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It was 2004, maybe 2005, when they implanted the emotion chips. I can’t remember the exact date, but I know it was in a winter. We were taken from our homes by black-booted men in masks who jammed gun barrels between our teeth and loaded into nondescript vans. Silent blackness surrounded us, everyone too scared to speak, terrified of the gunmen on his pitch-black vigil.
I remember a room, a waiting room in a sense, but with guards trotting up and down aisle after aisle of gagged civilians. Above a metal electro-lock door a light would turn from red to green and glide open with a thick clink, and one more aisle of people would be ushered through. At first I thought it was a cull, genocide of the proletariat. I remember when the turn came for my aisle to stand and march through the heavy metal door. The beads of sweat on my forehead, the sickening feeling as my stomach turned inside out, the crunch of my teeth grinding together in fear.
I recall tall iron-backed chairs with wrist shackles. I remember a doctor with a bolt-gun firing a dull shot into the top of my spine. I felt a deep kiss of pain moving through my spine, I felt nerve endings fizzling and cracking as my torso buckled, then I felt no more.
We were taken home, I assume, as I roused several days after to find a rain-wetted envelope lying on my doormat. “About your emotion chip” the leaflet inside was titled. I read on.
By now your emotion chip will have been fitted at one of our mass fitting centres. Congratulations and welcome to the future! You emotion chip has been developed by top scientists to make the world a better and safer place. The rise of crime and anti-social behaviour left us with little choice, the emotion chips are in place to stop all carbon based life forms feeling anger, hatred, depression, sadness or rage. The emotion chip is non-removable; it is attached to the primary stem-chord of the spinal column, which allows it to effect all mental events, both conscious and unconscious. Attempted removal of the emotion chip will sever the spinal column and cause a permanent vegetated state.
I think I wanted to feel anger but I felt nothing, just a hollow where a feeling previously lived.
The emotion chip instalment will reduce hate crimes, terrorism, assaults and rapes by 100%, so the world will be a much safer place. It also aims to reduce theft, music and video piracy, drug and alcohol abuse and suicides by up to 95%. In further news alcohol is no longer available on general sale, it will be rationed to 3 units per week per person, and will not be available to any persons under the age of thirty. These figures are subject to change.
An amnesty of alcohol, drugs and weapons of any kind, including sharp household implements will be held at your local police station and town hall for the next two weeks. Subsequently we will be performing checks on random households for such items and persons still in possession of them after the amnesty will be held indefinitely.
The emotion chip – brought to you by:
NoMad© Technologies Inc.
Reducing anger, forever.
I stared blankly at the paper. Accepting everything I had just read, but unsure why. I suppose it was for the best. The world is a better place now. No violence, no alcoholism, no murders or terrorism or anything. Nothing bad in life happens now; I suppose that makes everything good. Life is just fine now.
I remember a room, a waiting room in a sense, but with guards trotting up and down aisle after aisle of gagged civilians. Above a metal electro-lock door a light would turn from red to green and glide open with a thick clink, and one more aisle of people would be ushered through. At first I thought it was a cull, genocide of the proletariat. I remember when the turn came for my aisle to stand and march through the heavy metal door. The beads of sweat on my forehead, the sickening feeling as my stomach turned inside out, the crunch of my teeth grinding together in fear.
I recall tall iron-backed chairs with wrist shackles. I remember a doctor with a bolt-gun firing a dull shot into the top of my spine. I felt a deep kiss of pain moving through my spine, I felt nerve endings fizzling and cracking as my torso buckled, then I felt no more.
We were taken home, I assume, as I roused several days after to find a rain-wetted envelope lying on my doormat. “About your emotion chip” the leaflet inside was titled. I read on.
By now your emotion chip will have been fitted at one of our mass fitting centres. Congratulations and welcome to the future! You emotion chip has been developed by top scientists to make the world a better and safer place. The rise of crime and anti-social behaviour left us with little choice, the emotion chips are in place to stop all carbon based life forms feeling anger, hatred, depression, sadness or rage. The emotion chip is non-removable; it is attached to the primary stem-chord of the spinal column, which allows it to effect all mental events, both conscious and unconscious. Attempted removal of the emotion chip will sever the spinal column and cause a permanent vegetated state.
