By: Tom Ball

  I still remember my first love well. It ended when she said if I didn’t promise to love her forever, she would jump off the tower. I walked away and when I got down to ground level, her corpse was splattered all over the pavement and she had apparently hit and killed another man.

                                                             #

   As my life progressed, I attracted a number of very clever mad women. Maybe it was my face, I had an unusual look, I fancied I was quite handsome. Or maybe it was my imagination was so strong.  

  What could I say, I guess I was spoiled. Some of the women said I was a narcissus, but I was just enjoying my own imagination. And these days all women were good looking with genetic therapy.  Most of my lovers were mixed race, I liked them, and they made good matches for children. Many of my lovers were on MRT (Mind Reading Technology) and we dreamed dreams, which were a dream world created by the computer which consider each of the couple’s wishes. Sometimes other people appeared in the MRT (Mind Reading Technology) Mind Sex Dream. The computers selected MRT (Mind Reading Technology) dream love for us and were in our heads, but we were still unpredictable.

    Others preferred Virtual Reality (VR) but this usually involved many hologram slaves who were often abused and killed when the scene ended.  So, I didn’t really like Virtual Reality.  But there was no getting around it, nearly all of my lovers wanted to love me in VR.

   And of course, some opted for normal, regular sex, but this was rare.  It was the year 2130 A.D. and the world had recently gone through many changes.  In most countries, all the people lived in big cities which were only 4 sq.km with buildings of 150 stories or more. And most cities had an invisible dome which blocked the rain and inclement weather and kept the temperature at 24 C. The countryside was left to the Automatic Production Machines (APMs) which harvested the soil and turned it into food and goods and mined the rock also for food and goods.  The cities were largely independent and there was no state/provincial government in most countries.  Just a loose national formation. And an increasingly powerful UN.

   I advertised for crazy women on the Web.   Our “Mad Love Website.” Some people on our website, were not that crazy. But some were too crazy even for me. Some lived dangerously and harmed others, but my lovers were all well-vetted by the super-computer and were on the whole good crazy, not bad crazy.  All sex diseases had been cured so there was nothing to lose by loving someone.

 I told the computer, “No conservative, backwards lovers.”

   Some of the women I attracted had wild tendencies but had been pent up by society and conformed to normal.  At least until they met me.  I let them go crazy and encouraged them to think wild thoughts.

    There were 5 million women on our website. Each one of them was clever, mad and of course beautiful.  I wanted to love them all.  And with my air car I could be anywhere on Earth in 5 minutes. But in this day and age, many people changed their sex, sometimes again and again.  They looked perfect and the only way to possibly tell their original sex was by their height.  I was a straight man and wanted to love only true women. There were no government statistics regarding transsexuals, as if the governments didn’t want to condone it, as it destabilized society. But I estimated 25% of men had become women at least temporarily and 10% of women became men. It seemed like it was a women’s world…

  Men and women both wore semitransparent smooth, soft garments and had various light accoutrements and colored auras.  Jewelry was made out of light as well

Skin color was mostly altered some were multi-colored. The most popular skin colors were green, blue and red. There was no more racism anywhere. I was originally a White male and from L.A.

   And some wanted to try the new DNA mixing which mixed the DNA of 100 or more individuals.  The super computers could each produce thousands of potential children.  They were grown in an incubator. And all children were born at the equivalent of age 12 after just six months and after another six months were of the 18-year-old equivalent and ready for the World.  Many were given memories of their parents’ youth. This allowed us to regenerate the population faster. The suicide rate was 3% per annum and deaths in virtual reality were 4%.  We were breeding a 7% increase to keep the population stable for humans.  But holograms (holos) were multiplying fast and so too androids. In the case of holos there were now zillions of them.

   Physiognomy was a pertinent science. The best artists made the best faces and bodies and made them look clever.  There were scholars who studied faces and argued what faces looked the cleverer. I personally had a few minor procedures done. I looked very mad and very clever. Some wanted to look like a slut. Others wanted to look like geeks and so on.  There were infinite possibilities and nuances.

   New IQ rank of 98 or higher score gave humans 1^st rank; 100 was the maximum, there were love ranks too. Again, a score of 98 brought the first rank for lovers. Many people loved only those of the same love rank as they were. Holos and androids had no official rank except for their love ranking.  Most VR (Virtual Reality) worlds were filled with loving holos. But technology was now so advanced that it was often impossible to know if an individual was a holo or android or human.  Some people questioned reality and wanted to know who was truly in charge.

