Day 11 - The Bots wont care

‘But miss, this is a useless exercise, the Bots won’t care’

‘Don’t be silly Lucy. Now class as I was saying.’

Lucy looked around the room, thinking, can’t they see it?  What’s there problem? Miss Continued.

‘As I was saying, class, I’d like you to write a letter to the future, write a letter to the people you imagine will open the time capsule.’

Lucy looked at the Metal box at the front of the room.  Bewildered, she’d participated in painting it, adorning the inside lid with a depiction of the school. She’d been commended on the artwork, the realism of the depiction commented upon by everyone who saw it.  Even Alic, her arch-nemesis had begrudgingly complemented it.

She was conflicted.  Proud, even appreciative of the painting but to have it buried, for no one knows how long, and for who if anyone, or even if they would be reading the same language reflecting on the ‘Year 10, Students of House Mary, St Joseph’s College 2024’ written across its side.

‘OK everyone, half an hour, I’ll set a time as per usual. Please begin.’ Stated Miss Taylor as she scrolled the countdown app on her phone.

Looking about everyone had their ringed binders out, and leaning into the writing.

‘Arthur, you can’t type, put your laptop away, handwriting please.’ Miss called out, gesturing to Arthur.

Lucy began,

To the future,     I’m not sure who I’m writing this to, or even what.  I sit here in my classroom on 11th May 2024, doing this task, this weird, weird task.  We’re going to put a bunch of letters into a tin box, and that box is going to be buried, or encased somewhere for you to find in the future.    I think everyone is thinking a human is going to read this, or at least Miss Taylor does.  It’s so weird.  Can’t they see that everyone is blind to what is happening around them?  They are oblivious, everyone is wrapped up in all the wrong things.    So we’re to tell you about us, about our now.  So here goes.    I’m Lucy, 16, daughter of an IT Professional who thinks it’s going all the wrong way, and to quote dad thinks everyone is asleep at the wheel, and a Mum, who is beautiful and all consumed on the now, focused on us girls.    I’m active, as Mum and Dad keep saying this is important, I do Dance and Jujitsu and have been doing it for years.  Probably going to fall by the wayside a bit next year as I keep going through school.    School today, is still all classrooms, 30 of us in the room, and the best I can say is it’s eclectic.  It’s confusing, like everything, the school, and the learning are all confused, they want to embrace technology but they don’t.      Adults, they, teachers parents alike complain about ‘Social Media’ and the damage it’s doing to the youth and society, yet at the same time, they use it as much if not more.  Then on the other hand they are blindly embracing AI.       I’ve no doubt you know what AI is.  Come to think of it, maybe you don’t, maybe it just is and is not known as AI anymore.     I digress, So I’m a good student too, top of maths, English and science.  16 though so not sure of what or where I am going to go in life.  I read and write as a hobby.  Quite eclectic everything from Dad's new philosopher mags to ship stories.    Today, we are predominantly human, and quite multicultural which is good, although we’ve now got people identifying as non-human, and gender, well I’m a girl, She/her, there’s they/them’s, he/him and more.  Edgar, well he is now identifying as a dog, and non-binary.    I wonder what you will be?    The world today as I write this is in the early stages of decay, others call it global warming, my sense is it’s a form of decay, we’ve got everything happening, flood, drought, fires, flood.  I even saw on my feed last night that there is an electromagnetic storm hitting Earth now over Australia, with warnings of blackouts and satellite, communications disruptions.    Does make me wonder a few things, a heap of things.     Like, who will be reading this?  Will you be humanoid?  I say that with all the identity options we have today, furries, and more if society takes that further, will we evolve into the things we are declaring ourselves today?    Technology is becoming more pervasive, not that anyone notices anymore.  Well, they do, like I said they’re confused.  Maybe confused isn’t the word, maybe complacent is a better word.  It’s weird, I’ve heard references to the human condition, but haven’t looked into it much.  I wonder what you will have done with the human condition, that’s if you’re human of course.    Some people are trying to do something, global warming is happening, some are screaming to the rafters about it, that and the wars, there are more wars all the time, and then there are first world dilemmas.    First-world dilemmas, well it’s an inkling of an idea I’ve got.  Dad says when I wine about things ‘Oh you're such a first-world kid, that’s a first-world problem.’  I think in the future they’ll take dads sentiment and report on these things as they do the weather, fires, even electromagnetic storms.   Maybe the storms will get so bad that wi-fi is blacked out due to the electromagnetic storms, maybe that’ll be the problem.  I wonder if you know if this is the case.                                                     I have to go,                                                                    LUCY P.S. I do hope you’re human

She stopped, Miss Taylor was walking down the far aisle, the tin box in hand, and she ripped her sheet of paper from the book.  Others, more committed were cutting theirs.  She folded the page in half text to text. Using the tips of her fingers to get the short edges to align perfectly.  Pressing the ends to the table she creased the paper, funning her fingers over the fold several times to make it crisp.

Miss Taylor came from behind and stopped at her desk momentarily, pausing, waiting.

Lucy turned and dropped her paper into the open tin.

‘Thank you, Lucy.’

Then she was gone, back to the front of the class, shutting the lid.