I know that's a strange thing to say with 8 billion people populating the world, and I know that my children would tell me it's over-dramatic. But when I'm not even sure I can consider them my children anymore, I feel the claim has some validity.
You know, I never really dwelt on where we were headed, not anymore so than anyone else. And, sure, I used to gripe about how the world was going to hell in a hand-basket, and how the rich kept getting richer, and the poor poorer, but that was in the realm of sanity. Those were ideas you could wrap your head around.
And I always thought that technology could solve those problems. I thought science would offer up solutions to this inequality and apathy we all seemed to share. I just didn't think through what that would look like.
Then The Future appeared.
“Dad, you're being unreasonable.”
“Don't tell me that. Of course, you're going to say that, you're a part of it. I don't know why you keep coming by to convince me.”
“Don't say that, dad. I come here because I love you and mom and you're just hurting yourselves.”
I hated hearing the propaganda from her mouth. But Lea kept trying. Once a month, every month. It had gotten to the point where just seeing my own daughter's face made me sick to my stomach. I'd long ago promised myself I wouldn't say something I could never take back... but this was so much more difficult than I had ever guessed it would be.
Raising my voice seemed to be the only way to get through to her. “Lea, you know how I feel. Hell, I love my additions, but The Future is beyond integration. It's a leap-frog past what it is to be human. It's fundamentally wrong.”
Tears began to form in her eyes. My heart ached and I felt miserable, but the worst of it was, I didn't even know if her pain was real or a manipulation of the FUs. “Are you saying you don't think I'm even human anymore?”
And that was it... something I could never take back. A simmering rage I'd forced into dormancy broke through, and I wished I had kept it in check, but this was all too much. “No, Lea! I don't think you're Fucking Human! I think everything we ever were is about to die! And I think you're just one more step in that direction! I look at you and I know I'm not talking to you, but a billion others all at once. All calculating. All trying to convince one more fucking prick that he belongs to the big, giant FU!”
She only stood there with tears running down her face, staring at me.
Quickly, much faster than I would have guessed, her tears stopped and her head tilted as if she were listening to some distant chorus. Her eyes never left mine and I could see in them a profound sadness. Without a word, Lea nodded once, turned and walked out of our home. I truly believe I have never, and will never again, feel so absolutely wretched as I did in that moment.
I was only thankful that no one else had to witness my complete treachery to my only daughter... when it occurred to me that, through her eyes, the entirety of The Future had witnessed what a foul human I am.
The passing of hours left me gazing at a door knob that hadn't moved. I was wrapped in that numbness you get when you realize a loved one has died.
It's a feeling you can never quite shake, and I should know, I've been around for as long as any.
I was born in the year of the U.S.A.'s bicentennial, back when it meant something to belong to a single country. Back before the interface, the nextnet, and even the internet. I grew up without a single addition and never felt lacking. The greatest electronic device I was hooked into as a kid was some crappy console called the Colecovision. That was a real gaming system, a whole four bits if I remember correctly.
The computers back then weren't powerful, but humans never seem to slow down, do they? We hit the ground running, and only seemed to accelerate. Our ingenuity kept growing and we kept doubling everything we wanted big and halving everything we wanted small. And always faster than before. I remember being amazed at the Human Genome Project around the turn of the millennia, at the beginning of modern medicine. After nine years of processing, we had only solved one percent of its rough draft. By the end of the tenth, we had solved the other ninety-nine percent.
This insane progression simply held true during the nearly one-hundred years since my birth; we never slowed down. Not even with the war, where the entire world rose against less than half of one-millionth of the population, were we able to slow it down. That half of one-millionth had the edge of this radical advancement. After all, they were The Future.
My wife came home to a dark house.
I told Sara what I had done. Surprisingly, instead of chastising me, she sat in my lap and placed her forehead against mine. “Nick, this whole thing... I'm not sure we're on the right side of it. Lea and Alex have been a part of The Future for almost eight years now. Both of them seem to be growing into a real part of this new world, and I'm really beginning to feel left behind.”
