DysFUNCTIOpia

DysFUNCTIOpia

by

Jose C. Moreno

Edited by Jose C. Moreno

Smashwords edition

Copyright 2013 Jose C. Moreno.

’DysFUNCTIOpia’ created by Jose C. Moreno.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, without the prior permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to an actual person, a specific institution, or an event is entirely coincidental.

INTRODUCTION

Although this book might be attractive to young readers, it also presents mature political and philosophical issues, in symbolic form, related to education, democracy, and technology.

One of the purposes of this book is to question the relation of humans and technology. The growth of technology seems to be the fate of humans. The central question in this book is, how can humans find contentment in their lives in the midst of fast technological changes?[1]

DysFUNCTIOpia is a world where complex technology infringes on some individuals self-image by not giving those individuals the ability to form a meaningful relation with that technology due to their unexpected social consequences; In other words, technology has become an end in itself without regarding its connection to humans. As a result, democracy becomes dysfunctional.

On the other hand, this book is an invitation to see the spiritual value in technology. One of the main messages of this book is that, even in a technocracy, one could still find life meaningful. DysFUNCTIOpia illustrates a psychological process for affirming a technocracy.

Nevertheless, this book also introduces possible technological implementations that are actually under development or could happen in the future. At the end, a glossary of the fictitious technological implementations is presented; those fictitious implementations have been underlined throughout the book. References and notes are included so that that they can enlighten technical readers; however, it is not necessary to read the references to understand the book. In some of the technology introduced, the author emphasizes the roles that electromagnetism and quantum mechanics could play in the future. Propulsion by means of electromagnetic pressure[2], vandalism of computer systems by means of electromagnetic radiation, and quantum computers[3] are examples of that. The author tried as much as possible to conceive a future where technology has been the result of the same laws of physics that we know today.

PROLOGUE

After the infamous year 2026, the year when an unexpected asteroid was believed to be headed towards the earth, the USA miraculously rehabilitated from its intoxication with mindless consumption of unessential products coming from docile countries. The near death experience of the great northern nation unleashed its dormant power and transformed it into hyperactive, isolated, and distrustful being. The outcome of the big asteroid scare resulted in the creation of promethean technology, phalanxes around its borders, and selfish obsessive vigilance against natural omens. The government of USA accomplished these radical changes by means of an apparent rejuvenated democracy which in reality was a nonconsensual resolution that had immerged from the USA’s temporary disturbed state of mind.

The new technology developed by the renewed USA after the year 2026 ultimately became institutionalized in many aspects of society. Schools did not need human teachers. Restaurants had automated quality services without human waiters. Electronic devices could perform delicate medical procedures better than human doctors. Bullet trains were built in many cities and transported passengers without the need of human operators. Personal, affordable, and efficient flying vehicles, which could almost operate themselves, were available to wealthy individuals. Omnidirectional spherical screen televisions were a reality. People wore fashionable temperature regulating suits which could regulate interior temperature by itself.

Most of the technological innovations after the year 2026 were the result of the diminution of computer components whose dimensions became the size of atoms. The low energy required by the atomic components of computers made possible for the laws of quantum mechanics to replace classical mechanics from computers [4]. The neo-computers were called functiomatons whose components could perform multiple operations simultaneously by entanglement of quantum states [5]. A functiomaton could sometimes be like a thousand classical computers working together in the same space, where only one of those computers could be known at any one time [6].

As a result, the intelligence of computers became comparable to human intelligence, leading ultimately to the unwilling replacement of accomplished workers from many mechanized jobs, making many of those displaced workers accept being perpetually dependent on superfluous federal government employment which consisted mainly in the creation of functiomatons.

Many people found career contentment after the introduction of the new imposed technology and cleverly adapted to an environment plagued by functiomatons. However, a few others were not satisfied with USA’s progress, making them feel alienated and revengeful. By the year 2054, Functio-vandalism was beginning…

***CHAPTER I***

It was the month of January of the seemingly glorious year 2054. Barón Cortez, an intellectual sixteen year old teen-ager that lived in the depressed south part of Truxes, in the state of California, woke up late for some strange reason. He looked at the picturesque 3D image of the time being projected by the 3D clock projector on the ceiling and realized that he had woken up forty minutes earlier than usual. As a result, he decided to take his morning shower earlier than usual. After the brief shower, as soon as the drying machine finished evaporating all the water on the surface of his light brown skin, he dressed up with one of the many elegant, practical Temperature Regulating Suits (TRS) in the bathroom closet. In order not to get weary from waiting for his abhorrent school instruction to begin, he headed back to his comfortable bed, lay on his left side, put his head on the pillow, and turned on the spherical functiomaton T.V. (SFTV) by a plain voice command –the SFTV was a device that allowed viewers to watch the same vivid image in every direction. Barón closed his tired eyes. Then, in order to select an interesting functio-show, over enunciating, he said to the device, Select T.V shows. Intelligent type; the vivid omnidirectional spherical screen showed promptly the selection of cerebral functio-shows that were appropriate for brainy teen-agers. Because his soft pillow on the bed was caressing his left cheek, the SFTV automatically adjusted the images to Barón’s head posture using its ocular detection functiomaton (ODF)—basically, an intelligent device that recorded and analyzed images. Once the projection on the 3D screen was set according to his head posture, the SFTV said, adjustment completed and Barón opened his somnolent eyes. He scanned through all the appealing titles projected on the 3D spherical screen (3DSS) and serendipitously selected the one that got his attention by saying out loud the title, not knowing that the act would ultimately change the course of his life: A LOOK AT FUNCTIO-VANDALISM AROUND THE WORLD.

