Over the course of this semester, I chose to look at a variety of aspects about science fiction. However, if I had to finalize all of my searches into one concise theme, I would say that the theme would be enjoyment. I decided to try and figure out why people enjoy science fiction and what they enjoy most about it. This led to my search being centered around larger science fiction projects, such as Star Wars. Additionally, I enjoyed looking at the video game industry and how fans reacted to titles becoming more science fiction based, such as Call of Duty. If you strip away some of the larger words that dominate the visualization, you can begin to see the answer to my overall search. Words such as worlds, technology, infinite, earth, adventure, and love have led me to conclude that people enjoy science fiction due to its ability to translate one’s own experiences into an alternate reality.

Remote Learning

The morning air was still. Out of all the days I had been on this planet, this morning seemed to be the calmest, but I knew that it wouldn’t last. Day 30 I’ve been told always brings some twist that you can’t prepare for, some deeper message that they want you to take away. This being my first lecture, I didn’t know what to expect.

            “Lex, you still alive in there?” A concerned face opens the door to my room. “Thought you might have left us last night, heard you coughing a lot.”

            “I’m all good Jack, thanks. Just a slight cold, that’s all.” To be honest, I wasn’t sure it was a slight cold. The cold had been eradicated for almost a hundred years now and the only knowledge I have of it was from what I read in my intro to diseases course from high school. I wish I could go back to classes that were like that, normal ones. But then again, when else am I going to get to experience Earth?

            “Well hurry up and get dressed then, we are going scavenging this morning.”

            “Don’t we already have enough supplies?” I look around at shoebox of a room complete with just enough to keep me alive for the time I was supposed to be here. “And it is day 30 so not like it matters really.”

            “Everyone wants to try and keep the authentic feel for one last day, come on!” He darts out of the room. “Meet us by the subway stop when you’re ready!”

            Groggily I got up from the grey twin mattress I had and got ready for the day. The clock read March 6^th, 2021. I chuckled. I got up and started cooking breakfast, but stopped half way through because of a stomach ache. “I knew I should have cooked that chicken longer last night,” I scolded myself. I had never actually cooked or eaten chicken before last night as they were not brought with humanity during the Move, so I gave myself a break. I decided to skip breakfast and got dressed. My clothes seemed to be nothing more than rags at this point, but luckily, I had stumbled across a thick winter coat on day four so the cold winter air was somewhat bearable. Some of the others hadn’t been so lucky and we lost two to hypothermia last week in a bad storm. I assume they’ll be starting again tomorrow, day one. Day one is always the worst.

            I went downstairs and outside to the subway stop, but the group had begun moving down a street named 5^th Avenue that was adjacent to a large park. Even though I was surrounded by tall, concrete towers, I still was able to catch a slight scent of pine from park, something that I have only smelled artificially before.  The breeze and sun felt so fresh, so natural, something most people can only dream about where I’m from. I walked behind the group for a while, feeling no need to catch up. Along the way we passed many familiar sights: abandoned cars, broken windows, trash covered sidewalks. “No wonder we left,” I thought to myself. Ahead, I could see that the group had stopped so I ran to catch up to them. Running felt, different, though and I wasn’t quite sure why. “Must be the cold,” I thought so I kept going. As I got closer, I could see Jack arguing with another member of the group.

            “We can’t go in there, it’s too dangerous. We need to stay authentic, people here would never had dared go past that.”

            “Who cares its day 30! What are they going to do, fail us for taking a slight risk? Maybe people had to risk going into these places in the past.”

            I wasn’t sure what they were arguing about until I got closer. Ahead of us on the road was an abandoned army medical facility. I remember having heard about these makeshift hospitals from a local. Apparently, they were brought in by the old US government to try and alleviate the hospitals, but most just ended up turning into morgues by the time they were set up.

            “Screw it, I’m going in.” The young man who had been arguing with Jack darted ahead of the group, laughing as he went. We all looked around at one another and shrugged.

            “Well, alright I guess. In we go.” Jack said.

            The inside of the camp was not a pretty sight. Most vital supplies were taken when the army pulled out and fled to the South where it was warmer and safer and the rest was likely already taken by other groups who had been left. The one thing that had not been taken was the sheets off of the beds. They were covering things that no one wanted to see. As we continued walking through the tents, I began to feel weaker and weaker and my cough was getting worse. I sat down to try and catch my breath.

