Alpha-5

Mike Spatharakis


The evolution of our society has been aided throughout history by both the innovation of new technology, and the improvements of current technology. The Internet being the key innovation in the last ten years, has lead to many changes in the way we do things in our everyday lives. For example, we e-mail each other, buy things online, and we can even do our banking and pay bills online. The level at which we communicate on a person-to-person basis has drastically decreased to levels that seem to have corrupted our young people, and understandably shaken up our older generations of people who seem to have a phobia towards computers and the Internet. This being the case, the possibilities of what our society may act like in, say, seventy-five years are endless. For the benefit of this short story, picture a utopian sort of society, but not the type that you are normally thinking about.

The year is AD 2075, the place is a metropolitan colony known as Alpha-5. Tall skyscrapers block out the sun on the distant horizon. Everything is dark and cold. People seem to be going about their tasks in a uniform manner, and no expressions or emotions are evident on their pale faces. In the distance, a man shouts orders at a group of workers trying to erect a monument of their fearless leader, Colonel Mirkov. Some people might look at this place as a concentration camp of sorts, but the people who live here have no knowledge of any other kind of life--only this dark and destitute place.

The lives of these people are financially stable, and everyone has a good standard of living. Most people live in large settlements of a thousand. Each family gets their own "bunker." These bunkers contain only their sleeping arrangements and their standardized uniforms, which they wear day after day. Everyone gets up at 7:00 am. They eat their synthesized breakfast meals at 7:30 am, and then the adults are driven to work at 8:00 am, and the children are driven to their labour training schools at the same time. Everyone has their lunch at the same time, no matter if they are at school or work, and that is at 12:00 pm. Then, at 4:00 pm the children are then driven back to their bunkers where they are to wait for their parents' arrival home from work at 5:30 pm. Dinner is served at 6:00 pm, and finally lights-out-at 9:00 pm. The three hours between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm are spent discussing the day’s events, and the parents are to give their children lessons in labour training as is customary at this time in the evening.

No exceptions are to be made throughout the day's plan, unless for illness, which will be reported to the supervisor of the bunker, who reports hourly to the assistants of Colonel Mirkov. Once the illness is made known to a staff member from the infirmary, the affected person will be located and taken back to the infirmary. The sick are treated well because a sick labourer is an inefficient labourer.

Self-expression and independence are unacceptable at Alpha-5, and anyone who is caught violating the strict laws, by which behaviour is governed, is subject to harsh and extreme punishment, and this in most cases is a sentence of death or life imprisonment. The laws are as follows:
Alpha-5 law 1) No person is allowed to speak unless they are spoken to at the site of labour.
Alpha-5 law 2) No person is allowed to stray from the standardized uniform.
Alpha-5 law 3) No person is allowed to discuss the way in which the colony is governed unless asked by Colonel Mirkov himself.
Alpha-5 law 4) No person is allowed to stray from the colony unless they have the permission of Colonel Mirkov or one of his assistants.
Alpha-5 law 5) No watching of television allowed, and any colony member caught in possession of a television will be subject to one year of extreme rehabilitative remoulding of their character.
Alpha-5 law 6) All children must go to labour school until the age of eightteen when they are released to the labour masters for work.
Alpha-5 law 7) Any person caught trying to tell other colony members of different places or forms of ruling power will be sentenced to death.

This scenario is one of the many possibilities that our society could look like in the not-so-distant future. The Internet has the power to change people very easily, and these changes can be spread-out quite far. Brainwashing of people, and the moulding of their characters into what is seen as acceptable is what has happened to the people in my colony. They think that what they are doing is proper, and they would never think of doing anything else because of the repercussions.

It is evident that if the Internet and other technologies continue to advance, that at some point in time, there is going to be a breakdown in our society. Hopefully our breakdown, whenever it does happen, does not turn out like Alpha-5’s, because that kind of life would be pointless, and to put it bluntly, boring!


© Mike Spatharakis 2001