by Michael Orr
For most of human history, genetics were passed on primarily via desire. Desire, while haphazard and subject to whim, generally led to family households having one or both parents to raise the children.
With state-sponsored breeding, no such desire is involved. Men and women are selected to breed based on their genetics rather than on any attraction to one another. And while this breeding is humane, in that both donors are free to contribute their genetics without meeting each other, the resulting child is typically left in the care of the state while the disinterested donors go their own ways.
As one might imagine, state-run child care is a far cry from doting parents and an extended family.
Much of the twenty-fourth century population has been raised in this impersonal manner, leaving these adults with certain emotional deficiencies and even scars which society is poorly equipped to address. An outside observer may notice that certain people seem more robotically work-oriented than human. And while this suits the governing Conglomerate from a workforce perspective, it does little to enhance the culture and ‘soul’ of the planet. Many objectors argue that the human race is being systematically divorced from its humanity, or as the late researcher Prof. Aaron DeVry famously lamented: “Earth is losing its salt, for we are losing our savor.”
The politics of cultural engineering aside, it’s important to note that augmentation of the natural human form has become loathsome to mainstream Humanity, and those suspected of it become social pariahs. For this reason, early efforts to link human operators with machines are now viewed with horror and no such projects exist at this time. Instead, the Conglomerate has adopted the non-enhancing technology of the connec-lens and screemscreen.
As its name implies, the connec-lens is inserted into the wearer’s non-dominant eye as a ‘smart’ contact lens that autoconnects to the global infonet by which every citizen stays informed.
Its companion, the screemscreen is a small, scrollable sheet of transparent polymer infused with nano-receptors. This functions as a display when one wishes to share something on one’s connec-lens with an audience. The screemscreen (collectively referred to along with the connec-lens as a ‘screem’) receives the projected image and plays it externally as a hologram in which the 2-dimensional sheet itself seems to transform into the 3D image. A larger, less mobile version of this same technology has replaced television and provides home viewers with fully-immersive holographic imaging.
A related technology is employed in décor and clothing, which saves the cost of purchasing specific items and also allows for instant, at-will redecorating and fashion. Many fabrics and construction materials make use of this holographic technology, allowing for infinite color and pattern choices on the fly. (Return)
APPENDIX F:
FAITH
Faith is intrinsic to every human culture. In fact, it may be the most endemic aspect of the human condition. In the twenty-fourth century, faith takes many forms. There are, of course, the traditional religions, but religion itself comes with an unavoidable problem: it is only relevant to the culture which spawned it, and even then, only for so long as that culture remains unchanged. Once a culture evolves, the original belief system is automatically outdated and must be revised.
This is apparent with the Judeo-Christian tradition. As Dr. Nazanin Sukho pointed out in her immortalized speech, the Old Testament bears no relation to the New Testament and should not have been included in the Christian bible. It was only included because the early church leaders misjudged the significance of the New Testament — that it entirely supersedes and nullifies anything that came before it.
Not even the Ten Commandments apply to Christianity, because Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit is meant to guide the believer from within, developing the believer’s conscience into a godly self-governing faculty that requires no external oversight.
This is central to genuine Christian theology, but was entirely overlooked by the church fathers. The reasons for this are self-evident. Firstly, a body of self-governing believers needs no priesthood to guide them, so there would be no hierarchical church, and therefore no tithes by which the leaders of such a church might profit.
Secondly, Roman emperor Constantine had an empire to manage, and handing that management over to each individual citizen’s conscience would have obviated any need for an emperor. Thus, the political objectives of the age bred the pure and humble donkey of authentic Christianity with the proud and fearsome war horse of ancient Judaism, producing an impotent mule faithful to neither parent and inadequate to the spiritual needs of its followers.
This is one example of how religion successfully blockades human spiritual development and maturation, which is why the twenty-fourth century has little love for traditional beliefs. Instead, a kind of spiritual humanism has developed, in which the individual is encouraged to find his/her place within a benignly fascist society. How the individual chooses to do this is a matter of personal expression informed by such guiding lights as the Prometheus Institute, not to mention whatever cultural tools have been developed.
Beliefs in 2371 build from developments occurring in previous centuries that have impacted life at a foundational level. The most obvious of these was the religious émigré wars of the twenty-first century, which flooded extremist Islamists into most of the world’s cultures. In response, the global government manufactured ‘Chrislam’ as a conciliatory effort.
Obviously a combining of the world’s two most populous faiths, Chrislam was forced upon believers of both sides as a means to ending the terrorism war of the twenty-first century. The corporate government of that time imposed Chrislam on the people in the way fascist states always impose belief systems upon their citizens — as a method of control. However, Chrislam was immediately considered an abomination by all concerned and the world spiraled into outright anarchy.
Even these centuries later, the embers of that age are thought to have kindled the rebellion now labeled the Crusade.
This covert movement was ignited into full fury by Dr. Sukho’s speech at the Congress of Creeds, in which all of Earth’s religious belief systems were systematically debunked and dismissed in favor of a rational and non-superstitious approach to faith.
While Dr. Sukho was assassinated for her ‘offense’, her speech had lasting repercussions and effectively turned the mainstream population against the crusaders, while inspiring many toward a more personal and self-directed quest for meaning. (Return)
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
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Star Trek’s Khan laments after his two-hundred-year sleep that while technology has advanced, “how little, man himself has changed.”
I ‘reach’.
This has always struck me about sci-fi — big ideas and big tech, but the same basic human soap operas. And for that matter, what about the metaphysics of space itself?
Star Wars reduced the cosmos to a battlefield while Star Trek utilized it as a road. 2001: A Space Odyssey (the movie) attempted the metaphysical but seemed to get lost in its own perplexity, and most recent additions to the genre are obsessed with weapons-grade dystopias.
Again and again our futuristic fiction paints our race stagnant amidst huge advances in knowledge, and the only reason I can think why is that we give so little thought to where we’re headed. We might look forward to cybernetics and genetic engineering, but what about the deeper aspects of life? What about (dare I say it) the soul? On this, most science fiction is conspicuously silent.
Hardly surprising since science, at least, as far as the western hemisphere is concerned, owes its existence to the war between ra
tionalism and religion. This us-or-them mentality has had centuries to worm its way into our thinking, and it blinds us to alternatives.
“Such as?” I hear you asking. Well, such as a larger non-physical reality having nothing whatsoever to do with authoritative gods; or the notion of Existence presided over by committee; or perhaps Existence as a co-op owned and operated by all those who inhabit it. The possibilities stretch well beyond ‘god or not god’, but we’ve been trained to think in only those black-or-white terms. So, being allergic to either/or thinking, I feel obliged to present the reader with some alternatives.
Grammatically, you’ll encounter some...let’s call them uniquenesses...on this ‘Evo’ journey. Most apparent is the dialogue, which is presented the way it sounds whenever reasonable. This goes against what we’re taught and might take some getting used to. Just hear it in your head and all will be well.
As for social commentary, the cast of EPOCH is broadly diverse. I’m endlessly disappointed by my fellow Caucasian writers who neglect the rich and wonderful colors of the people among us. But mind you, I don’t patronize. A white person is white, a brown person is brown and a black person is black. The only avoided reference to pigmentation is for Asians, who have never deserved to be called ‘yellow’. That unfortunate instance aside, colors are a legitimate and glorious feature of Humanity. We ought to relish them.
Culturally, the social mores of 2371 defy our current comfort zones. The enlightened future won’t tolerate the misguided absurdities of Puritanism and its die-hard aftereffects like workaholism or our prudish and morbid fascination with porn. Because of that, freedom of personal expression in the twenty-fourth century may perturb the typical WASP-ish reader, but it’s a conscientious offense and really for the best. As the ebullient Trisha Thierry might be heard saying at any given soirée: “If the future’s not gonna be fun, why go there?”
That said, it's been a lengthy gestation period reaching this point, and I’m profoundly gratified to finally release my free-range ideas into the wild. May they enjoy romping in the hills, dales, star systems and nebulous ӕthers of your imagination.
Michael Orr
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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EPOCH came to me piecemeal across wildly differing periods of my life; but if I had to pinpoint a moment in time when I first gained the kernel of what would become this driving force, I would have to say the day in November 1991 when I stumbled across issue 11 of Neil Gaiman’s neverworldly Sandman series (DC Comics). At that moment, I realized there were people producing lit I could sink my teeth into in ways I hadn’t experienced in college. With my classical reading well behind me, I was primed for a modern take on the vagaries of the human psyche, and Sandman kicked off that pursuit.
Much later (oh so much later), I fell into the immersive world of 3D modeling, wherein one’s imagination can play in an almost physical way with the bulk and line of fictitious starships (among other things). Finding models suitable to EPOCH has become a pastime of mine, and I owe much of what one sees on EPOCH’s book covers, website and Pinterest page to wonderful creators who share their genius on sites like Turbosquid, CGTrader, Renderosity, DAZ3D and others. I have the pleasure of acknowledging masterful artists like Skynet 3020, Robert DeWit, 3DRT, GrafxBox, Dennish2010, Marlan87, VattalusAssets and the remarkably prolific and inventive Herminio Nieves.
Without creations by these artists, my vision would be limited to what I myself can invent — which in matters of star travel is restricted to the likes of the ESS Asherah.
In terms of world-building, I would have no ideas about the populous state of the galaxy were it not for prior visions paving the way: Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Firefly, the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard and hosts of others. But if one author were to find pride of place at the head of my list of influences, it would be the late C. S. Forester, whose raging Hornblower Saga forcibly boarded an impressionable boy’s imagination and conscripted it into the age of sail with no provision for its release.
Of course, none of the influences listed above would mean as much to me were it not for the unassuming genius of one Mr. Travis Haskins, whose approach to introducing 8th graders to Homer’s Odyssey dispensed with everything 13-year-olds couldn’t care less about and spirited us directly into the mythic wonders of the ancient Mediterranean. It was that lyric and fabled adventure which first sparked my literary imagination, for such is the gift and legacy of genuine teachers.
Lastly, our galaxy’s Orion Spur is a bewilderingly vast neighborhood; so, rather than blithering myself into idiocy attempting cosmic math, I turned to Vladimir Romanyuk‘s brilliant and delightful Space Engine sim for calculating cosmic distances.
To all these, and to others whom I haven’t the prodigious memory to name, I owe my thanks and offer profound gratitude. The EPOCH Saga, such as it is, stands upon their kingly shoulders.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Michael Orr was born in the first year of Gen X and hasn’t let anyone forget it for over half a century. He attended UC Irvine during the middle ages eighties and eventually stumbled into a surreal landscape of gray cubicles and flat-white lighting. But ultimately, his inner Moses led him out of corporate bondage and into the EPOCH wilderness.
Nowadays, finding himself enormously pleased at finally producing a novel, he can sometimes be seen gloating on Denver’s interstates riding his dreadfully orange ZX-7R. But living a mile high takes a toll on his sea-level heart, which still pines for the beaches and ice-free highways of his Orange County youth.
Currently, Michael spends his time creating more EPOCH and dwelling amongst his many plants, all of whom are named ‘Robert’.
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