Thinking ahead

Thinking Ahead.

The world was disintegrating, over population and environmental degradation among other issues was destroying the planet. It was decided that everyone be equal and more importantly that everyone be great. It was decided that a complete and utter fresh start was needed, that people and history itself would be wiped clean. For this to happen huge sections of the population had to be exterminated. The immorality of this offended most to the extreme and huge protests and revolts were held against the idea. However since it was the only viable solution, leaders of the world were determined to go ahead with it. Among the voices of dissent were some of the greatest minds, they spoke of compassion, and they searched for another way. Eventually they reached a compromise. People would be made feel as if they lived their lives despite having not. It was not the issue of people dying that was contentious or important, as the sheer amount of people was un-necessary, obstructive; it was the issue that they would never get to experience life and the awareness that they had caused this. Their own reverence for life and reluctance to die motivated them to search for this compromise. They would give everyone the memories of an entire and realistic life. The people who were decided to die lived their lives on unbeknownst, had families who lived their lives unbeknownst, meanwhile lives were lived completely and purely dedicated to giving others the impressions that they had lived their lives. A whole section of the population, the scientists who would all inhabit a new society when the rest would die worked on the memory development. Eventually they were ready and the people were all given the impression that they had lived their lives. They were filled with memories that they could reflect on before they died. A life after all is essentially just a collection of memories.

And so a new society was born filled with only the best minds and with no memory beyond the extermination. The structures were there, the technology and resources needed but no memory beyond everything was destroyed and to counter this more was destroyed and a new start was implemented. Society then evolved and grew. It went through numerous changes. As culture progressed, people no longer became consumed with distraction and entertainment. In fact although such was not abolished, it was forgotten. People turned to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and became consumed by that instead. However this shift led to the full and constant awareness of our own mortality. The idea that the unknown would eventually disregard all out endeavour that would obscure everything we had done with something else or absolute nothing. In this regard, all immediate concerns were abandoned as people solely concentrated on finding out what that end would bring, what the point of it all was. The most essential things were abandoned and life fell in disrepair. Eventually it was realised that sectors of the population would have to be designated to perform certain jobs in order to sustain life and hence sustain the pursuit to discover what exactly the end would bring. Whereas before naturally people would have voluntarily fell into such occupation, now since we had completely disregarded entertainment and abandon to the moment, since the end was now always fully in sight people shunned away from all such work, terrified that they would be wasting their time. It was soon apparent that they would not be wasting their time, as it was necessary to sustain the others who would be concentrated on the original aim so they relented. However the egoism of some others who wanted a greater part in the ultimate pursuit as it became known made war break out. Significant portions of the population died. They neared the edge of complete obliteration before awareness dawned again. They had forgotten of the ultimate pursuit for war. Were they wasting their time killing instead of trying to find out why they were alive? People realised they were wasting their time, time which could be used finding out what exactly it was their time was being used for. So they fell back into the pattern before war again, the normal structures of life degraded. People fell ill and died.

The awareness that it was happening again plunged the population into a deep despair. This time as they knew they had already attempted to designate certain portions of the population to certain jobs and failed, they did not attempt it once again. They instead fell into hopelessness. Whereas before they may have distracted themselves to the absolute extreme, earned money to eat and live, then watch television to distract oneself in between. These options were completely unavailable. There was no such thing as distraction anymore. There was urgency in every moment and the awareness of the end was completely consistent. Despair was suffocating. Whereas before their sole aim was to find what their time was for, their sole aim now became to develop ways in which to stop themselves killing themselves. The greatest scientific minds became obsessed with ways to keep themselves and everyone else alive. This aim was made twice as difficult given those minds were similarly infected. The aim was made three times as difficult as they had no knowledge of how people distracted themselves before. It was destroyed with history. They had no concept of distraction for its own sake, of simple amusement. They needed a solution they needed to make them forget that there is an end, that they will ever die. So they developed drugs that made people forget, that sedated to the moment. The drugs were originally resisted but soon they were forced upon the population. The resistance never broke into war instead of war resistance came in a wave of suicide. However the scientists who developed the drugs took them themselves hoping that the drugs would allow them not to feel such hopelessness at the same time as allowing them to continue in the pursuit of the ultimate purpose. Initially this was the case, however soon some began to focus on other things besides the ultimate purpose; they broke into individual endeavour to distraction and amusement. Eventually they stopped needing the drugs. Some fell into the occupations to sustain the rest, such that were originally resisted. The population grew less stable. Most forgot about the ultimate purpose, they lived and died without consistent awareness that they were living and dying. They began to die before they knew they were alive. The drugs were forgotten, then their children never knew about the drugs to begin with, society was developed, more technology emerged. Money was made. The population got out off hand again. People started to feel frustrated again, the planet was being destroyed again but no one knew it was an again. They tried to think of a solution.