In Five Years: Blade Runner Version (Collaboration Between Margaret Anna Alice & Visceral Adventure)

A collaboration between Margaret Anna Alice (writing, vocals) and Visceral Adventure (video editing), this video was first published at Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass. It is scored with a 2008 piece by Margaret Anna’s late husband Shawn Patrick Michael. The short story first appeared as part of her one-year Substack anniversary post on April 25, 2022.

Original posts below:

• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/in-five-years-video-blade-runner
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/i/52871850/in-five-years-a-short-story

“In Five Years (a Short Story)”
by Margaret Anna Alice

In five years, no one will remember natural immunity existed. They will call you an anti-vaxxer for whispering such a term while they stand in line for their 187th booster.

In five years, no one will remember where one person’s body ends and the body politic begins. They will call you selfish for thinking you have a right to decide how your body is handled and what transgresses the perimeters of your flesh.

In five years, no one will remember there was such a thing as privacy. They will call you a criminal for suggesting people should be permitted a quiet space away from the eyes of Big Mother, Big Tech, and your surveilling cohabitants.

In five years, no one will remember the concept of independence. They will call you antisocial for wishing to carve out your own destiny rather than relying on the beneficence of OneState.

In five years, no one will remember they have the right to say, “No.” They will call you an insurrectionist for questioning the commands spilling out of the telescreen.

In five years, no one will remember natural birth ever occurred. They will call you primitive for thinking embryos were once fertilized and grown inside the body rather than in a laboratory.

In five years, no one will remember parents once cared for their own children. They will call you anti-child if you wish to live with your progeny instead of surrendering your newborns to the State so you can resume your lives of lazy, submissive convenience.

In five years, no one will remember heart attacks, strokes, and blot clots were previously uncommon among children, teens, and young adults. They will call you anti-medicine for saying the young were predominantly healthy with rare exceptions.

In five years, no one will remember diversity of opinion once existed. They will call you a heretic for choosing to think your own thoughts instead of zealously professing the beliefs issued by OneState.

In five years, no one will remember what responsibility was. They will call you ungrateful if you want to unplug from the Metaverse and seize control of your own life and will.

In five years, no one will remember what freedom means. They will call you a conspiracy theorist for claiming people once had the ability to do what they liked, go where they liked, and think what they liked.

In five years, no one will remember what love was. They will call you intolerant for wishing to bond with a single beloved instead of offering your body to whosoever demands it.

In five years, no one will remember death once happened naturally. They will call you a science-denier if you express a longing to remain alive beyond the term allotted by OneState.

What do you think no one will remember in five years?