Cold Storage 2

"I've received a videomail from the manager of Air India," said Clive.  "It's about my
proposals for a solar powered aircraft which can land in snow.  I'm excited.  I'll use the
conversation button on my Iwatch so we can all see it."  The manager of Air India appeared.
"Dear Mr Collinson, your aircraft is especially slow.  The speed of the aircraft is only 35 miles
per hour.  Today you can fly from London to New Zealand in two hours.  You intended the
aircraft to be used as a freighter or short distance passenger transport.  In that case the
speed would not matter but the aircraft would always be limited to those applications.
While the runway would be no longer than that used for a standard aircraft, it would
have to be made very much wider owing to the huge wing span of the solar powered aircraft.
The runway would have to be a mile wide and a mile long.  This is not cost effective.  Your
main selling point is that I wouldn't have to heat runways to keep them ice free. Mr. Collinson,
it is not difficult to do this.  Runways in countries with an arctic climate are insulated
underneath and kept to a constant temperature of 4C.  This is not difficult to do even with
domestic central heating equipment.  While some fuel would be used to do this, it is tiny
compared to the amount of fuel used by an aircraft.  You have created a solution to an
imaginary problem.  While I admit that your aircraft requires no fuel, either flying above the
clouds to expose its solar panels to continual sunlight or gliding, there is no shortage of
aircraft fuel.  In fact, hypersonic aircraft run on fuel made with solar panels in deserts where
the electricity is used to electrolysise water.  They are effectively solar powered.  Helicopters
run on biofuel grown in laboratories.  While there are limited amounts of this, they are used to
carry freight or passengers short distances, so not much fuel is needed.  Mr. Collinson, could
I please advise you that your system is of no value and that you don't waste anymore time."
"I could take people for holidays in the aircraft itself," said Clive.  "Glide above the clouds at
night so people could look at the stars.  Put hydrofoils on it so it can land on the sea."

Suzie called her Work Tutor on the Iwatch.  The Work Tutor appeared in the corner of the room.
"Last year I applied for a job with the Education Department.  I received a reply saying I had
done really well.  I haven't heard anything since."
"You'll be kept on file," said the Work Tutor.  "You'll have to wait until there's a vacancy.  That
might be seven or eight years.  Even then, there's only one vacancy and thousands of
people on that file.  Think about it, you've been in full time education since you were five.
How many times have you ever needed me?"
"I've never spoken to you before."
"Just once in a whole lifetime.  So actually, the Education Department don't do very much.
If your having difficulty with Mathematics, your Iwatch can advise remedial work.  It can even
look at the marks you get for trigonometry and say, yes, just work hard on level 2
trigonometry, that's all you need, you understand the rest."
"People have got more empathy than machines," said Suzie.
"They have.  That's why I still have a job.  But how often do you really need to talk to a
person?  How often do you have a problem that a computer could never understand?"
"I'll go on my Personal Video Site," said Suzie.  "I'll advertise myself as a student counsellor.
I won't charge any money."
"What?"
"I'll improve my chances.  When a vacancy comes up, people will think of me, they'll know
who I am.  They'll pick my name out of the pile," said Suzie.
"But you'll spend years working without getting paid for it."
"I'll help people.  What else have I got to do with my time?"
"Young lady, let me tell you that I work for money.  Don't believe any crap you read in the
history books about people in the 21st century having job satisfaction.  You work so that you
never have to eat Swayvent.  You work so that you can have a big house with domestic help
instead of having to live in a little pod.  I live within walking distance of the airport.  I can hop
on a plane and go where I like.  Am I enjoying my day at work?  Not at all.  I enjoy being
rich and I hate being poor.  If you insist on working without being paid anything you are
insane.  Don't do it."

