Greater World

As a child, we're told that we can change the world.  And we can, we will.  But in ways that are not quite imaginable at the time.  To say that the consequences can be unintended is a bit of an understatement.  And yet, change is the only constant.

Jason was fairly unique among his circle of friends.  He was pre-EOD*.  He was born before it was pretty much a certitude that your life would extend at least a millennium and possibly longer.  He was of the last generation where having babies was done almost as an unconscious afterthought of the moderately intelligent.  Sure, there were some who thought long and hard about the world before deciding to bring their own derivative version of themselves onto the planet.  But for most, it was a relatively pure reaction to the biological urges.  Urges that fit well into a modest bit of pleasure associated with the process.  No longer.  Licenses were required, and justifiably so.

"I'll raise you 20," said Adam, with a sparkle in his eye that his friends found to be an endearing tell.  Playing poker with the same six buddies for 45 years has its advantages in forming amazing friendships and sense of community.  But it was hard to bet.  Very hard.  Even for their best, but most erratic, player (Jason).

Jason for all of his time spent on this planet - over 800 years - found it hard to adjust to the new reality.    Some of this was just good - he was continually amazed at the progress, the inventiveness of his fellow man.  There wasn't a day that went by that he was thankful that poverty afflicted relatively few and that even once unproductive continents were now almost equal contributors to the global technology stage.  Humanity was richer than at any point in the past and despite their impressive numbers, reasonably well at harmony with their environments.

"Fold," said Jason, "I know what happens next if I don't.  Oh well, its much easier to lose when I like the person I'm losing too."  But Jason hated to lose.  Though he thought he was exceptional at hiding that fact, his buddies knew.

Those who fretted that the world could only support 8 or 10 or 15 billion people turned out to be wrong.  Not just modestly so, but wildly so.  Jason was one of them and considers it one of the better stories to tell new acquaintances.  In the year 2942, there were almost exactly 50 billion on the planet.  Just has there had been for the last 250 years.  Population stability at this point was assured through a series of global treaties and attitudes of societies in all of the four corners of the planet.  That didn't mean that everybody agreed.

Sure there were pockets of resistance.  Those who believed more strongly in tradition or God or whatever.  They were the fringe and they quite frankly, didn't matter.  They were small societies sponging off of the technology and wealth of the Greater World.  And the Greater World accounted for their numbers to ensure that the overall global balance was maintained.

That is what it was called.  Greater World.  2500 was widely recognized as the end of the distinction between first and third world and people were looking for something non-pejorative to use that also would pay homage to the peace and prosperity that had been achieved over the last several hundred years.  It was a great time to be alive.  And if you were alive, you were likely going to be alive for a long, long time.

* End of Death

Thought Life

They say that ideas matter.  Ideas influence behavior.  Ideas have an impact.  It was something that people said to him, but he never really understood.

He was a bright kid growing up.  Advanced math, AP classes, reasonably good SAT scores and a good college.  But his thought life was pretty modest.  He worked hard in school.  He worked hard earning some extra spending money.  He tried to impress girls (but never in the right ways).  None of that really required depth to his thinking about ideas.  Ideas that somehow mattered.  Not to him yet.

While he laid in bed over the last three months, he was pretty sure he knew what people meant now.  He knew many things.  And he knew that the future laid out in his mind was going to carry him through the rest of his life.  Nothing like a long convalescence to clarify one's thinking.  Ideas mattered to him now.  And he knew just how to make his mark on the world.

There is No Try

He wasn't any different from most of the others.  Yes, he put in some effort.  At times, a commendable amount of effort.  But things never worked out for him.  He was convinced that some sort of familial cosmic karma backlash was hitting his life hard.  That's what crappy parents get you, he'd think.

And yet its people like him who really just have little understanding of what it is to work at something.  What it is to get expert or really, really good.  Its not enough to put in some effort.  That get's you nowhere, as it had gotten him.  To succeed at many things, it take an almost unconscionable amount of effort.  Focus.  And determination.  Much of which is laudable, but some of which is downright scary.  Psychotic almost.  But that level of commitment often leads to the desired successful outcomes.

He started seeing things in his own son at an early age that indicated that his boy was different.  He just might be going places.  And he was both thrilled and annoyed.  Not nearly as happy for him as he often should have been.  And always from the pathetic vantage point of self-pity.  Those good things could have come my way.  They didn't and over the years the bitterness and resent grew to the point that he and his son didn't spend much time together anymore.  Despite the lip service to the importance of family, somehow the reality of obviously different life outcomes became unbearable.

It also had put a terrible strain on his marriage. . . .

Suck My . . . Fat!

Obesity was everywhere.  Food was cheap.  Bad food was cheaper.  What is the average person to do but to sit in their climate controlled office and eat that afternoon snack to marginally satisfy a hunger that they should have been more than willing to let hang on until dinner.  But it was distracting.

Yes, there were a few good signs.  Though nobody could explain it, obesity among children under 10 years old briefly dipped in the early teens.  But it was short-lived.  Beltlines and BMIs quickly returned to their long-term pattern of increasing.

And so it was that Matthias was hailed as the savior of the first world.

[I really should stop here, but I will not.  I will instead ruin everything and forge ahead]

The idea came to him as a young man, but to a young man with an engineering and business background, but nothing in biology.  But as these worlds were increasingly dependent on each other, a fortuitous job change to a hot new Maryland biotech start-up and several chance encounters later, he solidified plans to pursue the dream.  And as anyone who has attained their dream knows, it never goes quite how they thought it would.

At first the clinical trials showed "promise".  As their data set grew larger and their sites higher, they became "encouraging".  Ultimately, the results proved too exciting to keep under wraps.  It was no less the surgeon general who wholeheartedly recommended use of the device to 80 percent of the adult population in the US.  That's when he went from bio-nerd to mainstream nerd and when the adult population suddenly found its optimum BMI.

It was almost as simple as InvisAlign.  Just hop in bed, plug in and let the blood processing equipment do the rest.  In the middle of the night (at the optimum portion of your sleep cycle), the machine would start withdrawing a small amount of your blood and reduce the energy flowing in the form of simple sugars.  The body would have to work a little bit harder to remove some from your fat stores, but that was the point.  The machine shuts off at the right time to ensure you have a restful nights sleep.  If you spend extra you can even have a bit of a bonus: hang-overs are a thing of the past.

But just as behavior with no consequences doesn't always lead in the direction you'd hope, so it was here.  At first, we as a society basked in the ability to dial in body fat percentages.  Sure, muscle size was still a thing, but one no longer had to worry about their BMI.  We should have known that it was too good to last . . .

Finally Over

All along, he knew he shouldn't be having these thoughts.  Eight months is a long time after a separation to be reunited with an estranged spouse.  But events conspired to bring them back together once again.  How would they truly reconcile?

[I would love to read a story that captures what it would be like to reconcile with somebody in a sincere, painful, difficult, but complete way.  How does that work?  When are you all good?  Are you ever one step away from separation again?]

Exceptional

He always wanted to be special in an extremely tough sort of way.  The kind of way in which he could overhear the doctor telling his parents that he is extremely surprised that the boy hadn't complained about the pain sooner.  Because if he hadn't, the boy must be extraordinary.  This thought would roll around in his head many times a day, especially when he was practicing piano.