A Mind Forever Voyaging

Story

The story begins in 2031, in a world on the brink of chaos. The economy of the United States of North America (USNA) has been stagnating for decades. Bizarre religions are popping up everywhere like mushrooms. Crime and urban decay are rampant. Schools have become violent, chaotic places completely unsuitable for educating children. Today’s youth frequently use Joybooths to “block out” the world, which in extreme cases leads to Joybooth suicide, where a psychologically dependent individual wastes away in their private nirvana. The global situation is even bleaker. The “Calcutta-ization” of the Third World has nearly reached its limit, leading to extreme overpopulation and poverty. This has created a climate ripe for the adventurism of the Eastern Bloc, which exploits the instability and fuels the numerous flashpoints around the globe. The superpowers’ race to build an impenetrable missile defense system ended in a stalemate, with the predictable yet unforeseen result that an even more dangerous arms race has begun —a race to build miniature nuclear weapons, some as small as a cigarette pack, and smuggle them into enemy cities—a race that threatens to turn the USNA into a vast police state. Things are looking grim, and it seems they can only get worse. When Senator Richard Ryder, together with a small group of leaders from government, business, and academia, announces the “Plan for a Renewed National Purpose,” everyone is all too ready to accept it. Only one thing stands between the plan and its adoption: a test of its validity. That is why you have been “awakened” from your simulated life, and your true nature has been revealed to you several years earlier than planned. You have been chosen to use your unique abilities to enter a simulation of the future based on the principles of the Plan, in order to test its effectiveness. The eyes of the world are upon you.