“They walked carefully, talked carefully, ate carefully–whatever it took to make sure that the Imagination Purity Service – IPS for short – didn’t bother them.
“They thought that they gained something by this. I guess it was the luxury. They didn’t have to worry about making their own decisions, the IPS took care of that for them, without any substantial thought on their part.
“Whatever they gained, it’s what they lost that we remember. They lost the ability to dream. Their whole lives were consumed with making sure that they followed the rules of the IPS without failure.
“No matter how hard they tried, everybody eventually failed. They would allow themselves just a few seconds of true thought, and then it would be over. The IPS computer had only two options: follow it’s laws perfectly, or die.
“Eventually, their society died, and the computer that killed it, died shortly thereafter. Now, all that we have left of the species are these few artifacts that you see here.”
Rodney knew he had lost the children. To them, this was just another boring field trip to the museum. But then again, nobody ever cared about the human-dominated period of earth history. Maybe he could regain their interest with squid-dominated earth. Damn kids who don’t care about learning.
“When you cease to dream, you cease to live.”
Malcolm S. Forbes
