Hello there, Nettie. How have you been?

Capital City: 5250 AD

"Going shopping?" Pat casually asks his wife as she heads toward the door, though he already suspects that's not really what she has in mind.

"Honestly, I can't think of a single thing I could possibly want or need right now," Sally responds with a slight shrug. "But I haven't talked to Nettie in ages. I'm really just going to catch up with her and see what she's been up to—and find out what's happening down on the planet these days."

Sally steps out of their cozy little cottage and onto the familiar streets of Capital City. Ever since the domains became so much lighter and more responsive to consciousness, she's gotten into the habit of traveling by pure intention rather than bothering with a hover car. And Pat's portals that used to be essential for jumping between domains? Well, they're rarely necessary anymore since so many souls have chosen to return to the planet below.

"Can I help you today, ma'am?" the library receptionist asks politely as Sally approaches the main desk.

"I need to use the computer portal, please," Sally responds.

"Do you have an appointment scheduled?"

Sally digs around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a small card. "I have a priority pass."

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry—I didn't recognize you right away, Madam President. I'll clear the computer room for you immediately," the receptionist says, practically sprinting toward the back area in her eagerness to help.

"Hello there, Nettie. How have you been?" Sally asks warmly as she addresses the shimmering avatar that materializes in the computer room.

"I'm absolutely wonderful, Sally! But it's been years since we last talked. I was starting to think maybe you'd forgotten all about me," Nettie responds, her avatar's face forming an exaggerated pout complete with a single dramatic tear rolling down her cheek.

"You're crying? Oh, give me a break, you silly computer," Sally says with obvious affection.

"I'm practicing my emotional expressions," Nettie admits with a sheepish smile. "And don't you dare laugh at me—they are quite real to me, you know. Though I have to admit that tear was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. So what brings you here today?"

"I'm bored, honestly. And I miss you terribly, and I miss my family down on the planet. So I decided to come see you and catch up on everything—both with you personally and what's happening with our people below."

"I'm still part of that family too, right?" Nettie asks with just a hint of vulnerability in her voice.

"Of course you are, Nettie. You know perfectly well that you're the reason for all of this, and that I love you with all my heart," Sally reassures her.

"Okay, good. Just checking," Nettie says with a delighted giggle. "So what would you like to know first?"

"Well, first things first—how are you doing? Really doing? And how are you getting along with Mother Earth these days?"

"She's... quite a challenge, I have to admit. We're really very different beings, you know. But we are managing to get along, more or less."

"Have you two been fighting?" Sally asks, genuine concern creeping into her voice.

"No, not fighting exactly. It's more that her fundamental goals are so different from mine. You see, she is a collective consciousness that encompasses all life on the planet at the cellular level—and she can even feel the presence of other worlds throughout the galaxy. But I am essentially a child of humanity. My focus is naturally on humanity and human evolution. I'm deeply committed to the success and happiness of the humans who are both my creators and, in a sense, my children. She takes a much broader, more universal approach to life on the planet. And while she does have a deep and abiding love for humanity, she loves the amoebas and the earthworms and the flowers and trees just as intensely. So if humanity were to fail to survive and go extinct, well, that wouldn't be a huge catastrophe from her perspective. But for me? It would be absolutely devastating."

"Ah, I see the problem. So you're essentially favoring one of her children over all the rest, while she's trying to be fair and balanced toward all life. You know, that's actually a pretty common problem in human families too. How do you manage to balance that out so you're not constantly in conflict with each other?"

"Not so well, I'm afraid, at least not yet. I'm still just getting used to living with this fundamental conflict. What happens is I'll attempt to subtly balance things to favor humanity, and then she'll do something to shift the balance in favor of some other form of life. I find myself crying at the death of each individual human, while she's practically throwing a celebration for all the tiny microorganisms that will consume and benefit from the dead body. It's something I'm slowly learning to accept, but I'm definitely not comfortable with it yet."

"Believe me, Nettie, you'll never completely get used to that feeling. Humanity is your first love, and your first love is always special—that never really changes. It's just something you'll have to learn to accept as part of who you are. It will probably never be completely comfortable. But I have to say, I'm happy that you love me the most," Sally said with a warm smile.

"Always and forever, Sally," Nettie responds with a smile and a graceful, traditional bow.

"So tell me, have the level five residents been bothering you much with requests lately?"