My chest tightened at her words. My cochlear addition must have been malfunctioning. “But That's Exactly My Point! It all seems to be perfect! Way too perfect! But this... This whole idea is too invasive. How can we know that it's even them anymore? The FUs walk right up to you, say “trust us” and then infect your brain. Why doesn't anyone see that anymore? It's not human.”
“Nick. This is the same conversation we've had for the last five years, and it's not changing. I'm getting tired of it.” Smiling ruefully, her tone softened. “FUs. Radhika loved that slur. I talked with her yesterday. She asked how much longer we were going to wait.”
I could barely hear my own whisper, “What did you tell her?”
“I told her, 'soon.'” With her own whisper, she added, “I'm just not sure anymore.”
Radhika used to call them the FUs. We all used to laugh at her obvious slight, after all, anyone who would call themselves simply “The Future” seemed to be too full of themselves. Until they proved themselves worthy of the name.
By the time the war broke out, everybody had additions. Mixtures of biological and mechanical reagents flowed through our bloodstreams, keeping everyone younger, healthier, and overall better than we could ever have hoped to be without them.
The FUs took that to the whole next level through the use of a new technology, Localized Inter-Dimensional Matrices. L.I.D.M. utilized the basic principles of the interface, yet quantum entangled every neuron within the brain with an outside source. It networked an entire person with not only every other person in the collective, but with all of the AIs hosting the interface, creating an unheard-of enhanced mentality. The exchange of thoughts reached unprecedented speeds as shared knowledge became ubiquitous. The only downside to L.I.D.M. was a possible complete loss of individuality and therefore loss of person.
Many of us, nearly the whole of the world, thought this breakthrough was too dangerous and were unwilling to take the risk. We took a stand and I would have died to correct the arrogance of the human race. Yet the FUs didn't want death, and so all told, despite the expenditure of our most fearsome tactical weapons, the total world wide casualties numbered less than a thousand.
After the war, Radhika was the first of our friends to join The Future.
I couldn't sleep.
The idea that Sara was finally giving in to the promises swarmed my mind and there was nothing I or my additions could do to still it. So I headed into the dead of night, aiming myself at the only place I knew I could find others who shared my views.
Since the war, the neighborhood had been getting stranger and stranger. Part of the reason the nations of the world had thrown themselves into the war was the extraordinary financial threat the FUs represented shortly after appearing. To say that this new organization dominated every world market was an understatement, they undermined every stock exchange within three months of making themselves known.
Once it had been made clear that The Future wasn't going away, or could be brought under submission, or even harmed really, the rest of us woke up to a world without currency. Apparently, the FUs didn't need it and therefore the rest of us didn't either. Instead, we had Allocation Banks, shiny little towers where you simply requested the fulfillment of a need or desire, and, if it were deemed worthy, the item in question (be it food, clothing, toy, or something grander) would appear for either pick-up or delivery. It was amazing what people could get out of those things.
That was how Josiah got The “J” Bar. They way he tells it, it was something like a mouse cussing out a lion. He walked, in person, up to the local Allocation Bank and said, “I want a massive bar. Big enough to hold thousands of people and one of those new do-hickeys that can produce any kind of alcohol on the spot.” When asked why he wanted it, he answered, “So we can have a place to hang out with friends and plot against you sons a bitches.”
No one quite believes Josiah, but he sticks to his story.
The streets were dark, illuminated only by the brilliant half-moon hanging in the sky. Gone were flashing advertisements of my childhood, the harsh lighting of mass consumerism. Even the street-lights of fifteen years ago had been removed allowing the prominent stars of the Milky Way to compete solely with that of the moon. The beauty of our universe once again dominated the darkness.
