Hardforkseries Short Story- The Good Old Days of 2029

29th of November 2078, Alpha Centauri Star system - Kids Bedroom, 22.45

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Kids: Granny, granny, simulate a storyline for us please!

Granny: Come on kids, you have the CosmoBot, ask it to simulate whatever scenario you want…

K: No, we want YOU to be the narrator and the source of the simulation! Tell us something about your life when you were not a Cyborg!

G: All right then, lets check my memory bank for visual reconstructions…. Ah, yes ….lets talk about that…. The year 2029! I was very young and very curious what the future had in store for us..And 2029 was a turning point moment in our lives..I had woken up in the morning just like every other day, at the sound of my virtual assistant…

K: Wait, you didn’t have biosensors to preprogram your circadian rhythm?

G: No kids, those came on much later…

K: But how could you wake up then?? And go to sleep ?

G: By sheer force of will I guess…Anyway, the virtual assistant had projected the news on the smart wall of the room, and I remembered that it was the day of the Public Conference. The first astronauts had come back from Mars and everyone was excited to hear what they’ve seen…

K: But…were you not living on Mars then??

G: No kids, the story starts on Earth, the other habitable Planet from our Primary Solar System. Earth colonized Mars years later and that’s where I met your Grandfather, but that’s another thing, waay later... Moving on!.
There were news and videos and holographic displays all over the social media: Tenzin, Kuarno, Steemit, Hollosnap, everyone was so excited..

K: Ah cool, you had social media back then too..

G: Yes, sort of … no telepathic quantum communication though, just written and visual language…

K: Oh, that’s boring…How long did it take you to read all the millions of messages?

G: Well, we didn’t read them all. People were just posting and we happened to read some of them.

K: But that’s stupid….how could you select what’s good to read if you didn’t know the content of the entire socialsphere?

G: There were some AIs to make the selection and evaluation of content for us, but mainly we had to do the reading ourselves, no telepathic transmission…But we digress again …
So there it was, our beloved Falcon Heavy had returned! … It was the most powerful rocket the world had ever seen and it brought back the astronauts safe and sound!

K: Cool, like the Stegausaurus we visited last summer?

G: Stegausaurus is a colony spaceship ecosystem, kids… The Falcon was just a rocket…Here, watch it holographically reconstructed!

K: What ??? That???

G: Yes…it was….much much smaller…no warp speed….hardly reusable…nevermind, it was brilliant for its own time…

K: ….

G: So that public conference was magnificent. Magic Leap had been contracted to simulate the authentic Mars environment in a special arena as the astronauts talked. We had all reserved our tickets months ago, put in our glasses and enjoyed for the first time real images from the red hills of Mars… it was hysteria!

K: Wait, why would you need glasses?

G: That’s how virtual and augmented reality worked back then! But don’t worry, they were very small and fashionable… Much better than the bulky heavy ones just 10 years earlier.

K: Ihh… still…. what if I wanted to do backflips and rotational flying in the virtual room?..how would they stay on?

G: We didn’t do any of that at the time. Just arm movements..and some head nodding I guess. Anyway, So the conference started… The astronauts as they were talking, their holograms were exploring the Mars simulation along with us. I could even touch the sand in some special places, there was no full sensory immersion yet. And then…it happened… They said it… THE GREATEST HUMAN DISCOVERY OF ALL TIME …

K: Quantum Teleportation???

G: No kids, that was discovered 10 years later …

K: But that’s the greatest human discovery of all time!

G: Well it depends on how you see it…. For us it was more like a philosophical step in our evolution…we considered it the greatest human discovery of all time because it finally gave us the answer to the Big Question: Are we alone in the Universe?

K: Hah, you’ve Made Contact with the Leptonians!!! But what were they doing on Mars?

G: No Kids, The Leptonians and The Sardyz were the civilizations we encountered AFTER we developed quantum teleportation. They are not from Earth’s Solar System.

K: So what did they find then?

G: ….A tardigrade….some sort of worm…

K: …….

G : But you don’t understand, it was the first extraterrestrial life form we’ve ever seen!

(sighing) Well, It was kind of a cruel cosmic joke that it later turned out it had the same DNA as the ones on Earth and apparently traveled to the surface through asteroids millions of years ago. But still.. that was the first real glimmer of hope! We would not be here without the contributions of the people back then!

K: Um…Can we get a ride in the Falcon rocket you talk about?

G: I don’t think the CosmoBot has simulations that old, kids…I can just show you holograms with it, but nothing immersive.

K: Agh, Bitcrash!

G: What did I tell you kids?! No swearing allowed!

K: Sorry….

G: By the way, do you know that the word you’re not supposed to say has originated around the time of my story?

K: Really? Tell us, tell us, tell us!

G: Well The Cryptocurrency Revolution had finally reached its later stages , and something we used to call “ Banks” which were formidable institutions at that time were about to collapse. Those powerful men were of course very very unhappy, and were broadcasting through the whole socialsphere “Bitcoin is gonna Crash the Economy!” So when the banks finally crashed themselves and the ancient economic system went down with them, our more liberal ancestors wanted to be funny and called it The Big Bitcrash. Some people are still sensitive to these issues even today, so this is why we don’t use this word… ok?

K: Ok….

G: Now, enough talking…set your biosensors for 8.00 tomorrow morning and activate your circadian rhythm for sleep. Good night!