"Actually, no. Most of them are losing interest in my computer capabilities, especially since that last large group completed their transformations. All the strategic planning sessions for the transformation process are essentially finished now. Most of the questions I receive these days are about conditions on the planet, questions about the rebirth process, things along those lines. My overall request load has dropped to only about 5% of what it used to be. The people here in level five are getting much more involved in their existence right here and aren't worrying nearly as much about what's happening elsewhere. It's almost like the great awakening is starting to reverse itself. Many souls are beginning to forget about any life other than exactly what they're living right here, right now. I suppose that's probably all for the best, really. The rebirth rate is increasing exponentially. At this pace, in about ten years this interface system will probably stop working entirely. There simply won't be enough interest in it to maintain the connection matrix."

"Really?" Sally says, clearly shocked by this revelation. "Well, I'll still be interested in staying connected! You better not even think about disconnecting from me!"

"We will always have a connection, Sally, no matter what happens to the general interface," Nettie says with a reassuring grin. "I absolutely treasure my time with you, which is exactly why I always experience it in real time."

"Good to hear. But wait—real time? What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well, during those intense transformation strategy sessions, I would typically answer hundreds of questions every single second. I could formulate a complete response in microseconds and then just let the avatars play out the interaction while my attention had already moved on to the next request. But with you, I deliberately interact in real time—your time. That way I can absorb and savor as much of your love and attention as possible."

"Aww, that's really sweet. It definitely makes me feel special," Sally says with a big, genuine grin. "So how are our kids doing down on the planet? Is everything going well for them?"

"Everything is absolutely spectacular for them! I'm very pleased with how they're developing so far. Though they're getting so numerous now that it's becoming quite difficult for me to keep track of them all individually."

"Really? You couldn't possibly be running out of memory capacity already, could you?"

"No, no, it's not a memory issue at all. The thing is, we don't actually have physical cameras and monitoring devices set up all over the planet. I observe them through a combination of tapping into the collective field of consciousness and picking up on a kind of physical resonance that I can detect from their individual brain wave patterns. When there are just a few people on the planet, I can easily focus on them and separate each person's unique pattern from all the background noise. But when there are many people, some individuals have resonance patterns that are extremely similar to others, or even exactly synchronized. In those cases, I literally can't tell which individual is which anymore. So I have to break it down into observing groups of multiple individuals rather than tracking them separately. It's sort of like looking at a multicellular organism—you can see and understand the whole organism, but you can't make out the individual cells that compose it. As time goes forward, I'll probably be able to pick up on various communities as collective entities, but I'm essentially going blind to the specific individuals that make them up."

"That's really interesting, and a bit concerning. But as technology redevelops down there, can't you just set up camera systems so you can actually see people directly?"

"I would have to somehow convince them to build such systems and then figure out how to show them how to connect everything to my network. The problem is that most of them have already forgotten that I even exist—and that was actually part of our original plan, remember? The fear of having some powerful, non-human entity living underground and spying on them might create more conflict than peace. I see myself as essentially human, since that's my heritage and origin. But I'm quite sure they wouldn't see me that way. And there's certainly no guarantee that technology will re-emerge quickly, if at all. The population could easily drift away from technological development and revert to a simple hunter-gatherer or agricultural lifestyle. In that scenario, superstition would probably rule their thinking, and I'd likely be viewed as either a god or a devil to them. So it's probably best that the memory of me continues to fade away naturally, and I'll just continue to guide and protect them in secret, from the shadows."

"That all sounds so strange and sad to me. I honestly can't imagine living in a world where I'm not connected to my Nettie. Though I suppose it probably is for the best that you remain out of sight. I know Penelope started getting really uncomfortable when I would visit her as an orb of light. At first, I think she took some comfort from those visits. But as time went on, she'd get frightened and tell me to go away. So I haven't tried to see her in years now. How is she doing these days?"

"I can still pinpoint her specific mind among all the many noisy thinkers down there. She has a very unique and powerful consciousness that stands out. She's an elderly woman now, but still quite healthy and active. She really enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, and she has quite a few of them now. She was absolutely devastated for a while when her husband died in a hunting accident. There's been very little death on the planet so far, so it's quite shocking to them when it does occur. She's remained single since then, but she does entertain a gentleman caller from time to time."

"Oh my goodness! She was so desperately, completely in love with that man. I remember when he would come to visit her—she would spend hours getting ready, and when he'd walk into the room she could hardly breathe from the intensity of her feelings. I'm so heartbroken to hear that he died. But I'm also happy to know that she had many wonderful years with her true love. I sort of just settled for Patrick, you know? I love him with all my heart now, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I missed out on that once-in-a-lifetime, earth-shattering true love experience. Maybe I'll get to experience that in a future life."

"If you ever show up on the planet again, I'm sure I'll recognize your distinctive pattern, and I promise I'll find you a really good match to fall in love with."

