Humanities Choice

In the earth’s final election the two front candidates are anything but human. Nearly fifteen years ago humanity decided to hand over the reigns. Not to an outside force, of course, that would be un

Clancy Felson had been a college professor for nearly fifteen years. He was in his mid-forties, and loved the routine of his days. He’d get up at 6:50am every morning, would get ready for work, eat breakfast, which was usually either scrambled eggs, 3 whites and one yoke, with a side of toast, or a small bowl of grapenuts with a spoonful of brown sugar. Now, he’s not a complete serial killer, as his breakfasts did change time to time. After Christmas and Easter he’d dice up a little leftover holiday ham and add it to his eggs. If he felt a little spicy, he’d add some hot sauce. After his morning routine he’d leave for work usually around 7:35 am, and arrive at his office a quarter to eight. He had lived in his suburb house since he had graduated with his doctorate fifteen years back. He had never moved, nor had the desire. Women had been far and few between in Clancy’s life, but lately he was seeing one of his former students, and had been for nearly two years. Clancy had moral adversity towards dating a former student, but they quickly disappeared once Fiona took an interest in him. He definitely was breaking the age rule of dating: divide your age in half, and add seven, that’s the youngest you can date. She was only 25, nearly half his age, but she was very mature, and when he introduced her to his friends they never teased him about her age after.
    Clancy had two classes he taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two more on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He was one of two professors at the University of Boston that specialized in his field of political science. Clancy’s specialization was in the rises and falls of political disinterest, distrust, and discontent. A gloomy field that was full of riots, revolutions, and revolts. He had always had an interest in politics, but never a real interest in participating directly. He started his undergraduate degree in psychology, but when he stumbled across a paper about what humans found most important when deciding who a leader should be, both subconsciously and consciously, he found his calling in political science. His continuation of schooling was just a natural side effect of his quest for knowledge.

    Once Clancy got to his office his morning began the same as it had been for the past four months, he began collecting data, and researching the recent happenings in today's political atmosphere. The largest election in the history of humanity was poised to begin with its first debate later that night, and it had kept him busy collecting pre-debate poll data. But now, the first real look at the candidates was just hours away. The public had been kept in the dark, and the entire world was ready. The broadcast of the debate was speculated to reach nearly five billion individuals, the largest in human history. At first glance, the involvement of the public, the excitement of the people of earth seemed to leave little for Clancy to study. But when you looked at the front runners in the polls coming up to the first debate it was obvious that political discontent was the primary fuel of today’s political engine. For the first time humans had the ability to pick something besides another human to become the chancellor of earth. It was not an all powerful position, but a position that resembled that of presidents, chancellors, and prime ministers, of late first millennium, and early second. Humanity had put the right to vote for intelligence besides humans on a ballot nearly fifteen years ago, and as soon as it was passed many of the world’s powers began to create their versions. Some failed, some attempts were laughable, but a few were anything but. The front runner in the pre-debate polls were a lovable creature standing a little over six feet and three inches tall. He resembled a cross between a golden retriever and a human, Vorex was the main sponsor behind its creation, and had named him John Dover. He was only ten years old, but was fully matured, and since the beginning of his creation fifteen years ago there had been buzz about this canine-type creature. It was said to have hyper-intelligence, but the kindness and compassion towards man, as a race, as our favorite companion the dog. Some of the canine’s ad campaigns stressed our continual breeding of dogs for the past thirty thousand years as an indicator of the sheer kindness and compassion their candidate possessed. The candidate coming in second in the pre-debate polls was that of machine, built by A&M, Alpha Jackson. It had a mechanized body that also stood six-three, which was by no accident, with bright blue orbs for eyes. Its body was completely for show, as its processor, or brain, was tucked in a location only known by a few. Many recent ads from the Mech’s party stressed its intelligence, its quickness in action, and its overall tact in social situations.

There had been a centralized government for the entirety of the world since the first contact with outside intelligence nearly a thousand years prior to Clancy and his political science doctorate. The contact wasn’t physical, but a message received via transmission. The sentient life was nearly five hundred light years away, and physical travel had been out of the question for nearly five hundred years after first contact, but after relaying messages back and forth the two met, at the edge of our galaxy. Many scientists, and theorists assumed this would be a time of great technological advances. It was a time of advances, but the major breakthroughs took nearly another four years to come about. Now in Clancy's time humanity had terraformed Mars completely, augmented earth’s own atmosphere, worked out many machines that harness gravities energies, and cured most discernible diseases. Age was infact merely a number for most as rejuvenation was a widespread practice in the richer areas of human domain. Teaching techniques had changed, facts were easily downloaded. There were no tests, but instead class was primarily used to go over the material, make connections between facts, and enhance understanding of the material. It was easy to download the fact that the revolution that split the United States in the sixth century of the second millennium started because of divide against the use of eugenics, but it isn’t so simple to download what would be received by watching videos from the time, the ideals that the people had, the general feel of the time, and it was much easier to make connections between past events to current events through conversation.

