Where dreams lead: Underground
On the calendar March 12, 2040. Time 5.30. I, a twenty-year history student, have an important day today. In the evening, my first performance at the Underground will take place, and I really want it to be successful. The theme is “Where dreams or outcomes of the fourth industrial revolution lead”. And although in recent years there have been quite a lot of different opinions on this, I hope to please the audience with at least a couple of fresh ideas.
I do not want to give a banal lecture, but I will build a dialogue with my audience. I have a performance plan, a pre-launch and 12 blocks dedicated to various issues. But the sequence of parts of the speech depends largely on the contact with the audience, as well as the time I devote to this or that block. Yes, and I’m unlikely to have time to reveal all 12 topics - most likely there will be no more than 9. However, I’m sure that nonlinearity will make my story more interesting and alive, revealing first of all those questions that interest my listeners. And although the success of a performance depends largely on improvisation, but this format requires careful thought through all parts of the performance. Separate puzzles in the end should be folded into the picture. Probably why I can not sleep so early. It is necessary to organize thoughts, once again put everything on the shelves. Dziennik.
Underground is an international network of clubs that emphasize the importance of real communication. Young musicians, magicians, comedians, philosophers find their most loyal audience here. A decade ago, there was a lot of talk that online would completely destroy live performances, but a great number of people lack it most of all in life. Many here are trying to fill this gap.
The premises of the Underground are lined with material that does not transmit radio waves, and people at the entrance rent their gadgets. You just have to get your hidden phone or bracelet during your stay at the club, so the siren starts to howl, and a tidy sum is deducted from the offender's bank account. Yes, there is a bitter irony in the fact that the same digital “Big Brother” helps to deal with Internet addiction. But without surveillance cameras, any public space has long been denied a license to conduct its activities.
')
Therefore, the network management Underground decided to use this inevitable evil for the benefit of the institution's concept. In truth, this siren has always caused a lot of controversy among both employees and visitors. But this way ensures not only freedom from gadgets, but also privacy. After all, the data of surveillance cameras do not fall into the open access, and visitors have the opportunity to conduct unauthorized shooting. Everything that happens in the Underground, then remains in the Underground. However, three years ago, in all clubs, a scanning frame was installed at the entrance, and the dispute around fines and sirens in the Freedom Nature Reserve turned into a purely theoretical plane.
Whatever it was, but the Underground allows you to go as far from the computerized world as possible in the metropolis. Here, they even accept cash, although guests usually still pay with a fingerprint.
For most of my friends, going outside without gadgets is tantamount to appearing in public naked, blind and wild heroin-breaking. Rejection of smart devices for several evening hours is a real personal challenge. Of course, then you get used to several hours of offline, and even more - it becomes a new need.
So around these cafes formed their own subculture, the members of which at least several times a month arrange for themselves “digital unloading” in the company of loved ones and like-minded people.
Of the digital technology speakers use only microphones and occasionally - projectors. The music is played either by live musicians, or by vinyl. Yes, the demand for a warm tube sound did not disappear even in the middle of the 21st century. Like the real books. The Underground Network is one of the best bookcrossing centers in our day.
Each of the hundreds of Undergrounds is distinguished by some special flavor. In the decoration of the premises is usually dominated by wood and stone. However, the interior design is rather eclectic and inspired by a variety of eras. But among all the styles, the most common is the British colonial. This is a hint of the fact that the Underground is free not only from digital shackles, but here you can also remove the collar of political correctness. Jokes about blacks, feminists and gays come here as well as in the good old days.
Of course, the creators of the Underground walk on damn thin ice. The scandal with the opening of the “Bunker” in Berlin in 2036 thundered all over the world. The design of this club echoed the interior of the offices of Hitler, with imperial eagles and swastikas on the walls. A couple of years before, a right-wing populist party came to power in Germany, which promised to return the greatness of this country and correct its shaky position in the world. They revised paragraph 86 of the German Penal Code, which prohibited the use of symbols of Nazi organizations, saying that the Germans should not have less freedom than in the United States. But this law split German society.
Representatives of the Underground were among those who said that after almost a hundred years after the fall of the Nazi regime, the ideology of the Third Reich was no longer a real danger. And this is by no means an attempt to justify or put into question the crimes of the Hitlerites, it’s just that his ideas have become outdated and finally gone. And in the past, the Underground knew how to make money.
