Trembling With Fear 04/10/2022

Programmed by Katherine Kerestman

“Oh, do you think it will hurt the poor baby?”   

“Not at all. They’ll use anesthesia.”

“But cutting into the skull and everything . . .”

“Think of the freedom from wearing straps about one’s head. Reality will be implanted in the individual now, rendering external apparatus obsolete.”

“Yes, dear. Our child will not need to wear a monitor before his face any more, as we have done. He’ll have reality in his brain.”

“Well, he’ll be a lucky one. Yet, what would we have done if we’d had to look at the world without the benefit of a monitor before our faces. What if we’d had to make sense of everything by ourselves – there would be chaos!”

“Enola, just get down on your knees and give thanks for the Internet. I remember how it all began – first, clunky labor-saving computing machines, and then smaller ones, used primarily for typing better, and then when they came up with games! Oh ho! and then social media! That’s when people saw the light!”

“Yes, George, there was no putting them down – especially when they were small enough to be carried in people’s hands – people no longer were forced to look at the physical world – or other people, for that matter. They walked around holding their phones in front of them, looking at the world in the pictures they carried instead of looking around them.”

“Glory be, Enola! People had found the Truth – Big Brother spoke to them always, from the palms of their hands. Big Brother told them what was true and what was false. What the weather would be the next five days, and what was going on in China and in Chile and the Kardashian household. People could stop reading books and newspapers. They could stop asking their neighbors and teachers to explain things to them – Big Brother speaking to them from the palms of their hands was all they needed.”

“George, don’t forget the shopping and the games! People soon became addicted. They could not put their phones down, and every move they made was directed by the Truths told them by Big Brother.”

“People stopped reading books, chapters, pages – and they telegraphed their thoughts in Twitter feeds – so their thoughts grew smaller, and they didn’t need very many of them at all anymore. The eradication of individual thought is one of the greatest benefits of the Internet. A lot of people preferred sex on their phones to physical relations with other people — and talking to heads of people in their palms to talking with full-grown people in their bodies. People stopped needing people at all after a time, when they perfected virtual reality.”

“Everything they needed was delivered – they didn’t need to leave their homes, which was good, because they kept tripping when they walked with their phones in front of their eyes. This has been a problem with the monitors affixed in front of our faces even now, strapped around our heads. The collision warning systems have not been quite adequate to prevent people from missing their steps and falling in front of traffic or running into each other on occasion.”

“The next generation will be fortunate to have Reality implanted in their brains, Enola – they will have a clear visual field, and Big Brother in their brains will tell them what they see and what it means. No one will ever have to figure anything out again, decide for themselves what is right and wrong and what to do after work, or how many kids to have. Big Brother will tell them about Reality, and they won’t ever have to see and hear and learn things for themselves. And they won’t even have to walk around with a monitor before their eyes – aren’t they the lucky ones?”

“Oh, George, it will be a brave new world indeed – Truth and Reality no longer debated, everyone receiving the same digital Revelation. No more arguments, wars, or literary criticism – everyone will be programmed with the same ideas. No more competitions, original ideas challenging old beliefs – there is only one Truth, and everyone will know it.”

“Enola, I wonder what we will do or think or feel next?”

“George, we’ve recharged our circuits and our thoughts should have been downloaded by now. I’m feeling affectionate – please bump your face monitor against mine. That was nice.”

“I wonder how people managed before computers told them what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and with whom to do it?”

“Ditto. And what to think and feel – how do you think they ever figured out what to think and feel on their own?”

“Enola, let’s not go there. We know we have the truth about Reality now. Let’s play Catch the Peppermints.”

“And then, let’s buy that voice-activated computer that turns things on and off, so we don’t have to push buttons and flip switches any more. They’re the latest thing.”