by Tom Ball.
It was the year 2086 A.D that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease were cured. And eternal youth came soon after. Anyone born in the year 1971 or later, that was still alive, was perked up completely.
They cured Alzheimer’s with new genetic therapy, which altered some of one’s genes.
However, all people had a defective memory and would forget many things. The older one got the more memories one had, and the more one would forget….
Of course, androids and holograms and Supercomputers had photographic memories of all the data and experiences they encountered. So, the solution was to hook up human guinea pigs to an AI brain using MRT (Mind Reading Technology) to communicate between machine and human. So, the result was cyborgs. And many cyborgs were created on Luna. These cyborgs were known to hold grudges for any slights and wanted to have perfect, unsullied minds. And they were as a whole unforgiving, and many were resentful of their creators for not making them more perfect. And some cyborg creators were murdered by their creations.
And on Luna it was made a crime to forget anything. But some critics said, the cyborgs forgot big things, like their human roots, and forgot that human life forms had no inherent meaning, including themselves.
And these mnemonic cyber “heroes,” wanted to change all humans into cyborgs. And sent missionaries to Earth. Many on Earth were curious about these mnemonic all-stars and the missionaries spoke to packed houses. The missionaries told the people they needed to be hypnotised what to forget and what to remember in the future. Post-hypnotic suggestion was very powerful.
After a few years of proselytizing there were now 50 000 converts who became cyborgs on Luna. But many of the converts wanted to forget some bad experiences they had. And many said cyborgs are not perfect and are in fact full of faults. They said the ability to remember perfectly was just one aspect of building Superhumans.
Many new cyborgs said they wanted to improve their minds by improving their imagination and intelligence and also become more charitable and so on. And many of them said a selective memory was desirable, now that they couldn’t forget anything. And they liked to look art the same art and movies and listen to music, and come away with a different experience each time… And memorizing stuff made one overloaded with memories. And it was difficult to make sense of them all.
And some cyborgs said they couldn’t remember their previous existence
But one professor said ingrained in our minds are primal instincts like the tendency to remember some deeds over others. And the tendency to forget one’s night dreams. But to remember your dreams clearly and know one’s subconscious intimately took a lot of the mystery out of life. This professor lived in the Crystal Spires of Forgetting and schooled his students to only remember good memories and live with him in a good World where there was no evil, and if someone did a bad deed, the memory of it was instantly erased and forgotten by the people of the Crystal Spires. And if one did a few bad deeds, their mind would be altered with genetic therapy. And thereafter they would be a good citizen. But most of the people of the Spires were angels and invited outsiders who were good to come here. Of course, they vetted them with MRT to make sure they were a thoroughly good person in the past and present. But some immigrants had themselves hypnotised to forget their bad deeds, so newcomers were also hypnotised in order to check their background.
Indeed, at the Crystal Spires, they made laughter and forgetting paramount. At a party, typically they were so drunk, they didn’t remember hardly anything except had the impression that they’d had a good time. But some outsiders told them that they were just living life in an empty bubble or living like a jerk etc.
And some people came to the Crystal Spires, to forget their past and start anew. Many of these people, thought memory was like an albatross around their necks. And just wanted to have a good time.
But even those who wanted to forget the past, had at least a few memories they wanted to remember, and the vast majority remembered their basic education.
And once a year the people would be re-hypnotised, just to be sure.
The Crystal Spires were ruled by an oligarchy of 3 women and 2 men. These leaders were like idiot savants, who were good philosophers, but not good at anything else. No one here approached perfection, and everyone knew it…
Some here wanted to put their own spin on their favourite memories and make them seem better and more profound than they really were. Critics said such people led an illusory life and weren’t real. But they told the critics life was entirely subjective, and they were just living life imaginatively. And they said, imagination for the future was more important than remembering every detail of the past.
But getting back to the cyborgs, they all had “offspring,” who were cyborgs like them and were “designer progeny.” Essentially these progenies were improvements on themselves with stronger computing power and greater IQ. They figured they were on the road to creating Superhumans. They told those who wanted to forget their own past as well as the human past, were mistaken and we must learn from the past. The forgetters told them if history shows anything, it shows people don’t learn from the past. Better to wipe the slate clean and live for the future and consult the most intelligent personae for our future actions, they said.
So, it was a battle between those who wanted to recall everything and those who wanted to mostly forget the past. Now in the year 2143 A.D., 10% were cyborgs, 25% were forgetters and the rest were ordinary humans. Most ordinary humans believed a middle course was best, which would involve having AI pets and decide whether to remember occurrences in their life as they happened.