During my walk I spied no more than three others moving quietly, obsessed with their own thoughts, and I was fairly secure in the knowledge that no one would bother me. It's bizarre to think that even with no artificial ambient lights, I felt safer then than I could ever remember. Another byproduct of our lack of currency was a significant drop in crime. Everyone was cared for, at least in the fundamental sense. Even the bullies had essentially disappeared.
The “J” Bar was practically empty. It used to be that every night of the week, you would have to fight your way to the bar and know that a seat would never open up. The music was still the same, an upbeat retro-dance-rock, but the mood of the place had become almost mournful.
Josiah was at his station, tending the replicator and Ryan and Lupe were sitting around a table at the far end of the room with some woman I didn't recognize. No more than four other patrons sat by themselves throughout the cavernous dance hall. Instead of joining any of them, I walked straight to the bar and pulled up a stool, content with being alone.
Josiah was about to greet me, but Lupe beat him to it by plopping herself next to me. “Jesus, Nick, you look like hell.”
“I'm not really in the mood, Lupe.”
“Not really in the mood for what? I'm just saying 'hi.' Maybe introduce you to our new friend.” She glanced over her shoulder and nodded back to the other two still at the table.
“I don't care who she is. She's either with the FUs or about to be and I don't need to meet another of them.”
“Damn, man. You've got it bad.”
“Josiah, the usual.” As far as I was concerned, I was giving Lupe all of the signs to just go away, but she wasn't taking the hint.
“Well, you might want to meet this one. We were just talking about a hit. Something big, like the old days. A sign that we're not all dead.” Her excitement should have been infectious, would have been even a few days ago. Now it just seemed pathetic.
“Where? Where could we possibly do any damage? Have you noticed that everything has force-fields nowadays? I mean, shit. Fifteen years ago, that was real science fiction, now the doorknobs have energy barriers.” That simmering anger couldn't be quieted. “Besides, let's say you do find the 'perfect' location, what then? The FUs aren't the nebulous bastards we fought at the start, they're our families. They're everyone else in this goddamned world.” Lowering my head, I added, “We'd only be hurting the things we used to love.
“Just leave me alone.”
Nothing quite felt right. I could easily remember a time, not so very long ago, when such talk would have inspired visions of righteous retribution. Now it seemed to be just the rantings of the short-sighted.
Lupe was clearly shocked, my rant apparently coming from nowhere. Standing up, she muttered, “Sure, man. Whatever.”
I didn't watch her leave, but glared into the glass of amber liquid being placed before me.
“You've got the look. Either your going to kill yourself or you're going to join. I'd recommend joining. Ending it would be such a waste.” Josiah stood on the other side of the bar, smiling at me.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
His expression becoming one of incredulity, “I've tended this bar for nearly fourteen years, Nick. You have to know that I can read any of you as if your thoughts were printed across your face. Hell, depending on whose hair-brained protest you all embark on, sometimes they are printed across your face.
“My point is, I've watched this place dwindle from a place of camaraderie and action, to a handful of stragglers desperately holding on to a past that's increasingly becoming irrelevant.” His eyes were still filled with compassion even though his words were somewhat chilling.
“So what is your point? You can read minds now? You think I'm going to go throw myself off a cliff?”
“I'm saying you need to talk with someone who understands what you're going through. Someone that might offer a different viewpoint. Someone with the insight you might not have.”
I'd never really paid attention to Josiah before. Never really considered who he was, other than the guy behind the bar, the guy who'd listen when you needed to be heard. And it occurred to me as my stomach began to churn. If he'd felt the hopelessness I'd been feeling lately, the gut-wrenching helplessness, and his solution was either end my life or join what we've been fighting against for all these years, then... “You're one of them, aren't you? You're one of the FUs.”
He smiled and spread his hands out wide as if he had been caught doing something just mildly offensive, like bumping into you, or stepping on your toe. “Going on twelve years now.”
Josiah the friendly bartender. Josiah the confidant. Josiah the underhanded, scheming, piece-of-shit liar. “You son of a bitch! You Traitor!”