            “You sure you are ok?” asked Jack.

            “I think so… but I’m not… sure…”

Then everything went black.

I woke up back in my bed, Jack sitting next to me. I felt cold and weak. I guess this is what people used to call getting sick.

            “You passed out in the tents so we brought you back here,” said Jack. “Thought you weren’t going to wake up.”

            “I’m not sure what’s happening, but I think I have it.” A local I had met on day twenty-three called what happened, “Ano” but never said exactly what it was. Maybe people hadn’t figured out what it was before it got severe. “You shouldn’t be near me.”

            “It’s a little late for that, some of the others are already showing symptoms,” Jack said. “Shame, we almost made it. Looks like we might be going back to day one.”

            “Hate for it to end this way,” I said through a cough.

            “I’ll grab you some water,” said Jack, but before he left the room I shut my eyes again and drifted off.

            I woke up again, slightly dazed, but quickly came to my senses. I immediately noticed I was no longer in my shoebox of a room. “Shit. This can only mean one thing,” I thought to myself. I reached up on the top right of my head and removed the small circular disc from my temple. As I did, I caught a glimpse of a clock that read: March 6^th, 2221. A voice came across the PA system.

“Colby, Alexa. Please report to room 102b of the administration hall for your debrief.” I got up from the bed I had laid down in 30 days prior. I was still in the learning center and had to go to the pod over where administration was. I left my room and made my way down the silver, bare hall, past the other ninety-nine student rooms. Some rooms were empty, some were not. “At least I made it farther than some others,” I thought. As I left the learning center and entered the hallway to go to administration, I saw the red landscape for the first time in thirty days. It had been over a hundred and fifty years since humanity abandoned Earth, but we still couldn’t figure out how to live outside. The hallway smelled like pine trees, but I knew it wasn’t real.

I entered administration and went to room 102b where a woman sat waiting for me.

“Take a seat,” she said with a smile. I sat down and before I could open my mouth she said, “How did it feel to be sick?”

“Not great… do I have to go back?” I asked, this being the only question on my mind.

With a smirk she said, “Why? You completed the lesson entirely.”

“I did? But I died?”

“Yes, but what did you learn?”

I pondered this question for a moment. “I learned what being sick is like?” I said unsurely.

“Yes, you did. In fact, you died from sickness. Remember on day twenty-three you met a local man and he told you of the Ano virus?”

I shook my head yes in response.

“Well, that was what you had. This was the first of the seven illnesses that caused humanity to abandon Earth. The purpose of that lecture was to teach you what being sick was like and why we cannot allow new sicknesses to appear.”

“You mean that there are six more of those situations I have to go through?”

“Yes, in fact you are scheduled to begin another lecture tomorrow with the other students who passed.”

I thought of Jack and how he was likely slowly dying of Ano right now.

“Once you complete those you will be done with History 101.”

I sat back, mixed with emotions. Another six times I would have to go through this. I couldn’t help but think if this was all worth it, but beyond that, if humanity had made the right choice; running away from these illnesses instead of trying to cure them. Was this trapped lifestyle on Mars really worth being free of sickness? Maybe I could find the answers to these questions in my next lecture.

The woman across from me studied my face as I pondered these questions. After a minute of allowing me process what was going on she asked, “Ready to start again?”

Henry Savage – World Science Fiction – 2/28/20

Information Dependent Society

If you were given the ability to know everything in the world, would you take it? Every mathematical equation, every piece of art you came across, you would know. However, with this comes an unforeseen price. You would know if you should or shouldn’t try learning the guitar, everyone you meet you would already know, everything you would do would lack the excitement and fear you get from stepping outside your comfort zone. In Codemus, by Tor Åge Bringsværd, this concept is explored through the main character Codemus and his all-knowing, efficiency driven companion, Little Brother. The main plot behind the short story is that little brother “malfunctions” one day and Codemus spends the day being “inefficient” as he is led around by Little Brother. What this story reveals is that society has become entirely dependent on their little brothers and sisters to tell them how to best live their lives. In this essay, I look to examine the connections between Codemus, Little Brother, and society and how it can be translated to our reality.

