I was chosen to explore the future although cryogenic sleep was in its infancy, we were certain of the knowledge we possessed. My mission was simple; to see if a man living in the 20th century could adapt to the 21st century. All I remembered was a cold stream and faces watching me from outside my pod.

I woke up early 80 years in the future, amidst a world that exceeded my expectations. Stepping out my pod, I wandered up the streets. I felt like Rip Van Winkle so, to
educate myself I searched for any piece of paper that contained possible information about that era.

“Techsergic acid neology amide or better known as T.S.D. has now addicted 99% of the world’s population,” I read from a salvaged newspaper I found. I was in awe of this society; my eyes were wide open with surprise.

The dress code was disgraceful and degrading; women wore almost next to nothing that left most of their bodies exposed. I noticed, however, that at various intervals they all carried a device which took a photo of them that was followed by a flash. Deep in thought, I was, as my memory gradually returned.

Ah! I remembered that we had used such a device in our laboratory to experiment on people; the flash reduced a person’s intellect. Realising what that device did I wondered why it was so readily available for people. I now was seeking a library to further understand this century.

“Excuse me,” I said to a young girl, who had been so engrossed in that device of hers that she hardly took much notice of me. “I was wondering, could you please tell me of where the library is?” I asked her as I noticed she was now showing signs of irritation towards me for disturbing her. I then noticed that she wasn’t the only person carrying that device around, everyone else had one too.

“The library?” she asked with a baffled expression. As I looked her, I noticed that she looked like a plastic figurine. Her nose, lips, forehead as matter of fact, her entire face seemed composed of an artificial plastic like material.

“Yes a place that houses books,” I tried to give more descriptions of what a library is.

“A book?’ she responded with a much more confused expression. The ability for people to hold conversations was a span of roughly 15 seconds. All the while she seemed ever eager to go back to using that hand-held device of hers. I saw this as a hopeless endeavour and ventured forward myself to seek a library.

Finally, I was able to locate a library much to my despair it was not what I was hoping to find. All books were burned or moth-eaten and clearly, unusable. I tried to find any shop that sold books, but unfortunately there were none. All that seemed to be in print was a newspaper.

I came to the decision that I needed to acquire one of those hand-held devices. I stole one from someone who seemed to be preoccupied with their food. I then found a secluded area and began to disassemble it in order to discover and analyse the contents of its composition.

A cell-phone is what it was called. I was horrified to discover that it was another factor that comprised experiments we did all those years ago. Radio waves was one of the components with which the cellphone was composed with; an invisible drug also found in television sets that makes people sit pleasurable for long hours in front of a television screen. This experiment worked flawlessly much like the flashing device it also decreased the intellect of people.

I came to the realisation that while we created the age of technology, it may be the cause for the 21st century being the age of intellectual decline. I finally decided to now visit my previous employer. To my horror, I saw several of my company logos in various buildings as I walked. Each building sold a different technological device. The television which was greatly improved seemed to be very popular; everyone owned one.

Other devices exist which I’ll refrain from describing for the realisation of this society, seems I alone can see the conspiracy shrouding it. This deliberate disregard of society was by no means coincidental; this phenomenon was planned decades ago.

***

Tell us what you think: Are we really so absorbed in our technological devices as described in this story?