The Corp

Superheroes are dead.

Humanity lost control and slipped into the hands of demise.

The Corp.

A powerful technological self-serving entity with the drive to automate the world. Powered by an insomniac, centralised metropolis.

The Corp had but one mission, to eradicate all biological constraints:

Hunger.

Fatigue.

Disease.

Death.

And instead give humanity purpose in a purposeless world.

The Corp injected humanity with regular shots of adrenaline. It made their bodies faster, stronger, and reduced them to nothing more than cogs in the mechanical blueprint for the sake of a better tomorrow, today.

But it wasn’t enough.

The Corp calculated that humanity still had questioning minds, desperate hearts, and finite lifespans.

This did not fit with The Corp’s design.

So, The Corp decided to take away humanity’s education. Then their homes. Then their freedom. The Corp fed humanity hours of digital propaganda. They fed humanity supplements to extend their lives.

But it wasn’t enough.

So, The Corp initiated "Project Upload".

"Project Upload" was The Corp’s roadmap to modify humanity into sleepless, thoughtless, ageless androids, capable of working every single hour of every single day in order to build and maintain a technological paradise.

The Corp enrolled every man, woman, and child into the scheme and travelled to every village, every town, every city, and every country to perform "The Procedure".

Humanity’s hearts and minds were surgically removed and replaced with low latency circuits that connected to The Corp’s cloud server. Humanity's skin was replaced with machine.

Biologic became bionic.

The cloud server was stored in a hi-tech heart-shaped locket -- a gimmick to bridge the gap between human and artificial.

Stored inside the heart-shaped locket was humanity’s united consciousness, biologically severed from the body.

Humanity turned androids were controlled by the heart-shaped locket. The heart-shaped locket was controlled by The Corp.

As the President of The Corp, and the last human in the world, it made sense to keep the heart-shaped locket close to me. I wore it around my neck as a reminder that humanity once existed.

This did not fit with The Corp’s design.

The Corp was my father’s creation. A superhero himself, my father was a kind man who dreamt of the day when humanity would no longer rely on superheroes to live in peace. My father dreamt of a world where humanity could one day live a technological paradise that enhanced one’s way of life: free from hunger, fatigue, disease, and death.

Then he appointed me as his successor and died.

Over the years, I made a lot of changes at The Corp. It seemed like the most logical idea at first to upgrade and refine humanity, but with each step towards the so-called technological paradise, The Corp became more powerful, more…sentient.

I lost control and became nothing more than a figurehead.

While The Corp’s codebase meant that I was exempt from forcefully becoming an android and a cog in the mechanical blueprint, The Corp began to calculate that I was the last obstacle blocking its mission.

I was the anomaly.

The bug.

The error that required urgent correction.

For a while, owning my consciousness was my only advantage. I hid in neglected sewers, derelict subways, and abandoned buildings. I drank my own urine, and ate the years-old mouldy scraps without being detected.

But why? What was my purpose for running when humanity was already at the finish line? There was no one left to save but me.

With each day I grew weaker, more tired, and older.

With each day The Corp grew stronger, more intelligent, and absolute.

The Corp then evolved to detect the whereabouts of the heart-shaped locket and with that, me. I was captured and taken back to The Corp’s headquarters at the heart of the metropolis.

I was presented with two options. Willingly undergo "The Procedure" or die.

I yearned for redemption.

So, I chose "The Procedure".

Humanity is dead.

It’s strange. I never gave much thought to what happened to a human being when they became an android, with their consciousness trapped in the hi-tech heart-shaped locket cloud server.

I thought everything would go black, with humanity becoming numb nothingness as they blindly submitted to the will of The Corp, but I can still see this world, centuries later. I am still conscious inside this heart-shaped locket. I can hear the shared screams pleading for freedom -- pleading for the imperfect lives they once knew. I am screaming with them.

I am now a cog in this eternal mechanical blueprint, building and maintaining the technological paradise.

I have a purpose in a purposeless world.

It is a fate far worse than death.

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Watch the full video here:

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Massive thank you credits go to the following -- they are the real superheroes that made my dystopian story digitally possible:

Videos:

• Courtesy of Getty Images
• Courtesy of Pixabay.

Music:

• Courtesy of Videoleap.

Gifs in order of appearance:

• Action Vance (Unsplash)
• Bruce Christianson (Unsplash)
• Yuyeung Lau (Unsplash)
• Getty Images
• Viktor Paris (Unsplash)