Dreams

You look at your watch. You know it’s time. Time to start walking. Down a hallway. You see a door in front. You want to open it. You know there are many doors in this hallway. Each of them separating you from a world of its own. A world different from its previous one. A world with a newer set of rules. You are here to walk. Just. The doors come to you one by one when the time is right.

You walk towards the first door. You unlatch it.

Dream 1:              2014. Early in the morning, you are getting ready for your office. The morning paper is all messed up lying on the table. Your coffee cup is almost empty. The TV is playing some cartoon in loud volume as your kid is getting ready for school. It’s another day. A nice day. What do you do next? … You have your breakfast. Say bye to your kid. Leave your apartment, get into your car and lock the door. And drive. To your office. Because that’s what you do. Almost everyday. You work. That’s your profession. And that’s how you live your life.

You keep walking. And face the next door. You pause for some time. You breathe in. There is a sense of relief in what you have just seen. And you think which world will you be visiting next and what more or new can it offer! You unlock the second journey.

Dream 2:              3014. It’s a sci-fi world you are living in. Humanity has celebrated its biggest triumph 200 years back. Humans were able to create food directly from sunlight mimicking the process of photosynthesis. 3 people had won a nobel prize and many were saying that this was the greatest discovery ever made in the history of mankind. The discovery has been recently commercialized into a product that common man will be able to buy in the market in another 10 years! A device which is going to make food for you if you keep it under the sun. That simple! You do not need to 'pay' anymore for what you eat!

This is a phase of transition humanity is going through now. Two major changes are slowly creeping into human life for the first time. The definitions of ‘Profession’ and ‘Money’ are changing; you realize, that hundred years later, the future generation may not even know that people on earth once used to ‘work’ to ‘earn a living’! You are perplexed. Because you thought life was all about surviving day-to-day problems and then suddenly, one day, some problems just vanished from your list! But you do not know whether to celebrate or to become hostile. Because you know something new is coming your way and you may not be ready for it. People around you have already started talking about joining a job just to kill time. And some are piling up money fantasizing what all they can do with it, now that they need not spend money over food!

You do not familiarize yourself with this world. You have never seen it, never thought about it. However, now in the hallway, it does appear to you as something which is real. So, what do you do next? ... How do you want to spend your time in this world? Doing what? Why? … You keep thinking. And you walk along. You find the third door.

Dream 3:              4014. The world is run with robots that are always at your service. Your wish is their command. The present generation of humans does not use the concept of 'money' anymore. When they read about it in history books they find it quite difficult to understand. Give and take continues in the society as it always has. However, the exchange happens, now, not between two humans - as no person has anything that another cannot have - but between the humans and the Reserve! The term 'Wealth' is slowly vanishing from the human dictionary!

Though all of it sounds crazy, you actually do understand how this system works. You have seen it before. In a huge library that almost houses every book on the planet. Anyone can have any book they want. Anytime. Just as there can be many copies of a book, similarly, in the present world, there are innumerable numbers of resources in the Reserve. And the resources are unlimited. So now you do not need to 'pay' for anything!

You sense how different this world is! Meanings of words like 'Value' is on the verge of getting permanently changed. And you just cannot get 'Popular' as you are no different than others! Communication between fellow human beings has decreased to a minimum and people are saying, that in years to come, the word 'Society' might also see a refinement in its meaning. Many, in fact, look at the current world as the last and defining step of Human Evolution.

And this is also to tell you that humans are not confined to earth anymore. They are colonizing in outer space. As you have fantasized during watching Star Wars, on TV, thousands of years back! 

So, now comes the question. The question which becomes more and more relevant to you and more and more difficult for you to answer as you keep walking down this mysterious hallway. “What do you do next? How do you decide to spend your time in such a world?”

You find a fourth door in the hallway and someone whispers to you that it might be the last one in your journey.

Dream 4:              6014. Human beings have the greatest gift of all now, which make all their earlier discoveries and achievements look tiny. Through the progress of Science, Technology and Medicine humans have achieved immortality. There will be no more deaths now as the secret of rejuvenating the human body has been unlocked. Population has went up so much that humans have started spreading all across the universe!

 But that is not your concern. Your concern is to answer that one question that has been bothering you since you started opening new doors in this hallway. Now you know you had been missing something all along; right from when you had started the journey in 2014! So, what really do you want to do with all the time you have? What do you want to do, now that you are immortal? … It becomes even more difficult to answer and the issue of not being able to answer becomes even more significant. You see what lies ahead of you in the hallway. A mirror. Only. You look at yourself. You look hard. Who are you? 

Dream 5:              You see a different world in the mirror. Where you do not need to get up in the morning and go to work. Where there is nothing that others have and you cannot have. Where you know you are not going to just die someday. Space and Time is for you to take over. But, for the time being, you are just looking at yourself! Because you do not know what to do next. You still have not been able to figure out an answer to that question! You do not know how to spend your time!

 In fact, the Designer of the Dreams has decided to add more spice to your life with a last moment twist in the plot. This new world you are seeing now in the mirror has one difference with respect to the previous one! It’s only you who is living there. There is no one else. You are alone.

For the sake of logic, let's say that something had happened, long time back, and that had made you the sole survivor on a certain human colony – a planet, which is not earth. You have no communication with humans on other planets! Neither do you know or have the technology that can fly you out from there! Now, as you see yourself in the mirror, the mirror asks you the same question. “What do you want to do next? How do you plan to spend your time?"

The hallway has ended. With that question. You look at your watch. You know it’s time.