I felt it was important to begin with someone recognisably of your own time, which was towards the end of what came to be called the ‘necrotech age’, or just ‘necrotech’

   Bony Bailey suffered from a deprivation sickness which was common in the materially over-burdened sections of society in necrotech. The main symptom in her case was dependence on food and drink containing substances which provide intense sensations of pleasure or comfort. She was typical of a necrotech individual in that she lived enclosed in her mind. She also – and this was less common but not unusual – held the whole world in her mind. This was an attitude called ‘globalism’ by the few who warned of its dangers, and it caused a person’s conception of the world to shrink. Phrases such as ‘the global village’ and ‘one world’ reflected this attitude, as did images of the planet hanging in space. Globalism was encouraged by those with power over the economy, which was increasingly global and unrestrained, and brought about cultural and ecological homogenisation. It was accentuated by global threats such as nuclear war and disruption of the biosphere. People like Bony often felt personal guilt over the problems of the world, and saw saving the world as their own responsibility. The ‘Pattern Mathematics’ Bony was developing is a marvellous conception. It does indeed have saving potential. But not for people still enclosed in their mind space. Now we shall leave Bony and move on.

   I am going to have to take you over some giant strides forward in time between the shifts. To help you across I am including as much superficial account of what happened in the meantime as I think you will need to land safely.

   During your lifetime, and that of Bony Bailey, the necrotech age was drawing to a close. That age is the entire period from the emergence of the human species from their hominid forebears to your present. The name means ‘death-based technology’, and refers to the dependence of mankind on energy derived from the combustion of dead organic materials; from wood-burning cooking fires through to the fossil fuel based technology of your times. It also refers to the use and abuse of materials and processes – whether they are obviously living like trees and chickens, or apparently non-living like water and rock – as if they are unaware and disposable.

   We shall be moving on into the age called ‘bionecrotech’, and after that to the biotech age. The biotech age proper is the period when combustion had been replaced by the technological equivalent of respiration and decomposition, and many other processes, materials and structures which life makes possible: the technologies of life instead of those of death. The bionecrotech age is the transitional period between necrotech and biotech, when fossil fuels were replaced by newly-grown biofuels, which were then still burnt to produce energy in order to power similar machinery to that in use during necrotech, and when biotechnology had not progressed beyond the crude tampering called ‘genetic engineering’. Just to complete this simple division of humanity’s story into ages: after the biotech age came the pattern age, which was oceanic in its extent, and after that the completion age, which is my time. I shall tell you of those as we near them.

   I shall now tell you something of what happened between necrotech and bionecrotech: the time of the next subject, whose name is Fred Drakely.

   From the perspective of Fred and his contemporaries, what happened was the collapse of human society, locally and globally. Viewed on a large scale the collapse involved wars, famines, disease epidemics and a devastating environmental crisis, brought about by the prevailing economic model, which, like a fire, was spreading its devastation, consuming life on earth, but still failing to grow fast enough to provide new jobs for workers replaced by automation, or by their industries moving to parts of the world where there was cheap and compliant labour to exploit.

   The signs of the collapse visible on a large scale, and occasionally generating some people’s sympathy via the news media, were symptoms of a deeper malaise. The globalism of the economic system caused local communities to break down. Consumerism was promoted, and diverse local sources of provision were replaced by world markets favouring transnational corporations. The effects locally were competition, shortages, poverty, corruption, oppression, and killing – sometimes outright war. Most of the cruelty and suffering was invisible, and the prevailing attitude to what did show its sad and ugly face was: ‘It’s not my problem’. It was the ignorance and denial of responsibility which earned the disapproval of the people of bionecrotech, and which they took great pride in having addressed.

   I cannot tell you if this picture of what took place is a true one; firstly because the world is so much bigger and more complicated than anyone’s mind can take in, so how could we know for sure what happened to the world? Secondly, how people view the past depends so much on their own present, on what they are told and on what they let themselves know, which in turn contribute to how they picture their present as well. The same applies to you, of course, in your time. You are affected by the accidents of what life puts in your way, and you are subject to socialisation, even if you call it by names like ‘indoctrination’ and ‘propaganda’ and believe that only other people are taken in by such deceptions. In Fred Drakely’s time they did not regard socialisation negatively: they called it ‘public education’.

   So, depending on the influences on you, you may believe that ‘the collapse of human society’ is just around the corner, you may feel you are in the midst of it already, or you may believe that the world is working pretty well, and that any problems are exaggerated and not fundamental. Strange as it may seem, the ‘truth’ of what took place to bring about the transition is unimportant: call it a recovery after a collapse, call it a revolution, call it the result of social evolution or technological innovation: it does not matter; but the transition did take place from necrotech to bionecrotech.

   From the episode in the life of Fred Drakely, you will see that bionecrotech was an optimistic age. The people of that time were very proud of their advanced society, in which some of the most serious problems of your age: poverty and injustice, speculation and corruption, waste and pollution, were solved. But if we had Bony Bailey with us to make her comments, she would point out to you how much had not changed: how the patterns of society: people’s attitudes and expectations, and the roles they played, had scarcely changed at all. Indeed, some of the reforms which appeared to have been won in your time proved short-lived and dissolved away, and the older patterns returned.

   I have had several shifts to Fred’s time, and I picked out this one to tell you about because Fred’s circumstances on that day filled his mind with material which is useful for the story I am telling to you, which is not Fred’s story, remember, but humanity’s.

Next        Back to Contents