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A Better Society

Entry 2182, on 2021-11-08 at 17:45:35 (Rating 2, Comments)

It was the year 2050. Zurga sat and enjoyed the experience of their new car accelerating up to 300 travelling down the main freeway. It was a beautiful day and the Sun shone strongly, illuminating the path home. Zurga had just received a salary increase and was feeling very satisfied about being such a valued member of the team. Everything was good in the world.

The car's auto-drive ability made travelling perfectly safe, even at speed, and the AR headset presented whatever aspect of the country the person driving wanted. The sense of speed was impressive, as you might expect, and the AR presented that accurately.

Arriving home they were greeted by their grandparent, Bob, a somewhat cantankerous person who like to talk about how great things were back in the good old days before things "went bad". Bob had refused to change his name (note that "his" is a word from old English, implying a specific gender, meaning this person identified as male permanently) even though it was illegal to have names associated with the old gender roles, but everyone just seemed to ignore that as a harmless character flaw.

It was ridiculous, of course, because everything was great now: everyone was equal, society worked smoothly and with no conflict, and the injustices and inequities of the past were all gone.

The old fool liked ranting on about how "in the good old days" people used to drive the cars themselves, and they could travel at a "respectable speed" instead of the slow pace of today. Zurga mentioned that 300 was hardly a slow speed, but was reminded that it took twice as long to travel the same distance today as it used to, and that the "300" on the car's digital dash had no units mentioned. Since the revolution a few decades back units varied depending on the requirement, so 300 could just as easily be 100 or 500. And the headset everyone wore made the real speed impossible to assess.

Bob also liked to rant on about how bad the weather was every day now. Since he refused to wear his AR headset he didn't enjoy the enhanced view everyone else did. He claimed he didn't want to have "fake news" presented to him, and preferred "reality"; whatever that was.

And that was just the beginning. Because everyone looked exactly the same - even being the same height, colour, strength, and having same mental ability - he thought life was really boring.

But Zurga thought his ideas were utterly absurd, and it was unfair that people back then couldn't make decisions for themselves. Their gender and race were assigned to them based on physical characteristics. And some people were unfairly allowed to use special abilities they didn't earn themselves.

There were stories from the old days about a character called "Einstein", who became very famous through their discoveries in physics, but which were achieved by unfair use of a superior inherent ability in maths. Other people with lesser abilities were not allowed to compete equally because Einstein's skill in this area was never equalised.

Many people find stories such as these - assuming they are even true, because they are very difficult to believe now - abhorrent, but Zurga tried to remember that things were different back then. People were allowed to use their natural abilities unfairly and there was no equity for those who didn't have them. We might be shocked, but we shouldn't judge history by the superior moral standards of today.

Today anybody could have made those discoveries, because Einstein's unfair advantage would have been removed through Equity Therapy. His math skill would have been standardised and his intelligence would have been exactly normal. He could still have made those discoveries, but so could everyone else. It was so much fairer now.

Zurga was determined not to let Bob's irrational ranting interrupt their contentment. After all, it was well known that not accepting life as it had to be was a prime cause of unhappiness, and everyone today had to be equally happy.

In the past Bob had been an astronomer, and had studied the structure and processes inside the Sun. Just as the revolution which lead to the Better Society - known commonly today as BS - he had made a discovery he claimed meant the Sun had become unstable and would expand and destroy the Earth. Current astronomers weren't following up on that idea, because in the new equitable society solar astronomy only involved counting sunspots, and anything else required superior (and therefore unfair) skills.

Bob said, "Hope you didn't find it too hot out there today. I told you: the Sun is going to destroy us all!" Zurga had heard it all before and hadn't noticed any particular change, so really didn't take the raving too seriously.

The AR headset was playing a favourite story about happiness and equality, and Zurga allowed it to take over from the tedious reality of living with Bob. Not that his presence would be a problem for much longer because he was close to reaching the standard life span of 100 years when everyone was terminated.

Bob didn't like it, but he had to try something. He picked up his AR headset and put it on. He said: "Leave a comment on the astronomy discussion forum. Say this: 'Sun anomalies are increasing as indicated by isotope abundance. Please notify authorities and take appropriate action'." The system returned a message immediately: "Please re-phrase using standard language. Isotope is not an equitable word. Note that this is a final warning. Any further errors of this type will result in your account being suspended."

He tried again: "The Sun is getting more unstable. Please notify the world government so they can take the correct action." Again, a reply appeared quickly: "Continued attempts to spread conspiracy theories have been detected. Your account has been suspended for one month."

Bob glanced at Zurga, and in some ways envied the look of contentment. He would have liked to have tried something more, but being removed from the Truth Net meant he could no longer communicate with the rest of the world. He had to give up, because the fools just didn't want to listen. Maybe he would try again in a month. But by then it could already be too late.

Bob relaxed as the headset began playing soothing music. Why not just join everyone else in the new equitable BS world, he thought. He finally drifted off into an untroubled, fulfilled sleep. Life was good.

Comment 1 (7076) by Derek Ramsey on 2022-01-28 at 22:38:35:

The sun peaks every other cycle, so the most likely years when the sun will burst the next Carrington Event kill shot is going to be 2035 and 2060 (plus or minus 2). Bob isn't far off on his timing. Glad to hear we will make it through the 2030s.

Comment 2 (7077) by OJB on 2022-01-28 at 22:39:03:

Yeah, I guess to increase authenticity I should have linked the date to the solar cycle. I have been a serious amateur astronomer for 40 years after all! To be honest, I made that story up as I went, so I didn't plan the Sun part when I wrote the first sentence. I think the underlying message stands, however.

Comment 3 (7078) by Derek Ramsey on 2022-01-28 at 22:39:55:

I enjoyed your story. It felt inspired.

What strikes me about your story is how dependent on electricity that scenario is. If we do get another Carrington-style event (like the one we missed in 2012) combined with the substantial relative decrease in earth’s overall magnetic field strength since the last such event, it could potentially devastate the power grid across the planet: say goodbye to AI driven cars and AR headsets. Few places are prepared for that, and you can see from current logistics problems that the previous estimates that it would take as much as a year to manufacture and replace all the blown transformers and other electrical equipment and lines is… dramatically underestimated.

Without power, people die. Lots and lots of them. It makes COVID-19 look like a picnic.

Comment 4 (7079) by OJB on 2022-01-28 at 22:40:22:

OK, I like to leave the interpretation of my material to the reader, but that one was more about the dangers of seeking equity, rather than anything about technological dependence on anything. I am very aware of the hazards of a Carrington type event in relation to the power grid, but that is another topic entirely.

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