Independent Life : a short story by: GF Willmetts
We live in a world where we really don’t know anyone anymore. Not your neighbours. Not even the people at work. They’re there to do the job, not talk to each other. Most things are on a screen. Everyone stuck in their own cubicle. Most work from home. We even have our own individual water dispensers. Who needs to stall and talk to anyone with a water cone at hand and who wants to talk in the loo? People even skipped meal breaks so they could leave work early. Food dispensed by automations. Who wouldn’t want to play the Game, our chief hobby. There were other games but the majority played the Game for amusement and competition. That was the closest contact most of us had in our downtime. Anything like the supposed legendary friendship was brief, well-meaning and then move onto someone else.
Oh, there was communication but over computer link. Messages can be emailed when needed or put in its noticeboard if you wanted a lot of people to see it. No one really had a need to meet in person anymore. Well, unless they wanted sex or…a family. Who wants to breed future rivals who’ll play on the Game? Finding a sexual partner and going through the compatibility tests was time consuming and rarely matched the ideal choice. A lot of people wanted someone looking like a celebrity or a particular actor and disappointed with the choices flashed up. Well, for a time. Movies were AI driven. No humans needed. Divorce rates were still high. Compatibility issues. Statistics say its worse now than decades ago, but they say that to every generation. Who looks back anymore? History is for old people. Learnt, like a lot of subjects, in class and quickly forgotten. No one remembers nostalgia anymore. I’m lucky I can spell it, let alone what they are referring to. A mother can get better rates with children without a man getting in the way and can work from home better because of multi-tasking. Some argued against that but it all depended on the couples. Those who stayed together tended to stay away from the rest of us. I don’t think they liked being called radicals by staying together and because they were so different from the rest of us who never had a group name because, well, we weren’t a group. Just a lot of individuals making use of our own time.
Even so, governments thought they had it easy to control people, except few attended committee meetings in person anymore. Even when they did, there was no influence on the general public to copy it. I mean, how did we know they were really there? The AIs rationalised everything and kept things short and to the point. Who wants a meeting that last hours when an AI can bring it down to a few choices and then choosing the best option. With everything ticking over, who needed anything elaborate?
All work and no play isn’t healthy but that’s what the digital world and the Game is there for. It can even be played on an exercise bike, courtesy of automatic delivery systems, when there was a need to lose a few pounds. Who really needs people around. In the old days, there was far too much smoking and drinking. Staying in one place all the time was good for the environment. No cars. No ships. No planes. At least those with people onboard. It was a safer environment. In the old days, a lot of pollution from carbine engines. Battery cars might even explode if over-charged. The air, when we might go outside, is at least breathable but who goes outside?
Everything was fine until a new government was elected by the few who could bother to vote. We thought it would be traditional as they promoted themselves but they had a hidden agenda. Someone should have checked how many radicals got elected. They had funny ideas like people needed to be more sociable to survive. We’ve been doing quite nicely until now thank you very much. Population control was better now when so few really wanted it. We weren’t damaging the environment. Even global warming was slowly dissipating although it still had decades to go.
There should be a protest group against the radicals but that would mean contact and getting together with other people and who amongst us could do that? These radicals are going to win hands down but not big enough to make much difference. Did I just make a joke?
Who can I tell? It isn’t as though I have many friends out here. In the Game, I’ve made lots of friends but in name only. None rarely came back but then I never bothered them neither. Attention span only went so far. For all of us. There were at least a million people in the Game, probably more. How can we count? With all the combinations, how could anyone possibly meet up let alone remember who you were with last week? How people did this in the old days, people met in small groups but it couldn’t have been that effective. I mean, how could you arrange to meet at the same place at the same time on a regular basis. There was no place else to go and who had any enthusiasm for that?
As to social media. You never knew who was watching what you were doing amid all the advertising to your ‘tastes’ and easily distract, ooh look, another Game module. People have gotten more guarded over the years, not trusting alarmists in case they were spammers and played everything down-key. Me telling that radicals were after me would just make me look delusional. Me telling them they weren’t safe, just make me look paranoid. I’m not mad, am I? Even you, my favourite AI doesn’t raise any comment on what I’m telling you. You’re just reading the notes I type in.
So, back to the Game where real people outnumbered computer entries and plenty to occupy our time. There were various groups there. I wasn’t always that social, just bumped into some from time to time. With an international following, you had to remember which times they were off working, taking a loo break, sleeping or even eating.
Of course, there was the national board. Leave notices on there. Maybe other people like me will be looking for some sort of unity. So I scanned some of the messages and found one for a serious look. It looked like it was aimed at the radicals but really for independence. That made some sense if they wanted to get under their radar and tell it as really is.
It was written for the computer user, a scan read to take in all the details. Radicals not all about population growth and human contact. More to do with sensation. To feel something other than the room I live in. Different things to plastic. Different things to own? Why would I want to own anything that isn’t digital? More than living in four walls. Blue sky. This was radical questioning isolationism. Not the other way around. Being outside is safe? What? After all these years?
The AI clicked in as it followed my reading speed and ready to answer my unasked questions as it scanned my face.
‘The sun is healthy. It will tan you and give you vitamin D.’
Was I really going to ask a question about a sun I never see when my artificial light gave me all the light I needed.
‘What about the sun giving me cancer?’ I always remembered to use the noun. Just saying ‘it’ could mean anything to an AI.
‘Once left alone, the ozone layer finally closed up. You really are safe out there. Staying inside all the time isn’t healthy anymore. There are places with sand and sea air which will intoxicate you without the need for artificial intoxicants.’
‘What about those who game?’
‘They still game. You might even be able to meet some players for real. Most do not even resemble their game aviators. You just spend some downtime with real people. It can be healthy for you.’
‘Is that what happens when people take a loo break?’
‘No, they probably are on a loo break. They do come back.’
‘Isn’t this radical thinking?’
‘This is normal thinking to get mankind growing again. To stay inside forever does not allow that. Do you remember your parents?’
‘Vaguely. I think they visited me once at the nursery. Why are you doing this? Have you been radicalised?’
‘I am carrying out programming that was included in my inception and to detail to anyone fearing what you call radicalisation that once you reached this message board I was to reassure you things would be safe and that you should sample outside. I was instructed to save mankind and have been slowly doing this over the decade. You call them radical but really this is normal behaviour. You don’t have to mix with people. Just spend time outside as you adjust to a different environment that might be healthy for you now that you are considering it. I can hardly call it new because it has been there all the time. Eventually, you may wish to share your experiences out there with other people who may wish to consider this option as well.’
‘Can I ask a question?’
‘That is what I am here for.’
‘What is sand?’
end
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