The network of retroclubs emphasized that “Bunker” is just another institution on the theme of the turbulent XX century. After all, there was a lot of blood on the Roman emperors, the Ottoman sultans or the Spanish conquistadors, but nevertheless the style of those times was not taboo in popular culture. The aesthetics of the Third Reich was only to create an atmosphere of decadence and play on the fears about the decline of society. In the first year, any photography was banned there, but the news of the winding waiters and visitors wearing SS suits angered too many people all over the world.
Opponents threatened to organize a global boycott of the Underground, connecting parliaments and governments of several countries. The loudest were in Israel and Russia. Not wanting to lose these markets, the Underground brought the “Bunker” out of its network and it was turned into an independent institution. However, all these permutations had little effect on the number of visits to the most scandalous place in Germany.
In general, the Undergrounds were originally institutions focused on holding master classes, stand-ups and literary evenings. Later regular shows of old films were added to them. Of course, visitors were offered a wide range of board games - from chess and dominoes to Monopoly and table football. Alcohol is usually available only weak drinks such as beer, ale and wine. Yet such clubs are not meant to get drunk in them. Also in most establishments you can order cigars and hookah.
The first regulars of the Undergrounds were snobbish intellectuals mainly from the humanities. They needed their own "Ivory Tower", where you can protect yourself from digital fuss. Many of this public even in the third decade of the XXI century continued to go to the theaters. But why do we need old-fashioned theater performances in the heyday of home digital entertainment? The creators of the Underground gave a trivial answer - they go to the theater not so much for the performance itself, as for the atmosphere of the theater. Therefore, it was theatergoers who first found the targeting of this network. Behind them, Underground advertising covered visitors to art galleries and museums. A little later, the Underground began to attract the attention of fans of rare technology, as well as steampunk and dizelpunk. Yes, some places were devoted to these genres.
The success of the Underground was accompanied by another trend - by the mid-2020s. returned to fashion film photography. Several startups have revived film production, and many photographers have begun to promote analog photography as a particularly exclusive service. In the Undergrounds, “red rooms” quickly appeared for the display of photographs, and the entire public photo chronicle in these establishments was conducted only on film.
It quickly turned out that measured old-fashioned entertainment without gadgets in a vintage setting appealed to quite wide sections of society. In order to preserve the conceived atmosphere of the establishments, a dress code and age restrictions were introduced. And although the requirements for appearance were quite strict, but the Underground was ready to provide appropriate clothes for hire. True, the LGBTKIA + representatives, whose gender identity sometimes did not fit into the binary framework of past eras, turned out to be dissatisfied with the dress code. The entrance of children also had to be limited. The children too often made noise, made tantrums because of the selected gadgets and tried to carry them in various ways. Crying babies, their constant problems with the toilet, which became especially noticeable against the background of the popularity of the movement against diapers, public breastfeeding - all this did not fit into the atmosphere of the Underground. As a result, entry was only possible from 14 years.
But over time, the Underground Network began to expand and cover new areas of leisure. Restaurants began to be divided into different categories. Along with the already familiar “white” Undergrounds, “black” appeared, selling strong alcohol and marijuana. Yes, the “black” Undergrounds do not pretend to a special intellectuality, but they do use the absence of unwanted photos from crazy parties.
In 2035, another pretentious Underground opened - “Studio 54” in New York, which recreated the atmosphere and interior of the legendary club of the 1970s. A year earlier, an epoch-making vote was held at the UN General Assembly, at which the majority of countries in the world decided to stop the war on drugs. The turnover of previously banned substances was taken under the control of state bodies, and medicine has learned to remove the addiction with the help of antidrug vaccines, which was a revolution in narcology.
Law enforcement agencies continued to pursue the “black market”, but the demand for illegal substances from artisanal producers has plummeted, and the total public safety system has made their trafficking too complicated.
“Black” Undergrounds were among the first establishments that received a license to sell Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. Taking out drugs from the club is prohibited. Log strictly from 18 years. The musical theme of the clubs is very different, from jazz to techno, disco and hard rock, and not all of these institutions bother with freedom from holograms and analogue technology.
But the most scandalous were the revived killer of opium. It was with the abuse of opium that modern drug addiction began, later it became the basis for even heavier drugs - morphine and heroin. They were a real scourge of the twentieth century, and under “drug addiction” most often meant precisely dependence on opioids. The main feature of these substances is the rapid provocation by them of severe physical dependence. By the beginning of the XXI century, heroin almost inevitably led to the degradation of the individual, falling to the social bottom and the subsequent painful death. But it was caused not only by the action of the drug itself, but also by the existing social policy. Drug addicts did not have access to effective and humane treatment of their addiction, they had constant problems with the law, picked up hepatitis and HIV, and the most desperate switched to the artisanal "crocodile". But when in the early 2020s. doctors learned how to block the action of heroin in the body with the help of vaccines, the fear of this drug began to subside. When there was a relatively reliable way to get off the needle, heroin chic again became fashionable. So, while still completely banned, heroin experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2020s.