"Melinda," Ken said to his Iwatch persona, "I feel like committing suicide."
"Physician assisted euthanasia.  Maybe I can help."
"I didn't expect you to say that.  I'm ill.  I'm depressed.  I need a doctor.  For goodness sake,
can I talk to a human being and not to a machine?"  A man in a suit appeared in the corner.
"Hello Mr. Spoors, I'm Doctor Green."
"Are you a man or a robot?"
"They don't have robots anymore.  Melinda is a hologram.  I am a human being and you are
speaking to me in real time, it's not a recording."
"I want to kill myself," said Ken.
"Physician assisted suicide is perfectly possible.  Don't try to do it yourself, though.  Our
paramedics are very good at keeping people alive in the back of the helicopter.  You won't
die but you will cause yourself a great deal of pain."
"Doctor, I didn't want medical advice on ending my life.  I have depression.  It is an illness.
What is the treatment?"
"Ken, listen.  Hundreds of years ago we thought of depression as an illness.  We did surgery
to remove pieces of people's brains, we plugged their heads into the electricity supply and
gave them electric shocks, we used the same kind of tranquillisers the police used to control
violent criminals.  It was all very cruel.  Ken, if you want to kill yourself you are not ill.  You
simply have a different point of view.  You think your life is not worth living?  You could be
right.  Who am I to disagree?  Ken, a third of the population request volutary euthanasia.
Fair enough, the vast majority are over 100.  But if you request it when you're young your
friends will understand, especially if your circumstances are uncomfortable.  There's none of
the social stigma nowadays."
"Couldn't I talk to the Samaritans?"
"They're not around anymore.  Voluntary organisations are all gone.  No one does anything
without being paid."
"Couldn't I talk to you?"
"Talk to me Ken.  Why do you want to end your life?"
"I've woken up after nearly 600 years in cold storage in a world where any conversation
about religion seems to result in being interrogated by the police, no one can get a job,
everybody lives on horrible tasting Swayvent and voluntary work seems to be forbidden."
"I understand," said the doctor.  "You can either come to terms with that situation or ask for
your life to be ended."

Ken went back home and spoke to Suzie.
"I told the doctor that I felt like committing suicide.  He started talking about euthanasia."
"Ken, euthanasia is very normal here.  A quarter of people do it when they're old.  A tenth of
people do it when they're still quite young, and you're over 80.  It's like having an abortion
was in your lifetime.  That's why the doctor suggested it.  Why are you so unhappy?"
"The world you live in is a completely different place, Suzie.  I've got no chance of getting
a job at all but I've got to continually pretend that I want to work.  We've got no money.  We
never go out, and the world's entered another ice age so it's much too cold to go out anyway.
Unless you can fly to the tropics.  A few thousand people in this country are billionaires and
the rest of us are sleeping in tiny little cubicles and living on Swayvent."
"Why does that bother you?"
"It's inequality.  People should be equal."
"Why?  If someone has more money than you, how does that harm you?"
"It does harm you.  You feel a sense of injustice."
"If they're more successful than you and if they work harder than you why can't they have
more money?"
"Do they work hard at all?  Isn't the work just done by machines and holograms?"
"They still have to organise the work done by the machines and holograms."
"I'm a socialist Suzie."
"You think they should give their money away?  Well they do.  Two thirds of that money is tax
in one form or another."
"They've got enough left, haven't they?"
"And that makes you angry?"
"It makes my blood boil."
"What do you think they should do Ken?  What's the answer?"
"I don't know.  Here's my other problem.  Any conversation about religion seems to result in
someone calling the police."
"Not any conversation Ken, just the one that you had."
"The police are trying to control me, Suzie."
"All members of any society are controlled by someone.  Your church leaders in the 21st
century programmed you with all sorts of ideas about religion.  Think of your reeducation as
being like a software upgrade.  Ken, you have to play the game.  Do you not think Clive
knows that all his inventions are useless?  Do you not think that Harry knows that all the
flavours he puts in the Swayvent are disgusting?  But they play the game.  They pretend that
they want to work.  They pretend that they agree with everything they've ever heard said.  
Ken, go and do likewise.  Just play the game.  Just pretend.  It's all anyone can do."

A few years later Ken was in the final year of his theology degree doing his dissertation.  He
was wearing his Iwatch and typed on an imaginary keyboard he could see suspended in the
air.
"All the different religions of the world have the same things in common.  They believe in the
same commands.  They believe in life after death.  They believe that one day all wrongs will
be righted and the world will be a better place.  All religions point to this truth."  Then it felt
as if Jesus was standing in the room right in front of Ken.  Bible verses came back into Ken's
mind.  Jesus appeared to speaking to him.
"I am the alpha and the omega.  I am the beginning and the end.  I am the way, the truth and
the life.  No man comes to the father but by me."  Ken continued typing.
"If Jesus said he was the only way to God what did he mean?  Man is sinful.  He can't get to
God simply by doing good or saying his prayers.  Jesus died to pay the cost of man's sin.
We are saved through faith in his death on the cross.  All religions point to this truth but Jesus
is the truth.  What will happen to members of other relgions?  They don't go to Hell for being
the wrong religion.  We are all going to Hell anyway.  Religion can not save us."  As he was
typing there was a knock on the door.  Suzie opened the door to two policemen who came
straight in, handcuffed Ken, led him into the police helicopter and took him to the police
station.