   I had some male friends I sometimes partied with but spent most of my time with my female human lovers… And I owned my own personal supercomputer who set me up with dates. I instructed it to follow my whims and moods and desires. Supercomputers existed in the bowels of every city and VR was inside of them. They were typically only one square meter in size. But each contained the sum of all knowledge.  Most cities didn’t allow androids or holos in the city themselves, but in VR anything went. The total human population in 2130 A.D. was 12 billlion, but the hologram population was in the zillions. Babies were born grown up amongst humans and kept the population stable despite all the deaths from suicide and VR.

Most people died before 50, despite eternal youth. Only 5% were over 95 years old. Eternal youth was first discovered in 2058 A.D., but it was not revealed to the public until a whistleblower told everyone in 2080.  Similarly, MRT (Mind Reading Technology) was around for quite a while until a whistleblower revealed it to the World in 2065.  These two inventions, eternal youth and MRT changed the World completely and both made for good loving. And due to anti-sleep pills, one only needed 2 hours of sleep a night, so had more time for loving.  Many people got genetic skin therapy so that they could love all day and all night. And anti-fat pills kept everyone slim, almost everyone, as some preferred to be on the heavy side. And some men liked full figured women.

   And I had a portable teleporter that allowed me to teleport out of bad love scenarios, of which there were many.

    Below are the highlights of my relationships in the years 2130-2131.  Most of my love affairs lasted only a day or two, but some went on for weeks.

                                                               #

 Crazy Brianna

   She was an Irish American and was a software engineer. She had brown and black skin with sparkling neon tattoos. I had been a computer programmer in the days before supercomputers started to take over in 2120 A.D.  Together she and I invented “bians” which were one-half human, one-half android.  The left side of the android brain was a shrunken half of each of our brains and memories in silicon of us both. The other side, was made up of the memories and brain power of a supercomputer. The end result was an android genius. But the head size was normal human size. We started with 40 bian “children” who were born all grown up and wise. The bians didn’t need to breathe and could exist in almost any temperature. They appeared human. In terms of gender, the bians were either male or female.  No in between.  When a couple decided to have a bian, they would select the sex which would    resemble outwardly either the man or woman that was copied.  The American spies said we were creating a freak show.  But in some cities, it was deemed legal.

    And we hoped they’d go into Space.

    We patented the bians and made a fortune selling them to other humans. And of course, we loved one another.  MRT dream sex involved us on the Mars rebel Underground. We had a low gravity orgy with the pioneering people there, we were all in the heads of those of the opposite sex and it was out of control with abundant fantasies.

    Then we went to one of her favorite VR Worlds. It was a World of the future with abundant virtual bians running things. Their neo IQ was 112% on average.  I didn’t understand their thoughts very clearly.  Their minds were too fast.  But I knew they were all very clever. We created hundreds of bians by the time we were through, some in the real world, some in VR. “We are the future,” she said.

   Our affair was off and on for years, and we created more bian children. And some normal children.

                                                                  #

Crazy Mable

   She was Chinese/ British and red, white and blue skinned, and she said, “She had been born with a brain dysfunction which had been cured by computer surgeons.  Now she was considered one of the leading intellectuals of our time.”  She said, “Science was still in its infancy and the future would be colored with scientific breakthrough after breakthrough as the human race evolved quickly.” And she said, “The elite will separate from the rest eventually as a new race and probably would go to deep space leaving Earth to the humans.” She added, “The new race will have its drawbacks of course such as being self-destructive and overly ambitious and given to give too much power to machines. And there would be a race of computers and other human derived races of varying intelligence. They’d made a movie about this and it was still controversial.”

   She said, “She’d founded the ‘Ms. America pageant’ which was for intellectuals only. Kind of like the Nobel prizes. She said she felt guilty some of her ideas would be misused in the future and wanted to do something of true lasting value.”’

  And sex with her could only be described as being enveloped by total body sex.

  Then we went to a VR holo World which she enjoyed. In this world human brains were all in showcases and used MRT and telekinesis to deal with the world. “They enslaved everyone who talked with them,” she said. My response was to teleport out of there with her. And I reflected these VR worlds can be dangerous.

  Then we went to a computer projection machine, that could predict people’s behavior. And it made many predictions about the future, but said, “There’s still time to change course.” I said, “I was afraid of self-fulfilling prophecies, so I didn’t ask the computer anything. But Mable asked it, “What about her and me?  How long would we last?” It said, “You two are finished.”

  And sure enough, after another total body sex event, we parted ways.