Reducing the risk of opiates launched the process of their gradual legalization. And although no one has yet decided on the free sale of heroin, he has already returned to medicine, although he has managed to occupy only a very narrow niche. However, many countries still allowed the use of opium in special establishments. It is very difficult to get the right to trade in opium, but the Underground has achieved several cherished licenses. After that, the company built opium kilns in the form of real palaces of vice, stylized to the chambers of the Asian rulers of the Victorian era. After all, it was during the time of the English Queen Victoria that the legal opium trade reached its peak, but in the West it was still perceived by many as a mysterious potion from mysterious Asia.
It is hard for me to imagine a culture shock that a law-abiding person would have experienced even the beginning of the 21st century from such orders. However, with all the current freedom, it must be remembered that if a person has problems with drugs, they will no longer be allowed into the “black” clubs, and the System will use the carrot and stick method to send the addict to treatment. Persistent refusal of treatment may lead to the loss of social insurance and is likely to end up in prison, where medicine will still overtake the drug addict. However, the medical aid itself is humane and effective, it makes extensive use of compensators and replacement therapy, and the appeal to a narcologist is deprived of social stigma.
And most importantly, the most problematic dependence of our time is far from addiction. Even the majority of conservatives believe that it would be better for young people to use drugs in clubs from time to time than to sit in virtual reality for good. Whatever the case, narcotic substances have always been an element of human society, whereas online addiction can finally turn humanity into an appendage to machines.
“Enough to run. We are already in the future. Enjoy the moment. ” This famous Underground slogan perfectly conveys the spirit of our era. The main question of modern civilization: “Where do we want to go next?” Mankind defeated almost all diseases, created sustainable energy, landed a man on Mars and began to mine resources on asteroids. The fourth industrial revolution was a success, but the future is more uncertain than ever. The development of the same pace will make humanity helpless before the power of intelligent machines for some 15-20 years. Is it time for us to find the stopcock and stop?
This text is not a propaganda of Nazism or drugs, but only a fantasy about the future, where events take place in an alternate reality.
I do not want to give a banal lecture, but I will build a dialogue with my audience. I have a performance plan, a pre-launch and 12 blocks dedicated to various issues. But the sequence of parts of the speech depends largely on the contact with the audience, as well as the time I devote to this or that block. Yes, and I’m unlikely to have time to reveal all 12 topics - most likely there will be no more than 9. However, I’m sure that nonlinearity will make my story more interesting and alive, revealing first of all those questions that interest my listeners. And although the success of a performance depends largely on improvisation, but this format requires careful thought through all parts of the performance. Separate puzzles in the end should be folded into the picture. Probably why I can not sleep so early. It is necessary to organize thoughts, once again put everything on the shelves. Dziennik.
Underground is an international network of clubs that emphasize the importance of real communication. Young musicians, magicians, comedians, philosophers find their most loyal audience here. A decade ago, there was a lot of talk that online would completely destroy live performances, but a great number of people lack it most of all in life. Many here are trying to fill this gap.
The premises of the Underground are lined with material that does not transmit radio waves, and people at the entrance rent their gadgets. You just have to get your hidden phone or bracelet during your stay at the club, so the siren starts to howl, and a tidy sum is deducted from the offender's bank account. Yes, there is a bitter irony in the fact that the same digital “Big Brother” helps to deal with Internet addiction. But without surveillance cameras, any public space has long been denied a license to conduct its activities.
')
Therefore, the network management Underground decided to use this inevitable evil for the benefit of the institution's concept. In truth, this siren has always caused a lot of controversy among both employees and visitors. But this way ensures not only freedom from gadgets, but also privacy. After all, the data of surveillance cameras do not fall into the open access, and visitors have the opportunity to conduct unauthorized shooting. Everything that happens in the Underground, then remains in the Underground. However, three years ago, in all clubs, a scanning frame was installed at the entrance, and the dispute around fines and sirens in the Freedom Nature Reserve turned into a purely theoretical plane.
Whatever it was, but the Underground allows you to go as far from the computerized world as possible in the metropolis. Here, they even accept cash, although guests usually still pay with a fingerprint.
