“Tell me about the
global government that you lived under,” said young Timothy. “I
mean the United States of Earth.”
“I remember it all very
clearly,” said Andrew, Timothy's father. “The story of how that
government tried to keep control over everyone is quite a tale.”
“The world was sick of
all the wars, so it seemed like a great idea to form a global
government,” explained Andrew. “So all the governments united
into a single global government called the United States of Earth.
But I think the people in charge of the government started worrying
right away that there would be lots of rebellions, and that the
global government would lose its power. So they started becoming
control freaks right off the bat.”
“In what way?” asked
Timothy.
“It all started with the
daily check-ins,” explained Andrew. “Everyone had to log-in to a
government web site three times a day. You did that on computers
that were linked to GPS systems, so the government could tell where
you were three times a day. When you logged in you might be asked
random questions about your day's activities or who you met. And you
might be asked a question about how much you liked the government.
The answers were all fed into some giant government database and
analytic network, which crunched the data, and churned out lists of
suspicious citizens.”
“But it must have been
easy to fake it just by saying you loved the government, even if you
hated it,” suggested Timothy.
“Well, they initially
had software which could help distinguish phony answers when people
were asked if they liked the government,” said Andrew. “Then it
got more sophisticated. The government made everyone open a web-cam
session to reply to questions about their feelings about the
government. So now you had to stare at a camera on your computer, and
say how much you loved the government, even if you hated it.”
“Couldn't people just
play act?” asked Timothy.
“They could,” said
Andrew, “but the government started using software that could help
detect when people were lying. The
software would do things like detect a fake smile by checking how
much your eye corners crinkled up. Then eventually the government
issued everyone a device you had to wrap around your wrist while you
were conducting your daily check-ins to the government web site. The
device was actually a tiny lie detector that checked your pulse and
skin resistance. So now
if you hated the government but said you loved it during your web
check-in, the government would pretty much know that you were lying.”
“So what would they do
to you if you got put on the list of suspicious citizens?” asked
Timothy. “Would they send you to some concentration camp?”
“No, they just took you
out by using the food system,” answered Andrew. “One of their
great methods of control were the communal food halls. Everyone would
have to periodically come to some hall for a meal, and listen to
government propaganda. You would have to slide your
government-issued ID card over a scanner to register that you had
attended. You would then get a meal manufactured layer by layer
through one of those big 3D printers they use nowadays for making
food. Now suppose the computer had picked you out as one of the
suspicious citizens, a potential rebel. The 3D printers would
automatically slip a little something in your food, designed to
remove you as a threat to the government. Then maybe you'd die of
cancer before long, or drop dead of a heart attack, or something like
that. No one could prove that the government was involved.”
“My God, they sure had
everyone under their boot,” said Timothy. “How did it all fall
apart?”
“They got tripped up by
the headbands,” said Andrew.
“The headbands?” asked
Timothy.
“Some genius in the
government decided that the perfect way to control everyone would be
to require all citizens to wear electronic headbands,” explained
Andrew. “Each headband had a tiny battery you could recharge in ten
minutes using the electrical system. Now the headbands served
multiple purposes. For one thing, they would record everything you
saw, on a tiny memory unit. So if the government suspected you of
doing anything wrong, they would just process the video in your
headband to see what you'd been up to. But the main purpose of the
headbands was to deliver electrical impulses to the pleasure and pain
system of your brain.”
“How did that work?”
asked Timothy.
“The headbands received
radio signals from the government,” explained Andrew. “So if
there was, say, an angry mob, the government could just broadcast a
radio signal, and everyone near the mob would feel an excruciating pain.
Each such person's headband would send an electrical signal to the
pain center of the brain, which would make the person feel like his
whole body was on fire.”
“But the headbands were
also built to give you pleasure,” continued Andrew. “The
headbands could send electrical impulses to the pleasure center of
your brain, that would give you a good feeling that was better than
sex. Now the government figured: we can issue these pleasure signals
while people are watching the President of the United States of Earth giving his big
speeches. Then the headbands will make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy about
the government's head honcho. Some genius had concluded that this was
a surefire way to get lots of people to kind of fall in love with the
President.”
“So what went wrong?”
asked Timothy.
“One year the government
announced that the President of the United States of Earth would give
his greatest speech ever,” said Andrew. “People were told they
had to watch on television while wearing their electronic headbands.
The plan was that when the speech reached its climax, every headband
would issue a jolt of electricity that would hit the pleasure center of the brain, giving an
orgasmic surge of pleasure. The government thought the speech would then be
accepted, embraced, and saluted like no speech in history. But they
made one big mistake. In their enthusiasm for this plan, they neglected
to test things properly. The government radio signal sent out to
people's headbands requested too much of an electrical impulse. As a
result, huge numbers of people around the globe ended up dying of electrocution at the
very moment they were supposed to feel a jolt of pleasure.”
“How many died?” asked
Timothy.
“About 500 million
worldwide,” answered Andrew, “all at the same moment. After that,
all confidence in the government was shattered. When word got around
that the government had accidentally fried 500 million of its
citizens, the rebellions sprang up all over the world. It didn't take
long for the whole thing to fall apart. Planet Earth went back to
having a hundred different countries, instead of one world
government.”
“And that,” finished
Andrew, “was the end of the United States of Earth.”
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