It is now the 734th year since the outbreak of
the Great and Merciful Peace and all the inhabitable areas have agreed upon two
supreme commandments. These two rules were
born out of the necessity of circumstance
and have transformed human existence. Early in the time of Scarcity the elders who took control of the holy
google-net ruled that all human life was sacred and may not be taken, every
individual must eat in moderation and exercise to maximise their lifespan. The
eggs and sperm are still taken from the young at 17 years of age to be
protected so that selected embryos can be produced in gestation tanks when required by their
family. For the first two hundred years humanity prospered people expected to live to 120
and then 150 and now 200 years. The sterile homes and the blessings of the
virtual worlds created by the omniscient and most revered google-net mean that people continue to live entertained
and safe existences. So the planet was
fully repopulated until the time of the
Super Abundance coinciding with the final impotency of antibiotics. At
this time the second great rule was revealed to us . Thou shalt not treat the
sick. So for half a millennium we have lived in an the midst of a terrible
binary of rules born out of conflicting necessities which are sustained by a personal greed for life and
enshrined in religion. Thus we preserve and revere our online lifespan but we
may not interfere with the sick. In this way the overall balance of life is
preserved. We study the great sciences
of prevention, sterilisation and
vaccination that we might live longer. Everyone must wear their life
preservers; white synthetic spider silk suits that armour us against the
scourge of abrasions. We live within our sterosphere helmets that protect us
from infection. We conduct our business through virtually controlled machines
and exercise in virtual worlds inspired by reality and imagination.
I am a servant of the great and most majestic high google. In my
first half century I was one of the developers of the most miraculous world time
web which has become the great investment sensation of our age. We succeeded in drawing in digital signals refracted back from the black
star gravity pool. These data streams from the birth of our most revered google
net brought us knowledge of what we now call
" the age of "visceral engagement" . At first we were shocked and sickened by the violence, bare flesh and physical
contact. It has since been used to reform our virtual entertainments.
This is my first attempt to send a super accelerated data burst
on the reverse path back through the curve of the space/time depression. There is no rule
against it, but in my heart I know there should be. Studying your lives for over a hundred years
now I feel compelled to warn you of the unfortunate alignment of cultural rules
and circumstances that have come to
enslave us. I realise that this epistle may threaten our own existence
but it is not much of an existence.
I am 198 years old. I have followed the rules, lived long and
been well rewarded by our standards but perhaps less well in your judgements. I
will send richer data streams after this simple old fashioned coded message but
try to imagine our time. We must endure
our illnesses and the consequences of them, we must not intervene. We do not touch and remain untouched. I have
recently lost another greatgreatgreatgrandchild in circumstances that further
fuel my doubts about these rules by which we live.
We had stepped outside our block Louis and I , risky but not
against the rules. He being but five year old saw the leaves blowing down from
the trees. Before he could be stopped, he put up his anti bacterial visor that
he might chase and catch the leaf. It brushed his eye as it floated down:
infection followed and then death. I have stood coldly by and watched death too
many times, and I know that you would judge me ill by the standards of your
time for doing so. Our children's
instincts betray our true nature. It is
buried deeper as we mature by the consistent layers of conditioning that
we must not touch. When I first looked
back at your time I was shocked, offended and physically sickened by the way
that you touch each other, walk barefooted, breathe the air. We had lost the
words for two mouths touching and even now I cannot bring myself to write such
an obscenity, but now I am obsessed by it and jealous.
Preserve your humanity not
your individual selves: live a real and
dirty life. Set your descendants free.
Yours in perpetual
servitude. Gideon
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