Soon after having said the title of the functio-show, two men in gray suits seating on couches came out on the 3D screen, and the inquisitive host of the show began to talk:

Good morning. Today we have a guest on the show. We are pleased to have Dr. Joshua Smith from University of Hamilton to talk about functio-vandalism. Professor, tell us, what is functio- vandalism?

Yes. Functio-vandalism is defined as a deliberate sabotage on any functiomaton with the intension to alarm, annoy or disturb the human population in order to force the government to advance a particular political view.

Is there substantial functio-vandalism around the world?

Yes, we are beginning to observe a considerable increase in the number of functio-vandal assaults around the world. In Latin America, for instance, there have been two hundred and thirty two incidents reported.

How do they vandalize functiomatons?

They vandalize functiomatons in many ways. In Mexico, for instance, groups of individuals break into private properties and destroy with sticks the devices. In other places, such as Colombia, they usually set places on fire.

Now, you wrote a book where you explain the reasons for the rising number functio-assaults. Briefly, what are the causes?

Well…there are a variety of causes. The main reason is the quick changes in technology that have been taking place around the world since the year 2026. The introduction of new technologies in underdeveloped nations is replacing drastically many workers who have no formal school education due to the impoverished conditions in many of those underdeveloped nations. As a result, many are starving to death when they are not owners of land where they could perform old fashion farming. Consequently, middle class groups in those underdeveloped nations, out of concern for their poor country man, are creating vandal cells whose only goal is to assault the new technologies that are being introduced so that their governments stop making deal with the main providers of those technologies.

I see. What countries are providing the new technologies?

Mainly the USA is providing the new technologies.

What kind of technology is exported to these countries?

The main USA exports are functiomatons—For those viewers that do not know the exact definition of a functiomaton, it is as a device that performs useful and complex functions for human beings based on the given input—Private USA’s companies under the guidance of USA’s government send engineer to many under developed countries to find out what are some essential complex functions in different aspects of their societies that could be performed better by a device. Based on their findings, the companies create inexpensive functiomatons. Then, they send negotiators that persuade their government or small businesses in that country to purchase the devices. Usually, the negotiators succeed in making deals with the government or businesses; however, like I mentioned, the more impoverished people from that country suffer the consequences and they do not have enough representational power in their imperfect democracies…

While Dr. Joshua Smith kept talking, Barón was comparing the illuminating lecture with a story told by his deceased grandfather who was brought to the USA in 1984. Listening to the erudite professor, Barón was remembering sporadic episodes of the odyssey that his grandfather used to tell him, about the extraordinary way Barón’s great grandfather brought his grandfather from a little town in El Salvador, by crossing the Mexico and USA borders without documentation, settling by Massey, California, where both had to resign to enslave themselves in the blistering grape fields under treacherous conditions. Barón’s grandfather told him that Barón’s great grandfather had to find work somewhere else for fear of losing their lives after the war in El Salvador had exploded; the revels and the Army of El Salvador fought a bloody battle in and around their property killing Barón’s Great grandmother. Barón’s grandfather –Who was eleven years of age—recalled the USA military presence in his little amiable town and how they were providing the atrocious army of El Salvador weapons [7]—under the pressure of USA government [8]. Those weapons given to the Salvadorian army had the unintended effect of killing Barón’s great grandmother when she was milking a cow. Barón’s grandfather had been blaming the USA military for the conflict in El Salvador because the conflict had been a result of providing the tools of war; he used to say that if those devils of destruction had not showed up at all in his country, the civil conflict would not have been as deadly. Although there were only a few similarities in Dr. Joshua smith’s lecture and his grandfather’s story, Barón could not help interpreting Dr. Joshua smith’s exposition on functio-vandalism, as a recurrent working class plight, where instead of destructive weapons, the USA had been exporting malevolent functiomatons, whose introduction into their societies were having injurious effects on the working class of those countries, who were now beginning to bitterly retaliate against USA specialized technology. In Barón’s opinion, functiomatons distributed around the world were not the cause of the deadly internal conflicts; functiomatons were the unmistakable cause of the annihilation of the human spirit.

