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2090 L.A. Points Of View
View #1
Video Memoir for Zhu Hong
Circa 2090.
It’s my birthday! Should I tell you my age? OMG! Let me redden up my cheeks a little. Ouch! I’ve grown so pale. So how old do you think I am? Go ahead and guess. 107. 107! You are as astonished as I am. I am 107 years young! Ha! Ha! If it weren’t for the Chinese – Korean Stem Cell Organ Regrowth Initiative, they gave me a new heart, I would never have made it this far. No transplant, no surgery, just a few very long and thick needles right into my chest. The new heart grew in gradually and eventually replaced the old damaged one. I was only in the hospital for two days! The heart grew while I was going about my daily life. Who could ask for more? Well, I have done more but that’s for another time. Now I have to see my American great great grandchildren. They wanted to have a party for me in their house. I want to have a party for them no matter where it is, so everyone is happy! I clap my hands with joy!
I haven’t been back to Los Angeles or America though, since the start of the Gore – Schmitt Ice Age in 2035. The air here just got too dry for me. I got nose bleeds. It was so unlady-like. I moved back to my home town of Dalian, China and they stopped. You can go home again I say. It was also so crowded here then, but the dry air and the economic collapse of 2043 has cleared most people out of L.A. The streets are almost vacant compared to the immobile traffic of Westwood rush hour before. Smog’s almost vanished too. The air is still rather dry but L.A. has become a very pleasant place to drive through.
The Gore – Schmitt I.A. helped China too, more economically than environmentally, though and not so much in the good it did in China, but the bad things it did to the competition. The Russian economy froze solid like the advancing glaciers. India’s economy collapsed along with its food production. The resulting constant war with Pakistan has put India back to being poor and barefoot. This all helped the family clothing manufacturing businesses in Dalian.
The I.A. made it so people always felt cold while desiring to be warm. They bought more and more clothes to keep warm, so the clothing manufacturers have seen continual growth. The I.A. also caused the flexible ceramic super conductor manufactures to move to my home town too. They needed so much water. Dalian is by the ocean. It made good business sense. I saw this influx of those superconductors as a message that needed attention and put money into those organizations just as I put their flexible hard drives in the lapels of our coats and even the shoes. I never liked carrying around a computer or even a phone. Now you don’t have to. All of that is in your clothing. Everything is voce activated so no touching needed. Gosh, I just remembered dialing a phone! How did I ever get my fingers to do all that push push pushing? Convenience that looks good is the company’s mission statement. It has been a profitable statement.
Thank Buddha for America’s inventiveness though. At least that didn’t disappear with the American middle class. All of our clothes are made by Weaver-bots invented here in California. There is no sewing or cutting anymore, the W-bots construct the piece from basic threads. Every suit can now be unique. The W-bot just needs to be reprogrammed each time. Who would have thought you would need an engineering degree to design clothes? My great grand daughter Xia got two Ph.D.s in clothing design tech from Cal Tech and M.I.T. Thank Buddha again that the private universities survived. A good education is so important these days. I am so pleased that my first born and only son Tiger helped to privatize U.C.L.A. and Berkeley. They have become the centers of American inventors and tech developers. U.C.L.A. has given my great grand children a good living. Invention is the only commodity America has left, that and the exclusive luxury resorts.
Luckily we had part of that market already. I never understood why San Diego was destroyed by those nuclear bombs, but it helped my Spa business here. I was back in China by then, but people in L.A. needed more relaxation than ever after that terror attack. The Rich inventors need to be calm to do their job. So the relaxation of the Spa became a necessity not just a luxury. One of our clients actually invented the Massage-bot while getting one of our treatments. It was only fair that the Spa get a share of the profits. That fellow used to be such a pleasant person, oh well, I don’t like lawyers either but they are useful, expensive but useful. That is another thing America is good at, making Lawyers.
