It was morning. Natalia lay beside me. Another day in Paradise, I thought to myself. Natalia moved slightly and curved her back closer to me, I put my arm across her body and she pulled it to her. We were both half awake. For a while we lay like that, enjoying each other.
«We have to get up» Natalia said and turned to me. «I would have loved to lie here for longer, but we have to catch the hydroplane that leaves from the city in a couple of hours.»
We rose and got ourselves ready, and together we prepared our breakfast.
«We can sit outside, the weather is so lovely», Natalia said. And before I could blink an eye the entire glass wall slid aside and the room was opened to the outside. Carrying our breakfast we went out to a patio just outside. It was lovely to sit there and feel the scents of nature.
After breakfast we left the house. This time we walked in the opposite direction around the hill to the Communication Building. Suddenly a boy came running towards us. Natalia gave him a kiss. «Say hello to Jayden» she said to me. «This is my son.» I greeted him and we exchanged a few words. He was on his way to school and had no time to stop for long. Natalia hugged and kissed him before he ran off.
«So you are a single mother, really?» I said.
«I am a mother, but I am not single-handed about the task. Single mothers in our society, or even couples, for that matter, are not alone about bringing up a child. We don’t let one person have the sole responsibility for a task as important as taking care of children. In your time there were many who had children before they themselves had had time to really grow up. One can’t expect them to master the role of parenting when they are so young and have to be so alone with such an important role. The children here, regardless of whether they live with one or both parents, are being far better taken care of by the people around them, and it does not necessarily have to be within the family. This is one of the great advantages with the community not being too large. Even if Jayden nowadays stays with my parents who live up the hill just there, he also sometimes stays with other acquaintances nearby. Here the children can run around freely without having to be afraid of strangers. We have quite a wide age distribution, and many of the elderly find it a joy to take care of the little ones. They have plenty of time, as well as a lot of knowledge, wisdom and not least, love to share. This often goes outside of family ties, although Jayden often is with his father and paternal grandparents who live in the city. And sometimes he is with someone else’s grandparents who are not related to us. He has a great time with all of them and gets a lot of inputs and a variety of impressions in this way.»
«This sounds like a very good solution» I commented. We had by then arrived at the Communications Building. From there we took one of the small hydroplanes to the central station in the city. There we entered a much larger hydroplane which would take us to the other continent. This plane went at quite a high altitude, and according to Natalia it went at supersonic speed. After barely a couple of hours over the ocean we descended, disembarked, and entered another and smaller plane. This one was to take us to our destination, which was one of the police stations in the city. This city looked rather different, and from above it seemed quite green. In some places one could not see that it was a city at all, only from one side could we see buildings, probably housing. There were not as many tall buildings as I had expected here either, just some buildings downtown.
We descended outside a pleasant looking building with a small café outside. I had not expected this to be the police station! I had visualized a larger building, but no, this one apparently housed more than just policing functions. Here were areas for mingling, and outside were green areas. We were received by a man in a sort of uniform who introduced himself as Felix.
«This doesn’t look like much» I said.
«We are not many persons working here. Even though crime is highest on this continent, it is far less than earlier and very little compared to in your time. There are three stations of approximately this size in the entire city of more than a million inhabitants.»
«That is not much, which is great. What about prisons?»
«We have only three of those as well, one connected to each of the stations, and that is all we need. We did actually have four prisons some years ago, but as there was less and less crime we closed one of them. It has now been restored and is being used as a museum and for prevention.»
«I am surprised» I said. «I had expected you to have greater problems in such a huge city, but this must be a good sign. You having so little work to do, I mean.»
«Yes, definitely. Crime has been steadily declining for a long time and still is, especially after we began to distribute goods and resources more fairly. Why commit crime when your needs are already covered? Theft, for instance, is something we hardly ever experience now. What we still do have to struggle with are drug problems, but again, they are few compared to what you had in your time.»
«I thought a police station was just that, but here a lot of other things are taking place.»
«Our thought is to create a pleasant and natural relationship for people like us as the police force. Earlier, at least here, the police was associated with fear because we hit too hard on criminal activity. Now we have stopped doing that. We only rarely carry weapons, for example. The same goes for our prisons, they are no longer places to be dreaded. Do you see that building over there?»
«Do you mean to say that the lovely building complex there is a prison?»
«Yes. Our prisons are far more pleasant and humane than they used to be, especially if compared to large countries in your time. Punishment and strict discipline functions badly and belongs to the past. There is always a reason why people do what they do, and we try to delve deeply and unravel the reasons why, and then process it so that it will not be repeated. We seek to prevent, so that they can go out to liberty again as new persons. Everyone is let out sooner or later, and they seldom repeat their crimes, in contrast to how it was in your time. Most of them even have some liberty to move around in the vicinity, and we know exactly where everyone is at any given time. They also receive good follow-up when they are let out, this is important to specify. While they are here we confront them with the consequences of what they have done, so that they understand what problems and suffering they have inflicted on others and on society. As I said, we treat them humanely, which is important.»
«Now I understand that the world really has become a better place», I said, «This has been uplifting».
