Boxed Brain

        Well then, yesterday with CJ was fun. Took me awhile to finish this story. Though I felt it was good. Yeah, as I said CJ and I sort of play video games and comment on them for comedic value(for the curious we played Megaman Starforce 3) and several other things. We also watched stupid, funny stuff on the Internet, yay Internet! Anyway, onto the flash fiction!

Boxed Brain

        I wonder how many of you in the 21^st century can see it coming? I know you're all smart enough to get it, it may have not just crossed your mind yet. Though it probably already has crossed several of your mind's already. Now then, think about the fact that you farming's already becoming ridiculously good so you've pretty much got food covered and your medical care's getting better with every year right? Now imagine that spreading across the entire world. Then imagine your medical care getting so good that everyone could potentially live forever and look incredibly youthful to boot!

      That happens folks. Everyone can be immortal. And that future is where I live.

       Now this naturally leads to problems. The biggest of all is overpopulation. How to we fix this? The nicest way we put this called “boxing”. Though someone could live to be thousands of years old with proper medical treatment this would be incredibly expensive. As people get older it gets more expensive to maintain them. Now to keep everything fair we don't just let the rich live longer. Instead everyone has a 150 year limit on their normal, human body. Then after that we box 'em. Boxing someone is taking their brain and hooking it up to a computer inside a preserver while getting rid of the rest. It solves the overcrowding problem so everyone can live out their immortality. Otherwise the planet couldn't sustain us all. It still costs money to maintain a human brain, but that's someone working the machine and such, not food like a person.

        I am one of those brains. And my name is George.

       Now brains when hooked up to a computer do not sit comatose. We actually live in a virtual reality. Oh, and as a brain your still considered a citizen and alive. You still actually pay taxes, which is really only fair as your upkeep does cost money and you can't expect everyone to just do it for free. So yes, I am a living brain with a job. Now what could a brain do? Well, when a brain is no longer burdened by a body it can do amazing things(though when not at work we do live in a simulated environment with simulated bodies we operate like a puppet, like a video game almost)

           My friend Thomas works at a bank, he can actually beat some super computers with calculations. When your just a brain with no lungs to worry about, you can do that kinda stuff. My mother works at a factory operating the mechanical arms. An old teacher of mine works as a researcher in a lab, using cameras to see and still works the machines. In fact many smart brains remain as educators or professors speaking with synthesized voices over a microphone. However I'm no accountant, factory worker, or professor, I work in the field of entertainment.

           I'm a video game character.

          Yup. My job is to be a character in a video game. People in my time aren't satisfied with fighting dumb artificial intelligences all the time. I'm hired by a corporation to fight players. Yes, from my little box I control characters in the game. We're actually given guidelines as to how we're to behave. So really we're actors too. Of course it kinda stinks being stuck as the alien that the player kills before the next level(and the fellow aliens are actors just like me). Usually promotions involve you becoming more significant roles. Maybe I'll be promoted to final boss someday.

         The game I'm in right now involves a medieval fantasy setting where groups of players raid a horde of treasure guarded by an evil dragon. (Though I'm just one of the goblins they have to fight along the way.) There's a whole bunch of us goblins(all fellow brains of course.) outnumbering the players, but considering the players have armor, swords and several are wizards that can summon lighting or fire its a pretty uneven fight in their favor.

          Everything went as usual at first though at the end one of the wizard players stopped while the other players advanced. All the other goblins were dead except me.

           “I wanted to ask you a question.” the player told me. We weren't supposed to really have conversation with the players. We just did our roles and the players did theirs. “And I'm not going on until you answer it in detail. It's not a big deal, but I'll report you for misconduct if you don't answer it.”

I bowed my goblin head, “What is it?”

         “What's it like being boxed?” he asked me.

         I was expecting a bit more dramatic of a question after the threat of misconduct, which reports of misconduct is usually for something like harassment outside of the game context or something. So explained to him everything I've done to you. I told him that in the virtual reality city that I lived in outside of work things felt less real though I could will things(If I wanted a pool I could have it) but all my senses in the end were deadened. Sort of like covering your ears with your hands. And controlling your body was like controlling a puppet, much less satisfying in everything. His next question though is what hit me hard.

        “Is there anything you regret not doing while you were a normal living human?” the wizard player asked. “It'll be a very long time until I have to become boxed like you, but I don't want to waste any time now.”

         I stopped to think. I didn't know if I thought for two minutes or twenty, but the player sat their silently the entire time to let me think.

        I then spoke, my goblin voice was harsh, as that's how it was programmed to be, “I never had children. And as a brain I can never had kids. I can never visit any national monuments of the world in person now, I can only experience virtual copies. But everything is weaker in my virtual reality. I never mastered any sort of sport either and I have no body to exercise.” if they had given this goblin body they ability to frown I would have. “I could list on forever the things I just never had the chance to do. I didn't even get a chance to play all the video games I wanted to play now that I think about it even the little things like that. There was this one when I was a kid I had that I wanted to play with my friend but I lost it. I never got another copy. It's so old I doubt they even put a copy in my virtual reality. I guess my biggest regret is that I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do.”

       “So any recommendations?” the player asked.

        I paused to think again and again the player waited for my response.

       “Well, have kids, because you can't have them where I am, then do whatever makes you happiest because you can't do it all.” I said.

         “Alright. Thanks for the talk.” he said. “Well, I gotta catch up to my friends. And I really need the experience points from you so sorry. So yeah, I'm going to kill you now.”

        “Don't worry its my job. Goblin and everything. See you on your next time you play the stage.”

        The player then hit me with a level fifteen fire spell and I died in a single hit. He only needed a level three fire spell to kill me, but I think he was going for the overkill bonus in his experience points. Oh, well in a few moments I would respawn to fight the next set of players. At five I'd change shifts with another brain and head back to my virtual home and sleep. (Us boxed brains still go to sleep and dream) Anyway, goodnight!

         Perhaps I would dream I was fully human again.