That the education system survived is very good thing, because America wasn’t very good as a merchant. The shambles the Wall Street Money Merchants made of American finance in the first part of this century proved that. Such foolishness! They let themselves become their market. No good Capitalist would do that. You always need to be fulfilling the needs outside demand to succeed. It is the flow outward, not inward, that lets you prosper. Expanding into new territory is key. Now all world finance is run out of London and Tibet. I am so proud of Tiger for showing the world that the best people to trust are people who look to the spirit for fulfillment. Buddhist monks want to help humanity first; the money is not a priority. Surprisingly, they were good with numbers too. My Tiger wanted to help the land of his father and he did in a totally unexpected way. The Gore – Schmitt I.A. even helped Tibet. It was always hard to get to in the mountains, now it is isolated in the clear blue sky. People with money seem to like that for some reason. The Dali Lama did move to London though, so some people in Tibet are angry with Tiger about that, but you can’t please everyone.
But I am here in L.A. It’s nice now. Although water now is so expensive to get here. Those sea water desalination plants are efficient but expensive to maintain. You can’t afford to be poor in L.A. You’ll die of thirst. “Let them drink wine!” wasn’t a very nice thing for a Mayor to say, but she didn’t get elected again. It made it hard to find human serving personnel. Tiger had to import servers for my party from the South Pacific Islands. The Gore – Schmitt I.A. actually made more of those islands too. The world has changed so dramatically. Isn’t it interesting?
Another problem for my party is that you can’t get a good cake made here either. So I brought my cakes with me from Dalian. I have a favorite bakery there. They are the best in the world, no question. Tiger was annoyed with me that I brought my own cakes, but it is my Birthday! Oh actually I lied to you a little before. I am actually going to be 109. He! He! But I don’t look a day over 70! LOL!!!!
Being here with all of my family. I feel so lucky! We have all been so lucky. It maybe a right place: right time thing, but it’s not only that. The family has succeeded because we pay attention to the details. We know people and what they need even more than what they want. L.A. has been very good to my family. You just have to keep your eyes open for new opportunities and take a risk now and again and you’ll do fine.
View #2
The Water Thief
It was a typical 2090 Los Angeles night. Typical for the perpetual drought Southern California had been suffering through since the start of the Gore – Schmitt Ice Age in 2035. It was hot and dry and dark. Dark and quiet on the beach. The sea water desalination plants were enormous, but extremely quiet. Their filtration system worked the miracle of silently changing sea water into modern liquid gold, drinkable water. Along with the salt, the plants also seemed to filter out the noise from the ocean waves. So the beach was more than quiet. It had an imposed silence to it. It was almost solemn; certainly ghostly. The only sound made was the occasion snort of the camels attached to a tanker cart sitting beside the gigantic plant. Accompanying them though, were the muffled voices of a man and a boy standing by the potable water outlet pipe of the plant. Between them an old fire hose siphoned water from the outlet into the tank on the camel drawn cart.
“I got cart. I sell! I take all risk.” The dark tanned boy hissed at the pale man holding a hand held computer. The boy was standing close to the mal-fitting hose connection where a fine mist sprayed out. It soaked and cooled his chapped, scared lips. “I do more. I get more. You just turn off sentry guard-bots. Big deal? Big effort? Not I think.”
“I invented the entire automated sentry system. They are diverted, not turned off.” The pale man sounded more indignant than angry. “If they were turned off, the alarms would sound.”
“You Edu-elites are all the same. Too many words. Never talk straight. Turn off? Divert? No difference. No kill. That all of essence.” The boy rubbed the moisture on his brown neck with an Ahhhh! “I get you plenty of dollars. No worry.”
“No dollars! Dollars are worthless!” The man shouted. “Even someone as ignorant as you knows that!”
“Hong Kong dollars, not U.S. Even the slaves of Persian Beverly Hills won’t take U.S. dollars. Of course Hong Kong! For Allah!” The boy shook his head in the spray. “You street stupid doctor professor. With your job at Ucla why you stealing water with me anyway? I need to, to survive. But you live in that Fortress Westwood, all clean and secure. This pipe must go right there, I think.”
“I have expenses. I have to pay tuition for my children.” The man sighed. “Need more and more cash.”
“No free going to Ucla? You a big shot there I knows.”
“Since the economic collapse of 2045 when they privatized the big California research universities, there is no free anything. Not even a discount. I have to pay my own health insurance and parking.” The man sighed.
