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 blessings of the virtual worlds created by the omniscient and most revered google-net meant that people continued 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 the midst of a dichotomy 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 alignments of rules, culture and circumstances that have enslaved us. I realise that this act may threaten our own 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. We must endure our illness and the consequences of them, we must not intervene. We do not touch and remain untouched.
I have recently lost another greatgreatgreatgrandchild in such circumstances as further fuel my doubts about the rules by which we live. We had stepped outside our block - risky but not against the rules. Five year old Louis saw the leaves blowing down from the trees. Before he could be stopped, he put up his visor that he might chase and catch a 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 it, 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
