by Mark Helme
Some exceptional holidays cost multiple credits for a single week. A very popular example is two credits for a week of gourmet food. These gourmet weeks are staged in magnificent surroundings such as chateaux, castles, fine old country pubs or palaces. Food is prepared by the best chefs who have access to prime meats, fish, fresh herbs and vegetables as well as fine wines, craft beers and spirits. Another popular trip is to orbit Earth for three credits. A few enthusiasts pay a full ten credits to visit the Moon and fly in the fighter spaceships.
Credits can also be used to hold gourmet parties (where fine alcoholic drinks are unlimited); one credit per twenty guests.
At weekends, it’s possible to visit friends and stay either in their homes or in the ‘hotels’ that are available in each town for guests. There are also ‘campsites’ with comfortable pods. If you prefer, you can walk along trails carrying your own ultra-lightweight camping gear.
Employment
Money no longer exists and so vast swathes of jobs disappeared long ago. There are no tax collectors, banks, financial advisors, insurers or advertising agencies. There are no career politicians, management consultants or strategy advisors. All science and research is conducted by research Commissioners. Nearly all manufacturing, farming, building, mowing and delivery is undertaken by robots and droids.
You may wonder what jobs are left. In fact, there is plenty of work and no one is unemployed. Much work involves creative talent, or is people-centred and so is inherently more satisfying. Besides those looking after tourists, many people are needed in nurseries and education, as there is a very high teacher/pupil ratio. All arts, music, media, restorers, design and architecture relies on humans. There are also doctors, nurses, physios, masseurs, dentists, vets, carers, counsellors, sportspeople, instructors, nature conservationists and gardeners in communal parkland. People run shops, pubs, restaurants and other communal buildings. A few experts in farming and animal husbandry oversee robots. There are a few engineers, as although robots are very good at building new things, they are hopeless at repairs.
Farming
Nearly all meat is synthesised from vegetable sources, but there are suckler herds in Argentina to provide beef for gourmet holidaymakers and Commissioners.
Milking herds only require female offspring. Bulls are vaccinated with a protein which is normally only produced by a recessive gene on a Y chromosome. The vaccination causes the bull’s immune system to attack and kill ‘male’ sperm. Thus, only female calves are born to replenish these milking herds. The grass is grown and harvested without any humans being involved, and the cows choose when they want to be milked by robots. Thus, a single human can now look after a herd of many thousands of cows.
Merino sheep have been bred to lose their fleeces around midsummer’s day. Machines that carefully remove their fleeces while rewarding the sheep with food arrive in their pastures at this time of year. The sheep happily comply. These sheep are used to keep grass short in chosen mountainous areas for hill walkers and tourists to enjoy.
Chickens are kept in henhouses surrounded by extensive fenced orchards in which they run free. They’re fed and their eggs are collected by robots.
Only a few young goats, chickens, pigs and lambs are kept for gourmet consumption.
Fish, shellfish and crustaceans are farmed extensively in both sea and fresh water.
Crops are grown in vast blocks situated away from water courses, fenced off from wild animals and humans. The outer fifty-metre strip is sown with GM crops resistant to weedkiller. This strip is sprayed twice a year, thus almost eliminating weeds and the need for chemicals in the bulk of the crop. All strains are genetically engineered to grow nitrogen-fixing nodules on their roots (like leguminous plants), thus reducing the need for fertiliser. A certain amount of organic fertiliser is used to replenish other minerals and to improve the structure of the soil. DNA derived from the Indian neem tree is inserted into the DNA to give the crop resistance against fungi, bacteria and insect attack.
Cycle and walking paths are bordered with wildflower meadows. Set back from these lanes, vast areas of solar panels are raised high above the wildflowers so that ground nesting birds can breed. The grass is mown by robots after the nesting season to provide winter hay for the dairy herds.
Many vegetables are grown with artificial lights and hydroponics under glass so that fresh produce is available throughout the year in temperate and cold zones.
Recycling
Anything compostable, which would include nappies (these are made from mashed dried paper with a biodegradable waterproof outer layer), food waste, dog pooper bags (see nappies above) and garden waste is placed in a sealed waste disposal unit which macerates everything before it gets sucked into the sewage pipes. After being safely treated, liquids are separated by centrifuge. The liquids are mixed with effluent from the cows’ sleeping quarters and drilled into crop fields. The remaining solids are heated until sterile and then used as compost for gardens, crop and vegetable areas.
All broken items and old clothing is left outside the houses at night. The robots that deliver goods during the night remove these for total recycling.
Recyclable plastics are still used to make things that last a long time, but they are never used for throw-away items. Beaches around the world have robots that work at night removing any plastic or other objects that wash up. Vast floating factories are stationed at the points of the oceans where vortices have caused plastic and other waste to congregate. These suck up and sort the waste. Plastic is reduced to nanoscopic particles. This is shipped to the nearest factory on land, where it’s combined with rubber to make impact-absorbing surfaces for play areas and walk-ways. Rocky beaches have rubbish collected by humans and recycled appropriately. Slowly, the oceans are being cleared of plastic, and it’s expected that they’ll be completely clean within the next few years. Old landfill sites are being mined; the metals are recycled and plastic used as above. Washing machines are fitted with a centrifuge that removes any microfilaments that wash out of clothing. (Although a lot of merino wool and cotton is used, it’s been found that some garments need synthesised materials to improve waterproofing, elasticity and longevity.)
