The Great Replication Blues

After the system replicated everything, people thought we'd all go totally virtual, right away. Some did. I knew a few. But most of us still need the real world. It's redundant, but it's real. I keep telling myself, it's not worth the effort. More and more, I feel pale and blinking, there; ironically, out of touch; but I can't give it up completely. I curse myself for being so dependent on the blue sky, like a dog gone blind.

Intergenerational

#: The best way I can put it is, back at the turn of the century, people thought the system was the problem; that you can't be private anymore because of the system. Now, we know that you can't be private without the system. That's what they used to call a revolution.

&: What do you mean by private?

#: You're acting like you just got off the boat.

&: I did.

#: There's no way I can explain this to you, if you don't already know what I'm talking about.

&: What do you mean by the system?

Dossier

"Don't call me 'Rory.'"

"You want me to call you 'Rorschach?'"

"I want you to call me 'Rorschach Abednego, the First.'"

"You think that's going to get you known?"

"It's a start."

"So, what kind of personality are you offering?"

"Whatever you want."

"That's not what I want."

"What do you want?"

"Something different from that."

"You want 'Ernest Hemingway?'"

"It's a start."

Lift that Bale No More

After everybody got connected, in the twenties, attention turned to putting in basic services that everybody needed; like Birth Registration and Death Certification. Pretty early on, people realized that you can't be anonymous anymore. But it took a while to get over our fathers' dead bodies.

In retrospect, everything happened as fast as it could have. There was, of course, a lucky break: in the forties, an easy solution to the Fusion problem popped up. It was a triumph of String Theory. One highly linked physicist said, "Einstein wouldn't have known where to start."

That meant an end to work, as we knew it. Suddenly, whatever you needed, you could get, free. If you knew where to look. There was only one thing in short supply. Brains.

"I want more than that."

"More than what?"

"I want to put out a show."

"What's wrong with just words?"

"You know I'm not reading anymore."

"I know what you want."

"You probably do."

"You want to get frontal."

"I just want to get known."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Your mother. And my mother."

"They won't have to know."

"Haven't you heard? It's the New Age - everybody knows everything."

"And nobody cares. You just proved it."

"I proved nothing."

"You just don't want to get known."

"Not with you."

"Some people don't want to get known."

"You just want to get frontal."

"Not with you."