The theme for the story is introduced to the reader immediately as Bringsværd describes the city as a machine (Bringsværd 770). Bringsværd writes in his opening paragraph, “The city is a machine, smooth and harmonious…Every gear knows its function” (Bringsværd 770). The description of the city in which Codemus resides paints an image of a world without creativity, without free thought. Everyone knows exactly what to do and is told exactly how to do it via their little brothers. Beyond the imagery that this kind of writing puts into one’s head, Bringsværd does an excellent job of making the reader feel cold, empty and machine like if they were to be dropped into this dystopia. He uses colors like grey, white and black to instill this feeling into his readers (Bringsværd 770). This concept of the machine-like city arguably can be felt in our own reality. At times, people are forced to almost mindlessly walk through life, being guided by applications on their phones and computers to make sure they are most efficiently using their time. This connection between people and being instructed what to do is where our society and this dystopian one really begin to collide.

In Codemus, the relationship between Codemus and Little Brother gives rise to similarities in our own reality. Bringsværd does a good job of humanizing Codemus to the reader in the beginning of his story. Beyond the basic description of him, one of the first characteristics Codemus conveys to us is frustration. On page 771, Codemus asks Little Brother multiple times for the time, but is unable to trigger a response. Frustrated, he sweeps the box onto the floor. This further humanizes Codemus as when he realizes what he has done, he feels bad and goes to pick Little Brother up and says, “I didn’t know what I was doing. Little Brother…” (Bringsværd 772). The ability for Codemus to be humanized allows the reader to connect with him and better understand what it would like to live in this society. Further, based upon the series of events Codemus has when not being told the time, it is evident just how dependent this society is on their little brothers, as without them, they don’t even know the time of day. After that, Codemus picks Little Brother up and says, “Well, at least you’re not dead” (Bringsværd 772). This prompts a very important question; is a machine alive? At times in our society, it may feel that some of our technology, specifically our phones, are “alive” because of everything they do for you. When one drops their phone, it could be viewed that the reason they get so nervous about it being broken is because they care about it and all the things that the phone does for them. In this society, where their lives are essentially determined by these machines, this reaction seems justified and understandable.

Beyond the initial relationship we see between Codemus and Little Brother, we further learn about the dependence that this society has on their little brothers through the main adventure that takes place. The adventure that takes place is when Codemus and Little Brother travel to a park that they normally only visit on Sundays. Here, after Little Brother convinces him to relax and lay down, it says, “he didn’t have a guilty conscience. Codemus didn’t have any conscience at all” (Bringsværd 775). This statement is striking, as in our society, it would seem that everyone has a conscience and knows what is right and what is wrong. However, in this one, where every decision is made for them, it would seem that each person’s little brother is essentially their conscience. This can be seen shortly after, as when a young woman appears, Little Brother ends up telling Codemus to marry her. In our society, this is a big decision and people usually take years before they are ready to take that step because it takes time to know if that is what you want to do. However, since Codemus doesn’t have a conscience and Little Brother essentially acts like his, when he is told to marry her he does not really give it much thought and is not nervous about the decision. Codemus evens blurts out, “Wait! I only want to marry you!” (Bringsværd 777). This may be an extreme exaggeration of our own society, however, with the access to things like Google that seems to have the answer to any question, one may eventually find themselves typing in the question: when should I get married?

            Codemus contains many resemblances of our own society, even if they are exaggerated. When this story was written in 1967, people weren’t sure what the future of technology would hold. The idea that technology could entirely control our lives by the 2040s was still very possible and arguably has come true. While now the prospect of a society like the one in Codemus seems far-fetched, the ideas Bringsværd had do relate to things we see in our modern society. People now seem dependent on their phones for information and to stay in the know. Google can answer any random question you may have and give advice. Computers and internet seem like they are in all homes in developed countries. This story reveals some scary truths about our society and it is not out of the realm of possibility that our society evolves into the one in Codemus or one like it.

Works Cited

Bringsværd, Tor Åge. “Codemus.” Translated by Steven T. Murray. The World Treasury of Science Fiction, edited by David G. Hartwell, Little Brown and Company, pp. 769-81.

What attracts present day consumers to visit movie theaters to pay to see the latest science fiction films? Is it the new visual effects? Interesting plots? Maybe a favorite actor? Whatever it might be, this article will find it. This week, I will discover what continuely drives people to go see these movies and what key features of SciFi have attracted audiences to come back for more.