Generation Beta Grows Up

I could not sleep until the early morning, and when I did, the bed started spinning and flashes of faces and places passed through my inner vision. I awoke in another time. The year was 2050, 25 years in the future.

I was in a wheelchair. My darling granddaughter Sally, a generation beta, had grown into a lovely woman who walked with a swagger she got from her father, and had a smile from her mother that lit up a room. Her dark brown eyes transported anyone who looked at them into the world of love she had known all of her life. It was a blessing.

Her mother was in charge of the infant program, until age 15 months, the optimal time of social reintegration into the workplace for parents , and for children to be evaluated for selection into manual and problem-solving programs.

Sally benefited from being raised in a loving space under the care of her mother who knew how to work the system. So many children were raised with more time spent in government facilities than with their families. Most had nanotechnological and AI adjustments that removed the need for general education. They were induced into complacency, and the majority of the masses accepted that they were a happy member of the collective society.

Sally never knew what it is like to have the rough edges of life smoothed over with a reality that formed a veil that glazed over problems. Sally had natural gifts that allowed her to have advanced education without AI or nano augmentation.She could focus, remember and keep organized. These criteria placed her into the natural infant development group and onto the road less travelled.

Sally was among those selected to learn the old ways. Numbers and calculations were done by hand. She learned to read and write in the language of the world, English, all or none boolean code, plus quantum computing algorithms. She had experiential opportunities, and knew how to work the soil, plant and cook food void of nanotech altering drugs. Sally had tasted refined sugar, generally outlawed because of its highly addictive nature, with an effect akin to what is said to be experienced by cocaine addicts. She understood some of nature's complexities.

Her education had been thorough. Her curriculum included history and herstory lessons that recounted worlds that existed long before her birth. For thousands of years, people had worked very hard and fought to make the world she knew. She had learned about the unprecedented elections that had caused a political and social shift the year she had been born.

Political powers openly encouraged living the American dream. Most people did not want to face a complex reality. Propaganda on both sides pitted the world of artificial intelligence and global communication against complex science. The masses did not to trust anything as truth. The masses voted for complacency provided by AI and nanotechnology intervention. It was the wishes of the people, not the truth that mattered. Fact-checking bureaus had been out-lawed.

The war was started by those who opposed imposed complacency, through ignorance or biochemical manipulation. Many countries were at war within their own borders, with their nearest neighbors and in lands far away. Many individuals suffered and died. In the end, the world had turned into a cookie cutter model with Big box stores distributing goods that supplied the globe. Global unification argued that styles were no longer limited by cultural trends. Prefabricated modular designs were encouraged. Individuals were free to choose from any variety of clothing, however most inhabitants remained outfitted in the national uniform wearing American blue jeans and black tee shirt, French couturier, Italian made Chinese designer outfits, Scottish kilts, Indian Saris, Chinese Hanfu and Yishang, Moroccan kaftan and the like. The descendants could express gratitude for the spirit that had survived from before the great shift.

Sally understand her role in repopulating the world after environmental devastations had reduced the population.Lifespans were shorter now. She knew she was lucky to be alive. As a rule, Sally did not procrastinate on addressing matters of fact, but when it came to exploring her heart, that was different.

She looked at me, sitting in the wheelchair and explained, “I detest sitting down in front of a computer and working out algorithms to find a perfect mate. Feelings are far more elusive than fact. I opted for a matchmaking agency. They helped screen potential mates for biochemical compatibility, psycho-motor flexibility to meet each other’s needs, and coached me on the face-to-face meeting. I was asked to put on my best, worst and funny face.”

I stated, “That sounds exhausting.” Sally had a charming smile but as for being funny, she was literal. We both agreed that surprise and incongruity as a form of humour was annoying. Satire, sarcasm, understatement and irony were self-deprecating falsehoods that hid true emotions.Tactful humor is not the boorish actions of a buffoon. Hyperbole, double entendre, puns and parody, that use the five wits: common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory, are the ticket to success measured in the unconscious vocalization of a universal human vocabulary, known to infants and to all dialects that can set the tone and inspire lightness of the soul.

Sally explained her gameplan. To evoke small ripples of breaths of wind that could inspire reforms and offer freedom from convention and make sense of nonsense that is spouted with conviction, she planned to use the Chinese five states of change: wood, water, fire, metal and earth, called the temperaments.

"I sat face to face with different suitors and opened with a choleric childlike humor that demonstrated my ambitious leadership nature. “Here is my best, worst and funny. A kleptomaniac never gets puns, because they take things literally." These words held the dry heat of the fires of summer. They did not move any suitor except Mark.

" His eyes sparkled. He chuckled saying, “Before coming here, I looked into the study voluntary or involuntary laughter. It's called gelotology. Laughing wiggles and vibrates the organs to reset the balance of psychological and physiological positive feedback mechanisms. The wiggle effect of jelly belly laughter puts social interactions into an emotional context that releases stress and disrupts the rules and ritualistic .patterns.You know how it works”

Sally held my hand and explained, “I was pleased we had a similar way of thinking. It opened the door to melancholic humours, associated with analytic genius and madness, and the cold, dry earth of the winter. I asked him, "'How do you make gold soup?' He responded with warm, relaxed and thoughtful phlegmatic humour that coldly washes away uncertainties. He said, “Do tell.” I replied, “ Add 24 carrots.” We laughed. We established that we were pleasure seeking and sociable.Our sanguine temperament flowed.

“What happened next was like a burst of light. The prepared formalities ended. We shared conversation andan authentic smile that reflected trust.”

Time flashed forward. I was not of this earth, but witnessed the trust between them remain throughout their lifetime.

I awoke with a smile.

The possibilities of what might come to pass in the next 25 years, as my grandchildren grow into adults, are endless. There are many reasons to doubt the wisdom of what can come to pass just because it is possible.

The dream reminded me that in spite of AI, algorithms and fake news, mankind is still influenced by the original model of nanotechnology based on laughter and a smile that elicit trust. With increasing environmental, social, economic and political issues, the importance of finding laughter and an authentic smile has increased. It can release neuropeptides that activate the reward center in brains associated with relaxation, social memory, trust and psychological stability, all of which have been needed in the past, and will be needed in the uncertain future.