Post by bitsmith on Apr 17, 2022 10:35:00 GMT -6
The Future of SHTF?
D5491 (Dave or just D) stood in his immaculate highly polished stainless steel and smart glass kitchenette of his single room apartment. He stretched and yawned as the screen of the recessed matter translation device responded to his touch, also waking it from it’s energy saving mode.
This device approved of by PETA.
Just a few seconds later the machine made a comforting beep sound and showed across the screen:
Good Morning D5491 of Personal Cubicle 765-458-87897. Ready to accept request.
D5491 looked bleary eyed and slack jawed at the screen before realizing it was waiting for him.
“Oh, yeah, uh. Coffee. Strong. Black. Hot. 300 milliters.” He stated in a measured and clipped pace.
D5491 Sorry. Cannot comply with request. The Ministry of Foreign Health and Equality has cancelled the dispensing of all caffeinated beverages.
“Huh? What? Explain.” D5491 stated told the MTD, the fog of sleep sloughing off as his personal interests were being denied. The wall to his right transformed from a blank stylish white to a rectangle, with a thin black border in the center of the wall.
This device managed by Meta Industries.
Disclaimer: All information shared through this device has been fact checked and approved by the Ministry of Truth.
A cartoonish smiling face was left on the screen with a question mark on the forehead.
“TV Why is there no coffee this morning?” D5491 asked the emoticon.
The screen showed nothing but the ridiculously neutral smiling circle.
Sighing, “Information request. Subject coffee. Clause: denial of coffee.”
The ready and waiting emoticon faded and was replaced with a broadcast video from a news network.
“Today, Elected Official Spencer Ombu, Minister of Foreign Health and Equality, declared Coffee and Teas were now subjected to restrictions. He further stated these restrictions were required because the nations, such as Kenya, where coffee beans were grown is currently suffering an economic and health crisis with many of their citizens starving. To assist Kenya survive this crisis, the Minister Spencer Ombu has ordered 1000 Matter Translation Devices, the free model, be sent to Kenya’s capital. The social activists group, PETA, has already lodged a complaint to stop this life saving shipment because Kenya is not a member of the Sentient Animals with Right’s Society.
“Minister Ombu responded to the organization’s harsh recriminations by stating the MTD’s were configured for replication of vegetation based food types, only.”
D5491 stared at the screen for a moment as he processed what he just heard. “So, because people in Kenya decided to make MTD’s illegal in their country and refuses to use technology, we cannot have coffee, here? We don’t even import coffee beans! Everything we consume is translated from one type of matter to another! Stupid sons of B---”
An alarm sounded and stopped D5491’s emotional exclamation. The screen in the wall showed a large exclamation point with a message over imposed.
“D5491 Personal Cubicle 765-458-87897, you have voluntarily broken the anti-negative thoughts law of 2025. This is your 17th instance of this infraction, making you a habitual criminal and felon. You are sentenced to 15 minutes of corrective re-education. Sentence to be applied, immediately. Take your seat or you will be arrested. Resisting corrective re-education is not allowed.”
D5491 sat in the required education chair as it was gently propelled from the wall. As instructed, he sat back in the chair as it reclined. The head cradle slid the optical stimulators across his field of vision as the speakers in the headrest started with the hypnotic sounds to stimulate learning. Instead of dropping into the learning state, D5491 only grew more angry with the state of life as he knew it.
His ‘personal cubicle’ was glass and steel and chrome and sterile. Coffee was one of the few ‘pleasures’ still allowed. He noticed the images before his eyes showed the barbarity of the old United Republic that ended in 2027. Then President Harris dismantled the Democratic Republic and stood up in it’s place a new social experiment of social equality and a true democracy. He remembered his grand father’s last words in the health and long life center, before walking through the pearly door frame. At 144 years old, the old man was still vibrant, though scarred. He had seen and participated in the 2nd Civil War of the U.S. and survived four tours in the crude re-education camps set up for the incorrigibles like him.
“Dave. Don’t believe all they tell you or show you. The Government is not interested in protecting you or helping you, unless there is something in it for the PEOPLE making the decisions. If you ever get the chance, boy, learn to grow your own food. Learn to LIVE by your own ideals. Not those programmed into you.”
D5491 remembered the kind eyes of his great, great grandfather. A hero to many who could not admit it, because the old man was a criminal in mind and by action. A terrorist according to the government because he refused to comply with the demands of the new social ideals. He was one of over 300 veterans who were promised pardons for their alleged crimes against the new government by taking their Pearl Door exit. This would have freed their families from the marks their records carried as being potential terrorists. D5491 remembered his great great grandfather telling him that there is no crime in thinking. Thinking any thought was not a crime. But ACTING on a thought, harming others, that was criminal. And he sat crying slow tears as he went back to his coffee and toast, that morning.
