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Nuno's
Time
Cerebral evac and disposal: May 2059. Term: Life. Last communion: May 2079. Regeneration one hour, commence." "Nuno. Nuno. Why do you not respond, Nuno? Nuno. This does not benefit anyone, least of all you. Come, Nuno, this is your time. Use it or lose it... Nuno." "Stop repeating my name." "But that’s your name, Nuno. Regardless of your current state, you still have a name. You will always have your name." "If you insist, but don’t use it every time you address me. You sound like a parrot." "As you wish. What would you like to communicate to me today." "Huh, communicate, now that’s a laugh. On the other hand, what else would you call it?" "Yes, communicate, what is the difficulty? I don't understand." "No you wouldn’t. Listen, just forget it, John. Tell you what, here is something you might be able to get your circuitry around, nice and simple. What is the weather like today?" "Circuitry, Nuno?" "Nice try, John, but you’re just not fooling me. I’ve gotten more human contact from a domestic utility." "If that’s what you want to believe. As to the weather, fine, sunny, twenty-four degrees centigrade." "Don’t suppose there’s any chance of rain." "Now, you know that’s not possible." "Why of course, it only rains early morning, before sunrise. What is it this week, Wednesday and Friday? After all, we wouldn’t want anyone getting wet, or stepping in mud, or worse, slipping on wet pavement, now would we." "Yes, all of those things. It also makes for convenience and a more efficient, pleasant use of time; and let’s not forget wastage and the environment." "Oh yes, pleasant. Let’s not forget pleasant, and convenient. And where would we be without efficiency? At best unbridle confusion, and at worst absolute mayhem. Could be the end of all life as we know it, wouldn’t you agree, John?" "Alright, Nuno, I understand sarcasm, and we know you don’t approve of a planned and organised society. But you are clearly in the minority." "Minority maybe, but at least I’m enlightened and have some sense of self-worth, and... I’m not being led around like some useless pampered simpleton." "Enlightened, now that’s a new one. You haven’t used that one before, I must make a note." "Oooo.... by all means take a note, if it makes you feel better. Tell me, John, has anyone told you yet, you’re a waste of space? Here’s a free piece of advice; get a life. If that's not possible in your neat and perfect little world, then curl up in a corner somewhere and die. Just end your miserable existence." "Life. Now, how exactly do you define this life you speak of?" "Old ground, John, old ground." "Yes, but I’m curious. You speak of life as if it were an innate universal condition, there for all to see and understand." "It is there for all to see and understand. It’s life, existence, feelings, emotions, pain, elation, the whole ball of wax. It surges as you struggle with it - the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is of course until progress steals it from you, and recreates a drab, benign self-obsessed fairyland." "Then, it’s the sum total of one’s experiences. After all, feelings and emotions don’t work in a vacuum, now do they." "And I suppose this planned, rational, regulated and systemised universe you exist in is what counts for experience." "Surely even you see the benefits of our time. The culmination of generations of human knowledge. The continuous struggle of civilization that has brought us to this point. Even as we speak, humans skirt the face of Orion. Space ships orbit the planets of the Vega system, mine minerals in the Oort cloud and probe the black hole, Sagittarius A, at the center of the Milky Way. Tourists view the volcanoes of Io from orbiting space platforms, or climb the old canyon walls of Tharsis around the equatorial regions of Mars. Or, if they prefer to stay at home, they can plunge and explore the mighty depths of our own oceans here on Earth. Experiences unparalleled in human history, only realised through the struggle and progression of human endeavor." "Are you trying to sell me a vacation by any chance, are you, John? See, that’s your problem. You just don’t get it, do you? These are not experiences. What you are talking about are holidays, sabbaticals, inane mind-numbing entertainment. Giant space platforms, baloney! It’s a holiday resort. A scheduled day-by-day planned performance. I mean, why bother? Why not just sit on your dead head ass at home and watch computer simulations? Or better still, buy time in a virtual reality booth and step into one of these precious volcanoes on Io; or perhaps something closer to home. Throw yourself naked into the North Atlantic ocean and play water polo with the fishes. Life needs to be felt at the most primordial level, deep and profound. You must be able to grasp your own mortality, and the precarious