This entire new strategy was designed by GAIA in less than a second after the first few attacks. The plan is already in motion and all Metropolises are already engaged into transitioning their populations to emotionless human beings. The chips are built and in the process of being implanted to the population.
Many people blindly follow GAIA’s order to go to the implanting facilities. GAIA’s propaganda is running full steam ahead to convince everyone that this chip is a necessity and is intended to make their lives better. But like in every society, some people are skeptical.
Some people do not want to have a piece of technology they don’t understand implanted in their body. No one knows it will be implanted in the brain. Otherwise, everyone would refuse and potentially revolt.
GAIA is not human but it knows human nature and knows it needs to be lied to in order to make it complacent.
The chip is ‘advertised’ by GAIA as a health component. A component through which GAIA will get valuable data in order to identify potential health issues and therefore treat diseases before they reach too dangerous of a stage.
But still, some people don’t seem to buy it.
One of them is a girl.
Meet Rose. Eighteen-year old girl. She is one of the first who was relocated to a Metropolis with her father. She witnessed everything that happened since the very beginning. Rose has a very strong character. She inherited it from her father. He was one of the very few who vigorously condemned the rise of CES and its intrusion into people’s private lives. Her parents divorced because her mother was the absolute opposite of her father. While their differences were manageable and sometimes charming at the beginning of their relationship, they grew larger as they grew older. Up to a point where the gap separating the parents’ opinions was too wide that communication simply became impossible.
The divorce idea came from Rose. She was only ten at the time. But already very mature. She managed to convince her parents that the best for everyone would be to go their separate ways. Rose chose to stay with her father. She had more in common with him than with her mother.
Not that she didn’t love her, she just couldn’t stand her. Couldn’t stand how material she was or had become. Her values revolved around her career, her car, her clothes, her vacation, and of course, her electronic devices.
She wasn’t like that when she met her husband. On the contrary. She was just a normal woman who wanted to have a normal life in a normal house with a normal family. Someone with very basic needs. Her husband was an intellectual and an activist. He was a member of several nongovernment organizations that were fighting for all kinds of rights. Human rights, animal rights, the right for everyone to have a roof over their heads, the right to have access to water, the right to breathe non-polluted air, the right for children to live in a world that will not be destroyed by their parents … He was an idealist. He dreamt of a world where one wouldn’t see a person starving because they would rather put more importance and meaning in a smartphone than in their health. A world where ensuring that everyone has access to basic needs is more important than enslaving the masses to technology. A world where people would stand up for themselves instead of bow down to commercial advertisement.
A utopian in an already dystopian world.
Rose’s father never had a ‘normal’ regular job. He was always trying to find ways to make ends meet. Life was not very comfortable but he always managed to earn enough money so his family lived a decent and honest life.
The life he tried to build for his family suddenly took a dramatic turn when he gets arrested by the police.
One of the world’s largest corporation was accused of polluting the earth by dumping and burying toxic waste in the ground. But thanks to an army of lawyers and impressive lobbying capabilities, it managed to get away with the pursuits. As Rose’s father was protesting outside the court, he physically assaulted one of the company’s leaders who was exiting the building.
The verdict was twelve months in jail.
Since her husband couldn’t feed his family anymore, Rose’s mother took on the role of provider and had to find a job. A former college friend helped her and she quickly found a position at a large corporation.
The second she stepped into her new office, she knew this was what she was made for. Her motivation and her results got quickly noticed and she started to climb the corporate ladder. By the time her husband comes out of jail, she is already a supervisor and well positioned for a manager role. Needless to say that her husband considered this move as high treason to his own principles. This is when the gap started to widen between the two and when Rose’s mother became more and more interested in individual success and enrichment.
That’s the environment Rose grew up in. That’s what made her who she is now.
After the divorce, Rose stayed with her dad. Her mother kept progressing at her company. She became a Vice President and moved to a larger house in a nicer and richer neighborhood. She never seemed to have enough and constantly strived for more. Unfortunately, this move led her to her demise as she was killed during the revolt of the poor against the rich.
When they learned about it, Rose and her father felt extremely sad. Regardless of what had happened between them, she was still a human being and did not deserve to end like that. She was his ex-wife and Rose’s mother. They still loved her. Unfortunately, the circumstances were such that they did not allow them to grieve as the war was already getting closer.
This happened exactly at the time Henry suspended GAIA’s first rule. The consequences of his action were very fast to materialize. And as the threat of war got closer to Rose and her father, they are saved by an army made of robots that GAIA has sent to restore order. Rose and her father are placed under GAIA’s protection and eventually relocated a few months later to one of the first Metropolises.
