Technology-Free Utopia of the Future and a Grumpy Old Man
I talk to my grand-grandpa about the good old days when they had technology, then things turn ugly.
Summary:
When an unexpected solar flair irreversibly destroyed all electronics on the planet, a new natural socialist utopia was born. I talk with my grandpa about what life before the blackout was like. We compare notes, drink bitter tea, and then my life is changed forever.
My great-grandfather is a very peculiar old man. Somewhat of a local legend around here. He passionately collects remnants of a bygone era like they were some sort of holly artifacts. Perhaps to him, they are. At his respectable age of one hundred and three, he’s one of the last people who have lived in the times before the blackout. Times we know as the “Dark Ages of Technology.”
I love talking to him about his life before the surprise solar flair. The one that permanently knocked out all electronics and released humanity from the vicious grip of technology. It is said that people lived in a symbiosis with machines.
Interconnected, reliant, and obsessed, they forgot how to be free and connect with Mother Nature. We thank the Sun God for freeing us from the tyranny of technology and embracing us back into its loving arms.
I can’t even imagine how horrible life must have been when technology ruled people’s lives. To be addicted to some inanimate object. It’s incomprehensible. To consume content forced upon you by large boxes with moving pictures. To have a spy right in your pocket, tracking your every move. It was blasphemy. Horror! People flew with the birds above the clouds in steel cages, rode mechanical horses, and enslaved machines to do their chores. They were a primitive people who cared nothing for nature and almost destroyed our planet. Perhaps the Sun’s intervention was nature's wrath unleashed upon humanity.
I’m so happy I was born in an era of Natural Reawakening. We live in symbiosis not with machines but with nature itself. Grandpa says it’s all bullshit propaganda, pardon my language. I don’t know if he’s senile or if he actually believed in the evil of technology. He never adapted to the new ways of living. Didn’t even try. Stuck in his old ways, he mocks us every day. “Hippie tree huggers,” he calls us. I think it’s kind of cute in a derogatory way. But I know he loves me, so I’m not mad.
Still, I love the grumpy old fool. Today we’re having tea. I picked up his favorite. Black and bitter, like his soul. Huh, I’m feeling perky today, aren’t I? It should loosen up his tongue a little. I’m hoping for some stories of his life before our utopia. We live in peace and harmony, but there’s not much going on. His tales of these vile, unnatural mechanical contraptions and their influence on humanity fascinate me. Of course, he doesn’t see our society as a utopia but a meaningless insistence on ascetic suffering—his words, not mine.
“Hey, Grandpa! How are we today?” I greet the old man.
I call him Grandpa because grand-grandpa is too long and he doesn’t like it. He says he knows he’s old. There's no need to remind him of it every day. His body does it well enough. Still, he’s doing okay for his respectable age. I have to admit. Most of his friends, most of his world, in fact, have long gone beneath the dirt. Grandpa is like a statue commemorating the old ways of living and thinking. Ways that are best kept in the past. A wrinkled reminder of humanities troubles history. We must constantly be on the watch for the temptation to use technology and reawaken the sleeping demon of electricity. It is our society’s number one rule—no technology of any kind!
“My favorite granddaughter! You haven’t forgotten the old men yet, have you?” he answers in his typical manner.
“Never, Grandpa! I’ve got a surprise for you today.”
“Is that so? Well, come on it, then.”
We sit on the living room's soft, old, smelly recliners. Just relaxing there takes me on a journey into the past. He has this huge old box as a centerpiece. It doesn’t work, of course. Nothing electric does. But he says it reminds him of his favorite pastime. He calls it a “tee-vee”, whatever that means. Sometimes, he just stares at the darn thing and gets lost, remembering old moving pictures people watched in those boxes. What’s so fun about that, I do not know. Grandpa says it was what people did most of the time back then. So weird.
“Is it true that you declined an interview with the representatives of the Social Utopia party?” I ask him.
“Those numbnuts? Why the hell would I want to talk to these idiots?” he asks.
“They just wanted to talk to you about how different life was before the blackout,” I explain. “What’s the harm in that?”
“I have nothing to say to these brainwashed numbnuts! Sun worshipers. Tree huggers. They believe that this so-called natural socialistic utopia is somehow better. All they want from me is to confirm it for their followers. They want proof that the last resistance has fallen. All so they could suppress any desire for technology and maintain their status quo. Never! I would rather die than give them that pleasure. Self-righteous bastards!”