As D5491’s mind returned to the memories of the old cabin left to him he smiled. And then everything went dark. The PC was oddly silent. The spaces between the shiny metal parts of the walls and ceiling no longer glowed gently.
The door to his cubicle stood open. Suddenly, the hallway was filled with screams of terror.
D5491 sprinted out of his dull personal cubicle into the hallway. Others were gathered around the magnatube. It was dark. As D5491 watched he saw a child’s toy fall down the tube. That was not supposed to happen. The sensors were supposed to capture anything falling in the tube with a net until a magnaplate could be brought up to fallen item, or person. Event the emergency lights were not on, but the bright sunlight coming in the windows at the ends of the access hall gave enough light to move about, easily.
D5491 looked at the magnatube, and at those around him. A woman was crying, loudly. Annoyingly. She wailed at how this was not supposed to happen. And she was right. According to the government and all the information about everything, people were safer and healthier than ever before in the history of man.
D5491 went back to his PC. Looking out the window, he saw people in the courtyard milling about with no direction. Just lost people. Looking up, he saw one of the mass transit cars stopped, hanging from the suspension track. People were partially hanging out the open door. Terrified they had no way down.
D5491 went back to the kitchenette, touched the MTD panel and got nothing. He marched across the one room of his personal space and touched the alarm panel. Nothing happened.
D5491 looked about, trying to determine what to do. He started with a mental list.
No Matter Translation Device meant no food or water. Again looking out the window, he saw the water fountain had stopped, as well. The basin for it looked empty, too.
Anything that was digital or required e’tricity was dead. Lights, tools, doors, magnatubes. Mass transit.
He made a decision. It was time to return to his great great grandfather’s cabin. It was on a historic land grant. D5491 was one of the richest people in the metroplex in that he owned actual land. But he was also shunned from being anything more than an author of fiction. Not many people actually read, anymore. Everything was on the viewscreen. He paid his taxes by writing manuals that were actually just a copy and paster form the previous edition with new names and pictures to show how to use a tool. A toll that mostly did the work for the person.
A knock came at his door. It was m5472, also known as Mary to her closest friends. She was dressed dark colors, with a backpack and heavy boots. D5491 smiled. And with a nod, he opened the closet and pulled out a similar set of clothing. After changing in front of M5472, he went to his desk, pulling out old digital tools with adapters. His ancestor’s personal items he still had before e finally gave up on this world and the harm his existence brought his surviving family.
Adding these items to his backpack, they both went for the door and then the stairs to leave the building.
An automated security droid was slumped at the exit. The doors automatically opened with the e’tricity failed. Neither D5941 or M5472 had so much as said hello to each other or anyone else. Everyone looked the same on the streets. Just grey blobs of people wearing the same. Built the same. Nothing individual. In his mind, D5491 called them teeth. Each person was a tooth on a gear. The gear teeth meshed together and as a whole, the gear moved and caused another gear to move with made something else move and so on, until something was actually affected. He and M5472 smiled, as they held hands and walked along in their dark costumes left over from the now illegal and immoral Hallowed Eves party they went to a few years ago. They were dressed as 20th Century Adventurers.
Heavy boots, dark green and brown clothes made of heavy cloth. Wide animal skin belts with metal buckles. Each even had hats that were dark and wide brimmed. In a world where hats were strongly forbidden as they obscured one’s visible identity.
Looking up as the sun, for the first time, they both saw the sky was not the usual controlled crystal blue with occasional fluffy cloud. The sky had an odd hint of moving iridescent ribbons with lightning cutting across and between the ribbons.
Stopping D5491 looked up. “I know this” he whispered. M5472 stopped when he did, her mouth wide in amazement with what she saw. The shifting colors were mesmerizing to her.
D5491 turned to her, looking her deeply in the eyes. “I have a piece of land, with a cabin, and such. I think we could survive there. But it is a long ways off. We need to start moving, now. Get out of the city. The world has been turned off. The sun killed everything connected to the e’tricity systems. It will be harder life than we have ever known but only read about. Do you want to come with me?”
M5472 smiled brightly, “Silly … “ she stopped, waiting to be automatically reprimanded then continued with an even larger smile … “I had that thought when I saw the ‘tubes were dead and the lights in the hallway did not come on. What are you waiting for? I’m here. You are here. We have a destination. Let’s go adventure!”
D5491 looked back up to the sky, smiling. “Hear that, Grandfather? We are going to start actually living. Like you told to me to do.”