and uncertain nature of existence. It is only when your whole being is flushed with the dichotomy of being and not being, life and death, that the true nature of existence is revealed." "Do you honestly believe that the rest of the world is so destructive? That it wants to live a reality of uncertainties, where life and death is at whim? Surely you see that the whole of human history is one in which we continuously create and advance civilization. Where we progress and realise the universe of human potential. Everything you see in the world of people - culture, the arts, knowledge, technology and indeed science - is the product of society. People... acting out their potential, interacting with each other to create the civic order of the social world of people." "Ha, the civic order. Now you’ve put your finger on the truth. I ask you, John, what do we really have here? A society where we limit those perceived, nasty little inconveniences and the, so called, socially abhorrent, unacceptable behaviors. Where it can only rain in the early hours of morning. Where public transport must run unhindered and on time, least a patron becomes upset, or has a psychotic episode because the air bus was two or three seconds late. Where you can’t be want you want to be, practice what you want to practice... other than what the, all-knowing omnipotent, civic order or the body politic permits. Oh no, that might unsettle your damned civil society. And while we are at it, let’s not forget the hallowed institutions of the body politic. And of course the great democratic ideal, reduced to lumbering, pedantic bureaucrats presiding over the puerile petty ‘wants’ of a cozy unimaginative, uninspired populace." "Perhaps, but what you offer in return, Nuno, is a world of brutality." "Brutality. You have a gall mentioning brutality to me. Look what you have done to me! You’ve stolen and destroyed my body, stuffed my brain in a cylinder were you keep it alive, and turn me on when it suites you. Then put me through this repetitive stupid ordeal. Why do you bother? Why don’t you just do the "humane’ thing and put me out of my misery? What are you afraid of?" "Your crimes against the body politic and the civic order calls for the punishment you are now experiencing. The death penalty is no longer an option. We are civilized." "Civilized. And what do you call civilized? To disembody a person, keep his brain alive, inactive most of the time, torture me with these occasional conscious moments? And why? Because your precious little harmonious civic order was disrupted. Because for once in your damned lives something happened that wasn’t planned or force-fed to you. For once you actually experienced something that was a little more than self-gratification."
"I’ll tell you what they experienced. At the moment of their deaths they were more alive than they were at any other time in their lives. I saw it in their eyes, up close, the last spark of consciousness. My hands around their necks, I felt the last of their blood rushing through their veins. I held them tight while they trashing about in the last struggle for life. I felt the final gasp of their breath on my face. This was my gift to them! I gave those useless slugs more than they had ever experienced before in those last few minutes of life." "No, Nuno, this was not ever about them. It was about you. About your brutality, about your inability to perceive the realities of others. About your selfish, mean existence. You took all this world had to offer, but that was never enough for you. You had to have more and more and more. And when you couldn’t get more you took it. The only trouble is that other people had to pay for your selfish desires with their lives. They had no say. You took their right to choose, and exist." "No, no it wasn’t like that." "Yes, Nuno, it was always like that." "No, no you’re changing everything, you’re warping everything. You..." "No, Nuno, your twisted closed mind won’t let you see things any other way. The truth is that you are a taker. It is you who must exploit, even the very lives of others, to try to fill the utter void at the center of your being. You have proven yourself to be worthless without the existence of all those around you. You take their lives because you have nothing to give... nothing to say." "No, no that's not the way it is! I’m better than all those people. They are nothing! They never have been anything. What are they? I’m the one, I’m the only one." "Well, Nuno you have your wish, your own little universe to do with what you like. So, it’s time for us to part. I wish you well in your solitary world." "No, no don’t go! John, don’t
leave me here alone again. I’m begging you. No, no, no!" "Session complete, May 2089.
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Just
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© Peter
J. Murphy, 1999