Grateful at first to be safe and taken care of, Rose and her father quickly make up their minds as more and more people arrive at the Metropolis. Indeed, many witness accounts mention the use of lethal force during the relocation process. And the more Rose and her father look at their present situation, the more it looks like they are prisoners. Great prison, though. Very safe. With almost everything they need. But still a prison.
It doesn’t take long to Rose’s father to feel like they need to rise up against GAIA. He tries to organize movements within the Metropolis, he tries to challenge GAIA’s authority. But in vain. His behavior is rapidly spotted by the robots and he is sent to a rehabilitation center.
When he is finally brought back to the apartment he shares with Rose, she cannot recognize her father.
He is still the same physically. He can still talk and have a conversation with his daughter. But most of his ideas and most of what he believes in seems to have been erased from his brain. He is no longer the fighting soul Rose spent her life with. He is no longer telling her that the best things in life are free and that we live in a consumerist world and that she and people of her generation are the ones who can change it. He is just the shadow of himself. An empty shell.
What made him who he was, his soul, seems to be gone.
Rose doesn’t know what happened when her dad disappeared but she knows GAIA has done something to him. And as she stares at the personal-assistant robot in the apartment, she realizes that everything they do is monitored. From then on, she decides she will keep her thoughts to herself and not display any external feeling. She will maintain a low-profile in order to prepare something.
She doesn’t know what yet, but she knows this place is not for humans and they will need to leave one way or another.
Unfortunately, all of Rose’s efforts to foment something are irremediably stopped when GAIA ‘invites’ the population to receive the so-called health implant. And no matter how hard she tries to escape her fate, Rose eventually ends up between two robots escorting her to an operating table where she receives her implant.
Like everyone else, like her father, Rose is now i
n a semi-lethargic state. She, unlike her father whose condition is permanent, will only wake up when GAIA sees fit.
CHAPTER 24
After her surgery, Rose is sent back to the apartment she shares with her father. She is now only the shadow of her former self.
She is conscious of where she is. She can still see things. She is still aware of her daily routine, aware of the things she needs to do. But she cannot feel anything. She no longer feels anger against GAIA and the environment she lives in. She no longer feels love for her father. She is physically present in the apartment, but her soul is somewhere else.
Nothing seems to matter anymore. Some things need to be done, tasks performed, but Rose can no longer judge whether what she does is right or wrong. She is just doing things. Like a puppet. Like a robot following GAIA’s directions.
This new life would be very boring to whom could still feel. But to Rose and the rest of the population, days are now just a succession of tasks, waiting periods, and silences.
The tasks have all been re-organized, rationalized, and scheduled by GAIA. They are very limited in nature. The driving force behind is to spare as many resources as possible so GAIA can redirect them to fulfilling its new objectives.
The day starts just like it used to be. People wake up and from then on, a recorded voice takes over and regularly prompts them to do things.
Similar to what happened before, they begin their day with physical exercise. Stretching and other routines are displayed on a screen on the wall. During thirty minutes, people repeat all the workout exercises they are supposed to do.
After the physical session, people are told to take a shower and to go out for breakfast.
Breakfast is no longer an appropriate term. Same for lunch and dinner. Feeding is basically what people do. Meals consist of a mixture of proteins, vitamins, and minerals all served in the form of a thick soup. There is nothing left to enjoy when sharing meals with others. It doesn’t really matter anyway as people don’t feel anything. For efficiency reasons, the ‘feeding’ takes place in large rooms that can accommodate thousands of people. There are now many of such places in the Metropolises.
People are allowed to chat. But what is there to talk about when one does not feel anything?
The only words that are pronounced are just the ones anchored in people’s minds, the fruit of their education.
Words like ‘good morning’, ‘hello’, ‘hi’, ‘thank you’, ‘good bye’ are now the full extent of the vocabulary used by people.
Expressions like ‘how are you?’ or ‘have a nice day’, and any other that requires having some form of feelings have simply magically disappeared. Overnight.
As people no longer feel, they cannot have conversations, ask questions, or provide an opinion about things as simple as the weather. The tone used by people is very dull, and ‘social’ time is now mostly filled with silences.
After breakfast, people can, if they want or feel like it, spend time outside. But as no one feels anything anymore, no one wants anything anymore. Everyone goes back to their quarters. Playground areas for children are desperately empty, and the kids eerily calm.
There is no need for adults to work anymore. Work activities were artificial and defined by GAIA to give people some kind of purpose. But without feelings, there is no longer a need to provide goals or challenges to people.
