Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 15:38:05 -0400 From: Kafka Dreams To: void Subject: testing humanity Sunday morning (14 May 2000) I dreamt of the final test of humanity's right to survive as a species. It isn't an invasion with ensuing slavery. It isn't a battle to the death in distant colonies. It isn't a space war or a plague or anything. It was a creature. It hovered and was shaped roughly like a dragonfly, but without wings. It was about 2.5-3 feet long, maybe 3 inches diameter at its thinnest near the tail and over 8 inches in diameter at the shoulder. Its eyes were smallish, but insect-like (faceted, I guess) and sat more on top of its head than on the sides. They were proportionally smaller than a dragonfly's eyes would have been - larger than golf balls, but smaller than tennis balls. It shifted its shape as fluidly as a CGI (apparently my effects budget was recently increased) and looked like a blend of molten silver and high gloss, brightly colored plastic - but it wasn't either. The comparisons don't do it justice. It was made of something ELSE and it was amazing to look at. Reflective, bright, shiny, new. Within it were reserves for change. It could increase its size and change its shape. It communicated with a kind of concept telepathy - not just words or pictures or emotions, but ideas. And it layed eggs. They were big red faceted ovals, but with flat, maybe 8 inches wide, edges that were covered with the shiny reflective stuff in a 3 inch layer. Like a tire pushed down to make an oval, with a red plastic insert. ----------- [Cheesy ASCII ------ [Cheesy ASCII / ------- \ Front View] | | Side View] / / \ \ | | | | red | | Outer edge | | Silver edge \ \ / / is silver | | 8 inches wide \ ------- / | | ----------- ------ All the edges were rounded. The eggs were for everyone. Inside the egg was your companion, your friend-pet-thing. It didn't have to be insect-like. It could be any shape you wanted. With any power you wanted. In fact, over time it would gradully become the shape and personality that you wanted and needed (emotionally, not sexually) whether you wanted it to or not. So, some would become friendly, interesting learning tools. And others would become oversized aggressors; revenge machines. But each would start of small and cute and malleable, looking to learn and grow. People would, of course, go nutty for them. They would be Pokemon and Furby and Ann McAffrey's dragons and Speak-n-Spell all rolled up into one perfect package. But they would reflect our innermost needs and feelings, so whether we as a race survived having them wouldn't be based on what we did or tried to do. It would be based on what's inside of us. The last image of the dream was a mean-faced child with a menacing thing looming behind it in the shadows - it's belly was a big and red and faceted. The rest of it was shiny and the light reflected off of it, but not in a clean and bright way - more of a sepia-tinted, faded, almost oily way. Kelly J. p.s. Please note that I generally believe people should be judged by their actions and not by what's good or bad inside, but as you can see - I can't control what bubbles up from my own unconscious.