Barón continued watching the news show thinking about the effects of omnipotent technology on the powerless working class in the USA. His prolific mind was scintillating with ideas while professor Joshua Smith was eloquently talking about what was going on in other countries; two of the questions that went through Barón’s head were, is there any kind functio-vandalism in USA? Did the government censor the speech of the professor? He shrewdly noticed that nobody in the show had been mentioning any kind of functio-vandalism being committed in the USA even though there were occasional news flashes about some virus affecting functiomatons. However, dismissing the latter thoughts as a mild manifestation of quasi-paranoia, Barón decided to hold in his mind that they were not mentioning any kind of functio-vandalism in the USA because usually any kind of functio-virus was annihilated immediately, and not much harm was done to the functiomatons that had been infected—His brother, who made his leaving repairing functiomatons, had told him how easy it was to disinfect a virus from house functiomatons; he told him that functiomatons were almost anti-virus. On the other hand, for just a brief moment, feeling a slave of iniquitous technology and identifying himself as part of an oppressed class, Barón felt that he could sympathize with those peasants and vitriolic middle class individuals that had bellicosely reacted by the unwanted introduction of abominable functiomatons in those countries: Barón had been feeling a collateral victim of nefarious technology, every time he had to be in front of a wicked functiomaton to be able to learn dull, useless academic material; this form of meaningless academic learning by means of a functiomaton, called functio-school (FS), was going to begin in three minutes.

He turned off the SFTV by saying in a desperate tone of voice, Turn off! and rolled to the edge of the bed. Then, he put his feet on the tiled floor, pushed himself off the bed with the help of his arms, and dashed towards the omnipotent functiomaton which was about nine feet from his bed, where he was going to be logged on into Functio-School (FS), by the omniscient Ocular detection Functiomaton (ODF), and the Voice Recognition System (VRS) connected to the device in just a few minutes.

The functiomaton that he used for his FS looked like a dark metal sphere—2 feet in diameter—which had small flickering lights and colorful buttons. There was a pair of functio-goggles which were used to give students the virtual image of a teacher [9]. Also, there was next to the functiomaton, a pair of gloves, which made interaction with functio-images easier, and could give the sensation of objects [10]—it was not always necessary to use the gloves for all lessons given that the functiomaton was intelligent enough to recognize human hands by means of the ODF; the gloves were only necessary for hands-on virtual activities. This functiomaton was called Local Education Functiomaton (LEF)

In order to receive California standards base education [11], the LEF was connected wirelessly with the Central Education Functiomaton (CEF) of the State of California which provided the individualized instruction for the day—it was mandatory for all teen-agers to be logged on into their functio-classes before 7:30 am, Monday through Friday.

Barón quickly examined the black and yellow TRS he was wearing to make sure there were no noticeable stains while he was sitting on a chair next to the functiomaton: he had to be presentable given that the omniscient ODF on the functiomaton could detect the presence of inappropriate school attire. Not only the functiomaton made judgments about the images obtained by the ODF, but also the images were sent to the educational office of Truxes, so that the security officers could scrutinize the images quickly –Security officers had to check thousands of images a day—to make sure students were in their houses. After Barón waited for about two minutes, a green light on the functiomaton turned on indicating that it was time to begin. Immediately, he put on his functio-goggles and gloves.

It was 7:30 am and Barón was ready to begin. He was already wearing his uncomfortable functio-goggles and gloves. He was waiting for routine information with his eyes wide opened. The light on top of the ODF was turned on, indicating that it was recording his image and checking his presence in the room. While Barón was waiting for the finicky LEF to detect his presence in the room, he was listening to the distinctive sound coming out of the security vehicles patrolling on the solitary street, making sure that teen-agers stayed in their houses. Barón could hear a security officer with a deep voice saying, by means of a megaphone, Time to begin! Then, the message, Satellite…checks, was projected on the goggles, indicating that the World Identification functiomaton (WIF) on his right wrist had detected his presence in the room via satellite—it was a device that could identify him and locate him anywhere in the world. After the satellite check, the message, Blood…quality, was projected underneath the first one, which meant that Barón was healthy enough to begin his education—He was also wearing a blood monitor functiomaton (BMF) on his left wrist, which made sure he was eating nutritious food and monitoring his health. After his blood quality was meticulously checked, Barón waited; there were two more dull checks that had to be done by the educational functiomaton before Barón could start his first class. One of the two checks was to inspect the content of food in the Refrigerator to make sure there was going to be a healthy meal during lunch time pursuant to the Criminal Code. The second thing that the educational functiomaton had to check was the air quality in the house via the smell detector functiomatons in every room of the house. At exactly 7:35 am, a message appeared: CHECK COMPLETED.

Barón was reluctantly going to start his first and most detestable class—Physics. In order to have access to the tedious instruction itself, he now had to register by entering his password via the voice recognition system (VRS) attached to the functiomaton and waited patiently again to get confirmation to continue. Once the match of the voice just obtained by the VRS, and the government recorded voice was made, the message, Permission to continue is granted is projected on the goggle. Then, another irking message is projected, indicating that his science class was about to begin. After a few seconds, Mr. Einstein greeted him,

How are you doing?

I am having a great and wonderful morning next to this detestable machine.

I am glad that you are having a great and wonderful morning! ‘Detestable’ is not an acceptable word in our school. Are you feeling better now?

I am feeling better. I apologize for my attitude. Please, do not give me extra work.

Apology accepted. Let us begin your trip to our natural satellite. What is it?

I believe that you are referring to the lovely moon which has inspired me many poems.

"Correct Barón! You said MOON. Now, set the