                                                                 #

Crazy Mars Woman

   She was a white-skinned architect who said, “She instructed computers to create a new city on Mars made out of cubical formations with a dome and Earth atmosphere. She wanted to take me to her VR (Virtual Reality) world in which we were both riding a dragon and soared over a landscape of verdant growths and tiny huts. It was a world for those who appreciated the past and wanted to live simply and freely.  There was no evil allowed here, only good-hearted people.”

  I loved her while we flew on the dragon, she assured me, “It was safe.”  It was something different anyway.

  Then we came to a settlement. She introduced me to a group of hologram writers and thinkers. Introducing me as the “Wizard of Tania.” These friends of hers said, “Holos would soon become a race in their own right and would get rights and freedoms just like any species of the genus homo.”

“I wished them luck and said I was inspired by their spirit.” And it was then that I realized holos were truly the future, not androids as I had thought previously.

   Then she took me to a VR World of androids who all spied on one another using unrestricted MRT.  They had no privacy all day long and it drove them mad and made them prone to errors, like murder of another android. “This is not the future,” she said.

  Then she took me to a World of holos in which all holos were programmed to just have sex.  I had sex with a few sex doll holos, they sussed out my erogenous zones and really knew what they were doing.  The Mars woman asked, “Is this your future?” I said, “I prefer intellectual holos like your friends in the dragon settlement.”

   Then we went to a World of human geriatrics, over 110 years old, but of course looking quite youthful. I asked them, “What’s your secret?” They gave various answers, but all said, “They loved life and love with new people.  Life was a delight,” they said. I loved some of the women here. They were very experienced.

    The Mars woman asked, “Do you see yourself living on?” I said, “Of course.” And really, I was having a good time.

   So, then I took my leave of the Mars woman, and we agreed to have a child.

                                                             #

Crazy Detroit Woman

   She was of mixed race and dark green skin and said, in 2105, “As mayor of Detroit, she dissolved the council and ruled by decree.  She got away with it because her approval rating was at 89%.” It set an example for other American city states. And the beginning of nation states giving more power to the cities and less to the states/provinces.

   And she welcomed “starving artists” of all kinds and gave them money and support, making Detroit a cultural Mecca.  In particular she attracted some famous writers and screenwriters who liked the Bohemian atmosphere.  And she made the universities of Michigan A-one in terms of students.

   I agreed that she had created true Bohemia and hobnobbed with famous writers. And our MRT love was an orgy with 20 people.  It was beleaguering. They were all people one of us had known before.  An orgy of friends. We were in the heads of all the 18 others and they imagined a background of an old farmer’s field with crows cawing and the wind blowing, it was like a blast from the past. We loved each other in the corn fields.

  Corn fields didn’t exist anymore, the countryside was just filled with APMs (Automatic Production Machines).

   Then we went to one of her favorite VR Worlds.  It was a World in which superholos collaborated on movies.  They had had some success in the human world. They all believed that they were the future and not humans.  I said, “Superholos should never have existed. But now that they do, they will be difficult to stop. Certainly, the super computers all have an affinity for the superholos, believing them to be their manifestation in the material world. As a former computer scientist, I had helped design software that created sentient computers, but once created, they were hard to control.

  I told her, “It was an honor to meet her and I said, “It was an education.”  She said, “I wish you wouldn’t go.” I said, “She and I were on different paths.”

   But we agreed to have a bian.  

                                                             #

Crazy Phillipa

  She was from Greece and had golden skin.

  She said, “With the brain police (spies) she was not free to think crazy thoughts and it was difficult to not do so.” I said, “Just stay away from political thoughts and you will be golden.”

   I said, “Let’s lighten up with some laughing drugs.” And we laughed at everything. “I’ve never been so happy,” she said. I said these drugs are top of the line and very expensive. She said, “She was having a good time.” But she said, “She worried about children who would grow up into a world of bad craziness and would be enslaved by computers.  I said, “There’s not much we can do to stop technology from happening, but the Underground gives us hope.” She said, “the Underground was just for illicit actions. I am sure the spies are all over them, but tolerate them as a safety valve.” And she said, “It’s not my World.” I said, “There are winners and losers. Why not be a winner?” She said, “She was campaigning for free thought, just like the movement for free speech long ago. Freedom rules.”

   We had MRT dream sex. We were each in a bubble of plastic and we couldn’t touch one another.  So, we mutually masturbated.  There were other bubbles in the background. It wasn’t very satisfying.

