Back to the future

(Alarm clock ringing, a woman’s voice starts talking). “Good morning Plato! It’s 22nd April, 2171.” Plato wakes up and after having a delicious breakfast, walks cheerfully to his Applesoft computer situated in the luminous corner of his living room. “Good morning Plato.” the computer greets him. He plugs in his biochip to the computer to unlock it and starts his workday.

Plato is a software developer at Badger Insurance company, a market leader in the global insurance industry. His particular focus in maintaining and developing the traffic cyber liability line of business for autonomous vehicles. He has been working for 10 years now for this company, and has mostly enjoyed his workdays, but sometimes things felt a bit too monotonous, as days were passing by feeling all the same. But, today was different. After lunch, with a cup of organic Moon grown coffee in his hand, as every other day, he was adjusting the premium returns. All of a sudden, a video call from a client, Merche Motors, interrupted him. “Hello, Mr. Plato. We seem to have had an accident.” an elegant woman from the German headquarters of Merche Motors somewhat panicky uttered. “An accident?” Plato wondered. “There must be some kind of a mistake. We haven’t had a car accident in the past 90 years.” he added. Just as he was wondering what to do, another video call was ringing. “Plato, we have a situation. Pause the cover in your line of business immediately and turn off your computer, do it now.” his boss, Socrates said with an upsetting high tone.

Socrates was Plato’s boss, but also a friend. Almost 120 years older than Plato, he was a paternal figure to Plato both on a professional and personal level. With a long grey beard, Socrates gave out an aura of timeless wisdom. His advice was always spot-on and Plato was quite happy with the relationship with his mentor.

Plato immediately acknowledged his boss’s warning and as he was walking away from the desk, a notification was directly transmitted to his cerebral cortex. “A cyber virus named the Tiaravirus has penetrated the network of various autonomous vehicle providers. Considering the expected rapid spread of the virus, a cyber pandemic has been proclaimed by the World Cyber Health Organization. All electronic devices will remain in lockdown until further notice. System shutdown will commence in 5 seconds.” The world Plato knew has come to a halt. 

Everyone had to adapt to the new circumstances quickly. An amusement museum city-park on the outskirts of the megapolis where Plato lived still had a few thousand vehicles from the 21st century in stock. Various 160+ year old people volunteered to drive the cars and buses as they still knew how to do it. Socrates advised Plato that tomorrow he will need to come to the office building in the museum city. “We need to insure the human drivers now. I’ll inform the team to go to the museum archive to get the old wordings.” Plato was very scared and even cried that night in his bed. When he came to his senses a bit, he thought to himself “Thank God I didn’t upload my brain to that cyborg I ordered a few days ago on the Nile platform.” 

And so, day by day, things stabilized in the new environment. People were getting used to the new circumstances, they were commuting to work and offices were full again after more than a century of dust collecting. The world appeared almost the same as it was 150 years ago. 

A week into the cyber pandemic Plato was still getting used to the office setting. “What the f**k is Solvency II? How can I decode this mess?!” Glaucon screamed. Glaucon was Plato’s brother but also a colleague from the property cyber liability department. “It’s too bad Actuary 2100 is in lockdown. She would have decoded this garbage in seconds.” Plato replied. “Ah, speaking of which, did you hear that Advocate 2050 is almost functional again? I think his quarantine is expiring on Monday.” Glaucon responded. “Thank God for that. The Head of the maritime cyber liability for autonomous vessels has been reassigned to the newly formed legal department. He’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” Plato replied once again.

Few more weeks into the pandemic and Plato was practically depressed. The world has become infested with accidents, legal disputes, pollution, avarice etc. The stupidity and malice of the 21st century came back to haunt humanity. Plato couldn’t stand it anymore. As he was walking outside the office, he ran into Socrates who noticed Plato was not feeling well. “What’s the problem Plato?” Socrates asked. “I can’t believe this is happening. The world has collapsed in a few weeks. How is this possible?” Plato uttered in despair.

“Plato, my dear pupil, you see, people have always been the same. I’m turning 163 in 2 months. I have lived through various misfortunes the world has encountered. I particularly remember the pandemic of 2020. Back then, we humans were at danger and everyone gradually turned to technology for rescue. And this was a good thing. Technological advancements managed to flatten out some of human’s flaws and return to mankind one of its most important assets, time, the same being our most precious possession. Technology also removed some unnecessary burdens from society such as daily commuting, corporate bureaucrats, rent seeking corporations, insane crony capitalists, politicians poisoned with grandiose delusions, and so on. But, being human we’ve managed to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. We again managed to destroy everything. Why? Because we relied too much on technology. Technology isn’t flawless. It cannot solve every problem. It cannot save us from ourselves. Our qualities and flaws determine everything. Who built the technology controlling the world nowadays? We did. So, my dear Plato, be humble, seek simplicity, virtue and wisdom. Question everything. Wonder. Know thyself. Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others. And hope that one day we'll wake up in a better world, one in which we do not repeat the same mistakes over and over again.”

(Alarm clock ringing, a woman’s voice starts talking). “Good morning people! Greetings from Radio Limon. It’s 22nd April, 2020.” Plato wakes up and for a brief moment thinks to himself “What a crazy dream! This quarantine is affecting me in strange ways.” After having a delicious breakfast, he walks cheerfully to his computer situated in the luminous corner of his living room. He types in his password and starts his workday. At 12:00h he has a scheduled Zoom meeting with his boss Socrates. After a brief discussion on business matters, Plato tells him all about his dream. Socrates listens to him carefully and responds in a calm voice:

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”

― Socrates