For most of my friends, going outside without gadgets is tantamount to appearing in public naked, blind and wild heroin-breaking. Rejection of smart devices for several evening hours is a real personal challenge. Of course, then you get used to several hours of offline, and even more - it becomes a new need.
So around these cafes formed their own subculture, the members of which at least several times a month arrange for themselves “digital unloading” in the company of loved ones and like-minded people.
Of the digital technology speakers use only microphones and occasionally - projectors. The music is played either by live musicians, or by vinyl. Yes, the demand for a warm tube sound did not disappear even in the middle of the 21st century. Like the real books. The Underground Network is one of the best bookcrossing centers in our day.
Each of the hundreds of Undergrounds is distinguished by some special flavor. In the decoration of the premises is usually dominated by wood and stone. However, the interior design is rather eclectic and inspired by a variety of eras. But among all the styles, the most common is the British colonial. This is a hint of the fact that the Underground is free not only from digital shackles, but here you can also remove the collar of political correctness. Jokes about blacks, feminists and gays come here as well as in the good old days.
Of course, the creators of the Underground walk on damn thin ice. The scandal with the opening of the “Bunker” in Berlin in 2036 thundered all over the world. The design of this club echoed the interior of the offices of Hitler, with imperial eagles and swastikas on the walls. A couple of years before, a right-wing populist party came to power in Germany, which promised to return the greatness of this country and correct its shaky position in the world. They revised paragraph 86 of the German Penal Code, which prohibited the use of symbols of Nazi organizations, saying that the Germans should not have less freedom than in the United States. But this law split German society.
Representatives of the Underground were among those who said that after almost a hundred years after the fall of the Nazi regime, the ideology of the Third Reich was no longer a real danger. And this is by no means an attempt to justify or put into question the crimes of the Hitlerites, it’s just that his ideas have become outdated and finally gone. And in the past, the Underground knew how to make money.
The network of retroclubs emphasized that “Bunker” is just another institution on the theme of the turbulent XX century. After all, there was a lot of blood on the Roman emperors, the Ottoman sultans or the Spanish conquistadors, but nevertheless the style of those times was not taboo in popular culture. The aesthetics of the Third Reich was only to create an atmosphere of decadence and play on the fears about the decline of society. In the first year, any photography was banned there, but the news of the winding waiters and visitors wearing SS suits angered too many people all over the world.
Opponents threatened to organize a global boycott of the Underground, connecting parliaments and governments of several countries. The loudest were in Israel and Russia. Not wanting to lose these markets, the Underground brought the “Bunker” out of its network and it was turned into an independent institution. However, all these permutations had little effect on the number of visits to the most scandalous place in Germany.
In general, the Undergrounds were originally institutions focused on holding master classes, stand-ups and literary evenings. Later regular shows of old films were added to them. Of course, visitors were offered a wide range of board games - from chess and dominoes to Monopoly and table football. Alcohol is usually available only weak drinks such as beer, ale and wine. Yet such clubs are not meant to get drunk in them. Also in most establishments you can order cigars and hookah.
The first regulars of the Undergrounds were snobbish intellectuals mainly from the humanities. They needed their own "Ivory Tower", where you can protect yourself from digital fuss. Many of this public even in the third decade of the XXI century continued to go to the theaters. But why do we need old-fashioned theater performances in the heyday of home digital entertainment? The creators of the Underground gave a trivial answer - they go to the theater not so much for the performance itself, as for the atmosphere of the theater. Therefore, it was theatergoers who first found the targeting of this network. Behind them, Underground advertising covered visitors to art galleries and museums. A little later, the Underground began to attract the attention of fans of rare technology, as well as steampunk and dizelpunk. Yes, some places were devoted to these genres.
The success of the Underground was accompanied by another trend - by the mid-2020s. returned to fashion film photography. Several startups have revived film production, and many photographers have begun to promote analog photography as a particularly exclusive service. In the Undergrounds, “red rooms” quickly appeared for the display of photographs, and the entire public photo chronicle in these establishments was conducted only on film.
It quickly turned out that measured old-fashioned entertainment without gadgets in a vintage setting appealed to quite wide sections of society. In order to preserve the conceived atmosphere of the establishments, a dress code and age restrictions were introduced. And although the requirements for appearance were quite strict, but the Underground was ready to provide appropriate clothes for hire. True, the LGBTKIA + representatives, whose gender identity sometimes did not fit into the binary framework of past eras, turned out to be dissatisfied with the dress code. The entrance of children also had to be limited. The children too often made noise, made tantrums because of the selected gadgets and tried to carry them in various ways. Crying babies, their constant problems with the toilet, which became especially noticeable against the background of the popularity of the movement against diapers, public breastfeeding - all this did not fit into the atmosphere of the Underground. As a result, entry was only possible from 14 years.
But over time, the Underground Network began to expand and cover new areas of leisure. Restaurants began to be divided into different categories. Along with the already familiar “white” Undergrounds, “black” appeared, selling strong alcohol and marijuana. Yes, the “black” Undergrounds do not pretend to a special intellectuality, but they do use the absence of unwanted photos from crazy parties.
In 2035, another pretentious Underground opened - “Studio 54” in New York, which recreated the atmosphere and interior of the legendary club of the 1970s. A year earlier, an epoch-making vote was held at the UN General Assembly, at which the majority of countries in the world decided to stop the war on drugs. The turnover of previously banned substances was taken under the control of state bodies, and medicine has learned to remove the addiction with the help of antidrug vaccines, which was a revolution in narcology.
Law enforcement agencies continued to pursue the “black market”, but the demand for illegal substances from artisanal producers has plummeted, and the total public safety system has made their trafficking too complicated.
“Black” Undergrounds were among the first establishments that received a license to sell Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. Taking out drugs from the club is prohibited. Log strictly from 18 years. The musical theme of the clubs is very different, from jazz to techno, disco and hard rock, and not all of these institutions bother with freedom from holograms and analogue technology.
But the most scandalous were the revived killer of opium. It was with the abuse of opium that modern drug addiction began, later it became the basis for even heavier drugs - morphine and heroin. They were a real scourge of the twentieth century, and under “drug addiction” most often meant precisely dependence on opioids. The main feature of these substances is the rapid provocation by them of severe physical dependence. By the beginning of the XXI century, heroin almost inevitably led to the degradation of the individual, falling to the social bottom and the subsequent painful death. But it was caused not only by the action of the drug itself, but also by the existing social policy. Drug addicts did not have access to effective and humane treatment of their addiction, they had constant problems with the law, picked up hepatitis and HIV, and the most desperate switched to the artisanal "crocodile". But when in the early 2020s. doctors learned how to block the action of heroin in the body with the help of vaccines, the fear of this drug began to subside. When there was a relatively reliable way to get off the needle, heroin chic again became fashionable. So, while still completely banned, heroin experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2020s.
Reducing the risk of opiates launched the process of their gradual legalization. And although no one has yet decided on the free sale of heroin, he has already returned to medicine, although he has managed to occupy only a very narrow niche. However, many countries still allowed the use of opium in special establishments. It is very difficult to get the right to trade in opium, but the Underground has achieved several cherished licenses. After that, the company built opium kilns in the form of real palaces of vice, stylized to the chambers of the Asian rulers of the Victorian era. After all, it was during the time of the English Queen Victoria that the legal opium trade reached its peak, but in the West it was still perceived by many as a mysterious potion from mysterious Asia.
It is hard for me to imagine a culture shock that a law-abiding person would have experienced even the beginning of the 21st century from such orders. However, with all the current freedom, it must be remembered that if a person has problems with drugs, they will no longer be allowed into the “black” clubs, and the System will use the carrot and stick method to send the addict to treatment. Persistent refusal of treatment may lead to the loss of social insurance and is likely to end up in prison, where medicine will still overtake the drug addict. However, the medical aid itself is humane and effective, it makes extensive use of compensators and replacement therapy, and the appeal to a narcologist is deprived of social stigma.
And most importantly, the most problematic dependence of our time is far from addiction. Even the majority of conservatives believe that it would be better for young people to use drugs in clubs from time to time than to sit in virtual reality for good. Whatever the case, narcotic substances have always been an element of human society, whereas online addiction can finally turn humanity into an appendage to machines.
“Enough to run. We are already in the future. Enjoy the moment. ” This famous Underground slogan perfectly conveys the spirit of our era. The main question of modern civilization: “Where do we want to go next?” Mankind defeated almost all diseases, created sustainable energy, landed a man on Mars and began to mine resources on asteroids. The fourth industrial revolution was a success, but the future is more uncertain than ever. The development of the same pace will make humanity helpless before the power of intelligent machines for some 15-20 years. Is it time for us to find the stopcock and stop?
This text is not a propaganda of Nazism or drugs, but only a fantasy about the future, where events take place in an alternate reality.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/442676/
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