    It was mandatory to come to class with the latest poll data downloaded to your personal memory chip, but even so many students wouldn’t have it prior to class. Clancy had settled with bringing his own copy, and have it ready before class. He knew the students that downloaded the information right before class wouldn’t have the time to fully digest the information, but the show must go on, and semi-knowledgeable students were better than completely ignorant ones.

“Alright, time for class.” Clancy said as he moved to the front of the podium where at least a few professors still stood.

“Did most of you get the data in time?” Clancy had seen before class who did or didn’t, but said it still to be polite.

“Today we are doing something a little different, we are going to have an open forum for discussion onto which you can display any thought you have on the current debate in regards with the information discussed so far for this class.” Clancy took a long pause to look around. It always seemed as if half of the class wasn’t with him, they were so distant it didn’t even seem like they were there physically. Using brain implants other than memory chips was frowned upon in class, but some of the early twenty somethings never seemed to care. They sat, their eyes locked onto their professor, almost life like, but Clancy knew, any professor that had taught more than a year knew that stare. No matter what app the students downloaded, no matter how it well it mapped movement, how well it guaranteed the authenticity of the movements displayed to mimic an active listener, they all were easily rooted out by Clancy and his colleges.

Guys, lets get off our devices, and have an appropriate conversation for a senior level class.” Clancy knew he had an up-hill battle to get the kids invested, but he had some practice and knew just how to do it.

“We’ll start off with a real barn burner of a question. Who do you believe will be the frontrunner in the polls after the debate?” Clancy finished, and there was an obvious awkward silence, but Clancy knew that he could last longer in the silence than his class. A hand shot up from one of the regulars, a skinny boy that seemed rather lonely, never coming in or leaving with anyone.

“Yes, you in the second row.”

“After the public sees first hand how life-less Alpha is, Dover is going to sore in the polls even higher.” His voice was filled with feverish haste that was a direct window into his social anxiety.

“Like hell.” Muttered a large student from a few seats back. The student looked at Clancy, and all Clancy had to do was nod to egg him on.

“Intelligence and the ability to communicate is all we need to head up the United World Alliance. And that’s what Alpha has to offer.” As soon as the young man stopped talking the entire class erupted into chatter that seemed completely indistinguishable from just that.

    The time all participants spent in class seemed to pass at the highest speed as they conversed over the possibilities of the night’s debate. As soon as the class was over Clancy an hour break before the next. His second class went much like the first, and without much hold up Clancy  was back in his office watching the latest coverage concerning the impending debate. A majority of the world had a vested interest in the upcoming debate, many thought that a human would still be elected at the end of the election, 58% enfact. Clancy knew that this election was going to be the summit of his life’s work. This election, and the information gathered was going to be the foundation of his largest, most important scholarly journal. Clancy knew, that if done right, this paper had the potential of ascending the megar corner of political academia that he resided, he full heartedly believed that it could become as mainstream as the debate itself. Thoughts of grandiose were a regular in Clancy’s life, and he never seemed to have ill effect from such ideas. He was very good at rationalizing negatives, and even when his plans didn’t come to fruition, he never bothered himself to place blame on himself. Those thoughts of grandiose became reality as he sat in his office live streaming the CNN-FOX network to his neural-visual implant. His live coverage was automatically muted as he answered the call

“Hello there, Dr. Felson.” Said the voice from the other end of the line.

“Well hello there. What may I do for you Mr. Washington.” Clancy said not knowing exactly who was on the other line, but he knew where the call was coming from since it was displayed alongside the number.

“I’m Daniel Rocksen, and I’m calling you to invite you, as our special guest tonight for the first debate that will help decide the next Chancellor of Earth, would you be interested in that?” Daniel knew who he was talking to, and knew that he would be more than interested. Since the early 4000’s even the largest public events were invite only when it came to the Chancellor of Earth. The earth had never been a peaceful place, and all the technology of the newer age only made the hostilities more dangerous.

“Well certainly, I’ll have to go to the terminal right away if I want to make it in time.”

“Don’t worry about any of that, a vehicle is waiting at your house.”

    Clancy’s trip was short, but he still managed to find four people to tell about his upcoming attendance to tonight’s debate. Watching their faces fill with excitement was mirrored by his own emotions. When he wasn’t talking about it, he was looking up the reactions he was getting on his social media accounts to the news. He had over 150 likes, and nearly a 100 comments on his original breaking of the news by the time he was in Washington DC, just a little over an hour and a half after he received the call. The screening session was short, and he was one of the first inside the large auditorium. There were a few small groups of people, who looked to mostly be reporters, up near the front. Clancy was slightly inverted, but the chance to share his experience with others outweighed the slight negatives he experienced. He was quick to make his way to the smaller of two circles, and as he approached a man with a nicely trimmed beard turned to greet him.

