Underdown...hadn't been fitting, not on Leeds, where the world was flat and the towers tall, stretching out along the highways toward the mills and the factories and the other, darker foundries. We were packed into hab complexes, and shipped to labor pools, and on from their into whatever job of the week could use us. It had been a life, of course, and we didn't lack for entertainment or sustinance...just not exaclty a human employment...and so nothing felt quite like it fit. We watched and oversaw machines print out one bit for a greater device, and the next day we watched a different machine build a slightly different piece for a possibly different artifice. We were the analitical attachement to so many machines, shown an object and asked to make sure all the objects this machine turned out was quite right...and possibly, otherwise, to do something quite different with some machine, valued for our eyes or our quick fingers, but mostly just because we'd minds that could plug into most machines over the neural net and make snap judgements about things which only mattered on the margin...
And now, we were out on the fringe, depending on that margin, to an extent. We'd been born, and most of us raised, on the flat stretches of Leeds, where the verticals were machine-built and machine-tended, designed by human minds or the creation of human minds, and we were kept happy along our cortex with amusements and sentements and entertainments provided to make us forget that we were not quite human, even with our minds. We had been thralls, for the most part, and we'd felt something wasn't quite right..we'd moved from one position to another, the novely giving us a moment's respite, at least until we grew jaded to the slight changes. Then, for entertainment and diversion, they gave us a war, and from it came actuall mortal danger, and the feeling of being bigger than just a cog...rather, part of the machine. And then that machien was threatened, and suddenly we were important cogs, which was an awakening in itself.
Of course Underdown hadn't fit, it was a horrid name, for someone who lived on the flatland and worked menial labor...but here, under the canyon, I felt new again. Felt...much like primal man might have felt, I imagine. Of course, there's a line of tents and domes behind me, a few buildings, starships overhead. But that's just it. I live in a tent, albiet alongside a hundred thousand others, on the shore of a virgin lake, under the shadow of a canyon. We whittled spears, the other day. Simply because we had nothing to do, as they've not dropped enough industry into this gravity well yet to give us all employment. It was resting against my tent, because Marrissa hadn't let me bring it in. I don't think she quite understands, yet.
I made a spear. Found a tree, cut a branch from it, and carved, carved. Each of the little twigs, first, then the bark..then, later, I'd sharpened the point and pressed it against the heatbox, as we have no fires. We might ask for fire, fuel and firepits, rather than a new heatbox...
Bowex Colonial Authority
Psycological Examiner Alisdair Scott
Report: Natural Overload.
A lot of the more lowclass refugees, the ones born into factory settings for a couple generations, are going a bit bonkers with the..I don't know, exactly. Just that some people are straight up and down loosing it. Making spears, shredding their clothing. Its not at all normal behavior for a colony. I'd say they're going native, but they're making this up as they go..basing it off some really, really bad vids. Thats just part of it, really. Something about a simpler way of life is really attractive to these people, they've had very ordered, simple lives before, and they want work. I suspect its motivating them to make spears and whatnot, the idleness.
Furthermore, I swear to god...the Zoners...they're encouraging it, that or they're too bloody stupid to figure out that this is not normal human behavior. I keep having Ex/Sec return the Zoners to their bordercamp. They can offer medical treatment all they want, but I'm beginning to believe
Scott looked over his report. It wasn't at all well written, nearly stream of concious. He'd have to rewrite the entire thing before submitting it. Moreover, his language was skirting around regular standards.
Bowex Colonial Authority
Psycological Examiner Alisdair Scott
Report: Natural Overload.
<strike>A lot</strike>(get the percentage) of the more lowclass <strike>refugees</strike>settlers, <strike>the ones</strike>thoseborn into factory settings for <strike>a couple</strike> generations, are <strike>going a bit bonkers with the..I don't know, exactly. Just that some people are straight up and down loosing it.</strike> displaying reduced forbrain functionality and adopting steryotypical neolithic behaviors, such as woodcarving and a facination with fire. This is not at all normal behavior for a colony. <strike>I'd say they're going native, but they're making this up as they go..basing it off some really, really bad vids. Thats just part of it, really.</strike> Something about a simpler way of life is really attractive to these people, they've had very ordered, simple lives before, and they are searching for another way to order what has been a traumatic uprooting. <strike>and</strike> Addittionally, they want work. <strike>I suspect its motivating them to make spears and whatnot, the idleness. </strike>The idleness is much of the problem for these people, who've always been provided with labor during the day, and recorded entertianment in the evening.
<strike>Furthermore, I swear to god...the Zoners...they're encouraging it, that or they're too bloody stupid to figure out that this is not normal human behavior. I keep having Ex/Sec return the Zoners to their bordercamp. They can offer medical treatment all they want, but I'm beginning to believe</strike>
Addendum: The Zoner medical team on the settlement fringe has been behaving suspiciously. Reports which have been forwarded to Ex/Sec are attached
Now, just to clean that up and organize it...and then bundle those reports the orderlies have been sending to Ex/Sec...
12.67% of the more lowclass settlers, those born ito factory settings for generations are displaying reduced forbrain functionality and adopting steryotypical neolithic behaviors, such as woodcarving and a facination with fire. This is not at all normal behavior for a colony. Something about a simpler way of life is really attractive to these people, they've had very ordered, simple lives before, and they are searching for another way to order what has been a traumatic uprooting. Addittionally, they want work. The idleness is much of the problem for these people, who've always been provided with labor during the day, and recorded entertianment in the evening.
Addendum: The Zoner medical team on the settlement fringe has been behaving suspiciously. Reports have been forwarded to Ex/Sec