Evolving the Eloi

The mournful sound of a clarinet eased Marcus’ eyes open.

“I don’t want to wake up!”

“This is your scheduled time,” replied Athena, his Omnipresence.

It seemed like they’d been having this argument every morning of his 39 years.  And, as always, Athena won.  Sometimes, it seemed like she had read his mind and played a tune that would get in and not leave until he had woken up.  It was magic.

He swept open the drapes.  The sun bounced sprites off the waves.   In the Years Ago, views like this were only available to those they called the rich. Now that people were scarce—even V-Mind didn’t know why—anyone could have this view. Most of the old houses remained unoccupied.

As waves crashed across the shore, Marcus started his day with a swim.  This was the one place he felt beyond Athena’s control.  His muscles flexed as he swam through the waves.  As he approached the boundaries that marked where he was supposed to swim, a voice (was it Athena’s?) whispered in his mind, “Be careful.  Turn back.”

“I could swim beyond the boundary, but what would that prove?  The water on the other side is the same as the water on this side.”  He turned to shore, a little less enthusiastic.

After drying off, he sat down to breakfast.  “Athena, what’s the news?”

“Today’s the day that the V-Module launches,” Athena replied.

Marcus had watched the construction feeds: robots building a ship destined for deep space. When it landed, the V-Module would reproduce itself and launch farther into space. The V-Mind had decided this was the next evolutionary step.  Humans could never survive that kind of trip; their bodies were too well adapted to Earth.

No human would ever know whether the mission had succeeded.  Perhaps, if one of its descendants ever found its way back to Earth, there would still be a V-Mind to greet it.

Marcus wanted to be happy about the news, but he couldn’t feel proud of the accomplishment which had no human hand in its making.   

“This is something we should have tried.  It shouldn’t have been left to the machines.”

Marcus spent the rest of the morning lifting weights.  Everyone in his world was fit, of course — the V-Mind made sure of that — but muscle came easily to Marcus, and he liked displaying it.  He recorded his workouts into the V-Mind and they were popular.  Every ‘like’ brought a slight rush and made him feel special, as though he was just a little bit better than everyone else.  It gave him a sense of value that he found nowhere else.

After lunch, Athena reminded him that it was game day with his friends.  They used to play in person but that kind of interaction had become too risky.  It was too easy to say or do the wrong thing.  In V-Space, everyone just focused on the game.

Marcus plugged in and was transported to the entrance to a dimly lit cave where his friends were waiting. They spent the rest of the day slaying dragons, outsmarting wizards, and searching for the sorcerer’s stone.  They had to work together; nobody could beat the forest alone.  They found the stone, as they always did, just before their time was up.  It was almost as if the game was designed that way. It was magic.

Marcus wished that the game had stakes higher than just V-Points; he wondered what losing felt like.

As he prepared for bed, he still craved adventure.

“Athena, can you tell me another story about Odysseus?”

“Sure,” Athena replied. “Resourceful Odysseus answered the king…”

As Marcus drifted to sleep, he wondered who Odysseus would have been without the journey.  By morning, a new melody played on the clarinet would dissolve that thought.