Chronometrics: Chapter 1

Dr. Chrono had stopped paying attention to faces.

He saw so many of them, day in and day out, that committing them all to memory was a strain on his mind. These days, if he recognized someone by their face, it was largely a coincidence. It was much more important to know someone’s position by their clothes and ID information, and by their voice. If they were capable of speaking, and they were speaking to him, that meant that they merited attention from him (most of the time, anyway).

The clones in the pods didn’t speak. They weren’t awake, and so they couldn’t. They were all in various states of generation, so some didn’t even have faces or anything recognizable about them. The ones that were far enough along to have faces, however, were the ones that Dr. Chrono had to be the most concerned about. If a clone died while they were indistinct, disposal was a lot easier than it was when features had begun to surface. A distinct clone required disposal like that of an actual cadaver; some of the more sentimental scientists insisted on holding brief funerals for the ones that “didn’t make it.” Furthermore, the farther along a dead clone was, the more resources there were that had been wasted in its failed creation.

For Dr. Chrono, not bothering with the faces of the clones he was generating was not so much a matter of not getting attached. Instead, it was a matter of not thinking too hard of the fates those faces might meet. Rarely was a clone made without some kind of purpose; there were plenty of naturally-born humans without purposes. Some of them were intended as specially-tailored adoptee children, either from someone unrelated to the commissioner or intended as a replacement for someone who was related to them. Dr. Chrono considered those the lucky ones, for at least they could approach a normal life. There were no guarantees about their families, but at least they would have one.

Others were intended as engineered elites in some field or another. There were the super soldiers and the born scientists who were intended to either further humanity’s runaway technological development or enforce the government’s runaway grip on the law. Certain parameters were adjusted in these clones so that the sting of not having a normal upbringing was lessened, but a few always somehow managed to feel the absence of normalcy in their lives. That feeling that something was missing was always detrimental to the clone’s performance, to the point that an entire discipline of psychology had evolved around addressing it.

The least fortunate of the clones were the born servants. The ones intended as drone bodies for people rich enough to afford new body uploads didn’t count, as they were never intended to have their own consciousnesses. There was indeed a class of people in the world who wanted servants for various purposes but did not want to have to deal with the specific red tape of hiring a “natural” person (or were doing thing that could never be done to a “natural”). Instead, they exchanged a significantly higher price tag for shady, loosely-enforced laws that were often ignored in favor of letting the privileged do as they please.

Dr. Chrono had heard the stories. Clones could be subjected to all manner of abuse under the table; looking too deeply into a clone’s fate was an easy way to permanently lose any remaining faith in humanity. That was something he knew about firsthand. There was even a not-so-secret ring of “clone hackers” that knew how to upload minds into conscious clones, effectively trapping them in their own bodies.

Thinking about the endless but often grim possibilities for each clone made Dr. Chrono sigh heavily and scratch near his whitened, fluffy mustache. His colleagues often asked why he didn’t just upload into a younger body instead of staying middle-aged, and his answers changed every time. Said answers were always cryptic and sounded vaguely like excuses, but his refusal to elaborate generally shut the curious ones up quickly. Then again, people mostly knew better than to cross one of the world’s top clone engineers.

Climbing to the top of this field took Dr. Chrono years of hard work, and if he thought that if he didn’t show it at least a little, people would forget his service to the field. It probably did border on an abuse of clout at times, but everyone abused something these days. If shoving his position in people’s faces was the worst thing he did, that put him quite a bit ahead of most people. Not that it particularly mattered; it took more than a supposed moral high ground to be ahead of anyone in this day and age.

Humming an aimless tune to himself, Dr. Chrono browsed the rows of clone pods via his computer. So far, everything seemed to be in order. All the clones were properly arranged by purpose, and no one parameter seemed to stand out as abnormal. Though a passerby might have thought that he was breezing through the readouts rather quickly, he was just that fast at assessing the information from each clone pod. It helped that major changes rarely happened from day to day, and if they did, they stuck out obviously enough to get caught and addressed.

At one point, Dr. Chrono stopped his browsing and clicked back, because he finally managed to detect something that stood out. Located somewhere in the middle of a drone clone row was a certain clone that, for some reason, was slated to have higher than average intelligence. The old scientist squinted at the computer screen and confirmed that his eyes were not deceiving him. While not the strangest or most dangerous error, it merited filling out a report at the very least. It could be a computer error making a projection that didn’t exist, or something was indeed off in the clone’s chemistry that he could adjust.

Alternately, one other explanation remained: this clone was intended to be a new body for someone struggling with a brain issue. The interface between mind and brain had yet to be fully cut; if the brain wasn’t adequate, that could slow someone with even the most radiant personality. The mind could be uploaded, and with the proper brain tissue, it would function completely again. Granted, the upload had to be done quickly after the issue was detected to avoid the erosion of memories, but if caught in time, someone would be able to move on in a new body like nothing had ever happened. The mind and body separation was a strange and arbitrary distinction, but in the age of brain uploads, it existed.

Shaking his head and changing the tune he was humming, Dr. Chrono filled out the report, then proceeded on to reviewing the other clone pods.

Follow for Chapter 2

So you want to create Dystopian Stories, exploring the fascinating cyberpunk landscapes.

When writing stories about dystopias, whether they are futuristic or not, there are a few aspects of building the world that the writer should keep in mind. Some world building concepts work better for different types of dystopias, but there are a few general rules that should serve you well to start out.

The first concept can be applied to writing in general, but it is still very important to keep in mind when focusing on the topic of dystopias: know your scope. If you're writing a story that's less than 1000 words, you clearly don't have that much room to cover the concepts of the world you're building. For those types of stories, it's best to pick one or two aspects of your dystopia and flesh those out within your framework. Trying to cram too much into too small a space will cause problems for the pacing of your story, confusing the reader or making them lose interest in what they can understand. Pick an item of interest, form a structure around it, and keep the focus around that.