“Oh poor you, with your electric car. Where to put it? Camels park themselves. Ha! Ha! They more street smart than you. They no waste. They make do. With you rich Edu-elites, there is never making do. There is never enough cash. Ha! Ha!” The boy smiled. “Supply and demand here and now. I got the supply of dollars and all you got is a demand. Not good business situation for you.”
“But we agreed on a fee for my service.” The man punched at his hand held.
“Free market! Free to renegotiate. Free because no rules right?” The boy laughed. “Except mine. “He laughed again. “My mom may only be maid-slave from the South Pacific but she no raised a dumb-ass push over.” The boy reached into his shirt and pulled out a few bills. He pushed them at the man. “Here’s your free market fee.”
“But that’s not enough.” The man frowned.
The boy then pulled out a very long knife or maybe it was a short sword. “This is enough. This say so.”
The man looked at the short sword and at the boys grinning face. He grabbed the crinkled colorful cash from the boys extended hand. The boy laughed an ancient laugh. A laugh of Kings. A laugh of power. A laugh of dominance.
The man looked off at one of the dark sentry towers and then back down at the screen of his hand held. “Tank’s full now.” He punched the screen, the water flow on the outlet stopped and the hose popped off the pipe. The freed hose poured residual water onto the ever drying beach sand.
In his thoughtless greed, while rushing after that spilling water, the boy dropped his short sword on to the also water greedy sand. He picked up the hose and showered himself with the liquid gold pouring out. It was a momentary rich man’s shower of excess. He laughed but now with an age appropriate laugh, that of the child that he was.
The adult man punched at his hand held screen more and looked over again at the sentry tower. Red lights became visible there like the eyes of an awaking predator. And then there was a faint pop. The mini-missile that launched took off the head of the child laughing boy without the slightest sound. Only the thump of the headless body was audible. The man ran over to the still twitching body. The flow of blood immediately vanished deep into the moisture greedy sand. Maybe the Earth was attempting to reclaim the boy’s tainted soul. Maybe it could be recycled too? But the man didn’t care about this or anything else. The man found the boys cash stash and took it with a greed he shared with the sand and the boy. He then ran to the back of the cart and pulled the hose out of the three quarters filled tank. He ran to the front, got in, released the breaks and whipped the reins on the camels back for them to go. They didn’t. They didn’t even stand up. They ignored him. He wasn’t their master. “God dammit!” The man hissed sounding just like the boy had. The camels didn’t care about anyone’s deity and didn’t response to any oaths for or about them. They remained ever stationary. “Dammit! Double dammit! Triple dammit!”
He jumped off the cart, went up to the camels and prodded them to move. They didn’t. He then kicked one of the camels in the side of its stomach. The camel simply turned its head toward the man a spit out a glob of gooey cud right into the man’s anxious and then astonished face. The man wiped his face in defeat and looked at the screen of his hand held. The sentry-bots diversion period was fast running out. The entire system would look this way soon. He had to get off the beach fast. He gazed for a moment at all that value in those tanks and then back at the immobile camels, sighed and ran away into the ever drying and frustrating L.A. night.
View #3
The Fall of America
Global climate change finally resolved itself by the evitable start of a new ice age. It was July 14, 2035, Bastille Day, when Google Mothership officially confirmed it for the world. The Gore – Schmitt Ice Age had begun. G-Mom was the largest virtual corporation on the planet, a corporation without bounders, so there was a consensus that it was G-Mom’s right to do so. The affects of the Gore – Schmitt I.A. had already been made clear to everyone before the announcement. All that water being frozen at the poles dried out the world. Crops began to fail everywhere. India was the first economy to collapse with the failure of the nation’s food production. Russia wasn’t far behind. They both had always had too many people with too weak of a government structure. The added pressure from the environmental changes destroyed an already weak and mostly corrupt economic system of peasants and privilege that was fragile at the best of times. By 2040 then most global financial resources were already concentrated in Asia. So when the American Northeastern states went dysfunctional from the extremely long winters, a global economic collapses followed.
