PsychoTech

You are startled awake by a loud buzzing sound, which appears to be coming from the ceiling. You open your eyes and look around, unsure of where you are or how you got there.

You are surrounded by white, sterile walls and stainless steel bed frames, with mattresses outfitted with bleach-white sheets. There is not a soul around, but there are three other neatly made beds, each occupying a different corner of the room. There are no windows and the room is cold, you may be underground, but you truly don’t know.

You feel ravenous, and would love water more than anything else, unlike your usual craving for pink gin and Prosecco. By no surprise, your Swiss watch is still working. What is surprising however, is the year — it is 2076, meaning you are now 77 years old. The last thing you remember was your “retirement” party in 2065. You were an entrepreneur and businesswoman, and 11 years ago you sold your company and made a total of $7.3 million; a generous amount for the retirement you had planned. While you never had a husband or children, your company was your baby and it made you feel safe knowing that you were in the top 1 percent — safe against the struggles that the other classes had to suffer through.

You get up and step outside your room, wearing the mandatory masks that you were told to wear by the writing on the wall by the exit of your room. You see a small sign that says “cafeteria” and quickly walk in that direction.

This isn’t the America you know. You look around, everyone has incredible bodies, as defined by the 21st century ideals. Women with tiny waists, large breasts and buttocks, and men with little body fat and strong arms and abdomens. They look like barbie dolls - except for their complexion. Their bodies look young and alive, yet their faces suggest otherwise. You are surrounded by white people, but their lackluster skin is more grey than white. You recognize a few faces, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff, the head of an accounting firm that you worked with.

You run to Jeff, inquiring about what’s happened and he greets you with a smile like you’ve never seen before. “What’s happening? Where are we?”

“We made it” he mutters.

“What do you mean we made it? What did we make? Are you implying you like this place?”

“Well yeah, I’m happy now. I have a perfect body, I have sex all the time, I’ve got good drugs, and no wife to answer to, I’m literally living the high life. I mean isn’t this what you wanted? You chose this.”

“No I didn’t, I never would have picked this.”

“You did though. You chose to continue to invest in technology and drugs. You chose to make it easy for people to get the bodies of their dreams, to date who they want, to eat what they want, to read what they want….to get whatever you want, whenever you want.”

What you really want is to get the f**k out of here.

So you get up and start running, following the signs that say “exit,” and running for what feels like hours. When you get out, it feels like you are in a video game, you are surrounded by a concrete jungle and everything is digitized. There are self-driving cars driving no passengers and robots in different forms performing a variety of tasks once done by humans from factory worker to CEO. You see something that says “Information” and are relieved at the opportunity to finally get some answers, regardless of what they may be.

These robots look a lot like people - a scary amount. They look more lively that the people you saw when you were underground. Their bodies aren’t perfect, but they look more radiant and have a variety of skin tones.

“Hi, how may I help you with Cassandra?” a female-looking bot says to you.

“Some answers as to where I am, what’s happening, any information you have!”

“Well, in 2068 we ran out of topsoil. It happened a bit earlier than expected, but we weren’t that surprised. Most developed countries especially in the North were fine, they weren’t heavily impacted by climate change or the rapid reduction in topsoil. What caused us problems were the refugees, once poor people started fleeing their countries, that jeopardized our food, and took away precious resources, so we had to do some population control. It was all ethical though don’t worry, just a quick needle and they were gone. No fires, sharks, or lynching, just good ol’ fashioned drugs, all FDA approved. Things are a bit less natural now, but humans have what they need. Nature isn’t needed anymore because we have science and technology to do what nature once did — doesn’t look as nice, but it’s much more efficient. Let’s take a walk, I’ll show you around.”

“On your left, is food production - we have lab-grown meats in that building,” she says gesturing at a tall black building, “then there is our farm that produces nutrient-rich fruit and vegetables pointing to another tall building composed of hydroponics in a massive vertical farm.”

“Since nature can’t absorb any carbon anymore, we created state-of-the-art carbon capture technology. Why use something that already exists when you can innovate and capitalize on it, am I right? This is our main industry now, but the climate is doing better now with barely any people here now.”

“But what about diversity, don’t we need that? And don’t people get sick of the doing nothing all day?”

“That’s what the drugs are for. Our problems now are all psychological, which has an easy solution if you’re innovating enough. After COVID-19, we started digitizing everything and after a while people started devaluing human relationships and prioritizing themselves above all else. People started numbing their pain, forgetting how to love and pursuing comfort instead of passion. People were overwhelmed by the problems of the world, and decided to turn a blind eye to the greatest issues of the time, which had been affecting the populations that are now exterminated. Now to keep things interesting, people use drugs - no day is the same because each drug is different. The retirement everyone wanted they now have, they have all the time in the world to do whatever they want and no financial constraints, which would have never been a problem anyways for the people who survived. We robots do all the work for the few remaining humans left on Earth, and they do what they want when they want, which is sex and drugs mostly. Anyways, you better get back, you can only be outside for an hour, your body can’t handle the outdoors for much longer, its not used to it.”

In an instant, you’re transported back into the cafeteria, just in time to hear Bill Gates concluding remarks to his speech, “and technology saves the day.”