FULLY ALIVE

Short Story

by Marilyn Hamilton

Imagine you’re a passenger on a jet that mysteriously time warps to the year 2037: That’s what a team of world-class science-fiction writers did for “Seat 14C,” a project created by XPRIZE and Japan’s ANA airline.

I imagined a story – and although it didn’t win the prize I share it as a blog – to reflect in fiction some of the possibilities of an imagined future through the lenses of Integral City’s consciousness and culture.

This focus on inner technology is in contrast to those writers (more than two dozen contributors) who focused primarily on external technological visions for 2037.

“These writers offered a fascinating glimpse into what the future may hold in a number of areas: transportation, energy + environment, education, identity and privacy, housing, currency, jobs, and even relationships,” said Eric Desatnik, who wss the project’s creator and producer as well as senior director of public relations for the nonprofit XPRIZE organization.

The project is in line with XPRIZE’s focus on boosting technological innovation through incentives – including multimillion-dollar contests for private-sector spaceships, super-efficient automobiles and medical diagnostic devices inspired by the tricorders on “Star Trek.”

Visitors to the Seat14C.com website started their ride by watching a short video about the backstory: ANA Flight 008 is on its way from Tokyo to San Francisco when the Boeing 777 jet flies through a disturbance in spacetime.

It seems like just one moment for the passengers, but when the jet comes in for a landing, they discover that the date is actually June 28, 2037. They suddenly have to adjust to technologies that have advanced 20 years while they weren’t looking.

The screen turns into an interactive seating chart. Imagine  you call up a tale for Seat 14c as told by Integral City’s emissary — read on.

“You won’t believe what happened when our We-Space tapped into the Field of Evolutionary Intelligence twenty years ago!! And it’s all because of your Human Hive!”

Alpha gazed at Omega’s palpable excitement. She felt a little overcome – even dismayed not to mention disoriented. She had just arrived from SFO, expecting to report on her crazy tour, sharing the impact of her new paradigm for the city in Tokyo, Shanghai, Moscow and Findhorn (of all places).

From the start, it had seemed far-fetched that she should be the medium through which the Field would download the new operating system. And God knows she had argued with the Voice when it had demanded her attention, “Look at the City”. “Not me, I’m not a city planner –  I don’t do cities,” she had resisted. But persistently, gently but firmly the Command had repeated, “Look at the City”. If she really intended to live her vows of obedience and service to planetary wellbeing, she could not refuse and in the end relinquished control to the Source. That was all that was needed to open doors, discover maps, gain new eyes and even turn on the lights in Year 2000. She had released her whole being to the quest of manifesting the new operating system for the city which came to be known through her as Integral City or more colloquially the Human Hive.

Click here to Download the Full Story: Seat 14C _FULLY ALIVE – mh