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Sometime around the year 2200 we will forget how to talk. We revert or progress to other means of communication; song, or movement, or symbol. We won’t sing in words.
A few of us will develop a nonverbal rapport – a semaphore system, of the eyes or the hands or even pure brain waves. But this system will not be widespread, and mostly limited to kindred spirits, of whom there are not many. Husbands and wives will speak to one another through sex, mothers and children through physical actions both simpler and more intimate.
Around 3000, writing will come into a renaissance period, as first scholars and scientists then all of us gradually learn to write again. The subsequent recording of our collective memory will become either a prized communication tool or an esoteric area of academic study. If the former, we will become gregarious, silent storytellers, interrupting each other, and accomplishing nothing. If the latter, we will hold tight to our individual memories like the currency they are, rarely consulting the written works. We will grow further and further apart until we each exist in a solitude that may, at some point, preclude the necessity to communicate at all.
Amy Bergen 3000.
Published On: February 14, 2010
Permanent Location: http://www.forgetmagazine.com/100214b.htm
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