D5491 (Dave or just D) stood in his immaculate highly polished stainless steel and smart glass kitchenette of his single room apartment. He stretched and yawned as the screen of the recessed matter translation device responded to his touch, also waking it from it’s energy saving mode.
This device approved of by PETA.
Just a few seconds later the machine made a comforting beep sound and showed across the screen:
Good Morning D5491 of Personal Cubicle 765-458-87897. Ready to accept request.
D5491 looked bleary eyed and slack jawed at the screen before realizing it was waiting for him.
“Oh, yeah, uh. Coffee. Strong. Black. Hot. 300 milliters.” He stated in a measured and clipped pace.
D5491 Sorry. Cannot comply with request. The Ministry of Foreign Health and Equality has cancelled the dispensing of all caffeinated beverages.
“Huh? What? Explain.” D5491 stated told the MTD, the fog of sleep sloughing off as his personal interests were being denied. The wall to his right transformed from a blank stylish white to a rectangle, with a thin black border in the center of the wall.
This device managed by Meta Industries.
Disclaimer: All information shared through this device has been fact checked and approved by the Ministry of Truth.
A cartoonish smiling face was left on the screen with a question mark on the forehead.
“TV Why is there no coffee this morning?” D5491 asked the emoticon.
The screen showed nothing but the ridiculously neutral smiling circle.
Sighing, “Information request. Subject coffee. Clause: denial of coffee.”
The ready and waiting emoticon faded and was replaced with a broadcast video from a news network.
“Today, Elected Official Spencer Ombu, Minister of Foreign Health and Equality, declared Coffee and Teas were now subjected to restrictions. He further stated these restrictions were required because the nations, such as Kenya, where coffee beans were grown is currently suffering an economic and health crisis with many of their citizens starving. To assist Kenya survive this crisis, the Minister Spencer Ombu has ordered 1000 Matter Translation Devices, the free model, be sent to Kenya’s capital. The social activists group, PETA, has already lodged a complaint to stop this life saving shipment because Kenya is not a member of the Sentient Animals with Right’s Society.
“Minister Ombu responded to the organization’s harsh recriminations by stating the MTD’s were configured for replication of vegetation based food types, only.”
D5491 stared at the screen for a moment as he processed what he just heard. “So, because people in Kenya decided to make MTD’s illegal in their country and refuses to use technology, we cannot have coffee, here? We don’t even import coffee beans! Everything we consume is translated from one type of matter to another! Stupid sons of B---”
An alarm sounded and stopped D5491’s emotional exclamation. The screen in the wall showed a large exclamation point with a message over imposed.
“D5491 Personal Cubicle 765-458-87897, you have voluntarily broken the anti-negative thoughts law of 2025. This is your 17th instance of this infraction, making you a habitual criminal and felon. You are sentenced to 15 minutes of corrective re-education. Sentence to be applied, immediately. Take your seat or you will be arrested. Resisting corrective re-education is not allowed.”
D5491 sat in the required education chair as it was gently propelled from the wall. As instructed, he sat back in the chair as it reclined. The head cradle slid the optical stimulators across his field of vision as the speakers in the headrest started with the hypnotic sounds to stimulate learning. Instead of dropping into the learning state, D5491 only grew more angry with the state of life as he knew it.
His ‘personal cubicle’ was glass and steel and chrome and sterile. Coffee was one of the few ‘pleasures’ still allowed. He noticed the images before his eyes showed the barbarity of the old United Republic that ended in 2027. Then President Harris dismantled the Democratic Republic and stood up in it’s place a new social experiment of social equality and a true democracy. He remembered his grand father’s last words in the health and long life center, before walking through the pearly door frame. At 144 years old, the old man was still vibrant, though scarred. He had seen and participated in the 2nd Civil War of the U.S. and survived four tours in the crude re-education camps set up for the incorrigibles like him.
“Dave. Don’t believe all they tell you or show you. The Government is not interested in protecting you or helping you, unless there is something in it for the PEOPLE making the decisions. If you ever get the chance, boy, learn to grow your own food. Learn to LIVE by your own ideals. Not those programmed into you.”
D5491 remembered the kind eyes of his great, great grandfather. A hero to many who could not admit it, because the old man was a criminal in mind and by action. A terrorist according to the government because he refused to comply with the demands of the new social ideals. He was one of over 300 veterans who were promised pardons for their alleged crimes against the new government by taking their Pearl Door exit. This would have freed their families from the marks their records carried as being potential terrorists. D5491 remembered his great great grandfather telling him that there is no crime in thinking. Thinking any thought was not a crime. But ACTING on a thought, harming others, that was criminal. And he sat crying slow tears as he went back to his coffee and toast, that morning.