During the day, people can listen to a GAIA-approved book. It is read to them through the knowledge helmets that every apartment is now equipped with. People listen to the voice, but as they cannot feel a thing, it is merely a useless pastime. Those who need to study do the same operation but need to be connected to an educational network.
Everyone has an obligation to connect to the network. But reasons vary depending on who the people are.
The younger minds are required to study. This is part of their normal development. This is why they need to wear the helmet.
Studying is less relevant and necessary for adults as they are supposed to have reached their education potential. However, they are still required to get connected.
People connect to the educational network thanks to their helmet. The device is placed on the head and connectors stimulate parts of the brain with electricity discharges. Each teaching session lasts between thirty minutes for the youngest and up to two hours for the oldest.
Sessions are not very long as the brain stimulation is direct, not natural, and can potentially cause damage to the organ. In the old world, people used to learn at their own pace, according to their brain capabilities. Now, regardless of these capabilities, information and knowledge are force-fed into the brain. The main difficulty comes from assessing how much a brain can handle at once. Just like a stomach that would be stuffed with food, the body would react and reject whatever is above and beyond its absorption capabilities. While the consequences of a stomach reaction are mostly physical and potentially benign in nature, the consequences of a brain overload can be more dramatic. This is the reason why the sessions last a relatively short amount of time.
Each helmet is connected to the network and sources the information directly from GAIA’s entire knowledge library. From that database, specific content is selected and ‘uploaded’ in the brains. Content is determined based on the user’s age and the knowledge they are supposed to have acquired at each step of their development. At the end of a session, the user’s brain is loaded with new knowledge.
Because of the emotion-controlling microchip GAIA implanted in their brains, people do not realize they know more things. But the knowledge is there. It is now part of them. And they will be able to experience the full extent of that new knowledge when GAIA deactivates the chips and allows people to think for themselves again. This newly acquired knowledge will be considered by people’s brains like a memory and when the time comes, it will just be part of who they are.
As new memories can be implanted in people’s heads in the form of knowledge, GAIA also considers erasing past memories. If something can get in the brain, then something can come out. And if not, something can be overwritten. And this is the reason why even adults who do not require much new education are also required to use the helmet.
In GAIA’s new world order, there cannot be room for nostalgia of the past. There cannot be memories of a past life. GAIA cannot afford people to question why all former cities were destroyed. GAIA cannot afford people to remember a potentially happier life than the one the new world order is providing. And of course, in order for peace and harmony to be achieved, people cannot remember there used to be competition and conflicts and to potentially be inspired by it.
For those reasons, the safest path to the new world order and to mitigate the possible risk that people would jeopardize their newly found peace, is to erase the bad influence of the past.
In other words, to select and remove memories.
Removing memories is not as easy as implanting new ones. Not all memories need to be removed, but only a select few. Identifying which ones to remove is highly demanding in terms of resources. The technology GAIA developed over the years is able to reach into the most hidden parts of the brain and its streams of electrical impulses. It can translate them into visual memories. If the stream was connected to a screen, the screen would turn into a window to the past of the individual. One would be able to watch the memories of the person.
But GAIA doesn’t need to see. It just needs to know that a specific sequence of electrical impulses refers to a physical location, to a sound, to a person, to something happy, sad, or worrying.
Many studies were conducted by CES before the conflicts started. As part of a global collaboration initiative, tens of millions of individuals were asked to follow a protocol provided by CES. The original goal was to find a way to read minds. The intent behind this goal was not clear at the time. There was probably a market opportunity, but it required the conclusions of the study before being fully identified. Preliminary opportunities were contemplated in the
medical domain. Specifically, applications around the Alzheimer’s disease treatment. But the main goal was just the challenge a project like this one was bringing. And just because CES had the technology, just because it could, it embarked on a mission to read minds.
Under the project’s protocol, the ‘patients’ were required to wear a similar version of the helmet used by GAIA now. They had to keep it for one hour every day, sign-in to a CES secured website and follow the instructions. They were of course remunerated for their efforts, which explains the large number of candidates.
During that hour, a set of two hundred questions were asked to the individual. The experiment spanned across an entire year. Each patient was asked between sixty to eighty thousand questions during the period.
Some questions were duplicated and sometimes even more to ensure the signal received from the brain into the helmet was always the same or at least similar.
Some questions were the similar with just the modification of one variable. For example, people could be asked to think of a black dog. Then, some other time, to think of a black car or to think about darkness. These questions would help identify the brain signal that refers to ‘black’. And when asked to think of a white dog, the signal would be compared to the black dog question and the brain signature of the word ‘dog’ would be identified.
ACTIVATION Page 21