Part Two
Chapter One
My
name is Erica Bergdahl and I am about to embark on a project that
will almost certainly see me through to the end of my life. In order
to justify what I intend to do, I am setting this down as a record of
my actions, though as I am writing it on an old fashioned word
processor, I don’t suppose anyone will be able to read it. I have
nothing better to do with what little time that remains to me.
Virtuality does not stimulate me and there is nothing else to occupy
my mind.
I
lie here in my apartment, alone with my thoughts, and, unlike most of
the population, deeply in real life. As SAUK (System Administrator
(UK)) of Virtuality, I am aware of the difference between Reality and
Virtuality. Indeed as a young woman I had experienced life when
Virtuality was not the whole of life, when people still visited in
real life, and even when families lived together in real life. I had
been brought up with my mother and father in a family unit and had
often accompanied my parents on trips outside.
My
mother was always moaning about the way things used to be. From a
wealthy background, and with a father who had been determined to be
amongst the first to have any new invention or innovation, my
mother’s family had, in addition to the Country House and the Town
House, a Virtuality room in each. I was brought up during the
“rollout” of Virtuality for all and my mother resented the fact
that these privileges had been granted to every “drop out and ne’er
do well in the country”. My father, ironically, had been an
employee of the Gates Corporation, which had wholeheartedly supported
the move towards universal Virtuality, supported by grants and
subsidies from the UK government. Indeed, my
father had been a supporter of the scheme himself, although in the
interests of peace at home, he had kept his views to himself.
By
the time I was born, the scheme was in its infancy, a small
proportion of the population had been rehoused
in Virtuality blocks, either as singles or family units, and yet
social intercourse had still taken place outside Virtuality,
particularly amongst the older population. There were of course
prophets of doom that said that no good would come of this
manipulation of Mankind’s social structure, but the government and
Gates continued to progress with the system.
Given
the opportunity of a Gates scholarship to Cambridge Virtual College,
I had taken up a life as an academic, rising to be the youngest
professor in the history of Cambridge University. From this
point, such was my indoctrination, I had become a wholehearted
proponent of the development of Virtuality as a way of managing
social change.
I
had been an idealist then, but now I feel that it has all gone wrong.
I had been the principal advocate of what had been known as the
“Euthanasia Clause”, which had simply been the removal of support
functions from persons over the age of 100. This inevitably meant
that at that age with all support functions, including life support
to the apartment, removed, the old person would sleep forever,
releasing valuable resources for the younger more valuable members of
society.
That
was then of course. One hundred years had seemed a reasonable length
of time for anyone to live. Only a relatively small percentage of
the population would have this clause invoked and they would
realise that it was for the greater good. Anyway,
they represented an infinitesimal proportion of total purchasing
power.
I was
not then, nor am I now, a politician, nor have I worked directly for
a global corporation, but in those days, all academics were paid by
politicians who in turn were paid by Globals, so it was pretty much
the same result really. I had been an advisor to
the government on what was known as the Depopulation and De-pollution
project (DP2). This had sought to reduce the amount of pollution in
the world caused by overpopulation by a combination of reducing the
movements of people and their consumption of raw materials, but at
the same time satisfy the needs of the Globals
who required consumerism to develop.
DP2
was a project that had been in existence since before the radical
adoption of Universal Virtuality, which had been created to alleviate
the huge costs of illness caused by pollution and over population,
and the consequent loss of consumer revenues. At the time the
concept had been mooted, fossil fuels had become scarce and
expensive, and the oil and gas companies had diversified into other
forms of energy generation, including and in particular, solar
energy. This was generated at land stations, for particular uses,
and by a string of geostationery
satellites, and had gone some way to reduce the air pollution caused
by the burning of fossil fuels. Unfortunately it was too little too
late to solve the long-term effects that overpopulation and
environmental abuse had caused.
It
had become almost impossible to expose skin of any colour
to the sun for more than fifteen minutes without causing severe
burning and potential cancer. Protective clothing had to be worn at
all times outside and travelling any
distance was difficult. People had started working from their place
of residence via telecommunications links and computer systems
networked via the World Wide Web of computer connectivity. More
specialist buildings had been erected with the sole purpose of
providing accommodation with connectivity to the web. These
buildings were self-contained units with a receiver for the satellite
energy system. They were serviced in all respects for food,
clothing, laundry and waste disposal by a highly automated
organisation that provided robotic systems to
clean and deliver to the living units. Further advances in
technology, led to the development of virtual reality technologies
that allowed a high degree of interaction with work mates in a
virtual environment. This radically changed the way in which people
worked.
More
and more people found it easier to work from home, or small local
offices, and the central city business started to decline in
favour of the out of town telecommuter. People
travelled less and the log jammed
traffic declined considerably. Even those who needed interaction
with other personnel found the VR environment comfortable as it
allowed them to interact with their colleagues, albeit in virtual
form, as if they were working in the same office building.
Technology
continued to progress. Few production operations required any human
input at all, and even food production was automated to the extent
that a farm extending to well over 10,000 acres needed no more than a
single “farmer” working a terminal to operate the whole farm. VR
required no more attachments to make it work, instead, an electronic
field stimulated the sensors in the brain, bypassing the traditional
sensors of eyes, ears, taste touch etc.
It
became obvious that the only way for government to have a remote
chance of governing was to provide shelter from the harmful effects
of the pollution, and to adopt the new technologies in order to
maintain control of the population. In the interests of democracy,
the government had to persuade the people to come into their new
blocks. There was legislation passed to force anyone claiming
housing benefit to enter into the new blocks, and all government
employees were “encouraged” to take accommodation there.
