Thought Experiment #9

Welcome to Thought Experiment #9.

At the beginning of each second month, a thought experiment question will be tweeted under the hashtag #ThoughtExperiment and everyone is invited to participate with their own posts, these will then go live together on the 15th of the next month (you can still join in after this date). Below is the question asked for this Thought Experiment.

You’ve arrived at Firearto, better known as ‘Earth 2.0’, an exo planet located over 200,000 light years away. As you walk down the exit corridor of your spaceship along with another million colonizers you think to yourself: What will I do here? Firearto is a planet that has no monetary system, all of your needs are provided for by FSY (Firearto Space Corp). How will you live your life?

As always tweet @SavingNinja if you have participated and I’ll add your post to the list below!

SavingNinja

Othalafehu

Merely curious

A brave new world, with the time to explore it. That was the marketing slogan that FSY has thrown around for the last century. Every 5 years a new ship leaves Earth with around 1 million colonists on board and begins what will be a 100 year and 200,000 lightyear journey towards what everyone thinks will be their new life of bliss. A life filled with adventure and relaxation with the time to smell the flowers on a pristine, unravished, new planet. That’s if we humans don’t destroy it in the 100 years that it takes to get there! We have a knack for that.

FSY’s biggest trick up their sleeve is FOMO; fear of missing out. No one wants to be left on a dying rock whilst everyone else is over on Earth 2.0 having all of the fun. FOMO is what happened to me. 5 years ago my 65-year-old parents eloquently announced at their retirement party that they had been accepted by FSY on the next Firarto coloniser ship and would be leaving in the following month. GREAT was the first thought that popped into my head. . . No inheritance for me. Part of the FSY enrollment plan requires you to donate all of your earthly assets to them to help fund your journey, “You won’t be needing them where you’re going,” they assure you.

Beyond the shock of my inheritance going ka-poot was the extra-double shock of realising that I’d never see my parents again. In fact, I’d almost definitely be dead from old age before they even woke up from the FSY cryogenic sleep tanks.

“We want to taste the fresh air again,” was their lazy excuse for why they’d skip out on seeing their grandkids grow up. Yeah, yeah, I thought; you just want some peace and quiet!

After a tearful goodbye to two giddy 65-year-olds and going back to work for the season, a lot of emotions began to whack me off balance. Do I really want to continue working for the next 20 years? Should I be content with monotonously clocking in and clocking out of my death cubical like an emotionless, very tired, cyborg? Only to get home and have no energy to do anything other than sit with my family like a potato and watch shitty TV?

NO.

That Brave New World poster was starting to look a hell of a lot more attractive. I didn’t want my parents to be living it up on the party planet whilst I stewed in my grave after living a long and laborious life of work and misery. So, I signed my family up to the next coloniser voyage - and was accepted!

The Beginning of the Rest of our Lives

I rubbed my tired eyes as I stood in the exit lobby waiting to disembark. My whole body ached - sleeping for 100 years will do that to you. All of my family were standing next to me in their FSY issued jump-suits and jackets. I felt like a newborn child seeing the world for the first time. As I looked around at the other colonisers, I realised that they all had similar doe-eyed looks on their faces. Elation bubbled up from my stomach, I was almost dizzy with excitement.

BEEEEEP . . . BEEEEEP . . . BEEEEEP . . .

The whole ship rattled as the huge exterior door began to vent steam at the hinges and slowly partition. The cabin was instantaneously flooded with a brilliant sunlight as everyone gasped in unison. The first thing I glimpsed was green, a whole lot of green. There was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see, beautiful vistas of lakes and mountains in each direction. Firearto had an abundance of resource packed asteroids and moons in the neighbouring vicinity. All of the resources the inhabitants needed were shipped in from external entities, leaving Firearto’s landscape beautifully unravished.

A million ideas flooded into my head of what our new life could be like. I felt lucky - tremendously lucky to have such a beautiful planet to explore and be a part of. I also felt connected; connected to every single person living here, they were my fellow explorers. We came here together; to live a happier life. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my days helping my companions grow our new life here, exploring the beautiful landscape together, and living a life of bliss in unison.

When back on Earth, all I wanted to do was to get away from society. Now all I wanted to do was be a part of it. Wiping the slate clean of all of the worldly wrongs and resentments left a single human emotion. The powerful yearning to belong.