I think I wanted to feel anger but I felt nothing, just a hollow where a feeling previously lived.
The emotion chip instalment will reduce hate crimes, terrorism, assaults and rapes by 100%, so the world will be a much safer place. It also aims to reduce theft, music and video piracy, drug and alcohol abuse and suicides by up to 95%. In further news alcohol is no longer available on general sale, it will be rationed to 3 units per week per person, and will not be available to any persons under the age of thirty. These figures are subject to change.
An amnesty of alcohol, drugs and weapons of any kind, including sharp household implements will be held at your local police station and town hall for the next two weeks. Subsequently we will be performing checks on random households for such items and persons still in possession of them after the amnesty will be held indefinitely.
The emotion chip – brought to you by:
NoMad© Technologies Inc.
Reducing anger, forever.
I stared blankly at the paper. Accepting everything I had just read, but unsure why. I suppose it was for the best. The world is a better place now. No violence, no alcoholism, no murders or terrorism or anything. Nothing bad in life happens now; I suppose that makes everything good. Life is just fine now.
Isn't that basically the plot of Eqilibrium?
Ah well, nicely written, nice use of topic title etc etc
Ah well, nicely written, nice use of topic title etc etc
Sorry, this one did nothing for me. Well written as usual but I think I've read it to close to the SSC14 winning entry. That and the fact that I've just seen Equalibrian (or whatever the dumb film was called) so everything seemed a bit familiar to me.
I hacked into the mainframe and stole your ideas Clazon, and now I will destroy you.
Wow, it's amazingly similar to one I was writing!
It's so similar to one I was about to finish and put on thereafter Christmas, down to some exact details. Black boots, the narrator suggesting an uncertain date and others.
Very weird. But yours is much better.
It's so similar to one I was about to finish and put on thereafter Christmas, down to some exact details. Black boots, the narrator suggesting an uncertain date and others.
Very weird. But yours is much better.
Straight to the point. Unique use of Nomad. Excellent.
Thanks, I've changed peachy to "fine"
I guess it was slightly sore-thumb-ish
I guess it was slightly sore-thumb-ish
Peachy gets a no no from me too.
But the story is good, yuss. Well written, believable thanks to the letters and...hmmm. Something else I can't quite put my finger on.
Anyway, I enjoyed it.
But the story is good, yuss. Well written, believable thanks to the letters and...hmmm. Something else I can't quite put my finger on.
Anyway, I enjoyed it.
Echoes of Orwell
:-)
:-)
I'm not sure about the word "peachy" but still.
Well written, descriptive & a terrifying prospect.
Well written, descriptive & a terrifying prospect.
It was 2004, maybe 2005, when they implanted the emotion chips. I can’t remember the exact date, but I know it was in a winter. We were taken from our homes by black-booted men in masks who jammed gun barrels between our teeth and loaded into nondescript vans. Silent blackness surrounded us, everyone too scared to speak, terrified of the gunmen on his pitch-black vigil.
I remember a room, a waiting room in a sense, but with guards trotting up and down aisle after aisle of gagged civilians. Above a metal electro-lock door a light would turn from red to green and glide open with a thick clink, and one more aisle of people would be ushered through. At first I thought it was a cull, genocide of the proletariat. I remember when the turn came for my aisle to stand and march through the heavy metal door. The beads of sweat on my forehead, the sickening feeling as my stomach turned inside out, the crunch of my teeth grinding together in fear.
I recall tall iron-backed chairs with wrist shackles. I remember a doctor with a bolt-gun firing a dull shot into the top of my spine. I felt a deep kiss of pain moving through my spine, I felt nerve endings fizzling and cracking as my torso buckled, then I felt no more.
We were taken home, I assume, as I roused several days after to find a rain-wetted envelope lying on my doormat. “About your emotion chip” the leaflet inside was titled. I read on.