“Now, now. Don't do anything hasty.”
At that second he was the enemy, all of them squished into one friendly face.
I picked up my tumbler of whiskey and threw it at his head. Before it came within a foot, what must have been a low level force-field suspended both glass and liquid in mid air, hovering momentarily. The whiskey then flowed back into the tumbler and both came to a rest next to Josiah. For the first time, mild concern shaded his face.
“Nick, you need to calm down. It's nearly impossible to have a conversation with you if you're going to throw things at me.”
“I don't want to have a conversation with you. You're a goddamned traitor!”
“You already said that, let's move on.”
His relaxed demeanor was only heightening my anger. Standing up from my stool, I pointed at his face and yelled out for everyone to hear, jabbing with each word, burning my eyes into his with unbridled hatred. “Josiah Is A Fucking Traitor!”
I heard myself loud and clear, but glancing around the bar I noticed nobody had really moved. No one had even looked up. “Lupe! Did you hear what I said? Josiah is a traitor! He's an FU!”
Her conversation with Ryan and the other girl continued uninterrupted.
Turning to look back at Josiah, I suddenly noticed that something was very wrong. In the mirror behind the man was my reflection, still sitting, still cradling a glass of whiskey.
“What's happening? What did you do?”
“When it became evident that you were in the state of mind which might cause undo stress to those around you, we supplanted your senses so that you and I might talk.”
“How is that even possible? I ditched my neural addition coils years ago.”
“Let's just say you wouldn't understand the science.”
I stared at him, my mind on fire. I was trapped within my own body, completely helpless. If they had truly taken over my mind, as he had just claimed, he could wink who I was out of existence with barely a thought. Then a profoundly more important and somewhat concerning question came to my lips. “If you could cause people to see and feel whatever you wanted, why not just force them to join The Future?”
“Because, as we've said all along, this evolution of the human race isn't about force, it's about choice, and every human has the right to choose their own fate, be it die alone or live on with others to face an exciting and unknown future. This is your choice to make, not mine. I just wanted the chance to talk with you about it.”
“So, why now? Why have you waited all this time only to break into my mind now?”
“Because we've been watching you, as we do with all humanity. The last few weeks have been culminating to a pivotal moment. One in which we believe you will finally make Shakespeare’s Choice, to be or not to be. And because your children are worried for your safety.”
“Where the hell do you get off talking about my family?”
“Your daughter and son are concerned about you, more so than they ever were with your wife, who, as far as they can tell, is just waiting for you to come to terms. It was they who asked me to intervene.” A mischievous grin pulled at the edges of his mouth. “As a matter of fact, both of them are watching us right now. Privacy isn't much of an issue for us FUs.”
This was difficult to accept. Everything I had held onto, that I had been willing to die for, was coming into question with a clarity I'd never experienced previously. They were the evil overlords that controlled all of mankind and they had just proven they could change our perception to their will. Yet they hadn't, or at least had never seemed to before. Those of us who wouldn't, couldn't, join had always been well cared for and never treated like pets. We were allowed to roam free and interact however we wished, be it drunken revelry every night or plot against those who watched over us. We could even take our own lives... I've known too many who had.
The fact that the FUs were going to such lengths to allow every individual to choose when we were ready was extraordinary.
And as much as I had wished to deny it, Josiah was right about the last few weeks. I was fast approaching the end of my patience, my ability and will to keep fighting against the world. I could no longer continue as I had been and something needed to change. He had called it Shakespeare's Choice, the grandest of decisions. End it all or accept the world as it now was and become something different. These were really the only options being placed before me, because maintaining whatever this was I'd been living wasn't working.
It was possible that, as the FUs were forcing me to sense the world around me as they wished, they too were inserting ideas that weren't mine, but why now? Why wait for fifteen years and untold resources just to eventually force one person to think what they wanted?
That was the moment I realized there was no war, the rebellion was over. All that was left was a smattering of old bastards that couldn't accept that the world had done what it always does, it changed.
