Virtuality part 4

Chapter Two

In order to find a rational basis for my intended actions, I have been researching the progress, or lack of it, of mankind over the last few decades. I started by searching the System archives, aware that the brief I had set myself was almost impossibly broad. What exactly am I looking for? If I am to identify progress, then surely I must identify what progress humanity was making up to Universal Virtuality, and measure it against the progress made since. My training for the position I hold now has been very thorough, but it has, I feel, been perhaps a little biased towards the ideal that I was then pursuing. I therefore “know” about the events that had brought about the current situation, but only from the point of view that I had held at the time I was learning. I therefore think I need to relearn my history.

Ever since the so called “Industrial Revolution” in the late 18^th Century in Britain, technological advance had described an exponential graph until the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries when Virtuality was born. This growth was mainly centred around the Western and Southern hemisphere nations - the “rich” nations, but had spread to the poorer nations of the world, as Global Trading Companies fought to enfranchise the whole world with their products. There had been huge advances in the use of computers and telecommunications, as well as food and health technologies.

The culmination of all this technology was The System. The System provided everything anyone should ever need. Nobody need do anything. Work was unnecessary and technological advance was irrelevant. The System did it all. Any changes that had taken place since Universal Virtuality were largely the work of the System. Even the new virtual worlds were mostly generated by the System as a response to requests made by the people. Only a handful of people created anything and these creations were as nothing compared to the huge advances made during the end of the second millennium.

At first I was appalled at these findings, until I realised that this was what I had expected to find, and that if that was what the people wanted, who was I to deny them. Perhaps this was just human nature; perhaps the need to create and develop was a function of survival and not a basic human trait after all. Given that the System had found everything for humanity, that it was no longer in danger, and that survival was, or appeared to be assured, there was no further need to progress. Anyone who felt dissatisfied with the System would be Outside.

I realise that I am frustrated by Virtuality, and increasingly fascinated with the Outside and what is happening out there. I would dearly love to go out myself, but I am now too old. If I am to satisfy this longing for the outside, I must do it vicariously. I will find somebody who will do my travelling for me, who will venture forth as I would like to, and discover what, if anything, has been happening on the Outside all the time I have been wallowing in the security of the System. All I have to do is find somebody who wishes to travel Outside, and who is available within the System. This latter is a prerequisite because I need somebody who can report back. This requires that the person is able to communicate via Virtuality, or in person. This in turn requires the person to be chipped.

All I now have to do is find someone who fits the criteria, and who is willing to travel for me.