As
it turned out, the populace did not require much persuading. There
were, of course, cries of “foul” from the well heeled, until it
was pointed out that the needy would be offered only the most basic
accommodation. In addition the potential savings to the exchequer
should reduce the taxation burden on the rich and provide them with
further credits towards other luxuries.
Governments
of all technologically advanced societies started to build VR blocks
for their population, and connect them to the system, which in turn
gave them connection to Virtuality for work and play. As time went
on, fewer and fewer people were to be found on the streets, which
were still so polluted that to be out for more than 10 minutes
without a respirator would mean asphyxiation. Virtuality became the
norm, and the system was developed to provide food and exercise for
the block bound inhabitants.
These
developments have all taken place over the last few generations, and
were started before I was even born, but such was my enthusiasm for
the ideals encapsulated in the concept, that I drove the reforms
through until the take up of Virtuality was, to all intents and
purposes, universal. For my tireless efforts and
single-minded dedication to the cause, I was awarded the title of
“System Administrator”. I think sometimes
that it had been an idealist solution, but it had worked. It was
assumed that there were still “Outsiders” but it was not known
how many there were. The System controls the environment of
each of the blocks and does not tolerate any interference from
outside, whether this is represented by Outsiders or wild animals.
It maintains itself and builds its own replacement
modules. It makes food from produce and chemicals that it raises for
itself. It has to be an ideal solution, but I am growing
dissatisfied
Not
only am I approaching my 95th
birthday, but also I am beginning to doubt whether the experiment
(for that’s how I now see it) has worked; have there been serious
flaws in my reasoning. Both the Globals who had started this whole
exercise, and National Governments, have become subject to the same
benign system that they had created and have ceased to exist in
anything other than name. Human apathy has taken over, and the
System runs everything.
For
those in the Virtuality blocks this is not a major problem, they are
content. There is no hardship, and the only inequality lies in the
number of credits available to spend in Virtuality. This in turn is
dictated by the effort put in to maintain the System. As a result of
my honorific title “System Administrator”, I am awarded a stipend
of 1,000,000 credits a year for life, and almost unlimited access to
the System’s databases and programs.
Lying
here thinking as I do so much these days, I find it difficult to
justify my disillusionment. All I keep coming back to is that I am
getting old, and something isn’t right. I have spent days browsing
the data file of the System trying to establish what is bothering me
and I have come to the conclusion that it relates to the indefinable
requirement of humanity to continue to progress, and that the system
I have helped to create has suppressed, and in the main, eliminated
this need. The ideal I had worked so hard to create has been
fulfilled and is no longer developing.
In
the early years, people had continued to make forays into the
outside, to visit friends in their blocks and make contact in
Reality. Ideas were exchanged and plans discussed. Some of these
were put into place and the Brave New World extended to incorporate
them.
Oh
yes, in the beginning I was proud of the achievements of the System.
Pollution has been dramatically reduced, health has been improved,
leisure is assured, and in the developed world, humanity has achieved
the impossible dream of a satisfactory standard of living for all who
require it, regardless of ability and class. Above all, the scourge
of crime has been all but eliminated. The only laws in the System are
policed and enforced by the System itself. As all property has
become, in effect, that of the System, there can be no crimes against
property that are not crimes against the System, and as all people
are insulated against each other within the System, there can be no
crimes against the person that can take place without the System
knowing. Any trespass or violence against a System dweller by an
outside body is unknown within the System as the System destroys any
living thing entering the System that is not chipped. Any attempt to
reprogram the System without the System’s prior approval and
explicit sanction is punishable by death. Crimes against the fabric
of the System, such as arson or other deliberate damage, are
punishable by a range of penalties. Most typical are fines and loss
of privileges in Virtuality. In extreme cases, offenders are denied
access to Virtuality altogether. Generally, offenders are educated
by the System in non-offending. Thus the small price of this Utopia
is the control by the System of the social environment in which
people reside.
Gradually,
social intercourse in Reality has declined until it is a considerable
rarity. Lifetime coupling no longer exists, and children are taken
into System kindergartens from birth. There is no requirement for
families to reside in one apartment; the System allows visits in
Virtuality, and it also takes better care of the children than
parents can be expected to. Sexual congress is catered for by the
System, each sensation being managed in Virtuality. Virtuality
provides everything.
In
spite of its advantages, not everybody took up the opportunity.
There were some who chose to remain in the real world, and there were
those who, because of their social position, were unknown to the
system and missed the chance of a place in a block. It was assumed
that most of those who failed to be granted a place either died of
the adverse environmental conditions or managed to move to a more
acceptable region.
I have no idea what has happened to those that survived the early
days outside. The System does not provide statistics on them; they
are outside its purview.
Now,
so many years later, I begin to think that if any have survived, they
might provide the solution to my problem with Virtuality, but I am
too old to venture forth myself to discover if there is still anybody
outside. Even if there are individuals who have survived outside,
they will be savage and even warlike. They will have developed in a
totally different way than those in the blocks. With no support
services, they will have become dependent on their own wits, and will
have procreated naturally, competing for the food and the opposite
gender in the natural need to survive and continue their line.
The
more I consider it, the more I know that I have to have more
information about the Outsiders. Some of them must have survived. I
remember that there were still people on the streets when I was a
small girl, and the environmental conditions were not nearly so
severe as they had reportedly been before Universal Virtuality was
adopted. As the System had developed, and chipping had been
introduced, the System viewed any unchipped
animal matter as a threat and destroyed it if it came within a
metre of any of its functions. This means that
the Cities and towns where the blocks had been created have become
impossible for anyone unchipped to survive
in. In any case, for the Outsiders to have survived, they must have
created some form of social structure, and must have had the
opportunity to procreate. This requires space to develop, and there
was no space within the confines of the Cities. If there is any
useful life outside the System, therefore, it must be beyond the
reach of the System, and in an open space.
