What's Next

Justyna rolled her eyes. She had started to get nervous about it again, “We’ve talked enough about androids for tonight. We still have about 4 months to talk about it before you complete the apprentice program, don’t we?” Bill shook his head affirmatively. “Yeah and it usually takes two weeks, after you select which body model you want, for the custom programming of an android to be completed, before delivery.” Bill felt another little rise of excitement, as he remembered being informed, at the apprentice’s meeting that day, that U.S. android now had over 10,000 models to choose from. There were probably over 100 beautiful android women his size in stock, to pick from. Boston was just a speck on the globe. Bill and Justyna’s families were “strewn across the universe,” so to speak. Bill’s two 5th grandfathers were both nearing retirement, and two of his 10th grandfathers were still alive. Tenth grandfather- that’s what you call your father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father. You kind of had to be brain retrofit to understand that concept; but with everybody living 500 years, that’s how many relatives a young adult has. Bill and Justyna had over 1,000 blood relatives between them. Most of Bill and Justyna’s relatives still lived on earth, albeit in over 40 countries; but there were at least a few dozen of their relatives who lived on the nearby group of man made planets-hence the expression, “strewn around the universe.” It was a phrase you used mostly at family gatherings. Bill and Justyna had never even met half of their relatives, and there were some they were likely to never meet, unless they were to visit man-made planets they didn’t think they ever wanted to go to. Bill and Justyna dreamed that it might be cool to travel to planet capitalism someday, where the laws and societal structure favored entrepreneurs. Some of the coolest inventions were coming out of that planet these days. It might even be fun to visit planet socialism, or planet communism; and much, much later in life, Bill and Justyna thought they might want to visit planet recreation, a retirement community where you have to be over age 200 to get in. There are no businesses there, to speak of, except for stores and hotels, and companies related to home building. It’s all leisure activities, although it’s a very active planet. The entire planet is sports-related, game and hobby related, and vacation resort companies have filled the planet with resort activities and accommodations. There is a huge concentration of manufactured goods ranging from sporting equipment, to advanced computer game systems of all sizes and types, and a whole host of hobby and avocation-related goods sold and rented there. It’s a huge cost-effective profit center for many worldwide manufacturers, which was the financial basis responsible for creating the planet. The only other thing there is is single-family and multi-unit housing; well that and media centers where you can get access to literally millions of books and movies, in all different languages and formats. However, Bill and Justyna thought, who would ever want to go to planet domination, where there’s no sense of morality and everybody there is just trying to screw each other over? -And who would ever want to go to planet libertarianism, where they have that ridiculous society modeled after the wild ideas of Ayn Rand. Just the thought of landing at the Alan Greenspan spaceport, named after the man who almost caused a worldwide financial collapse, in pre-historic times around the year 2000, that thought would put off most people. But the most hated planet? That’s planet P. It’s where exiled sex offenders are sent. The united federation of planets voted to outlaw all androids modeled after children, and confiscated all of them; and when dozens of manufacturer’s of them threatened a class action lawsuit, it led to a solution where a small outpost planet was created, and all of the confiscated androids where shipped there. No other planet would allow their existence. Anyone who landed there could never leave, but would be clothed, fed and housed in a prison-like environment, if that’s how they chose to live their life. Bill and Justyna had no idea if any of their relatives lived there, because even if they did, no one in the family would want to admit it. In their wedding vows, Bill and Justyna vowed never to speak of the planet, and that they would do all in their power to stamp out sex before age 18. This was a standard practice at most weddings nowadays.