“And what is wrong with that?” I ask innocently, unknowingly walking into a trap.
“That it’s all a lie! Everything you lovely children have been taught is a lie. These religious nuts are keeping you trapped in a life of struggle and manual work. And for what? Not to piss off their favorite Sun God? Give me a break! I have no interest in talking to them about anything. I don’t enjoy talking to a wall without a brain.”
“Oh dear. Aren’t you being a little bit cruel and unfair, Grandpa?”
He leans closer, looks me dead in the eyes, and says, “They’re the ones being cruel to you, darling. You just don’t realize it. So, so cruel. It breaks my heart to see you live like this. Breaks my heart!”
“I think you’re overreacting. What’s wrong with our lives? We are happy, connected with nature, and free from the tyranny of technology.”
“I love you, kiddo, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. Like I said, they brainwashed you into believing nonsense. It’s not your fault. These aren’t your words. It’s all you know. Praying to the Sun God, socialism, talk of utopia that is anything but, and all the rest of this crap.”
“I don’t understand you, Grandpa. Why do you hate our way of life so much?” I ask.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” he replies. I sense he’s in a talkative mood today, so I press forward. I just love his crazy stories, even if his mouth could use some soaping.
“Start at the beginning. I want to know everything.”
“What beginning? Birth?”
“Sure, why not? I’ve got all the time in the world, and you know how much I love listening to you.”
“Aaah. You’ll make an old man blush, dear one.”
“I love you, Grandpa, you know this. Now spill it out. Tell me everything!”
“Alright, kiddo. Just don’t talk about these things with the Utopian crazies. You know what they do to people who like technology, right?”
“I know. You and I may disagree, but it’s for the greater good. They have to stop the madness, the mental disease from spreading, so they…”
“Reeducate, torture, and murder people who want to develop technology, dear. They look nice, dress in white, and smile, but they are not the good guys! Do not let their looks deceive you. Or their sweet words. They’re the evil ones. They’re the oppressors. They’re keeping you in this dark age, not technology. Keep these things to yourself, you hear me? It’s a dangerous time, this so-called socialistic natural utopia of yours. Very dangerous.”
“Alright, alright, I will. I promise. Don’t worry about me. I can keep a secret,” I reassure him.
Grandpa is what you would call a conspiracy theorist. He sees danger everywhere. Plots, manipulators, brainwashing and propaganda. He claims our benevolent leaders are suppressing technology. They don’t allow electricity and development to be developed. Not that it can’t be, but that it’s not allowed to be. I don’t know if that’s true, but even if it is, it’s for the best. We all know technology is evil, and we don’t want that evil to reemerge and spread in our society. I can’t even imagine the horrors that would follow. Our books are full of terrible stories from that time, nightmare-inducing tales of technology ruling over humanity.
“So what do you want to know?” he asks me.
“Everything! But let’s start at birth. What was giving birth like in your time?”
“Easy, safe, clean. Almost no babies were lost, even if they were born months too early. We had things called incubators to keep them alive. We had medicine and doctors.”
“Like our healers, right?”
“No, not like these spiritual bozos with their plants and prayers. Real doctors! Men and women of science. They could fix anything. Well, almost.”
“You really believe they were better than our healers?”
“I don’t believe shit, kiddo - I know they were!”
“Weren’t people like connected to machines and sometimes poisoned by them in these hospitals?”
“Nothing is perfect. These so-called evil machines have saved millions of lives every year. Lives that now end because you lovely benevolent Utopians prevent us from rediscovering technology. Fucking socialistic hippies!”
“Now, now. Let’s keep it down, Grandpa.”
“Well, it’s true!”
“I just remembered something. I read about machines that bleed you dry and then give you new blood. That sounds so horrible. They suck the blood out of our veins. Gross! Is that true? Did you really use such evil contraptions?”
“Dialyses machines? They didn’t suck your blood. They just cleaned your old one using science.”
“Why did they do this? Isn’t it wrong to take someone’s blood?”
“Not if your kidneys stopped working, it’s not. It’s the only thing keeping you alive.”
“So they were some kind of external kidneys?”