“And who might you be?” The man asked long before Clancy expected him.

“Clancy Rocksen from Boston University, and yourself?”

“I’m Daine Johnson, from Broadcast Channel 3.” Daine said as he closed the distance between the two by taking a step out of the circle of journalists, professors, and career politicians. As Clancy and Daine shook hands, Daine pulled Clancy in close and whispered,

“Some of the most powerful people in the world are here, if you want to rub elbows, make sure yours are clean.” Clancy didn’t have anything to say in return, and gave his new found friend a pat on the back before introducing himself to the rest of the group.

    The group shared pleasant small talk about the election until someone came out on stage. The announcer didn’t even have to try to get anyone attention, as all three groups stopped conversing as he approached the center of the stage.

“Please take your seats, the rest of the audience will be in shortly.” The man said and turned back to go from whence he came. It wasn’t even ten seconds after his announcement that the back doors were opened, and people started to pour into the auditorium. It was an odd scene, as floods of middle aged and older men and women, most having white hair came to claim their seats. The excitement that filled the auditorium could have been likened to that of a youth concert’s excitement . As the candidates firstly stepped on stage, not but ten minutes after everyone had been seated by the ushers the room filled with applause. It was loud, it was thunderous, as everyone who was participating knew they were making history. The large mechanic man was dressed in a well tailored black suit, with an orange tie, the color of world neutrality. Before the debate there had been much speculation on if A&M would sport a hyper realistic human face on Johnson, as it walked out onto the stage it’s face glimmered in the bright lights, polished and chrome. A&M had put in a lot of research into their decision, and it turned out the world population saw a fake face as devious, and underhanded. The physical face itself also polled negatively, as it was reported to reside in the Uncanny Valley, or where human imitation came off as disconcerting. As Alpha Johnson made his way to the podium across the stage, he scanned the crowd, his eyes darting from human to human. Alpha gave a nod and a wave at the crowd as he took his place behind his podium, and just as it did Vorex’s, John Dover made its his way on the stage. As soon as he did Clancy noticed the creatures eyes had a sense of worry in them. Dover was much less graceful than his mechanised counter-part, he seemed perpetually crouched, as if he would drop to his hands and start walking on all fours any second. Besides these noticeable negatives, the crowd erupted as he made his way to the stand. Dover’s looked to be an affectionate creature, something you’d want to spend time with, and for Clancy, that was the only positive he had over his mechanized counterpart.

    It didn’t take long for the apparent mental mismatch to become evident to everyone in the room.The longer Alpha talked, the more the confidence that had always been there, became much more impressive. It was nearing the end of the debate, and some of the most heated exchanges were taking place on the most important issue facing humanity, colonization of other worlds, which required the focus of earth’s highest tier of government, the Earth’s Embassy’s to start the daunting process.

“Some personal luxuries may have to be cut, but by the end of the decade, XR-028 could be supporting human life, and by the end of the century it could be completely independent from Earth!” Alpha finished and the crowd erupted into crashing applause.

“Now, I never said, well I never said, it’d be free.” Dover stammered, but Alpha didn’t give him any time to make a fool of himself. Alpha had seen this outcome from the beginning, and had been leading the dance ever since.

“Now, you don’t have to be so feverish, Dover, I won’t expose your lack of know-how on world finance just yet.” Alpha said as he looked over at Dover, as he had done several times before, locking his eyes directly onto the hybrid-type creature. As an audible growl from the canine was heard around the world, many fell silent. The truly barbaric moment had massive repercussions in the polls. In three weeks Alpha was the frontrunner by 21 point, with an error of 3.

Reviews

[Hannah]

This was.... interesting, for lack of a more fitting word. I like the idea. It felt a little sparse when it comes to fine details that make reading more enjoyable, but not bad. I echo what Vic said about the opening. It turned me off from reading further, but luckily I did and enjoyed the rest.

[Kristopher Fandrich]

Thank you for your time, I appreciate your input! I will try to add more detail in replacement of boring lists of situational 'facts' in my future writing!

[Vic]

Wow, this is a very interesting idea. It is very creative. It was also easy to read. Thank you. The only thing I had a bit of trouble with was the opening. It felt a bit like the narrator was just reading facts as opposed to telling the story.

[Kristopher Fandrich]

Thank you so much for your feedback! It means the world, and I see where you are coming from with the opening. I do that time to time in my writing, and am actively trying to fix it.