot you mean android, something that looks human,’ I was nodding my
head, ‘there are no such things.’

‘What!’ I exclaimed ‘you’ve got to be joking; you still haven’t mastered that yet?’ I remembered the speculation and eager anticipation there’d been in my day because everyone thought they were just over the horizon. In fact I’d seen some very basic models created by the Japanese.

‘Its not that we couldn’t create them Richard, robots exist all over this environment, they’re created for specific tasks and those tasks dictate their shape; there is just no need for a human shaped robot.’

‘But….’ I began, but before I could reel off the list I’d got for wanting an android, Ankit beat me to it.

‘Look, Richard, before you tell me you can think of plenty of reasons to create a robot in the image of a human, you really need to analyse and question those reasons and needs carefully. Because, take it from me, there are some very fundamental ethical arguments around why anyone would want to create something that looks like another human being, and then make it subservient.’

I was frowning now, ‘Oh, but I was...’

‘And as far as helping less fortunate people - the elderly and disabled - well there are no such people in any of our societies, and the need for them to help those people back in your time says more about the failings in your society, than I am sure you want to argue with me about.' I shut up.

But Ankit went on, 'And before you tell me that they’d be company then I’d just point you to your own Internet as far as satisfying that need. Even in your own day you were starting to make significant leaps forward in the development of social networks. Most people with access to your technology could find like minded people, real people, to interact with, however obscure their interests were. And we have far superior ways of making contact with other people, one’s you’ll master like the rest of us. Take it from me Richard, there is no one alive today that is lonely.’