A Goode Life

Chapter 3

Through the darkness, there was a light that shone. It was a tiny speck, a single pixel in the near absolute blackness. It was indiscernible whether the light was getting closer or we were moving towards it. Regardless, we are now in a place that's lighter rather than darker. The view showed blue hues of the sky as if the view was coming out of a vertical hole in the ground. Outside the hole now, there was a sea of green in the north, a rocky shore to the west, and fields of wheat to the south. The East was towards home. But he was not yet ready to come home to face the truth. The blades of grass danced to the whooshing of the cool winds. There was nothing to face here except nature's forms. The beauty of nature was a sight to behold but didn't last long. Soon the view transitioned away from a green gable to an urban cityscape. There were spires of heights that rivalled those that once covered New York City's skyline. A sight to behold; man's defiance of the infinite. Lands transformed for the purpose of human thriving; this was a city. Seeing the cityscape through Brad's subconscious was expected; it was what he was learning about prior to the accident. Now there was a falling star which Brad participatively wished on. He sought to see Lucy again. And he does. There she was in the familiar streets that connected his house to the school. But that picture would soon fade and turn into a gallery of the family's misfortune. Then fade to black.

Brad's dreams revolved around a couple of things: Lucy and his family. From the dreams that manifested, it was clear that he was attracted to Lucy. Every dream would transition into a scene where he would look longingly at Lucy. It energized those who believed in young love. Those who were watching bet on there being another kiss between the two, though just as many had bet against the occurrence due to his upbringing. The serious academics who were learning from his coma constantly monitored the dream machine and his brain scans hoping to see patterns and regularities. Bright and young, his brain scans show a healthy brain.

The inter-cognitive developers, the IDs, have made up their minds. In his college years he would belong to a company that made their money as a search engine, the next four years he would be with a product shipping company, and he would at last return to the CNS after the next four years.

The IDs were government like institutions that ran like the CNS did. Except they weren't officially governments. They were spheres of influence that provided services and protection much like the CNS. One difference is that they did not live in the safety of completely monitored public spaces.

The CNS had cameras in all public spaces to make sure that no crime happened. The cameras would not be viewed by people but constantly monitored by V.I.—virtual intelligence. They made sure that no crimes like theft or any violence occurred in public spaces. It's a police state. Yet most people who lived in the CNS took pride in the practically zero crime rate.

Brad was of regular interest even before the incident. His view, his literal point of view, showed the potential of what CNS and other societies could become. People like him who were hardworking and selfless would come to produce people that were just like them. Within a few generations, there would be people who knew nothing of crime and punishment as there would be no occurrence of it in their lifetimes, at least in the CNS.

Troubled individuals would soon be removed from the premises and their hope is that those that remain have healthy like-minded offspring. With full control of their nature as well as their nurture, it would be unlikely to have unwelcome variants in the population. The purpose of the experiment is population maintenance. The primary hope of the experiment is the possibility of criminality to be bred and conditioned out of the population, to have acute suffering minimized, and to have a well-knitted social fabric.

The CNS government had begun its training of the next batch of personnel that would be exposed to higher-level CNS directives, the role of government in the control of population characteristics.