The Freedom Machine
One step closer to Freedom, the box read. It’s time to say goodbye to the stress of indecision and let your new Infinity System make decisions for you! Clinically proven to reduce anxiety, the Infinity System improves productivity and always result in the optimum outcome for you. Put your life in the hands of a higher power and find true freedom – the freedom to be yourself!
The box had sat unopened on the kitchen counter since its arrival that morning. Kiki sat on the chair in front of it, a lit cigarette between her fingers. A cup of coffee, untouched, had been placed on the worktop beside it some time ago. She didn’t know what to do.
This seemed to be a recurring feeling she had been experiencing over the last few days, and one she was getting used to. The decision that sat in front of her, however, was a big one. It had the potential of steering her life towards one of two very different outcomes. She didn’t want to take it lightly.
Her foot tapped on the leg of the chair as she considered her options again and looked back on the last few days leading up to this moment. She had been doing this much more frequently than usual, this tapping, ever since her original Infinity had gone offline. She was starting to think she was developing a nervous tic.
The cigarette made its way to her lips again, and she inhaled the rich relief of tobacco smoke. She felt entirely unqualified to make such an important decision. Come to think of it, she felt entirely unqualified to make any decision at all. She didn’t have the abundance of data that the Infinity System had, or the computing capacity, or even the same insight into her motives. She knew what decision the Infinity System would recommend, that much was obvious. This just happened to be the one decision that it couldn’t make for her.
Sighing, she slouched back in her chair, and let her mind wander back 5 days, to the moment when her system had shut down, in the hope that it might give her some perspective, or at least some clue as to what she should do now.
She woke up that morning feeling well-rested, as she usually did. The alarm went off