«How about coming downtown with me so that I can show you around?» Felix suggested, and Natalia and I accepted. We moved out of the area and into a street that I thought had to be a residential area. There were also some pleasant looking eating places and convenience stores here and there.
«Where have the large chain stores gone?» I asked.
«Those mammoth stores are now more or less features of the past. They meant too much transport of goods over long distances. Now we have a far greater focus on short-haul goods. The large chains also became too little creative and too much focused on profit, something that rarely led to anything positive. Now, for instance, there has been put a stop to the usurping of workers from low-cost countries who barely earned enough to survive. In our society we do still use a monetary system, but we have far greater control mechanisms, so that it is no longer possible to enrich oneself at the expense of society. We have no billionaires here, and none who can earn immorally high sums. This has taken years of struggle to achieve, because those who had enriched themselves through the system, and those who possessed large amounts of money and goods were clinging to it and to their power. Some of these rich persons also had a very bad and unfair tendency to look down on others, simply because of their own wealth. Slowly but surely we succeeded in convincing most of them that this was wrong and in working out solutions which they too were more or less satisfied with. They gradually realized that the ruling system was grossly unfair the way it was being practiced. They often possessed huge private properties, not to mention enormous yachts, while others barely had food on their tables. But as I said, it was a struggle, and laws and regulations were required before things could be changed. The system favored those who had most, in other words a reverse Robin Hood practice. After all, the money that the rich had accumulated had to have come from somewhere. But by altering the rules of the game the society got more money at its disposal, and the resources were more evenly shared. As a result we have far fewer problems and a happier population. Many of those who possessed a great deal of money and power and disagreed with the changes have now either died or reached a high age, but most of them have also changed their minds and agree with the reforms that have taken place. But on the other hand, this process had already began in your time with some of the super-rich voluntarily deciding to give the larger part of their fortunes to charity. The proofs that it works are conspicuous, as it is so easy to see that everyone now has a much better life and is far more content. And hand on heart, - I believe that also those who earlier were so wealthy are actually happier now. Money is not what makes for true happiness.»
«No, that’s for sure, but please continue!» I said.
«We have implemented a system comparable to what you call civil wages or basic income. That is, all are now assured of receiving the most essential things, completely without conditions attached. Especially after the robots made their entry we found we needed to do something. This has set free enormous potential in people, eased the competition mentality, and not least given people more spare time, and thereby more time to live... That is the reason you see the many small shops all round. Believe me, a lot of creative work is going on here, resulting in products such as clothes, art, pottery, jewellery, not to mention all the things that can be done with the new technology. And within the food sector there is no lack of creative dishes, healthy foods and a diversity of delicacies.»
«I notice that the streets are quite clean here» I said as we continued our walk.
«Well, in the first place people have become far more conscious of aesthetics, so trash is hardly ever thrown away anywhere else than where it belongs, and furthermore just about everything that is thrown away is recycled. And robots tidy the streets every day, as it occasionally happens that some things go astray, for instance in strong wind.» Felix answered.
«When I look at the houses here and the high-rise buildings further ahead of us, this city is what most closely resembles those in my own time. Apart from the fact that there is more greenery here, it looks more cared for and tidy, and the houses have a greater aesthetic beauty.»
«I would guess this city is a couple of decades ahead of your most modern cities» Natalia said to me. «And if you compare it with our city, you will find it is developmentally about well over a century ahead, and Lighthaven perhaps one hundred and fifty years ahead, viewed in comparison with your most modern cities and your societies there... Sorry if the concept of time and my explanation became too complicated.»
Felix spoke again. «We have realized that the cities had become too huge, dysfunctional and alienating. One lost much of the contact with Nature. We have large development projects outside of the cities, but we don’t make the kind of traditional suburbs that you had in your time, we make more full-fledged communities. The place Natalia comes from is a source of inspiration for us. The development is far gentler towards Nature than what it used to be. Our city used to be larger, we are now dismantling and removing the oldest and most dilapidated buildings and areas or rebuilding them. Therefore fewer people live in cities now. For some time the trend was for people to move to the cities, now the reverse is the case, which is also in part due to the fact that communication today is so much easier. Plus the fact that to interact with Nature has had a renaissance. The world population is generally declining, which is just as well. We have probably been rather too many. When we succeeded in raising the living standard of the poorest people worldwide, they had fewer children, especially here on our continent. This was understood already in your time, Aron, and therefore it did not take long before massive resources were employed in order to lift people out of poverty and strengthen education, especially for women. As a side effect of this people had fewer children, and so we prevented an all too great increase in population in the poorest areas, and a corresponding use of Nature that was not really sustainable.»
He looked at Natalia. «Usually it is we who come to you in order to learn, not you who come here...»
Natalia smiled. «True enough, but surely we have things to learn from you as well» she answered.
«I know you have a timetable to follow, but we could have something to eat before you have to return», Felix suggested. «I know of a pleasant restaurant just over there.»
It seemed a good idea, and we accepted. We were served delicious food, and afterwards we said goodbye to Felix and were brought back to the large hydroplane that would take us to our city where we were to meet Skylar and Kayden. By the time we landed, dusk was descending. I actually felt quite awake and did not notice any jetlag, probably because we had returned to the same time zone on the same day.