The year is 2052. Human life on earth will soon end due to runaway climate change, acidic oceans, fresh water shortage, and a biological feedback loop which has been definitively confirmed by the world's top scientists. The truth of their findings, however, have been a tightly guarded secret by governments around the world.
World leaders debated their options endlessly at secret Bilderberg meetings, knowing their people would look to them for answers once the information spread. Billions of people seeking direction and vision.
What would you do?
It can't be reversed. It can't be stopped. Billions of people are going to die.
What can you do?
What's the humane thing to do?
The leaders and philosophers struggled to find an appropriate moral action. If they could prevent the suffering of billions, shouldn't they do it? Should they do something, even if they can't ultimately save lives?
Eventually, they devised a scheme to quickly, quietly, and painlessly end those lives, thus saving them from future misery. Their challenge was to accomplish something terrible, on a grand scale, while keeping it secret. They decided to create perfectly safe injections the majority of the population takes every year without question. Vaccines of all kinds for every ailment imaginable. The science of their safety having been settled long ago, everyone would be primed and ready for the moment when the leaders collectively decide to distribute that fateful, merciful dose.
Using a microcapsule technology developed in secret for decades, those in the know would not only be able to track exactly how many citizens are tagged and ready, they also have the ultimate kill switch. When activated, the capsules release their nano-robotic-toxins into the bloodstream, which travel to the brain and swiftly, quietly, and painlessly shutdown the nervous system.
No more pain. No more life.
Evolution moves on without us.
Except, of course, for those elite power brokers who can now implement their strategy for limited human survival. Like Dr Strangelove, but merciful and benevolent.
Im glad to see you care abput the world. Now look up climategate emails and spend a few days reading them to realize the "scientific consensus" has all along been a tool of the elites to lie to the public about the state of affairs and what we can do about it. Always remember that power is willing to do anything to maintain itself.
With that said. You are a good guy so im glad there arr people liek you who do think about these issues. I simply dont subscribe to their "humanity has no choice but to murder a large portion of the population" solution.
I believe (again read climategate emails) in fact that they use this as a means of controlling us..and ensuring the illusion of A) human incompetence, B) artificial scarcity that looks real, C) the blame on humam greed and incompetence on a grand scale for scarcity.
The bilderburgs meet every year tonfigure out how they will supress people like you and me...who are part of a new generation capable of creating everything humanity needs and taking us to the stars for the first time in human history. My two cents :)
Thanks for chiming in. :)
This is just fiction, so take it with a grain of salt regarding my own personal views about reality. That said, I certainly did salt it with some of my own views. That's what's fun about fiction, it lets us explore what's possible without having to get too bogged down in what's probable. Unfortunately, many in the real world don't have solid epistemologies and/or haven't studied how human brains work and how they consistently find meaning and make connections where there should not. For some good reads on that, check out Predictably Irrational and Thinking, Fast and Slow.
For some thoughts on scientific consensus and arguments from authority, check out this video. I've posted a couple times on climate change here and here. I currently think it's a real thing given the data I've read. Others are free to disagree with me, but when they do so on specific issues, I track down original sources (as much as possible) and look for counter arguments, then I weigh both sides to see which is more reasonable, rational, logical, probable, follows Occam's Razor, has the fewest biases, etc, etc, etc.
Unfortunately, for conversations like this, they are highly charged with emotion. If someone is claiming human activity is literally killing life on this planet, that's a serious moral claim. If others are claiming massive lying is going on to control millions of people, that's also a huge moral claim. We have trouble with these arguments and often revert to the primitive view that someone who disagrees must be immoral, ignorant, or stupid. I don't think you're any of those things and based on your kind words here, I think you've extended me the same courtesy. That said, when I look into criticisms regarding the claims about climate gate, it reminds me again of failures in human thinking and not hard, conclusive evidence. You and I could debate those finer points, but my hunch is it wouldn't matter because we've both read a lot of other stuff that supports our current positions.
To be clear:
Neither do I. :) I was painting a terrible picture to explore a warped-minded justification for something which is horrible. At the same time, if I was for sure going to die, I'd probably want to die peacefully instead of in a horrific zombie-like existence... so yeah, it was just a thought I had a couple years ago about vaccines where even if they are completely safe, they still present a systemic risk if we don't know exactly what we're injecting into our bodies every time.
I love this optimism. :)
Ironialy i remember writing something like this before i woke up to the realities of this stuff and i bet u if i posted it after you reading my post here, you would laugh.
I talked about how amazing it would be if all the people with an IQ of over 130 would all work together to build a new society...eith the wealthiest among us paying for it. It was on fb and my god if i didnt have many people giving me thumbs up...
Today i just chuckle at the ride i was about to be taken on...
It sure did feel like falling down the rabbit hole..
Oh, wow, fiction from you is always a welcome surprise, Luke :) This kind of gave off the same doom and gloom feeling from your other fiction from before, though the other one was more digitally themed if I remember correctly. The Kill Dose has great potential if you ever plan on making it a series. It's kind of like an anti-vaxxer's rallying cry :D
I actually wrote it from an "Yeah, I accept vaccinations are legit... but how could they still be used for something bad?" perspective.
Thanks for the feedback, Jed. Much appreciated. :)
It's a great take! And, one that I think isn't out of the realm of possibility. This is one conspiracy theory that really has legs, especially when you take into account the advancements in technology.
I wrote a version of this a couple years ago but didn't share it. I thought I might as well post it online somewhere to see if anyone finds it interesting.
Great apocalyptic vignette... but I would make a slight alteration. The "elite power brokers" wouldn't wipe out the populace. Power brokers seek to control, not destroy. Who wants to rule a world without proles? Even crazy Strangelove filled mine shafts with breeding stock and workers.
Yeah, I tried to put a compassionate spin on it. Some of the worst evils are carried out by people who actually believe in their own intentions as being good.
Man, it's been a long time since I've seen that movie. :)
I just loved the reference. What a classic :)