At the heart of this world's technology is the Unus Mundus Network that connects all of mankind throughout the entire star cluster, enabling faster than light travel and communication. The kind of technology that can make our dreams come true can unfortunately bring to life our worst nightmares with the same precision.
Death and despair are still very much a part of this future, as is the struggle for power and control over others. Yet there is no escape or rest, even for the dead, now that man has begun to manipulate consciousness itself, finding ways to more or less enslave the souls of the dead through technology.
Organ donors are revived as corporate cyborgs. Artificial humans known as 'Realians' are infused with enough consciousness to provide labor and fight wars for their creators. Violent criminals are rehabilitated by rewriting their consciousness to 'repair' their flaws.
Eternity is often thought of as a blissful dream or tortuous nightmare, repeated endlessly. I believe this concept of eternity can break us and transform us into beings who cannot believe in a new beginning, because we cannot conceive of the end. Within this mindset, the future lies in the past and we consciously or unconsciously imprison ourselves indefinitely, repeating the same mistakes over and over.
We are so fearful of the unknown that we cannot embrace our future, opting instead to remain in our eternal prison of reassurance. The stagnant light blinds us to the wonders of the darkness. Yet, the clockwork machinery of our fabricated reality is as fragile and broken as the minds that have created it. In the midst of this inevitable destruction, some may choose to be assimilated once again into the mangled machine of eternal recurrence.
For others, the illusion subsides just long enough for us to escape eternity and find our way to tomorrow.