Energy-efficient towns
In 2056, when energy seemed infinite, detached houses with large gardens and driverless electric cars moved people around. People were allowed to live scattered through the countryside if they wished, although many gravitated to towns and cities. Planning and rules all changed when it became apparent that the deposits of europa were going to run out. From then on, everyone (except for those especially rewarded) had to live in a town or city. A new design of energy-efficient towns was developed. (Bridetown, where Ewan grew up, was one of these.)
The new towns are roughly circular with a radius of a kilometre. The houses are terraced, extremely well insulated, and triple glazed. Their single-pitched roofs face the equator and are covered with solar panels. Each house has three stories above ground and one basement level. Their footprint, including the garden, is an eighth of a hectare.
At the north side of the house, there’s a two-metre covered strip where a vertical rotating bike store abuts the house. There’s a porch where deliveries are left by robots overnight, and inside this is a cold store where stainless steel containers are left by the residents for robots to fill with milk and food that can’t be left in paper bags. Next to this is a store for the hoverboards with an adjacent hatch that opens on verbal command. The hatch leads to an underground brightly lit ‘hover-way’ which is powered by electromagnets. The ‘hover-way’ connects all the houses, parks and the town centre, but doesn’t extend into the countryside. The hoverboards are controlled and stabilised by AI and communicate with each other by very high frequency radio waves. This gives extremely accurate control, but to achieve this, transmitters have to be fixed every ten metres within the tunnels. At midnight, the tunnels close, and while the town sleeps,
robots silently cut the grass and deliver goods.
North of the porch is a two-metre wide impact-absorbing walkway, then a narrow strip of grass before three metres of perfect tarmac for bicycles, electric scooters and gyro-control electric devices. These are limited to 15 kph within the town but in the country lanes are allowed to travel at 35 kph.
Parks run north-south, linking the central area to the larger parks, orchards, allotments, sports grounds and a golf course that surrounds the town. Play areas, schools, cafes, bars and restaurants are scattered through the parks. No house is more than 400 metres from the nearest park. Communal horse stables are situated at the extremity of the parks, where trails lead into the surrounding woods.
Hyperloop and electric rail stations are situated at the town centre. All food, drinks and manufactured goods are delivered here during the night.
There’s a massive tower block near the centre. In the basement, there’s electromagnetic induction under the floor, providing low gravity for children to learn to ride bicycles, hoverboards and scooters. The ground floor features sports and dance halls which can double up as communal meeting rooms. On the first floor are immersive cinemas and a theatre which can also be used for concerts. An art gallery and rooms for gym and exercise classes fill the next level. In the evening, this level is reserved for teenagers to play hoverboard-polo. Above are rooms for visitors and at the top a restaurant and bar with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.
There’s a separate glass-domed building with a large heated laned swimming pool. There’s also a separate fun pool with a sandy beach, water-slides and fountains powerful enough for people to be suspended on the jetting water. (You have to wear protective suits and be over sixteen to ride these.) There’s a separate pool where you can learn to ride a wave-skimmer. There are hot areas with Turkish baths, saunas and massage areas, or you can just relax amongst tropical flowering plants and palms. Next to this is a tall glass cylinder with air jets for freestyle dance-flying.
There are no shops. Most goods are chosen from holographic images and reviews and ordered for home delivery via X-talks. To experience or see the actual merchandise, people travel ten minutes by hyperloop to the nearest city.
Because of the extraordinary insulation, these towns are self-sufficient in energy, which is derived from the solar panels on their roofs and in the wildflower meadows and stored in huge batteries.
The Cities
For each grouping of eighteen towns, there is one city of roughly 200,000 people. The inhabitants of the city are mainly aged between eighteen and thirty-four, although a few older men and women who have chosen not to have children also live there. Cities are exciting places, especially on Friday nights when everyone is allowed a dose of ‘rush’. This is a synthesised drug that acts directly on brain receptors, giving a reaction like amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy combined. Because the chemicals act directly on the receptors rather than liberating the brain’s own transmitters, there’s no rebound depression. There’s no addiction, as the drug isn’t available on any other evening. An image is taken as the drug is administered and the dose is added to the individual’s X-talk, so there’s no possibility of getting a double dose. As the drug is synthesised in robotic factories, there is no risk of contamination or overdosing.
The facilities for sport and recreation are larger than in the towns, as all inter-city team matches are played at these venues, attracting large crowds. There are also stadia for war games, where holographic virtual obstacles materialise for each match picked randomly by AI. Two teams control their holographic avatars remotely. They choose weapons to attack the other team according to the obstacles produced for that particular match. The aim of the game is to find and retrieve a hidden golden crown, before all your team is eliminated. The games are frankly gruesome and unbelievably realistic (over 18s only); they are incredibly popular for participants and spectators.