"Mr. Spoors, your reeducation hasn't worked," said the sergeant.
"It worked for years until Jesus came into the room and stood right in front of me."
"Came into the room?  Stood right in front of you?  Could you see him?"
"No but he was there.  It was very real.  I could remember Bible verses and it was as if Jesus
was speaking them personally to me."
"Mr. Spoors, when we give you the medication these feelings will go away and they won't
trouble you anymore."
"I don't feel troubled, Officer, it was a tremendous experience."
"Yes it was a tremendous experience but it unbalanced you.  Go to your local clinic and your
doctor will give you an injection.  We won't take any action if you agree to do this."

Ken arrived at his local clinic.  There was Dr. Green.
"Hello Mr. Spoors," said the doctor.  "You look puzzled."
"Where's the waiting room?  Why aren't there any other patients?"
"Ken, it's the 27th century.  People are rarely ill.  I can vaccinate you against 300 common
diseases, including most cancers.  You don't need to book an appointment.  There's no
waiting room.  I just sit here reading medical books until the next patient comes along.
You're the third patient I've had today.  Busy day, today."
"Should I roll up my sleeve so you can give me the injection?"
"No, it's an aerosol.  I just press it on the back of your hand."
"Does it have to be on the back of my hand?"
"If you don't want it on the back of your hand I could inject it into your forehead."
"Couldn't you inject is somewhere else, Doctor?"  Ken looked terrified.
"Roll up your sleeve and I'll inject it into your arm if you like."  Ken rolled up his sleeve and
the doctor pressed the aerosol on to his arm.
"What is it that you've injected doctor?  Is it a drug or is it a machine?"
"They used to be happy pills.  It's the same chemical.  Now it's an injection that lasts for a
month.  You need to come back next month and I'll do it again."

Ken arrived home and spoke to Suzie.
"I feel great.  I love everybody.  The world is a beautiful place."  Suzie smiled.
"They've injected you with 500 milligrams of Senotex.  Senotex can turn a mass murderer
into a trustworthy child minder.  No police checks in the 27th century.  None needed."
"I'll finish my dissertation."  Ken turned on the invisible keyboard that hovered in the air and
continued typing.  He deleted the words he had written about other religions leading to Hell.
"God is love.  He loves everybody.  Jesus died for all the muslims, all the Jews and all the
Hindus of this world.  They confess their sins in prayer and he forgives them as well.  Jesus
died for the atheists who truly repents of their sins.  Hell is for those who have actively
deny their conscience and deliberately turned their back on anything good.  We are all
Christians unless we don't want to be."

A short time later Ken had an interview to become a church minister.
"Why do you want to do this?" asked the Bishop, who was wearing a huge pointed hat and a
long black robe.
"I'm a Nazarene.  It's something that's always been a big part of my life.  Then I did a degree
in Theology.  I'd like to be a church leader."
"How do you reconcile the differences between all the world's religions?"
"I think of the medieval painting of a ladder.  Jesus is at the top of the ladder and all the
people are trying to get up the ladder to him.  All the different religions of the world are at
different points on the ladder.  They may have their disagreements but they're all trying to
reach the same place.  They all aspire to the same moral principles.  They all believe that
there will be a day when wrongs are righted and the world is made perfect.  The Bishop
knew about Ken's problems with the police.
"Ken, is there a Hell?"
"Hell is for those who have deliberately chosen it, who deliberately turn their back on anything
good and only ever choose evil.  Jesus died for all the muslims, hindus and atheists of this
world.  Jesus will forgive anyone who repents of their sins."  The Bishop looked pleased.
"I have never heard such a powerful explanation of the faiths.  I will recommend you to the
Diocese of Sheffield."