Writing Reflections: Security

Well, folks, another week has passed, which means that it is time for another Writing Reflection. This time, I want to focus on a piece that became a Top Story and dissect why it may have received that honor…and where it might have fallen short of expectations. For this purpose, I have chosen a story from two years ago from the Futurism Community titled “Security: A Tale from 2050”.

Like with “Lips as Red as Blood”, I cannot include the entire story here. However, I am going to include a link to the story below so that you can read the story for yourself, as well as a brief summary of the plot.

“Security” follows a young professional named Harry living in the independent country of California in the year 2050 as he goes about his daily life. He, like everyone else, is dependent on two key pieces of technology: retina scanners, which contain all of your information from banking to your social security number, and SmartGlasses, which provide all the fun and entertainment of smartphones, computers, etc., in the handy form of glasses. Some people have not been sucked in by the glitz and glamor of retina scanners and SmartGlasses, though: the California Homeless Community, a movement of people who voluntarily live without access to their banking information, social security numbers, and even proper houses if it means that they have to have their retinas scanned. At first, Harry thinks that the Homeless Community is a cult based on a conspiracy theory. However, as information starts to pile up around him, he starts to wonder: are they so crazy after all?

I approached this story much like any dystopian science fiction writer would have: I took my observations of what is going on in the world and thought, “Where is this headed next?” I had heard about Meta Glasses being made—which are now highly popular, if expensive, toys—and about Elon Musk working on chips to plant in the brain, supposedly to help people with health conditions but that could be used for so much more. That coupled with the political turmoil in the United States, economic issues, and an overall overdependence on technology to store our personal information led to the creation of “Security”.

That is, I think, why it ended up being awarded a Top Story. Not because it was popular when I posted it—I don’t I get enough readers for that—or because it is a particularly original story—no dystopian story really is nowadays—but because it is real. It is realistic enough that it could potentially happen someday. That is what gives people the chills as they read it. It’s not an especially frightening story, but the thought that we could reach the point that we could have all information in one place, trusting the government to take care of it, only to have one little genius hack into it and take it all scares us. It could even happen now, if we think about it, just to a lesser extent—and that is without them being literally inside our heads.

That is not to say that this story is perfect. Of course, I have noticed a few typos that I missed in editing. They’re minor, but it still bugs me that I let them happen. The price of coffee used in the story is also based on small town prices rather than city prices as well, something that I did not realize until after I published the story. (When you live in a small town, this perspective can get lost.) Most importantly, I inadvertently left the story off at a cliffhanger. I ended the story with Harry going to meet the leader of the Homeless Community, and I gave him a bad feeling about it, something which I did to show that you should not trust leadership of any kind at face value. Instead, it left the story open for more to be explored with the Homeless Community, something that I never intended to do. Perhaps I might do that someday now that I have left the option open, but for now, it is not my intent, and I wish that I had closed the story more neatly. It is a problem that I seem to have with a lot of my stories and need to learn to fix, so I suppose that is a lesson that I can take away from this Writing Reflection.

What about you? Have you ever received a Top Story? Why do you think it was chosen for that? Inversely, why do you think certain stories of yours were not chosen—or why do you think that a story of yours should not have been chosen for Top Story? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Are there any of my previous works that you think I should examine in a Writing Reflection? Leave that in the comments below as well!