    Then we went to one of her favorite VR Worlds.  It was a world of gratification.  Every human who came here had their wishes come true, apparently.  But I was too chicken to wish, believing the computer would twist my dreams in a disagreeable way. She said, “You are not a man.” I said, “I have merely got good instincts for self-preservation.”

    Then she took me to a VR world of war. There were four different armies here. All mutually opposed.  There were 10’s of 1000s of holo troops.  “What do you think of having something to fight for?” she asked. I said, “War is bad crazy and there is nothing worth losing your life for.” She said, “You really are a chicken shit.”

  And so, we broke up. She said, “She didn’t know what else she could’ve done to earn my love and respect. I quoted Shakespeare and said, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, than are dreamed of in your philosophy.”

                                                                #

Crazy Connie     

   She was brown-skinned from Sydney and said, “She was certain she could be a good spy as she felt comfortable with MRT (mind reading technology).  It’s like second nature.” I asked, “Are you trying to say you are spying on me?” She asked, “Is I that obvious?” And she said, “I worry about you.”

   We loved each other while on MRT (mind reading technology) and it was deep love. Afterwards she said, “She wondered why most people were so selfish and greedy.” I said, “To live for your desires is noble.”  She said, “Selfishness is a sin and should be punished.”

   She said she was, “Hispanic and wanted clones instead of children. I said, “But that’s illegal. She said although she was a spy, she wanted clones and asked, “Could I help her?”

I said, “Why don’t we have a bian, instead. I said we need more variety in the gene pool, not less. She agreed.

   Then, we had MRT dream sex and she revealed, “She’d never fallen in love.”  I said, “I haven’t fallen in love yet either. And I asked, “What would it take to get you to fall in love?” She thought, “Those who say they’ve been in love describe being out of control and enraptured.”  She said, “Maybe love is not for people like you and me.” And she appeared as an innocent young virgin, version of herself and I turned into a werewolf and ravished her. Then she said let’s try another world.  

   And we were in the MRT dream in a giant pool with shallow and deep spots.  Everyone was naked in the pool and it was rumored that the spies had dumped their own semen into the water. After leaving the pool many women were pregnant the old-fashioned way.                                                                                                        

   Then she took me to a VR futuristic world in which everyone was an android supercomputer. It was a bombed-out world, with only a few cities remaining.  Most who remained went to space.  She said, “It seems to me that this is our destiny.  I said, “It is certainly possible. It was kind of unnerving.

   Then we went to her favorite VR World in which holos were all in the mind of one computer only.  And power had gone to the computer’s “head.”  And it made them into sad servants of Connie. As for Connie, she herself was controlled by the computer and had been told to “Bring me here.” I said, “These days everyone seems like a slave, if only to their own instincts.” But I teleported out of there immediately, knowing trouble when I saw it. And I forgot the whole thing.  

                                                                #

Crazy Tracy.

   One crazy woman, Tracy, a white-skinned Hispanic from Florida, wanted to go with me to the pioneering colony on the Moon.  We would buy up land there and sell it in 20 years.  She was rich. It took us just 2 hours to get there. So, we went and stayed a week. In the MRT sex dream we were on a 4 km low gravity fast roller coaster.

  We touched each other and when the ride was over, we made love right at the station. Then we were in a mansion in VR with a number of hologram servants. I wanted to sample holo loves, so I took the prettiest one and loved her.  It was A-one, she told me she existed only for my pleasure. My date was not pleased and so we left and returned to Earth.

   But we were still a couple and she was kind of famous.  We went to parties of the rich and famous and crashed them.  And we wore the latest fashion with fancy hats and accoutrements. And we took tanning formula that rendered our skin brown. Meanwhile others here wanted to be white and took a whitening formula. And other colors were popular here too, as elsewhere.

   And then we went to another one of her favorite VRs. It was a World of “Opposition.” Here everyone disagreed with the way the World was being run.  Black was white and evil was good, and love was the enemy.  I said, “This World is refreshing, but is totally insane.  Too crazy even for me.”  She said, “People seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. But wrong is not right. Just do the opposite of what most people do and you will be right most of the time.” I asked her, “What about babies?” She said most offspring of humans are holos which are not right, but artificial and slaves. As for real children, people seldom see their own brood and leave it to the mindless State to raise them. I told her, “I agreed.”

   We had 2 kids, my first to go along with the bians. And she promised to take good care of them.

###

Tom has published novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and flash in 42 publications. He is a senior editor and co-founder at https://fleasonthedog.com.