The Future Perfect

The Future Perfect

This is a story I didn’t want to write, my dearest child, my sweet dancing daughter, my Kate, who entered this new world so willingly with your confident smile.
But when you read it, I will be long gone, and I pray you will be contented, however constrained, with your ability for peace and self-containment.

By the time we saw it coming, half the sky was already blotted out with satellites. Clever, wealthy people, who believed they were offering humans a better life, thought it would help the world if we could all be tracked via their grid.
I ,unfortunately, saw this as a way of locking us in.

They believed they were creating a perfect future.

The interviews with these sky-litterers certainly indicated benign intentions.
One of the inventors, when asked how these extra stars might help, replied,
“Just imagine that somebody in the depths of the rainforest needs urgent medical help. Through our tracking system, they no longer get left to die unattended, in fear, but will be able to access instant advice, and , what is more, medics will find it easier to attend. Of course our fabulous road and light aircraft pathways through the once-tangled creepers will help too...
We are bringing the New Eden to the masses."

“What about the eco-system?
What about people who don’t want to be linked up?
Do all indigenous people WANT this level of monitoring- or interference, as they might see it?
Won't the signals impact their bee colonies, for example?”

“Oh dear! You old-fashioned types!
Did God not want to be connected to Adam and Eve in the Garden?And they, to God?
Why on earth would anyone want to hide from us if they have nothing to hide?
And-how much safer for all when they cannot encounter danger or discomfort in the wildest of places...Remember our fabulous new Breeding Centres, where we are funding the safe storage of the DNA of every creature and plant in case it might be useful later on.
As for the bees, we are issuing those fabulous drone equivalents globally, that have removed the uncertainty that worries everyone when bees die in floods , for example.”

And so on and so forth.

A few astronomers demurred.
But the universities did little to back them up.
Funding, at that time, favoured scientific inventors of every kind over mere observers.

Some of us mourned the beauty of the known stars of frosty nights- that sense of being so small and also held in a beautiful uncanny universe.

Some of us were so excited at the novel stars that they thought people like me very foolish...
”What is the point of recognising the silly old Plough, on clear nights only, when, every single night, you can see a shining blanket of a myriad new thrilling, fast-moving stars encircling us with the novel technology?”
So said my dear friend, Tina, as we drank green tea outdoors for fear of all the germs lurking in the ill-built houses of that era.
But I am afraid I wasn’t prepared for this.
“Don’t you LOVE how we used to identify the stars by summer campfires? I want this for my child!"
"Yes, I know.But we were so ignorant, not realising how harmful those fires were worldwide.It is much better now that the Pacific islands have been remodelled, after our dreadful irresponsibility made the seas rise up ..."

"I guess you have to be right, though I can't help feeling nostalgic...I have to agree that this is a great result;I LIKED the news we were all fed saying that the governor of the Great Pacific Zone is so relieved..."
"FED?Do take care how you speak! I would hate you to be noted."
"Thank you, Tina,you are a good friend, even daring to point this out these days."
I hesitated, but censored speech has never come easily to me as YOU know too well.
" But I am so anxious now,ever since the sun itself got a sort of greyish fog over it..,Haven’t you noticed?”
Tina admitted she had assumed this was down to climate change.
“And the upside”, she added, “Is that the new system means that climate change is being improved and monitored...Plus which it is wonderful to be able to look straight at the sun!”

Dearest Kate,
This is all I can write about this topic.
I am thankful that I am not being censored, though of course I do know, as you so sweetly remind me, that the monitors are largely benign concerning self expression.
For ME, though, the present time holds disturbing echoes of Neo-Liberal days when “Human Rights” meant people could speak of anything, as long as they didn’t push for excessive action.
You will be interested to know that I have had messages to my device suggesting I might take advantage of the free brain reset programme being offered.
But I am stubborn and old-fashioned, and retain my faith in the God of my people.
I pray, my dear, that such strength will nourish you as you grow old.
I am so proud of your resourcefulness, and your kind heart.
I remember you as the most perfect baby I could ever imagine-your smile so young, your tufts of hair...
For you, the future may, I dearly hope, be brighter than I can imagine; after all, your young adulthood has been lived through the start of this New Eden Era.
I hope the kind of knowledge and power we are witnessing does not result in the catastrophe like that of the Biblical Fall, when Eve ate that fruit...

Most of all, live and rejoice in every second!
Remember the saying, ”In this moment, I am safe”.
I find it so helpful these days.
I am much comforted by the thought of your lovely soul existing in the future.

I sign off now, with a virtual hug and, always, smiling at you,

Your loving Mother .