Future Dreams

I had a stimulating dream the other night. The ‘script’ seemed to have been a collaboration of Kafka, Orwell, Dickens and O’Henry. My enjoyment of the dream was enhanced by the fact that it was a lucid dream. In other words, I was enjoying the dream and aware that I was dreaming all at the same time.


I dreamt that I woke up in the future. I didn’t know exactly how far into the future I now found myself but the overall impression was that it was years, not centuries or eons. My status hadn’t changed much – I was still just a regular ‘Joe’. However, I had a new pal who accompanied me throughout the rest of the dream: Barrack Obama. Like me, he too had awakened into the future but his status had changed considerably – he was just like me, a regular ‘Joe’. No power, no riches, no entourage. No security, no spokesmen, no handlers, no clout. He and I were free to wander the landscape of the future as common, ordinary men. The only resource(s) we had were each of us individually, each other and the two of us.


At first the future was very recognizable. Buildings, streets and such seemed a little run-down but generally were in the same configuration as now. One of the first things we did was to get on board a vehicle that sort of resembled a contemporary mini-van. The ‘ignition’ had no key. Instead there was a sort of Rubik’s Cube puzzle built into the steering wheel. Until you solved it, the steering wheel was useless and the vehicle couldn’t do anything. Once you solved it, the steering wheel was freed and the vehicle was ‘activated’ – ready to go. It was also apparent that the propulsion system of this vehicle did not involve fossil fuel or any sort of combustion technology.


The vehicle we were checking out was inside a building – a garage of sorts – and after fiddling around with it but not actually moving or going anywhere we got out. Because the garage was dimly lit - dark even, we groped around until we found a light switch and turned on the lights. Big mistake.


Some sort of security-people quickly surrounded us. I assumed they wanted to know why we were tampering with someone’s vehicle. Instead they were some kind of "green police" who demanded to know why we were wasting precious electricity by turning on any lights when it was still daylight outside. We apologized, turned off the lights and left. As we were leaving I took one last glance at the vehicle and noticed there weren’t any wheels – it seemed to be levitating on its’ own.


Since the first thing we had encountered that told us both “we’re not in Kansas anymore” was a kind of vehicle, I immediately wondered about gasoline: was it still in use? What did it cost? Across the street from where we’d entered the vehicle, was a fossil fuel, gasoline station. The signs displaying the price were all digital, LED type. The price was rapidly changing, always changing – like a stock market ticker update. The price ranged from 5-something to 6-something a gallon. It looked like the price at the pump was a real-time quote that varied along with the market.


We made inquiries of some passers by and learned that in this future time alternatives to the internal combustion automobile had been perfected but that only the rich, powerful elite where able to own them. Poor people (if they could even afford a vehicle) were forced to still rely on 20th century technology and pay between 5 and 6 dollars a gallon to feed their cars. Although this was painfully expensive for us average 'Joes', the kicker was that because gasoline was on it’s way out, these were actually (in future terms) deep discount prices for the stuff as the oil companies tried to maintain their last foothold on the American consumer.


The next oddity we noticed was that there were computer terminals here and there, like the kiosk type displays in malls. They were ubiquitous - on every corner, in every nook and cranny much like pay phones used to be. We tried using one and found that in general, you didn’t need any log in in order to access most information. Everyone was a ‘guest’.


What we learned from browsing was that in the future, private ownership of computers was not allowed (except again for the rich, powerful elite). The government controlled all computing power, information, storage and access. Although anyone could access generalized, frivolous, no-threatening information like the weather or ‘entertainment news’ any sort of serious inquiry required a log-in.


You could only log in with your own, personal, government assigned ID. To make the whole procedure more ‘convenient’, the majority of the population had their ID tattooed like a bar code on their forearm or had a subcutaneous chip implant and merely allowed their forearm to be scanned. If you hadn’t been tattooed yet, you could key in this information. Once logged in by this method you could search, browse and do most of things you wanted to. The catch of course was that the entire time you were using the government computer terminal you were being recorded on video and all your keystrokes, queries and results were being stored in government computers.


Everywhere that my new buddy and I went, we saw a desperate future. The times were lean and mean for the everyman. The elite continued to live as they wanted while every action and need by ordinary people was tightly rationed and controlled. The government controlled and administered to everything and in doing so sought to maintain the status quo of the elites and rulers.


The policies and course directions taken by the Oligarchies of the past had all come home to roost. My companion during this tour of the future-scape seemed to be in shock. No amount of good intentions could rein back the inevitable consequences of their actions.


Like Kafka, the dream began by waking up. We woke into a future world more Orwell Ian than poor old’ George could have imagined. Like an inverted Dickens’s Christmas Carol my friend B.O. was shown the world he helped create and reminded of the steps that propelled us here. Like an ironic twist from an O’Henry short story, B.O. now found himself on the receiving end of the boot heel of big government and as powerless as any peon of society to do anything but accept it.


Nothing to worry about - it was only dream.


Ralph M



"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson