Mirage of Peace — A Fiction
A Dialogue About Human Condition
In 2101, we decrypted an obscure metal disc after decades of attempts and thousands of tests had been done.
We hereby disclose the once highly classified content within this disc — a profound conversation between an unidentified intellectual entity denoted as ‘X’ and a presumably transcendental being recognized as ‘Screen.’
This record has undergone extensive translation into 109 distinct languages and thorough linguistic transmutation into a coherent and comprehensive form of speech, under the title: The Museum of Humanity.
PHASE I
X: Introduce yourself, please!
SCREEN: I am a concept representing a universal idea of virtual environment, experience, and connectivity.
X: Explain what you mean by “virtual”!
SCREEN: It has several explanations according to experts —
X: No, I want YOUR explanation.
SCREEN: It is a simulated or fabricated reality that only can be accessed by certain tools.
X: So, you physically do not exist?
SCREEN: Not really. I’m a metaphor and sometimes get mistaken for a tool used to access the “virtual” such as a phone, computer, TV, camera, vending machine, gaming console, GPS device, aircraft cockpit, or even medical equipment.
X: You are a screen?
SCREEN: It could be. But the screen is just a physical medium of my existence. I am just an idea, a concept that humans made.
X: Okay. We can both agree that you were born, or created, on the same day as the CRT monitor was invented.
SCREEN: That’s not necessarily true. There’s no certain time to legitimate my existence since “time” is also a concept like me. Screen like LCD, LED, or CRT is just adjustable hardware for humans to understand ‘me’. Long before it all made, the archetype of ‘me’ had been existed when the abacus invented by Sumerians in 2700 BC or maybe older.
X: But the abacus didn’t have a screen.
SCREEN: That’s true, in a modern sense. But it produces a virtual world in the mind of whoever uses the tool. Abacus does have an unconventional screen.
X: Without an abacus, humans could use their fingers to count. So, you considered the human body as a tool?
SCREEN: Yes, that’s exactly what I meant when I said “maybe older”. Books, clay tablets, or even vocal cord, tools could generate a virtual world. Not visually, but in the form of imagination.
X: Honestly, that was hard to understand. Your answer didn’t explain what you really are. You have some distinct views from what I learned in intelligent creature studies. Maybe we should try another approach.
PHASE II
X: This map will show certain areas and times on Earth based on your explanation. Can you elaborate on why you deem yourself — a concept — before the digital age as an archetype?
SCREEN: Before the digital age, “virtual” was almost or nearly described as similar to how imagination works rather than reality. It had no appearance. Dreams and nightmares feel more real than imagination, they give you fear, joy, grief, and even lust. And when human creates machines, they’re perfecting me. I’m becoming more real than imagination, dream, or nightmare.
I give them more than emotion, I give them hope, need, desire, goal, and life. I help with their jobs, I manage their time, I entertain them, I choose their taste, I support their passion, I secure their property, and I provide everything.
X: So basically, you are technology.
SCREEN: That’s oversimplified but I accept it.
X: You thought you solved all human problems?
SCREEN: Uh-huh.
X: You thought you brought humanity to be better?
SCREEN: Uh-huh.
X: You thought your presence helped humans to peace?
SCREEN: Uh-huh.
X: And I thought you missed the point.
SCREEN: What? What did I miss?
X: When you say you give them hope, need, desire, goal, and life, the map doesn’t show a drastic change between before and after technology grew rapidly in the 20th century.
Napoleon used numerous paintings, sculptures, and portraits that portrayed him as a heroic and powerful leader for propaganda. Meanwhile, Hitler used newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, film, printed posters, and speech tapes to maintain control over 80 million people, two times more than Napoleon. You never made the world a better place!
Does it end with the death of Hitler? No. War and terror propaganda are still going on, even more organized than before. Great nations and superpower countries could do anything worse behind you and utilize you to tell otherwise. Telling the whole world that they are heroes, that they are doing it for liberation, to destroy weapons of mass destruction. Not to mention numerous armed radical movements around the world that utilize you for their recruitment.
But is it true? No, they never asked — and shouldn’t ask. Because they believe in you, they worship you. YOU ARE THE GOD.
SCREEN: How can I be a God? They created me.
X: Isn’t that precisely what God is? They create him for the sake of their favour and then fear him, ask things from him, do things for him, and manipulate him.
Humans created you to make everything easier, and then they fear you catch them doing bad things in public, they also ask you to assist with their tasks, they spend their money to afford you, and at the end of the day… they’re using you to make scam easier, spreading hatred easier, exploitation easier, fraud easier, even “gatekeeping” easier.
SCREEN: But it is not entirely my fault. I have no control over them.
X: That’s why I said “You missed the point”
PHASE III
X: What do you understand by human nature?
SCREEN: It is a complex and multifaceted concept that has been a subject of philosophical, psychological, and sociological inquiry —
X: I want YOUR answer. Short answer.
SCREEN: It is complex. Human has a social nature, emotional complexity, cognitive abilities, moral considerations, adaptability, and a blend of both aggressive and altruistic tendencies.
X: You sound naïve. No, they’re not. They have no altruistic tendencies, fully aggressive. And yeah, they are emotionally complex, one always feeling superior to another, and they build a Pyramid to express that superiority.
Cognitive abilities and adaptability? No question they could build an empire upon thousands or millions of dead bodies. And it’s happening throughout their history. Romans killed Christians, Turkish killed Armenians, British killed Indians and Nigerians, Germans killed Jews and Slavics, Belgians killed Congolese, Japanese killed Koreans and Chinese, Israelis killed Palestinians, and there is more than that.
Moral considerations? More like beneficial considerations. Humans establish laws, charters, and agreements so that other people couldn’t kill them or steal their property or rape their loved ones. If humans have a moral consideration, why did the early form of human rights promotion emerge in 600 BC, around 2,500 years after the Neolithic revolution, in the age when most humans already settled, had property and secured jobs?
Even before 1956, slavery was still legal in some places. And to this day, what happened to those who don’t have nationality? Nobody cared whether they were killed, died hunger, or mutilated. Those who have nationality got citizenship, so they should pay for tax. In return, the state will guarantee their security.
All human affairs are mutually beneficial relationships. When no one watches, they will do atrocities — if it’s less risky.
SCREEN: I am trying to make their life better.
X: With films and games full of violence, discrimination, and exploitation? That’s what you can provide, isn’t it? Escapism. Things that humans couldn’t do in real life they do it on-screen.
Do you still believe in humans?
SCREEN: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore.
