She cut her finger on a piece of paper and looked down as her body recognized the wound and her blood clotted, erasing all signs of injury. This was the first time Phoebe had seen this new technology in action and she knew this would change the world for the better. However, the world was stuck in 1983.
Although the year was 2050, technology in the eyes of society had come to a halt 67 years earlier when the government decided that technology should only be in “responsible hands”. Technology was viewed as a threat and society was deemed better without it. Each governing body all over the world met in the year 1983 and came together in a mutual agreement to terminate the spread of technology for civilian use. All this chaos prevailed over the production of one movie: WarGames.
When this movie was released, discourse spread about America’s dominance over the computer industry without real control of it. This conversation spread all over the world about technology going awry and began to plague the world as security threats became a growing concern. The media, policymakers, computer industry representatives, and more sanctioned feelings of unease around the growing technologies.
All the feelings were validated when a group of computer hackers brought this WarGames scenario closer to reality. The 414s were a group of computer hackers from Milwaukee. They broke into multiple high-profile computer systems, even gaining access to a Los Alamos nuclear weapons center computer. These computer geniuses were taken into government custody and held hostage.
Just a week after the hacking, a meeting was held with every governing body in the world. The consensus was to take away all technology from civilians and continue to develop it in secret. Although not all governing bodies got along, they saw technology as a serious enough threat to take power out of the hands of the governments. There were no longer allies and enemies, they all agreed that control over their citizens was paramount. They decided to only release any form of technology once it was completely developed and did not pose a threat. The following day, each governing body had its militaries go through homes and destroy all material that could potentially continue to develop any form of technology. The hostages were now owned by all the world’s most powerful governmental bodies and were tasked with creating a vaccination for society to forget all they had once known about technology. Materials that could be used in the creation of technology were heavily regulated and with the creation of the vaccine, technology was completely erased from the world’s timeline. Well… except for in the hands of the governing bodies worldwide.
The world was once again, simple. The governing bodies all over the world finally felt like they could breathe again. Those in the power of technology were focused on building a better society that could only be released when ready with the help of the hackers. However, as time went on and technology developed, the governments continued to hide their discoveries. The world was divided into two categories: the literate and the illiterate in the eyes of the technological society. The illiterate were left in the dark and the literate were amongst families with governmental ties worldwide. These individuals lived a much better life than the others.
Phoebe, now 84 years old, had a flashback of the original pact made in 1983 as she stared in awe at the blood once on her hand gone in seconds.
She remembered the treaty made at the meeting and realized they had not kept their promise. In the 67 years, technology had developed to a point where it could provide the others with so much good. Civilization could benefit from this technology, but it was kept a secret for fear of sharing the power the technology had. The outside world had stopped evolving long ago while their government bubble had learned how to create life-enhancing technologies. Phoebe knew how those in power felt about sharing their discoveries, they were selfish and comfortable with the world they had developed. She decided this wasn’t real life and they had altered society’s course. They had taken away their creativity by heavily regulating their learning and fostering a world of content with no room for growth. Phoebe looked back on her life, reliving all the moments of change and innovation. She felt she had been a part of robbing civilization of the natural process of evolution.
Phoebe began the process of developing a time machine to go back and correct their mistakes. She decided they were too far gone to integrate the others into their society. As they lived in homes invisible to the others eyes, she realized they were basically living in an alternate universe on the same planet earth.
Over the next five years, Phoebe developed a time travel machine in secret in her bathroom. As time passed, however, Phoebe got older and weaker. She knew the time was now, and although she was unsure of how safe her machine would be, she wanted to risk her life to save humanity.
“Three, two, one” she pressed the button and felt like she was falling.
Her world went dark and as she opened her eyes, she was staring at her reflection. Her wrinkles had disappeared and her full youth had been restored. She looked around and saw a world of minimal technology and smiled.
However, she knew she had to act fast, she had no idea how long her machine would work.
PHOEBE HAS ENTERED 1983- WHAT WILL SHE DO?.