By Maliq Johnson
School used to be a long and dreadful process. So it was only natural for the world to assume that being able to go through it instantly would be a great advancement for humanity. It would mean more time for individuals to follow their dreams, since learning how to do that would be almost instantaneous. However just like the Prohibition, sometimes ideals meant to bring about great good only enable evil.
Thom had always been told of the importance of his education. It is the one thing that nobody could ever take away from him. Those were the lessons of those who were from a past generation. Those people had to go through a process called school. It would take away about 18 years minimum from their lives before they could truly live. Thom pitied those people, but he had no idea why those people pitied him. How could those people feel bad for the one who was able to download his education. All he had to do was plug in and BOOM! A PhD in medicine by the age of 15, given that he would have a mandatory three year simulation. The only downside was the rumors of subliminal messages implanted by the government. The scariest part is that anyone could be living with those and not know. Some people debated whether or not this new option was just another method moving society towards government control.
However, the danger is involved with the process itself. Just like downloading software from an online source, there is always an off chance of a virus. In the unlucky case of Thom, he was one of millions who were unlucky enough to install that virus. The creator only harbored malicious intent to the development of the new world. As an anarchist, they feared the subliminal propaganda that also might’ve come alongside the education.exe file. Therefore they took it upon themselves to implant their own messages. They would not be very noticeable until a certain trigger signal would remotely activate them. Once that signal went off, there were three possible outcomes. The code, given that it was developed by a third party and not government tested, would simply kill the victim due to its incompatibility with their nervous system. The second outcome was rendering the patient braindead. The final, intended, outcome would be an unbeatable urge to revolt. Thom landed on the third option and found himself hating the world he lived in. Suddenly, he could find others like him, those who were normal but suddenly felt the need to revolt against their government.
It was almost the perfect crime. Once these changes were made to human biology, they were not easily reversed. The ideals of the hackers and anarchists would live on long after they were caught and executed. They used the very thing that they hated to win. With great strides come brand new weaknesses to acknowledge.
Gavel 