“Sure. Something like that, yeah. You’re a smart kid.”
“You were playing God. Turning machines into organs. Insane! Tell me more!”
“About? I’m an old man. You’ll have to remind me of what we were talking about.”
“Tell me about, am, the Evil Network!”
“Jesus Christ, Kiddo! Again, with that word. It was called the Internet, and it wasn’t evil. Annoying, maybe, but not evil. My God, you kids are brainwashed. What do you want to know?”
“How did it influence your lives? What did you use it for? Why was it the greatest evi.., am, so important? Okay, I heard myself this time.”
“Well, at least there’s that. The Internet allowed us all to connect with each other all over the world in real time. We could talk, hear, and see each other no matter where we were. We had all the knowledge of the world in the palm of our hands. Literally. You could ask anything you wanted to know, and it would tell you the answers. It was an amazing thing.”
“That sounds impossible, Grandpa. Stop playing with me. You’re making stuff up.”
“In your Utopia, it is impossible. And so is almost anything else, for that matter! Things that were effortless and normal in my time are impossible and unfathomable to you kids today. Your world has shrunk so much. You have no idea. Utopia, my ass!”
“Like what? What else was possible?”
“We drove cars and could drive hundreds of kilometers in mere hours. I often drove more than one thousand kilometers in one day. Can you even imagine how long that would take using a horse?”
“Too long. It would take weeks.”
“I know. And that was considered slow in my time. We flew planes and could travel from one side of the planet to another in the span of hours. We traveled all over the globe. Just to have a drink or go on vacation. Everything was close and easy. This whole backward thinking you’ve got going on is collective insanity.”
“Maybe, but you were wasting a lot of energy and killing the planet. You forget to mention that, Grandpa. Besides, we already live in a paradise. Why would we ever want to go anywhere else? It seems crazy to want to go to the other side of the world, just for holidays. I mean, what’s the point?”
“I fear for you, child. I hear their propaganda, word for word, coming out of your mouth. If we were killing the planet, you would be swimming in the ocean right now. Nothing has changed. Not with technology, and not once it all went to hell! Half a degree in temperature, up or down. We’re still here. Only now, we do everything by hand, while back then, robots did it for us.”
“Samantha, my friend, said you used machines to wash your clothes. Is that true?”
“Clothes, dishes, cars, everything. We had machines for everything. You have no idea how much easier life was back then. You can’t even imagine. Everything takes so long nowadays. Especially when you’re old. Even the simplest of tasks. It’s bonkers. And you all are proud of it. I can’t even…”
“Maybe, but weren’t you like really unhappy back then? I read that there was a lot of depression and suicides.”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t. No more than I am now, anyway.”
“I read that you didn’t spend much time together, face to face. It was all through these devices, called smart something.”
“Smartphones, yes. Sure, we talked to each other using phones, but that didn’t mean we didn’t hang, as you kids call it.”
“Nobody calls it that, Grandpa.”
“Whatever. We lived good lives. Technology wasn’t some evil oppressor, as you’ve been taught to believe. It was there to help us in our everyday lives. It made life easier, better, not worse.”
“Why did you stop having babies then? If everything was so great?”
“That’s a more complicated topic, kiddo. Besides, I had your grandparents, didn’t I?”
“Yes, yes. You did, but I read that most countries were below 2.1 children per family, and we all know of the Great Societal Downfall that followed. Can you tell me more about that? What happened?”
“People happened. That’s what! In those days, it was about the future. Everybody was trying to scare everyone else. Fear sells, they said. News, media, television, and the internet were all full of bad news. They were making money harvesting people’s emotions. We were bombarded with bad news and predictions, and one doesn’t have babies when they think the world is ending. The Woke culture didn’t help, either.”
“Weren’t those the, am, what did they call it?”
“Fucking idiots?”
“Grandpa! Be nice for a minute, will you?”
“I’m sorry. You weren’t there. You didn’t witness that particular madness in the flesh. You wouldn’t believe the shit that was normalized in that era. No one would.”
“I do read, you know. I know all about the Woke movement takeover and the sexual deviancy…”
“You know nothing, child! It was madness, pure, collective madness. The family was almost a curse word back then. God forbid you wanted a normal life. They wouldn’t like you guys all that much. People thought… ah, never mind.”
“People thought what? Tell me!”
