EDEN: A Beautiful Future for Free, Forever

By Aalam Wassef

Hiroji, 13, lives in a Federation where 85% of the population have become 'Redundants', unemployed, losing their jobs to robots.

Parked in a housing project where life is hard, he and his neighbours hear about Eden, lavish villages built across the country where millions of Redudants will be migrated to enjoy 'a life of outstanding comfort, for free, forever'.

Eden is immediately dubbed 'a milestone in the history of mankind', 'the highest expression of solidarity, humanity and togetherness' towards those who have been sidelined by thriving biotechnological economies.

Skeptical, Hiroji's mother takes her children to Eden only to discover that their village is indeed beautiful and luxurious. Their new home reminds her of the fully-serviced 'Life Pad' she could afford when she was still a federal judge.

Hiroji, elated, embraces his new life where school is an immersive virtual experience taking him across space and time, where everything, even food, is predictive and tailored to his smallest likes and preferences.

All is well and exciting till a malfunction occurs, raising Hiroji's suspicion about Eden's true purpose.

EDEN is a fast-paced adventurous novella. Set in the year 2061, it raises timely questions about virtual reality, robotisation, artificial intelligence, fake news and transhumanism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aalam Wassef
• Release date: Mar 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463407417

Aalam Wassef

Aalam Wassef is an Egyptian visual artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. His artwork is featured in three anthologies, notably MIT Press's Art and Conflict in the 21st Century. Wassef is also a contributor to several French daily newspapers and magazines, including Liberation, La Croix and ELLE. EDEN is his debut novella.

Book preview

EDEN

–

A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE

FOR FREE, FOREVER

–

A fairy story by Aalam WASSEF

Short Books

To Filomena & Cred Dewat G. Jabkashav

I

As the shuttle’s doors closed with a quiet, lazy hiss, a young man from Julia’s building ran from exit to exit, throwing his tall, scraggly body at everyone, screaming and punching anything his knuckles could reach. Then he collapsed in the middle of the aisle. Passengers told him, ‘Shush now. Eden will be different.’ None of them had ever been to Eden. They really had no idea.

The shuttle left Merryland.

Lula kneeled on Julia's lap, her hands pressed against the window. She didn’t think much of the landscape, as there was nothing much to see. Right and left, commanding fences lined the road. Lula couldn’t imagine that beyond them began a brand new world that neither she nor her mother had ever seen. She rubbed her droopy eyes and fell asleep.

Far into the woods, there were tall, luxurious mansions with an ethereal quality that puzzled the eye. Looked at from any angle, the landscape seemed to run through them, making them almost invisible. Cumbrous data centers that had metastasized across the Federation were all gone. The beginning of the story of how Peterson Corp. transformed into Avalon, expanding its hold over the Federation. In his early days, Paul Peterson had been known as the shrink, the man who shrunk data farms to the size of a brain. The day Lula turned two, Avalon had made an announcement that had sent shockwaves in every rowdy encampment that sprawled in and out of the cities. Peterson had said, ‘For as long as one can remember, every government has promised full employment to its citizens, but in this Federation we shall not lie to each other. There will be no full employment ever again. The Federation’s coffers are empty. Government has resigned. Time has come for corporations to stand up. Those who have must give to those who don’t. That is the plain truth.’

*

Most passengers in the shuttle were asleep, their eyes quivering like those of men and women exhausted by years of hardship. As instructed, no one carried luggage, a satchel or a purse. Their skin was pale and dry and their loaned clothes smelt of generic cleansing powders and sweat.

Julia hadn't always been a dud, redundant like, now, eighty-five percent of the population. She had been a notorious judge and her son Hiroji had been to schools that the current fifteen percenters could still afford. He was thirteen and remembered their life before Merryland, a remote, residential complex, ten times the size of the Federation’s largest city. Without him, Julia would have killed herself. Although buildings in Merryland were as colorful as a rainbow, although flower petals often covered the Plazas, no one ever called Merryland by its name. They called it Bury Land. However morbid the circumstances, Hiroji had made his sister laugh for hours on end, telling her stories about all the things he remembered, loved and missed: sneakers, fruit, parks, trees, vanilla popcorn, games, cartoons, classrooms or even forks and knives.

Lula marveled at Hiroji's wild imagination because there were no such things in Merryland.

The shuttle took a sharp curve. Julia woke up agitated and confused. She had bitten her tongue in her sleep until it had bled. She wiped her watery eyes and leaned her head against the window. She sighed intermittently, her breath misting the window in large circles each time she did. She pointed her index finger and pressed it firmly against the glass. She slowly wrote a name, Mia. Then she wiped it unhurriedly, letter by letter, her nostrils swelling with suppressed anger and remorse.

Mia was a young producer who worked for You & You, an Avalon media network. Days before, she had knocked on Julia’s door and had jovially said, ‘We’re interviewing you guys in Merryland before you go to Eden. May I come in?’ Without moving a muscle in her face, Julia had murmured, ‘Tell whoever sent you that there is no such thing as a merry land.’ Mia had apologized, jabbering, ‘But now Avalon is giving you Eden. It’s going to be —.’ Unable to form a sentence, she panted and paused, then she continued quietly, ‘I know who you are. Peterson told me. He really wants you to be our guest star on Eden Now. Please JJ. We’ll fly you to the city.’

Flying to the city didn’t matter to Julia, but when she heard JJ, she turned pale. Through her wet eyes, she had quietly asked, ‘It’s Peterson who told you to call me JJ, isn’t it?’ Mia had nodded yes, clearing her throat noisily and repeatedly. Staring at the floor with a sad half-smile, Julia had murmured, ‘Tell that bastard Paul the shrink that I’m coming.’ She was convinced that Peterson was indulging in personal revenge over JJ, Justice Julia, the once-mighty judge who had consistently opposed him, until Avalon’s Lexy OS made judges by and large redundant.

Night fell as the shuttle descended into a long, deep tunnel whose descent was so subtle that no one realized that they sat three hundred feet below the road. When it slowed down and finally stopped, a voice said, ‘You have reached Eden 55. Please use front and middle exits. Thank you.’

Julia woke her son Hiroji and carried Lula over her shoulder. The voice said, ‘Avalon wishes you a beautiful future. For free. Forever.’ Hiroji stretched his legs and peered through the window. He stared at a bell-shaped opening on the right side of the road and asked, ‘Mom, is that it?’

Drawn by light seeping through the gate, passengers followed curvy, dashed lines, flashing beneath their feet. No one spoke or even breathed. They walked until an echoing bell chimed twice, instructing them to stop, ‘Friends, please hold on. Welcome to Eden 55. Friends, please hold on now.’

The floor began to rise, slowly ascending through a blinding haze of light. Julia whispered, ‘Friends’, and bitterly shook her head.

The platform kept ascending as people shuffled to the center, pressing their bodies against each other. Past the blinding haze, the air felt cooler and when Hiroji looked up, a full moon shone above his head. The voice said one last time, ‘Avalon wishes you a beautiful future. For free. Forever.’ The platform snapped into its final position. All passengers stood stock-still and their pupils slowly dilated as they adapted to the darkness. A woman cried, ‘Look. There. Behind you.’ People's names hovered and glowed above the grass, like fireflies waiting to guide their masters. A woman began to