The Thing From MY Future is special milk that invigorates your whole body both physically and mentally. Quite the rush for an old person who has it for the first time...
Before we get into what cards I was dealt for The Thing From the Future, here’s a quick recap on my world:
It’s 2060. Technology has advanced rapidly in practically every way imaginable. AR contact lenses allow information to be overlaid on the world around us. Food, materials, and even physical organs can be synthetically grown. Travel around the world, and even to outer space, is relatively quick and inexpensive. Diseases have been cured, AI has become man’s new best friend, and these advances don’t show signs of stopping. However, not for everybody. There are groups of people, that for a variety of individual reasons, have chosen to be “left behind” by this technology. Most of them believe that technology is beginning to strip us of our humanity, and that it is making them miss the whole point of the meaning of life. Some shun technology entirely, some pick and choose which technologies they utilize. It is this division between societies that is so interesting in my future world.
Anyway, back to The Thing From MY Future. I had some good ones, but none of them topped the first one that I got, since it best explored the division between Those Who Are Left Behind and the rest of the world, albeit in a somewhat humorous fashion.
Arc: My version of 2060
Terrain: Old Age
Object: Beverage
Mood: Excitement
One big difference between societies in 2060 is that for the rest of the world, medical advances have allowed people to live longer, all without being bogged down by diseases common to older generations, such as Alzheimer’s. However, for Those Who Are Left Behind, this is very much still a problem. As people grow older, they are not as nimble, in both mind and body.
There is a drink that was synthesized in a lab that invigorates the body, helping it fire neurons and synapses, and to just make sure that the whole body is running well. Physically, it’s basically a more extreme version of a protein shake, and mentally, it’s like caffeine without the crash (kind of like NZT from the movie/TV show “Limitless,” but not quite as drastic). This beverage is commonplace in the world of 2060, much like we have vitamins now. But not for Those Who Are Left Behind. In those communities, non-organic synthesized anything is severely frowned upon.
In the movie/TV show Limitless, a drug called NZT unlocks the entire capacity of your brain, allowing you to remember anything you’ve ever heard, read, or seen.
Regardless, like we see illegal drugs make their way around in our day and age, word of this drink got around to Those Who Are Left Behind, and some individuals thought it would be a good idea to give it to their aging parents and grandparents, many of whom were on their deathbed. And just like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandpa Joe sprung right out of bed, suddenly remembered all of his children’s and grandchildren’s names, and had the best day of his life. Without the rest of the medicine that the rest of the world has, though, his body couldn’t keep up with that level of energy, and he passed away at the end of that day. Who knows how much longer he would have continued living, or if he would have gotten over the sickness at all, but for that one day, it was the most exciting time of his life. This spectacle made the drink far more shunned in the society, but those in that family knew how much joy and excitement it brought all of them for that short time, and suddenly, the division between black and white, the rest of the world and Those Who Are Left Behind, became much more gray, just like the color of that drink….
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