If you're writing a full novel, or there is no limit on your words or plot, this tenet applies somewhat less because you can control the scope more directly. You have more time and writing space to work with, so you can cover what you please and when you please. Still, getting wrapped up in minutiae can distract from the focus of your story.

The second concept is to be mindful of your tone when detailing events within the world. Contrary to what some might think, going as dark as possible and then some do not a good dystopia make. If nothing but awful things happen in your story, let alone your world, the reader will most likely tune out your story's events until they all blur together and interest is inevitably lost. While you don't necessarily need to jump directly to comedic relief, there needs to be a medium between suffering and joy that happens in your events. Even daily life events where not everything is terrible will go a long way in making sure the events don't blur together for your reader.

The third concept focuses on the building of your dystopia itself: make sure that the dystopian concepts you're using make sense in the context of your story. To a degree, it goes together with the previous two concepts. Knowing your scope will help you define the context of the story and the world, and being mindful of your tone will prevent you from introducing elements that are too jarring in your setting. How this concept applies to your worldbuilding varies depending on the core of your idea. If you're making a dystopia that's "descended" from the present, making sure your concepts have some tie to something occurring in the present will take you a long way. If you're focused on futuristic technology, define the limits of that technology and don't break them. Steampunk? Similar issue, except the aesthetics and expectations, are a bit more rigidly defined at times depending on your audience.

These guidelines can be met with careful planning, especially for longer stories. They can all be distilled into one tenet: know what you're doing. Decide on your focus, your tone, and what you intend to explore in your dystopian world before you charge off into your own brave new world. Shorter pieces do not necessarily require less planning; if anything, they require more structure to ensure that they have a payoff. The stronger your foundation, the stronger your writing and the better the payoff will be for the reader. Whether your goal is to shock, mesmerize, or simply entertain your reader, a strong support goes a long way.

Dystopian Futures - Discord Group

This post is due to many people wanting to Create the voice files for The Short Stories I create which revolves on Dystopian Futures, Humanity, and many other ideas. This is the Discord group keep in mind it is still in RAW format.

Dystopian Futures - Discord Group

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I am looking for voice talent see post below for more details.

I would like to make some AudioBooks out of them, I am looking for people who are very great at reading with personality and are able to give the listener a sense of being part of the book.

I am not looking for experienced Voice Over talent I am looking for Steemians that are English speakers, character actor, and improv artist. A smooth, professional and polished vocal style. That is capable of delivering recorded material to me in mp3, m4a, wav, or aiff formats.

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If you are able and willing to provide I will pay 5 SBD per AudioClip of the story done, please keep in mind the Stories are very unique and should require a unique voice. They are between 500-800 words, I currently have about a dozen short stores on steemit and will continue to write more, thus giving more opportunities to people that want to earn and help out.

Some things I am looking for

• Voice must be dark, with emotion
• Must understand this is a dystopian setting
• Able to make the listener be part of the story
• Above 55 Rep just means you know how to get around here and you are somewhat active.

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If you have not yet read some of my stories please have a look below.
The Meth Effect, cheating humanity - A ChronoCrypto Short Story
So you want to create Dystopian Stories, exploring the fascinating cyberpunk landscapes.
Dr. Chrono discovers how to stop human aging - A ChronoCrypto Short Story- (Narrated by @voraces)
Futuristic Dystopia – Literary Expression banned - A Chronocrypto Short Story
Steampunk Dystopia – Only “useful” inventions - A Chronocrypto Short Story
Dystopia new species of humans - A Chronocrypto Short Story - (Narrated by @avesa)
2045- year of the apes, ft. Dr. Chrono - A ChronoCrypto Short Story
Dystopium: It’s not better, it just feels that way - A Chronocrypto Story - (Narrated by @voraces)
Reptilian Alien Precursors- Human POV Part 2 - A Chronocrypto Short Story
Reptile Alien Precursors – Alien POV - A Chronocrypto Short Story
Minds Can be Hijacked - A Chronocrypto Short Story - (Narrated by @voraces)
Robots and their rights - A Chronocrypto Short Story - (Narrated by @voraces)
Current Tech leads to Dystopia - A Chronocrypto Short Story - (Narrated by @voraces)
AI Drones - A Chronocrypto Short Story
A Chronocrypto Short Story - Corporate Conglomerate Dystopia - (Narrated by @voraces)
Singularity - A Chronocrypto Short Story - (Narrated by @voraces)
A Donald Marshall Inspired Story. (Narrated by @voraces)
A chronocrypto short Dystopian Story: The Creation Animid Unit S-01(Narrated by @voraces)
Technology and its upcoming dystopian effects.
Robot Equality - Is it here?
Beta JR World's AI Server(Fiction/Non-Fiction)(Narrated by @voraces)
Clone A-2 (Fiction/Non-Fiction)(Narrated by @voraces)

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In order to be a good fit please read some of these stories to get a feel of how they should engulf the listener.

If you are interested in doing this small project with me and earn some SBD and of course your name as the narrator please contact me on Discord name chronocrypto. Hopefully we can get a wide variety of voices for the project.

The piece will be read in addition to this introduction.

[Title]Written by: @chronocrypto[Narrator]

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The Audio files will be uploaded on soundcloud and posted on steemit by @chronocrypto, you will send me the audio clip through Discord so that everyone can listen to the stories.

Finished AudioBooks

Please Like and Follow if you like my work, Also a big thank you to @voraces and @avesa for the voices.