A Visitor to the Future - 12 - Whys and Work
The confusion must have been obvious on my face, because both Sarkona and Antonia looked at me expectantly.
"Oh, sorry. I was just wondering - why would you need to do that?" I asked.
"Why?" said Antonia, puzzled.
"Ah," said Sarkona, "I've been expecting something like this. I suspect this is a significant cultural difference. Do you know much about the early 2000s, Antonia? That's when our friend was cryocontained."
Antonia shook her head, "Only what I studied growing up - is this related to income?"
"Yes, a bit." Sarkona turned to me, "I think it's important to make this point at this time. Living in the 2000s, you would be used to a lot of cultural pressure to be 'productive'." They made air quotes at the last word. "That came in many forms. You had the financial aspect - in many nation states you had to be productive or be unable to live. Without somewhere to work and earn money you were unable to participate in much of society."
"That's about right," I said, then corrected myself. "Was about right. Some countries had welfare programs but you did mostly have to work to live."
"So that's the financial pressure. Then you had the social pressure - which is that this became normal to people, and the expectation was always there that you had to work to live - so people saw spending anywhere from 8 to 12 plus hours a day working as normal. So the people working expected you to have to work as well. With me so far?"
Antonia nodded.
"Then you had the massive wealth inequality between rich and poor, which resulted in work inequality. A rich person had to work less than a poor one because they had more assets. A lot of rich people had a great interest in maintaining that because it meant that they could work less and earn more. Finally, there was the practical pressure, which is essentially that society at that time wouldn't work if people didn't work. People discuss this all the time, and there are many historians who believe this was the root cause of everything I've said previously. To maintain an industrial society in the early 2000s, you needed to have people work. Otherwise nothing gets made, the crops don't get planted, people starve."
"That sounds awful," said Antonia, gently adjusting the leaf of a nearby plant. "I can't imagine anyone starving these days. The Consortium would step in."
Sarkona nodded and continued. "So that brings me to my point - we no longer require people to be 'productive' to live. If everyone on this ship were to take a day off to themselves, the ship would keep running itself without issue - it doesn't strictly need us to keep running. Well, maybe except for the gravity ring - the seals are experimental and not yet fully automated - it needs maintenance once every few months. So each and every one of us can do whatever we want to. I don't think it's really dawned on you just how much that changes things on a social level."
"I wasn't much one for cultural studies growing up," said Antonia, "But I can't imagine having to live according to someone else's wishes."
"Which brings us back to why - I know Antonia fairly well, so I think she'd be alright with me saying that the why is that her plants are interesting to her and make people happy. Anything to add?" asked Sarkona.
"No, that's me, compressed!" said Antonia, smiling. "Give me access to some plants, some Biodev tools and some good company and I'm happy."
"So terms like need to do are the wrong way to think of things?" I asked. "That's going to take some getting used to. When I first got ill I remember feeling guilty for calling in sick."
"That guilt was probably a result of all the types of pressure we've discussed - financial because you could lose your job, cultural because you think you're expected to work, and practical because you felt that if everyone called in sick, nothing would get done," said Sarkona, "It's no wonder that pressure had an impact on you."
Antonia actually shuddered. "I can handle trying to meet goals that I've set myself, or a promise to a friend or colleague, but I'm glad I wasn't around in your time - no offence intended!"
"None taken," I said.
"Now that I think about it," said Sarkona, tapping their chin thoughtfully, "Some Orgs do have a set of obligations for their members which might be a bit like some of the pressures I've described. But if you're not happy with them you can just leave the Org."
"On that subject, are either of you members of an Org?" I asked.
"I'm a member of the Europa Conservation Org - I mentioned I have a place to live near Europa," said Sarkona, "It just makes sense to be a member."
"I'm not," said Antonia, "Though we'll all have to agree to temporarily follow the rules of the Anchor Org when we get to Earth next week."
"Are you coming to Earth too?"
"Yes," said Antonia, "I'm going home to Martigues. I've been away for about ten years. Though I'll miss everyone on the Promise of Sol, I've met a lot of good friends here."
"Hey!" said Sarkona, "We can meet up on Earth anytime you want. Tungsten will be about for a while too."
The statement jogged my memory a bit, and I addressed Antonia. "Out of interest, did you make the tea plant that Tungsten was talking about earlier?"
"Yes," said Antonia, "One of my earlier works. I'm much more into smell over taste these days."
"It was very good, thank you."
Antonia smiled at the compliment and continued to show us around her latest projects. She was going to start packing them up for transport soon - so our timing was very fortunate. There were all sorts of traditional flower scents, foods, and many flavours which hadn't existed in my time such as electrene - a zesty citrus with an acidic undertone, flakebite, which was like a sweet wafer, and torenedren, which was a sharp scent unlike anything I'd ever smelled before - I had nothing to compare it to. We eventually said goodbye as she cheerfully waved us out of the dome, saying that she had better get to packing for Earth.