American voters blamed their incompetent politicians and corporate leaders for this disaster and rightly so. But new inexperienced leaders were elected which only made things worse. A new New Deal was attempted but there were no new F.D.R.s available to guide it and the market manipulation simply made things worse than ever. (Seavoy 279) Local governments and entire states went bankrupt. China had the money, so China came in and brought up those state governments’ debts while insisting upon privatizing all government institutions. This seemed an odd thing for China to insist on at the time. It is not though. The major shareholders of those new companies, not surprisingly, were all Asia based investors. It was just good business. Soon Tibet was the hub of all those financial dealings. In a world where there was no common man to trust, it had been shown repeatedly by loss after loss, the world turned to the spiritually oriented. The Buddhist monks were actually good at it. They appropriately evaluated all business plans for not only market viability but also how it would benefit mankind. It was a combination that worked, in Asia at least.
The American Money Merchants of Wall Street completely disappeared. There was no American money to invest with. American small markets and manufacturing had already been shipped to Asia, so there was not much left for Americans to do but what they had always been good at, invention. The privatization of the large research universities, also kept invention and technology advancement within American bounders. Still, all construction and fabrication was shipped to Asian based organization. Those American university corporations were owned by those Asian investors. What else would have happened? The American government attempted to block such monopolistic practices but they were too weak and corrupt by this time to have any affect. The high tech American inventors got wealthy but that wealth only flowed up. Thus there was no middle class Americans to speak of.
Another result of the drying of the planet was the 50 year drought in Southern California. All drinking water for the region thus came from sea water desalination plants. They lined the west coast of North American by 2090. It made drinking water more expensive than any other commodity. If you weren’t rich, you would die of thirst in Los Angeles. The population of L.A. thus dropped by 90%. All the people who would do manual tasks left. Most headed south. This lack of a cheap labor force in L.A. did two things. The first was to incentivize an intense development of service robots. The second was the instigation of a new human slave trade for maids and butlers. At least in the Southwestern part of North America, there were only the rich, robots and slaves. The weakened local governments had no power or resources to stop it. Fortunately, the mass production of service robots made them a cheaper and safer investment than human trafficking so the slave trade started to decline by 2090. Because of the lack of the poor and the reasonably good weather, an exclusive and high secure Spa resort business boomed in Southern California. The air was excessively dry but the sun was always out. Moneyed people from the European Union and China flocked to this new unpopulated wilderness.
By 2080, the European Union and China had become major global cooperative partners. The Dali Lama had moved to London in 2074 and set up another financial hub there. It brought Chinese investment solidly into the European Union and there was no reason to change it. The lack of trade restrictions within the Union were easy to extend to China. Some critics called it the China – European Union, but the moneyed people didn’t care. That was what globalization truly was about. Regionalism had to die. It just wasn’t good business. China was so big it still had a major functioning cheap human work force that made manufacturing in China always the cheapest thing to do. It was always good business to deal with China. “Let America think it up but let China do it.” became a common business slogan around the world. It was a successful strategy too.
By 2090, America was simply a big Disney Land, a luxury resort for the rich of the world. Americans strangely though, still thought themselves as still a superpower. Why, no one understood, because a war world seemed too destructive for everyone’s business to ever contemplate such a thing happening. Because of their economic power, the China – European Union directed most worldly events. The old empires had come back in a modified way, but now they weren’t going to make the same militaristic mistakes. They were very careful to keep the war mongers at bay. Destruction was now bad for everyone’s business. The Gore – Schmitt I.A. had functionally reduced the size of the available space in the world. The famines of the mid-2050s had substantially reduced the world’s population so it was easier to control local needs and aggressions. The only true superpowers now they could bully their way around were the few giant corporate entities, like G-Mom. They didn’t need to use physical force to get their way. They had enough influence and virtual wealth to always get their way.
Strangely, the true physical disasters brought on by the Gore – Schmitt Ice Age had brought with them prosperity and a resulting world peace. There were far fewer human beings on Earth now, so that too was a tragically good thing. The global ecology was suffering enough for the Ice Age; humans should leave it to take care of itself.
THE END
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Just to be perfectly clear!
All Rights to this piece reside with the Author