“Men believed they were women and cut off their penises. Women thought they were men and cut off their breasts, children were being castrated, and…”
“Okay, enough. That’s gross, Granddad! Why would you tell me these things?”
“You asked! I didn’t want to. Did I ever tell you about the idiots who thought they were dogs? Or the alien wannabes? Those were the pinnacle of that particular movement. First, it was modern to be gay, then trans, then fluid, and we ate it all up. We were coming out of a weird time in history and were working on being more tolerant. Turns out one can be too tolerant.
It went downhill fast after the vice president declared he was now an alien and turned himself into a reptile. Wow, was that a freak show! Let me tell you! I remember watching that and thinking that we don’t deserve to survive as a species. I knew this guy who believed he was a Martian placed in the body of a human, right, so…”
“Stop it, Grandpa. I don’t want to listen to this anymore.”
“What? Too much reality for you?”
“I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to scare me. You’re being cruel and insensitive, Grandpa!”
“I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re too young to hear all that. You, youngsters, live in such a bubble. Perhaps it’s for the best. I don’t know. I’ll tell you about the third thing that caused people to stop having babies.”
“Please do. But no more body mutilation and sex stories, please.”
“I promise. I got a bit carried away there. I’m old and grumpy. Stuck in my ways. You know me.”
“Of course. It’s okay. What was the third thing?”
“Ah yes, the third reason people stopped having babies was the Green Movement. Your ideological forefathers, as it were.”
“What do you mean? Weren’t they the good guys?”
“You’re thinking binary, kid. Nothing is ever black and white, as this day will show us later.”
“What?”
“Anyway. The Green Movement presented themselves as the saviors of the planet, but when a group believes that humanity, as a whole, is the enemy, those aren’t the good guys, darling. It took a generation for the real face of the movement to become obvious to all.
It started innocent enough. Calls for renewable energy, less travel, and spending. All well and good, if a bit silly. But in time, it escalated to pressure and propaganda against having children. When that didn’t seem enough, people were encouraged to commit suicide to cause less pollution and breathe out less carbon dioxide. Cause, you know, carbon, the basis of all life is now poison? Ah…
We had a whole list of assisted death suicide procedures. Whole options in the catalog. You only needed to ask and were gladly escorted to the afterlife.”
I gasp, “Blasphemy! That is horrible. Evil! You did not!”
“Finally, we agree on something. We have found a good use for your favorite word. You’d think that was the pinnacle, wouldn’t you?”
“There was more?”
“Oh, yes. A lot more! People were paid money to abort kids. It was a whole thing. Government subsidized, even. They weren’t even born yet, the poor babies, and already fell victim to the Green Movement. Everything to reduce the carbon. That carbon was us, darling! Limitations on movement, spending, and transportation. We were locked in small circles, not unlike the ones you live in, but you chose to. We were forced!
Then, the terrorist attacks began.
No matter how good their intentions initially, every ideological movement grows into a monster in the end. It’s just the nature of the beast. The Green Movement was no different. It wasn’t enough that we went all electrical, stopped having kids and that the leading cause of death was suicide. Oh no. They had to save the planet, no matter the cost!
Millions of innocent people were murdered in cold blood in the following years. Perhaps even billions. That is why this era is now called the Second Dark Ages, not because of technology! It was murder, not smartphones! People, not machines!”
“I don’t want to hear any more of this, Grandpa. You’re scaring me. Please stop.”
“You think that is scary, huh? And you see no connection to your friends on the other side of the door?”
“What are you talking about? I have no idea…”
“I have been telling you all these things to help you realize the truth. To open your eyes. To see the evil that is hiding in plain sight. I see, I have failed. You’re too far gone.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I know you don’t. You’re just a brainwashed little tree-huger. Doing the bidding of your youth Social-Utopian party or whatever the hell you call yourselves these days. Your movement also started with a great idea, just like the Woke and the Green movements, and the Communism and Socialism of the twentieth century.
When the power went out, people organized to help keep society alive. They were helpful at first. Even their silly religion, the whole “Sun, the savior of humanity” thing, was useful. It gave people meaning and purpose. Something to believe in. Something to unite them. Something to stop them from killing each other.
Most of us knew it was bullshit, but the young ones really took to it. They stopped pillaging everything and began forming communities. Life started slowing down again. There was hope after the darkness of those first few years.