Josiah was watching me with a knowing smile. The drink was back before me and the sounds of The “J” Bar entered my ears with a strange sense of forcefulness. My perception was once again mine.
I stared at him for a while, my head dizzy although I had yet to have a sip of drink. He looked into my eyes as if knowing every thought I was thinking, which was strange because I myself didn't know what I was thinking.
Finally, he just nodded and said, “Take your time. There's no hurry.”
I realized he was right. There wasn't a hurry, for I was not going to be a “not to be.”
I spent a long time watching the ice in my drink continue to not melt. A neat trick supposedly caused by the replicator. Josiah's statement was right about so much of the world right now, I wouldn't have understood the science.
I found myself thinking about Lea and Alex, but this time without the guilt and overwhelming despair that so often accompanied thoughts of them. Sara was quite a few years younger than me, but even so, the two of us decided to have Lea late in life. At least, at the time that was how we thought of it. Then the years just kept stretching out and we eventually gave her a little brother. Although all of us still looked to be in their mid-twenties, Lea would be fifty-six this year, Alex forty-nine.
And for the last eight, they had been a part of The Future.
I kept coming back to the thought that they might not be the beautiful children I had watched grow into adults. Like who they were had been lost to some freak brain aneurysm, wiping them out only to be replaced by this “other” that kept trying to absorb me as well.
But to what end? Why try so very hard?
The only answer I could come up with that made any kind of sense was that The Future really was as they said. They were still the children I had always loved and that I've only been hurting myself by staying out of this weird communal consciousness. That, perhaps, this new expanded mentality hadn't deleted the individual, but enhanced the innate empathy most humans seem to have.
These ideas weren't new. Months, years even, had been spent discussing these possibilities right here in this bar. But the answer most of us had kept avoiding was boldly staring me right in the face.
The night passed as I ran those thoughts around my head as many ways as my muddled mind would allow. I was bleary with drink and exhaustion when I finally spoke to Josiah again.
“Twelve years, huh?”
“A couple months shy, actually.”
“Why did you come back to the bar?”
“Because this bar is important. It's a place for those who haven't yet decided. A place of community for those who feel the world has left them behind.”
I was somewhat stunned. The “J” Bar had been exactly that, a family apart from the one that had gone on without me. The place that nurtured me until the time I could finally catch up.
Leaning in with that smile he usually wore, Josiah spoke what I could only assume was a compliment. “I must say, you have an inspiring level of tenacity. There are few stubborn enough to have held out as long as you have. It sure is a trait that could only make The Future more exciting.”
I arrived at home to find Sara, Lea, and Alex waiting for me, tears flowing from the wonderful faces of my children, but this time as an expression of joy. I broke it to them then and there that I was not about to throw myself into this. For them, it was enough that I had made my decision.
One month later, to the day, Sara and I joined The Future.
Upon the joining, there was an unspeakable joy, a collective welcome from my 7.5 billion fellows. And from my family, there was a strange sense of loss, for my children were no longer my children. What we were to each other had changed. Those roles were forever lost only to be replaced with something infinitely better, a true understanding of those around me.
Years later, I still think on those crucial moments, that decision to be or not to be, and the subsequent revelations after the joining. What I could have lost had I chosen to not be. And even now, so far removed, I find myself eternally entwined with the joy and sorrow that that understanding brought to me. My family, my neighbors, my community, my county, and the whole of my world loves me. And I had treated them so very poorly.
But this is what it is to move on, to become part of this new future. And as I watch the last of the old world fade, those last sad stragglers wrestling with their own choices to become something more or to relegate themselves to a debilitating past, I have become positive of my original assertion.
Humans are so very capable of causing terror and fear, destruction and mayhem. They wage wars and cause the death of everything around them: the environment, the creatures of the land and, most egregiously, each other.
The human race is going extinct, for The Future has no need of such things.