They promised us eternal life
at the Schadenfreude Wholeness Centre:
“No Exits: Only Entries” –
such believable smiles
on the faces of the doc-bots.
We should have known there’d be a catch
when we thumbprinted over
‘cerebral autonomy’
but deliberate ignorance
is the last survival tool of those fit
enough for the brain-farms
of cyber science.
A paradox in 55 words for Friday Flash, inspired by Fireblossom Friday in The Imaginary Garden.
Anyone wishing to share their 55-worder, please leave a link in comments below.. and let's have a Kick-Ass weekend.
New Age meets cyber world and all of it goes way wrong. Hide your thumbs, is my advice.
ReplyDeleteOoh.. just had an idea. Gonna tweak a line.
Delete"deliberate ignorance" eats futures and hopes and will and... well, pretty much anything that can save a mind from others (and itself).
ReplyDeleteSeems an increasing reality these days.
DeleteI love the cerebral autonomy. Which we have now, but sadly are not using. Wonderful, Kerry.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we really do think for ourselves, given the amount of conditioning meted out by the media.
DeleteLoved how you used the word here.
ReplyDeleteWow. Future cyber horror. LOL I rarely listen to the news or read the paper so I guess I am safe from being conditioned. This was quite a funny and yet chilling read. Puts me in mind of "by the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes."
ReplyDeleteThere is some dark humour to be found in the future after all.
DeleteTotal dystopia in 55 words! Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteThere is a new version of hotel California in every generation...
ReplyDeleteYou can check in any time you want, but you can never leave.
Love the Hotel California reference... astute!
DeleteI was in mid comment when the weather turned sour - so I lost it all. :(
ReplyDeleteright - I was going to say, you've answered your own question, about media influence and how free we are --- for if you still question and think, then you are of your own free mind; of course, sadly, there are too many who blindly believe and follow, like sheep ... so there is that - but to always question and not accept everything at face value or as "truth" is a wise decision.
but on to the 55 -
I really love how you've taken your word and made it into something "concrete" - as in both place and concept; this is such a word perfect 55 - very Orwellian in tone, and it does speak of the now - as well as a very chilling future. Most excellent piece Kerry - harrowing in all aspects and definitely embodies the ambiance that is all pervasive and yes, ironic and paradoxical. An absolute calamity of a reality, but perfect concept and write.
My fear is that we think we are free to argue and think for ourselves but we don't have an idea in our heads that was not carefully placed there in a million small an indefinable ways.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat. I'm glad you enjoyed the snippet. This voice is working for me at present so I'm running with it.
I can see your point ... and it's a good one too ... but really, if this is going to be the case, then it all starts when, presumably, our mothers are crooning to us when in the womb? And never stops. Nurture triumphing over "nature" and instinct. Which is not a pleasant idea.
ReplyDeleteI guess, in some way, we're a combination of both - and if we're lucky, then, we find and discern ourselves and truths by selective experience.
It's a good voice to be running with at the moment; it speaks with a force, power and wisdom, as well as touch of the sardonic - it's refreshing!
Cerebral autonomy is a thing we have little of, although we might think otherwise. The rise and rise of the thought police and political correctness has put paid to that, and there is now a ‘right’ way to think and we deviate from this at our peril.
ReplyDeleteWe are constantly being dumbed down and supposedly (because of this) we are easier to rule, yet I think our world is dissolving in the chaos that this same dumbing down brings.
Anna :o]
I agree with you 100%
DeleteOh, this is so powerful in how this probable reality seems to be edging closer with time. This has perhaps been a product of the advent of mass media in which agenda setting and propaganda have been used as tools to influence and persuade, to provoke and dissuade. "Cerebral autonomy" and "doc-bots" create a science-fiction world and reminds me of Assimov.
ReplyDeleteA certain critique of the socio-political conditions being imposed today — this is more impacting in how it suggests the complacency of the masses through their "deliberate ignorance" in this process. Very well-penned.
skynet, the matrix, and now ... brain farms.
ReplyDeletemine would be tossed. seems i've confused a T for the M in farm too often.
Hehehe..
DeleteSci-fi is always a thrill...even when it ends badly. An insightful write.
ReplyDelete