At the edge of the parks that surround the cities, enormous amphitheatres are sunk into the ground for gigs, concerts and plays. These can be used ‘open-air’ or enclosed if it’s raining.
Outside of these are horse racecourses and a golf course.
People who live in towns visit the cities to check on the latest fashion. Droid models and holograms display the latest designs in large, brightly lit venues filled with music and chatter. People choose what they like and order clothing or shoes for home delivery via their X-talks. (Everyone has their bodies scanned in the privacy of their homes from time to time so that the fit of ordered garments is perfect.) There are also large halls filled with sports gear, bicycles, hoverboards, etc. Demonstrator models are available to try before arranging home delivery.
There are shops where art, crafts, jewellery, furniture, curtains, rugs and hangings are displayed. There are couture shows modelled by humans. All of these items are handmade and can only be purchased using shopping credits.
The local Commissioner and law courts are based in these cities.
Schools
Each school has five terms of seven weeks’ duration followed by a three-week holiday. The dates of the terms vary from town to town and country to country so that tourist venues are not swamped during school holidays. There’s also a two-week holiday for everyone (even if they’ve no holiday credits) in the last two weeks of December. On the first of December, bonfires and fireworks celebrate ‘Xanasa Day’.
Teachers have fifteen weeks’ holiday automatically, but they can still be rewarded with ‘shopping’ credits for good performance.
There are no exams, but every child is assessed using data collected from their X-talks as they watch holovision, as well as their individual computer work and from the teacher’s observations. Each child has a teacher assigned to be their mentor and this person guides them towards the most suitable course for university and work thereafter.
Transport
1.The magnetically levitated capsules of the hyperloop travel at just under the speed of sound, taking either people or goods.
2.Transport within your home town and for commuting is unlimited. In January AX50, each individual is also allowed 10,000 kilometres of hyperloop travel and 500 kilometres of drone taxi per year. Because of the europa shortage, the Board are now planning to halve these allowances to conserve energy.
3.Wave-skimmers are like hoverboards over water but are kept an inch or so above the water by jets of air that can be turned off if you choose to surf a wave.
4.Commissioners fly using planes with an improved version of the SABRE air-breathing engine. This uses compacted oxygen collected from the air and then rapidly cooled. When this is mixed with hydrogen, enormous power is generated as water is formed. A similar engine is also used for space travel using liquid oxygen.
People who live outside of the governed areas
There are two different groups:
Hunter-gatherers
People who live in harmony with nature such as the Pygmies, Bushmen, tribes living wild in the Amazon and the Andaman Islanders are allowed to continue living as they’ve done for thousands of years provided they agree to give up guns, be vaccinated and chipped.
Religious Enclaves
Every conceivable religion has been given their own area to develop and live in according to their religious views and customs. The amount of land provided when these were instigated was calculated as twenty-five hectares per family. Where possible, they included places of importance to their religion such as the Wailing Wall for Jews and the Eternal Flame for the Zorastrians. Religions with potentially dangerous schisms, such as Sunni, Shia and Suffi Muslims, were all given separate lands to live in.
Each of these groups elects a leader who communicates with the local Commissioner. The Commissioner is responsible for providing vaccination, contraception, hospital care and occasionally other assistance when requested.
Their leaders have all signed agreements that
documentaries can be filmed so that ‘governed’ people have some understanding of what life is like within the different religious communities, enabling young people to choose whether or not to enter these enclaves when they reach twenty-one. If they choose to live in one, they are given a six-month trial. If they opt to stay, they have their X-talk removed. They also have to attend the local hospital for an anaesthetic, where they are told an electric shocking device is implanted into their right thigh, which would start shocking them if they strayed outside of their boundary fence. (In reality, this operation was to remove the secretly implanted chip.) It’s impossible to get an accurate impression via holovision, and although many young people tried the enclaves, virtually all returned, having discovered they were not as enjoyable as they’d hoped.
Appendix
1.Xanasa’s brain development: Max had used her own eggs and sperm provided by Ethan Mcmanus to create embryos. From a female embryo, she took stem cells from the prosencephalon (the precursor cells that normally form the frontal cortex of the brain) and incubated them. She was thrilled to watch them grow exponentially. (She’d discovered that brain neurons normally stop dividing because of a minute pressure increase in the cerebrospinal fluid, which starts soon after birth and continues to rise until the skull fuses. If the pressure is kept low and perfect nutrients are supplied, the cells continue to divide indefinitely.) When she mixed blood vessel stem cells (also taken from the same embryo) with the neurons, they formed normal blood vessels. Initially, she froze Xanasa’s brain, only allowing full development once they’d created the perfect environment for her in Costa Rica.
2.Chips: These devices are surgically implanted and envelope the femoral artery. They can only be removed if an individual deactivating code is beamed at it first. If it’s tampered with, without prior deactivation, a small charge explodes, rupturing the femoral artery with catastrophic results.