Button in the Fabric of Time by William Wayne Dicksion Read Free Book Online

everybody benefits.”
    “What happens if someone is unable to
work?”
    “Why would they be unable to work? We have no
illnesses, and we don’t grow old physically. Some might be disabled
temporarily, and while they are disabled, they continue to receive
the basics, but they are quickly treated so they are able to return
to work. Tools are provided for every task, and if a worker doesn’t
know how to do the work, someone will show them. No one is required
to do anything beyond his or her ability. There are always others
doing the same kind of work—they work together and help one
another. People can accumulate points by working longer in order to
have time off. I think you called it vacation time.”
    Pointing down, Jan-3 said, “Look at the
people working below. Do they look uncomfortable or unhappy?”
    The people she pointed to were doing
agricultural work in verdant fields, and I could tell by their
movements and gestures that they were laughing and talking. I had
to admit they didn’t look unhappy.
    “Are you rewarded for doing good and punished
for doing bad?”
    “Your reward for doing good, is that you live
a long, healthy life, in a beautiful place. No one bothers you. You
do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it. We have only one
law, and that law is—DO NO HARM. There are times when people
inadvertently break the law, but no one would knowingly break the
law, and why would they? It wouldn’t benefit them in any way, and
they would be denied the basics.”
    “How do you define harm?”
    “To intentionally deceive for social,
political, religious, or economic gain is doing harm. To
physically, mentally, or emotionally damage someone, is harmful. To
steal something, or to deny someone something that they are
entitled to, is doing that person harm. To force your will upon
another person is harming that person. Everything that is needed is
provided, so there is no reason to do harm.”
    “How do you know that the person’s intent was
to deceive or do physical damage?”
    “We have robots that cannot be deceived.”
    “It does seem simple and efficient, but I’ll
have to see it in action,” I said, still not convinced.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Chapter 8
     
    We crossed over a low range of green
mountains and started out over the ocean. In the distance, beyond
the coastal islands, I saw a gleaming structure with rainbows of
light radiating from it. Amazed, I asked, “What’s that?”
    “That is the first of the two cities I told
you we would be passing,” Roc-2 replied.
    “It looks like it’s made of glass. Is that
why it’s glistening?”
    “It is made of glass, and the glass is
reflecting the sunlight, but that doesn’t account for the colors
radiating from it,” Roc-2 explained. “The rainbow of color is
obtained by building prisms into the glass. The prisms separate the
light into spectrums, displaying the colors of the rainbow.”
    “It’s beautiful. I’d like to talk to the
engineer who designed that. He must be brilliant.”
    “He is brilliant, and that’s only one of our
many engineering innovations. We’ll show you others.”
    After getting closer, I saw that the city was
a single massive structure, made of glass, floating in the ocean.
Wondering how they held the glass together, I asked, “How do you
support the structure?”
    Not completely understanding my question,
Roc-2 replied, “The city floats in the ocean, and it’s anchored in
place, so no supports are needed. Glass is an excellent building
material, superior in many ways to most other materials. Silica,
from which glass is made, is the most abundant naturally occurring
element on the earth. Glass is easy to recycle. All we have to do
is melt it and reshape it. Glass doesn’t rust, rot, or corrode. We
build colors into the glass and the color resists fading. We can
make it optical or opaque. Glass is an engineer’s dream. It has
some tensile, flexile, and compressive limitations, but we’re
making headway on