A Nameless Generation

I remember. I remember that….. 3 am in the morning, yes, it was 3 am, the time… The time when I had that dream…That pathetic dream of mine which shook me up in the middle of night, leaving me alone with hands, shaky and limbs paralyzed. What happened, what happened in the dream, what did I saw. I was losing my patience, unable to get out of my bed, I…. I remember, just now, I remember what I saw.

Let’s go…. I will show you what I saw…

I was in ANOTHER WORLD!!!

Year 2050, 2051, 2052… I don’t remember exactly where I was, all I could remember was a blurred picture, picture of a calendar, hung on a tiled wall and an image of something, something looking like 205. The last digit has completely faded, lost in the midst of memory, somewhere…. I was standing in a room, bedroom as it looked like or may be a work room. I was standing still, I couldn’t move. Maybe, I was there, just to ‘see’ something coming. I am now, the narrator.

Albert, Albert… He came in the room, stood besides Eva. Firstly, he looked at her clumsily, then at the watch in its system. Eva was still plunged and dozed in her bed, looking messy and ugly while huge dark eye circles embarked their presence on her dusty, open mouthed face. It was one am (this is what I can remember), Eva was supposed to be ready for work. Albert had the duty to wake her up and get her ‘mid-night’ meal or in her case mid-day meal ready. Albert looked at the system watch again, less elegantly this time (he was himself hungry, nearly in the state of passing out. He wanted ‘electricity’.) Within a blink of an eye, a metallic, heavy, crooked hand, violently stabbed Eva’s heavy, dark haired skull. She woke up instantly after witnessing the violent thrash. With a heavy frown, she looked at Albert who, in one hand was holding a 3 inches long electronic screen gadget with daily newspaper opened in it ,her meal in the second while the third hand was still buzzing monotonously, urging her to snooze off the alarm inside it’s body.

Eva got up slowly, still rubbing her hand on her head in order to reduce the shock and the impact of nerve-wracking pain that crammed her neck and now the shoulders too. For past three days, she had combiningly slept for only eight hours. She was naturally sleep-deprived, but it wasn’t something new or surprising for her or most of the people of that exceptionally ‘modern era’. She reached out for a medium sized case of pills besides her pillow, took a wholesome of seven to eight pills in her left hand and gulped them; all in one go, without water. They were anti- sleep pills. She had another bottle (blue colored) for inducing sleep. She didn’t require it now (maybe she will need it in the evening). Albert stood there; his third arm was now straightened, parallel to his stainless steel, powerful, mechanical body with electronic eyes, still laid strongly on its owner, Eva Anderson.

 The world was completely ‘online’ and fully ‘advanced’ now. Eva worked as a Civil Servant for the Government of Ferohock. Her duty was to manage threats caused by so called computer enthusiasts or in simpler terms, some deadly and advanced ‘unethical’ hackers, trying to break and attack the privacy control and financial accorded systems of the government and the people. (I heard her talk to someone; I sincerely apologize for ‘eavesdropping’, but couldn’t help myself. You remember, I can’t move). The world was threatingly advance now, so advanced that someone might breakthrough your personal information, without even you knowing about it or someone might getting your full bio-data within a period of two minutes by just knowing the date and exact time of your birth. Isn’t it intriguing and astounding! At the same time haunting and nerve wrecking!!

Everyone in this world had high quality, affordable robots with updated high technology microprocessors, sensors, better battery life and high quality audio features (Albert being one of the them, a three armed robot with high core microprocessor, 9000 mAh battery life with cooking, washing, cleaning and alarm features), metaphorically to replace the need of fellow humans. The robots could read stories from the web, sing songs (although hoarsely), cook, work, clean the house, water the indoor plants, tell them ‘poor’ jokes while following their instructions swiftly (they were fitted with audio receivers, voice recognizing features, microphones and speakers too).

AREN’T THEY A BETTER REPLACEMENT!!! In comparison to ‘living’ humans with a beating heart, bottomless pit full of emotions of tenderness, love, sincerity, happiness, ability to cry, laugh and most importantly ‘feel’, but most ‘unlikely’ to perform the activities of cleaning, washing and cooking as effectively as these robots. Moreover, the humans lack an inbuilt alarm facility and the ability to thrash your head in case you show your lazy side or wake up late, even a ‘second late’. Humans are just trash here (Shhh wait, be careful, we cannot say this loudly, someone might hear, the large walls of each room are fitted with half wall sized TV screens where ‘they’ meet ‘virtually’ and hold special meetings, ceremonies, primarily during Christmas and New Year). Also, it hardly matters how good or bad, a robot or a human can cook because people here don’t ‘taste’ food, they just gulp it, down through the esophagus, into the stomach, then small intestine , large intestine finally setting its foot into the stool collector machine in the nearby five inch small room in the hallway.

 The day (or night) of most people here begin with a robotic hand laid powerfully along their heads, kicking the day ‘on’ with some pills, ‘swallowing’ the edible food, having sips of dark brown pungent coffee ( in case the pills don’t work effectively), readings electronic newspapers, having a steam bath, dressing formally and then, sitting glued in a small room, switching on the three dimensional projectors , virtual-real image converters, microphones, screens, image makers ,3D image transfer devices with software plus audio speakers, fitted exclusively in the ceilings of most houses in the city. These were the rooms where people organized meeting and submitted their reports, sitting solemnly at their place while a ‘three dimensional’ image of them is being transferred to the meeting hall at the headquarters of the companies. This was how many meeting were conducted here, without the physical reporting of the members. Instead, a virtual but ‘nearly’ real image of the participant was transferred through the satellite communication. This was what Eva did, ever after waking from her brief periods of sleep. She, like all the other people in that world, did everything in the same order.

 The end of the meeting was followed by working on the computer, mechanically for a period of 3-4 hours. Eyes concentrating on the comparatively smaller screen, fingers working simultaneously to catch the speed of the eyes. Then, another meeting, another virtual ceremony, then another gulping of food, then another swallowing of pills, then another hand on head, then then……. Life goes on like this, ‘without’ leaving any scope for joy, celebration, spirituality, beliefs, relations, thoughts, happiness, ideals, ethics, personal interaction, beliefs, emotions, learning and most importantly nature. No exposure to ‘real’ plants, trees, rivers, waterfalls, rainbow, sky, rain, wildlife, soil etc... NOTHING…….NOTHING AT ALL……

The end.

I got up. The dream ended. The show ended. I could move my limbs now. I was less shocked now. Why did I have such a dream? I asked myself. I checked my phone. I had two messages, both from one person. Albert. Albert was my school mate, also my project mate. Together, we were working and conducting a detailed research on the topic “An Online World- Will Technology and Artificial Intelligence dominate the lives of humans, in the future”. Maybe that’s why I had this dream. A one that ‘woke’ me up. Albert texted me yesterday, at 8:30pm, asking for the project reports. I was busy yesterday, so didn’t have the time to check my phone. While I was surfing my phone to send the reports, I suddenly remembered that girl. The girl whom I saw in my dream, just now. The skinny, tall, dark haired girl, her name, her name… Eva, I shouted loudly. The girl with dark eye circles, fragile limbs, pale body, no emotions, no smile on her face, no signs of a beating heart. It gave me chills, even to think about her and her life, that kind of world.

I founded the reports in a folder named ‘Project work’. I forwarded those files to Albert with my name at the end of the message. I wrote:

“The reports are here. Kindly merge the two and send them by tomorrow. Thank You. Sorry for late reply.

EVA ANDERSON”……..