We allowed the idea, the movement, to spread, hoping it would help us through the hard times until we figured things out. We were wrong! We were so wrong. We unwillingly created a monster.
Benevolent intentions have caused more harm throughout history than anything else, dear one. We should have known better. We should have stopped this monstrosity before it got too big. We have failed you, dear one. My heart breaks when I see you succumbing to their brainwashing. Praying to the Sun, doing your silly little rituals. Burning the books and murdering anyone who wants to bring humanity back on track with technology.”
“I don’t…”
“I may be old, kiddo, but I’m not blind! I know your Social-Utopian friends are hiding right outside my house. I know you set me up. I know that I will die today.”
“Grandpa! I didn’t…”
“It’s okay. Wipe those tears from your face. I don’t hate you for it. I have nothing but love for you, my darling girl. It was us who have failed you. We allowed that Utopian crap of a political religion to spread like a virus through the young. We thought a little religion would do you good. Unite you. Give you purpose. Help you make sense of the devastation you were born into. We screwed up. This is all our fault.
I forgive you! I love you. You hear me? No matter what happens now, I just wanted you to know this.”
We could both hear people trying to break into his home now. He locked the doors and barricaded them. I hadn’t even noticed at the time. He knew what was coming. He knew of my betrayal. And yet, he was kind to me. He loved me, even though I sentenced him to death.
He hugged me, and I burst into tears! It had just hit me what I had done. What they will do to him. My granddad. I believed I was doing the right thing. That I was helping. I still do. Sort of. Only I’m not sure anymore.
“It’s okay,” he comforted me after I betrayed him. He whispered, “Perhaps this will help open your eyes to the evil about to walk through that door. I forgot to mention one thing.”
“What is it,” I asked, sobbing, my heart broken into a thousand pieces.
“There was a theory that it wasn’t the Sun that caused that blackout. It wasn’t the flair that ended civilization and killed billions.”
“What then?” I asked.
“Why don’t you ask your friends,” he said, and then men broke through his door and pushed me away. They hit him on the head and put a bag over it. I was held down as they dragged his unconscious body out the door. I never heard from him again. I don’t know what happened. Well, I guess I do. He was a danger to society. A cancer that needed to be cut out. A virus that needed to be isolated so he wouldn’t infect others with his thoughts. I believed that. With all my heart I did!
My superiors interrogated me, and then I was promoted. Twice! I became a young leader of the Socialist Utopian Party. People cheered me on for my bravery and loyalty to the cause. I should be happy. I have achieved my dreams. This is what I wanted. But at what cost?
I stared at the moon as I sat at home, alone at night. It has been watching us for millions of years. What must it think of us? The moon is the only one that knows the truth. It remains silent as we hurt each other over different ideas, as we always have.
What have I done? What have I done? Seeing how they treated him and now me, I wonder. Was the old man right? Is everything a lie? Are we the good guys?
What did he mean when he said to ask them about the blackout? What other theories were out there? What could have caused that catastrophe, if not for the Sun?
I had no answers, only conflicting thoughts and emotions. Strange emotions. Something changed that day. I betrayed a person I loved for an ideal. Everyone cheered as I condemned my Grandpa to death. And for what? For having opinions and reminiscing about old times?
Why did they have to empty his house? There was nothing left? What could possibly be so important? There has to be more to this story. Missing tee-vee and talking about the good old days can’t be reason enough for murder. Neither can be collecting useless relics that don’t even work. What am I missing?
I looked at the moon and felt a sense of timelessness, a connection to my grandpa wherever the spirits have taken him now. Grandpa, I couldn’t even bury, as he just disappeared.
“I’m sorry, grandpa! I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I know you forgave me, but I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself. I can’t change the past. I can’t undo what I’ve done, but I can honor your memory.
I will find out what you meant with those last words. I will get to the bottom of it for you. And if you were right… if what I think you meant to say is true… then I will burn it all to the ground in your name!”
THE END
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Hey you - yes you!
Could we have a utopia without technology or is advanced technology the very thing that could one day enable us to prosper beyond our wildest dreams? What do you think? Technology good, or technology bad?
Eerieeeeee. Well now I'm curious. Do you relate more to the grandpa or the child?