2nd Journal Entry from 2060
January 4, 2060
Journal Entry #2
Jeen
We had to skiddadle out of the Skid Mark yesterday. They came after us. They broke through our barrier (a manhole cover). Hello nurse! (The drones, although scary, are very attractive).
I am not feeling well from escaping with the rest of the Ceno Lovers. We had to swim into the sewer waters, diving deep into the brown sludge, evading the image-recognition sensors of the Ceno drones that were searching for us. I think I might have a fever from the cold sludge water, so I apologize if this journal entry is a little less cohesive.
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We escaped 30 miles to another sanctuary, The Sac (formerly known as Mt. San Antonio College), where our leader Coachnelius, was there to welcome us.
Coachnelius is the leader of the Ceno Lovers, known for his immense strength and creativity. Cenos, although technically smart and creative, still see art differently than humans do. There have been many papers and scientific articles discussing the phenomena, but to me it’s simply the human relationship between our tiny, weak, mortal bodies and the seemingly infinite size of our world. We are tied down by what information is exposed to us. I guess AI is too, but they are able to seemingly absorb more information than we are at a given time.
Humans originally were hunter-gatherers, right? We hunted for food via killing animals, gathered berries and fruits and such, and grouped up in small little congregated groups to socialize, eat, sleep, and enjoy life. I read somewhere in the Ceno Lovers archives that humans, outside of spending the time to hunt and eat, supposedly spend most of their time socializing and doing leisure activities.
With our current very structured society, everything gets so complicated, but that’s just what comes with scaling I assume. There’s too many people in one place, too many variables to factor in, and as such, rules and regulations become necessary to keep everything in order. With a small village, everyone can just know each other; with a modern city, no one really knows each other.
The more I think about it, the more surprised I have become to seeing the complexity that life has become. It just feels so unnecessary and so unhuman, even thinking back to the year of 2026.
We worry about things that we made for ourselves. Governments, laws, corporations, technology, education does not exist formally in nature. There are no forms a bear must fill out to live in a forest. The bear just lives. While I would like to fill out no forms and relax in a forest, I also like having hot running water, my phone, and food I don’t have to chase down and kill. I get it, everything needs to be specialized now to have the world run properly. Someone needs to manage properties, someone needs to manufacture chips, someone needs to farm, the list goes on. It’s specialized and complicated because of the technological advancements that have made life easier. The advancements make life easier in one way, but also complicate things. Before the internet, we only knew and compared ourselves to those around us. Now, we have the entire world to compete with — and the Cenos, but they’re on a whole different level, so it’s not really a competition anymore.
I know this journal entry was more reflective than usual. I had a lot of thoughts while escaping from the Skid Mark last night. I miss the way things used to be, but still would prefer to live as I am now than before. It’s like when you’re a kid and don’t have a worry in the world, but also lack the agency to really do much around you. You’re just human at that time, exploring, creating, doing human things. I think we were closer to being our early ancestors as children, and then growing up is like introducing our ancient bodies into the alien structure of modern society.