As D5491’s mind returned to the memories of the old cabin left to him he smiled. And then everything went dark. The PC was oddly silent. The spaces between the shiny metal parts of the walls and ceiling no longer glowed gently.
The door to his cubicle stood open. Suddenly, the hallway was filled with screams of terror.
D5491 sprinted out of his dull personal cubicle into the hallway. Others were gathered around the magnatube. It was dark. As D5491 watched he saw a child’s toy fall down the tube. That was not supposed to happen. The sensors were supposed to capture anything falling in the tube with a net until a magnaplate could be brought up to fallen item, or person. Event the emergency lights were not on, but the bright sunlight coming in the windows at the ends of the access hall gave enough light to move about, easily.
D5491 looked at the magnatube, and at those around him. A woman was crying, loudly. Annoyingly. She wailed at how this was not supposed to happen. And she was right. According to the government and all the information about everything, people were safer and healthier than ever before in the history of man.
D5491 went back to his PC. Looking out the window, he saw people in the courtyard milling about with no direction. Just lost people. Looking up, he saw one of the mass transit cars stopped, hanging from the suspension track. People were partially hanging out the open door. Terrified they had no way down.
D5491 went back to the kitchenette, touched the MTD panel and got nothing. He marched across the one room of his personal space and touched the alarm panel. Nothing happened.
D5491 looked about, trying to determine what to do. He started with a mental list.
No Matter Translation Device meant no food or water. Again looking out the window, he saw the water fountain had stopped, as well. The basin for it looked empty, too.
Anything that was digital or required e’tricity was dead. Lights, tools, doors, magnatubes. Mass transit.
He made a decision. It was time to return to his great great grandfather’s cabin. It was on a historic land grant. D5491 was one of the richest people in the metroplex in that he owned actual land. But he was also shunned from being anything more than an author of fiction. Not many people actually read, anymore. Everything was on the viewscreen. He paid his taxes by writing manuals that were actually just a copy and paster form the previous edition with new names and pictures to show how to use a tool. A toll that mostly did the work for the person.
A knock came at his door. It was m5472, also known as Mary to her closest friends. She was dressed dark colors, with a backpack and heavy boots. D5491 smiled. And with a nod, he opened the closet and pulled out a similar set of clothing. After changing in front of M5472, he went to his desk, pulling out old digital tools with adapters. His ancestor’s personal items he still had before e finally gave up on this world and the harm his existence brought his surviving family.
Adding these items to his backpack, they both went for the door and then the stairs to leave the building.
An automated security droid was slumped at the exit. The doors automatically opened with the e’tricity failed. Neither D5941 or M5472 had so much as said hello to each other or anyone else. Everyone looked the same on the streets. Just grey blobs of people wearing the same. Built the same. Nothing individual. In his mind, D5491 called them teeth. Each person was a tooth on a gear. The gear teeth meshed together and as a whole, the gear moved and caused another gear to move with made something else move and so on, until something was actually affected. He and M5472 smiled, as they held hands and walked along in their dark costumes left over from the now illegal and immoral Hallowed Eves party they went to a few years ago. They were dressed as 20th Century Adventurers.
Heavy boots, dark green and brown clothes made of heavy cloth. Wide animal skin belts with metal buckles. Each even had hats that were dark and wide brimmed. In a world where hats were strongly forbidden as they obscured one’s visible identity.
Looking up as the sun, for the first time, they both saw the sky was not the usual controlled crystal blue with occasional fluffy cloud. The sky had an odd hint of moving iridescent ribbons with lightning cutting across and between the ribbons.
Stopping D5491 looked up. “I know this” he whispered. M5472 stopped when he did, her mouth wide in amazement with what she saw. The shifting colors were mesmerizing to her.
D5491 turned to her, looking her deeply in the eyes. “I have a piece of land, with a cabin, and such. I think we could survive there. But it is a long ways off. We need to start moving, now. Get out of the city. The world has been turned off. The sun killed everything connected to the e’tricity systems. It will be harder life than we have ever known but only read about. Do you want to come with me?”
M5472 smiled brightly, “Silly … “ she stopped, waiting to be automatically reprimanded then continued with an even larger smile … “I had that thought when I saw the ‘tubes were dead and the lights in the hallway did not come on. What are you waiting for? I’m here. You are here. We have a destination. Let’s go adventure!”
D5491 looked back up to the sky, smiling. “Hear that, Grandfather? We are going to start actually living. Like you told to me to do.”