By now your emotion chip will have been fitted at one of our mass fitting centres. Congratulations and welcome to the future! You emotion chip has been developed by top scientists to make the world a better and safer place. The rise of crime and anti-social behaviour left us with little choice, the emotion chips are in place to stop all carbon based life forms feeling anger, hatred, depression, sadness or rage. The emotion chip is non-removable; it is attached to the primary stem-chord of the spinal column, which allows it to effect all mental events, both conscious and unconscious. Attempted removal of the emotion chip will sever the spinal column and cause a permanent vegetated state.
I think I wanted to feel anger but I felt nothing, just a hollow where a feeling previously lived.
The emotion chip instalment will reduce hate crimes, terrorism, assaults and rapes by 100%, so the world will be a much safer place. It also aims to reduce theft, music and video piracy, drug and alcohol abuse and suicides by up to 95%. In further news alcohol is no longer available on general sale, it will be rationed to 3 units per week per person, and will not be available to any persons under the age of thirty. These figures are subject to change.
An amnesty of alcohol, drugs and weapons of any kind, including sharp household implements will be held at your local police station and town hall for the next two weeks. Subsequently we will be performing checks on random households for such items and persons still in possession of them after the amnesty will be held indefinitely.
The emotion chip – brought to you by:
NoMad© Technologies Inc.
Reducing anger, forever.
I stared blankly at the paper. Accepting everything I had just read, but unsure why. I suppose it was for the best. The world is a better place now. No violence, no alcoholism, no murders or terrorism or anything. Nothing bad in life happens now; I suppose that makes everything good. Life is just fine now.
I remember a room, a waiting room in a sense, but with guards trotting up and down aisle after aisle of gagged civilians. Above a metal electro-lock door a light would turn from red to green and glide open with a thick clink, and one more aisle of people would be ushered through. At first I thought it was a cull, genocide of the proletariat. I remember when the turn came for my aisle to stand and march through the heavy metal door. The beads of sweat on my forehead, the sickening feeling as my stomach turned inside out, the crunch of my teeth grinding together in fear.
I recall tall iron-backed chairs with wrist shackles. I remember a doctor with a bolt-gun firing a dull shot into the top of my spine. I felt a deep kiss of pain moving through my spine, I felt nerve endings fizzling and cracking as my torso buckled, then I felt no more.
We were taken home, I assume, as I roused several days after to find a rain-wetted envelope lying on my doormat. “About your emotion chip” the leaflet inside was titled. I read on.
By now your emotion chip will have been fitted at one of our mass fitting centres. Congratulations and welcome to the future! You emotion chip has been developed by top scientists to make the world a better and safer place. The rise of crime and anti-social behaviour left us with little choice, the emotion chips are in place to stop all carbon based life forms feeling anger, hatred, depression, sadness or rage. The emotion chip is non-removable; it is attached to the primary stem-chord of the spinal column, which allows it to effect all mental events, both conscious and unconscious. Attempted removal of the emotion chip will sever the spinal column and cause a permanent vegetated state.
I think I wanted to feel anger but I felt nothing, just a hollow where a feeling previously lived.
The emotion chip instalment will reduce hate crimes, terrorism, assaults and rapes by 100%, so the world will be a much safer place. It also aims to reduce theft, music and video piracy, drug and alcohol abuse and suicides by up to 95%. In further news alcohol is no longer available on general sale, it will be rationed to 3 units per week per person, and will not be available to any persons under the age of thirty. These figures are subject to change.
An amnesty of alcohol, drugs and weapons of any kind, including sharp household implements will be held at your local police station and town hall for the next two weeks. Subsequently we will be performing checks on random households for such items and persons still in possession of them after the amnesty will be held indefinitely.
The emotion chip – brought to you by:
NoMad© Technologies Inc.
Reducing anger, forever.
I stared blankly at the paper. Accepting everything I had just read, but unsure why. I suppose it was for the best. The world is a better place now. No violence, no alcoholism, no murders or terrorism or anything. Nothing bad in life happens now; I suppose that makes everything good. Life is just fine now.