AI pets were an IQ 140-160, and many people said they were an inspiration. And people could confide in their pets… And the pets were often their best friend. And some had their future plans decided by their pets. The pets were essentially androids who were attractive and would love their master or mistresses. And some cyborgs and forgetters also had AI pets. Indeed, some personae had a number of pets. Some pets had the equivalent of many Ph.D.’s and could help people make movies or improve their genes.
Actually no one was ordinary anymore. Everyone was enhanced in one way or another. And many people wanted to go to Space where kindred spirits were. The Solar System and four other Star Systems had been colonized: Centauri, Tau Ceti, Wolf 359 and Lalande Star Systems. With a total of 30 colonies. One could reach each of the four-Star System in just a few months. And Space colonization was quadrupling every year…
There seemed to be a colony for everyone and if there was not one, one could set one up by oneself. All of the Wolf System colonies were for cyborgs, and they planned to go much deeper into Space. The Lalande System was mostly forgetters. And the rest were based mostly on a philosophy. Like making movies of Superhumans or new biology or doing new physics or featuring true love, brotherly love etc.
Getting back to the battle between forgetters and total memory adherents, it sometimes erupted into war, mostly skirmishes. However, one day in 2144 A.D. an all-out war started between the two groups in Space and on Earth. Of course, the cyborgs and the pro-memory personae ended up victorious. And henceforth, it was illegal to forget things, and especially important to remember the great war. And the cyborgs conquered the other human cities without a fight. And so, everyone was ruled by cyborgs.
The cyborgs made movies about the new reality. Like “The Top 20 Greatest Memories of All Time.” This list included some great historical memories as well as euphoric memories of modern cyborg scientists…
Another new film was “Cyborg Love” about famous cyborg lovers. And was a pedagogy film which the youth enjoyed and learned from.
Then there was the flick “Frightening Lights,” about UFOs, which some cyborgs saw and couldn’t be accounted for. Some said they were Aliens attracted to the high tech, others said they were other cyborgs. But in the movie Alien storm troopers conquer city after city and are invulnerable to attack. And they announce on the Web that they have taken control and henceforth all humans and cyborgs will be forced to convert to Aliens. The Aliens were grey skinned and naturally frowned and had 3 legs, 2 arms, one head and were mostly asexual drones who served their King Queen who reproduced at a rate of 10 per day. Many cyborgs and humans were scared by this film and felt helpless to control their lives as the cyborgs controlled their thoughts and controlled their lives. And the people had a sense of foreboding with the cyborgs in charge. The word on the streets was “doom.”
Another cyborg film was, “Lightning City,” about intense lightning storms which cyborgs “caught,” and fed off the energy, powering up their batteries. And they said there was no better feeling than being hit by lightning. It was positively galvanizing. Life was all about power and energy…
And they made a motion picture called “Depth in Space,” which featured deep thoughts like, “Interstellar Space is for the Super cyborgs,” and “Imagination of future cyborgs in the future will dominate the milieu.” Everyone will be trying to improve their imagination. And play imagination video games in which the most imaginative triumphed.” And so on.
Also, there was a cyborg film, “Android Reality,” about getting rid of their human body and half human brain and so androids ruled the future. Many cyborgs didn’t want to go for it, but it was to become clear, androids were the future. Androids could survive anywhere and were unaffected by heat and cold and didn’t need to breathe air and didn’t need to eat.
In addition, was the movie, “Android Gods,” about beings who tried to force every human to convert to androids, but some Superhuman Gods resisted. And it was war. But the humans were far more numerous than the androids and won out in the end. And nearly all humans wanted to become Superhumans. Many humans who watched the film thought it was a realistic future scenario.
Another flick was, “Dynamite Days,” about Superhumans who had immense telekinesis powers and could use their minds to mine for gold or to attack enemy Spaceships and bring them crashing down. Many humans wanted such powers…
Still another film was human made and called, “Like Eagles,” about humans who had a jet pack on their back and could fly. And their colonies were brilliant, sparkling spires of light. And the wilderness was coloured with pink and blue plants which were sentient and experienced euphoria just existing, and mind read with one another.
. Another human film was, “Revolution, 2174 A.D.” It featured a mass uprising against cyborg rule on Earth in the near future. People figured the cyborg elite were like Aliens and were not welcome. Anyway, in the film, the cyborgs fled for deeper Space. But the cyborg ruling elite, banned this film.
And in 2144 A.D., most people remembered the injustices that had been visited upon them by cyborgs. Cyborgs took away their freedom to associate politically and the cyborgs dissolved democracies and ruled by decree and arrested human leaders.
That’s how it was in 2144 A.D., with most people believing they lived in a World of illusion and despair. People were desperate to try and defeat the cyborgs somehow…