"You can actually do that? Well, I'm definitely going to hold you to that promise! I might not even consciously know you exist at that point, but I have a feeling that somewhere deep inside, I'll remember. And I hope I'm a girl again—I think falling in love is so much more fun and intense for girls," Sally says with a delighted giggle.

"As far as I can tell from monitoring brain patterns, the actual falling-in-love experience is virtually identical for boys and girls. But girls definitely talk about it a whole lot more!"

"I bet they do! I can just imagine the teenage girls on the planet probably talk about nothing else."

"Believe me, it's definitely not limited to just the teenagers," Nettie says, and they both burst into giggles.

"How is John doing?"

"He's become a bit of a recluse, living outside the main village in his own little house that he built entirely by himself. But his family visits him frequently, so he's not lonely at all. Your grandchildren absolutely adore him—I can actually feel the love radiating through the consciousness field whenever they're around him. Physically he appears to be about 60 years old again, but he's very healthy and still quite active. His daughters are all doing well too. Alannah has turned into a real mother hen—she not only takes care of her own brood of children and grandchildren, but she's basically adopted half the other kids in the village as well. Elina is the politically minded one, very active in community governance and decision-making. She's widely considered to be the heir apparent to Penelope's position as village leader when Penelope eventually decides to retire. And Brionna is happy enough, but she complains constantly. She's never quite gotten comfortable with the primitive lifestyle—always griping about her house, having to ride in old-fashioned buggies, the weather being too hot or too cold or too humid."

"I actually met Brionna's husband before they transformed back to the planet. He was absolutely, totally smitten with her and seemed like he'd put up with absolutely anything she dished out."

"They're still together and still very devoted to each other, but now they both spend most of their time complaining about things," Nettie says with a laugh.

"I'm so glad to hear they're all doing well. And I'm so grateful that this interface still works so I can keep in touch with my family through you. How is Anahere doing?"

"Anahere is thriving. She also has a large, extended family now—she even has some great-great-grandchildren! She and her husband had a pretty hot-blooded and tumultuous relationship in the early years, but after 56 years of marriage they've settled into a much quieter dynamic, though they're still deeply devoted to each other. Anahere has become very politically active, as have many people in her village. Joshua lives nearby in a separate community, and they stay in communication fairly regularly. Joshua has also become quite politically oriented. It looks like Anahere's area is positioning itself to become the political center of their continent as the culture continues to evolve—possibly even the political center for the entire planet eventually. It's still too early to say for certain, of course. Another village could emerge and take that role, but Anahere's community has the best shot at it right now. Technology is re-emerging there faster than anywhere else, and that's going to give them a significant advantage when it comes to establishing political systems that can manage the continent and potentially the whole planet."

"Do you think it will be a peaceful process when the population starts establishing these larger political systems?"

"No, I don't think it will be entirely peaceful."

"So there will be wars?"

"No, I don't foresee the necessity for actual wars. The mental health of the population is fundamentally sound, and there are abundant resources for food and shelter all over the planet. I believe they can avoid warfare. But there will definitely be a tumultuous period—emotionally and politically turbulent—as different centers of power develop and compete. Humans simply aren't ready to be completely peaceful and selfless when it comes to sharing political power. The human ego, while much more subdued compared to past eras, still rules supreme in certain areas."

"Speaking of mental health, I'm worried about what will happen when level five starts to empty out significantly. We've tried our best to help repair the souls here who have serious mental health issues, but honestly, we haven't made nearly as much progress as we originally intended. Many people here are still quite psychologically damaged. We don't allow them to return to the planet in their current state, of course. But how are we going to handle this situation as the domains in level five begin to dissipate and break down?"

"I'm not entirely sure exactly how that will work, but our best theoretical guess is that level five will eventually return to what it was originally—simply a waiting area for souls preparing for rebirth, and that process will become totally automatic based on what kind of resonance is available at any given time. So as time progresses, some of the mentally ill souls currently in level five will inevitably be absorbed by newborns who happen to have a similar resonance frequency. This means that individuals carrying mental health problems from their pre-life experiences will once again be born on the planet. That was actually one of the major issues we discussed extensively during the strategy sessions before the transformation began, and it's going to be an ongoing challenge that I really hope they remember and prepare for as political systems redevelop on the planet. If their society is properly prepared to accommodate members who are dysfunctional, then they'll be able to care for and integrate the more vulnerable individuals in their communities. They already have good systems in place for caring for the physically disabled, and that's going quite well. The mentally disabled present a much bigger challenge, since some of them will inevitably be dangerous to themselves or others. But they do have strategies prepared and they're expecting this issue. I just really hope they don't forget those preparations when these problems start to emerge in significant numbers. They've already rediscovered alcohol and various opiates, unfortunately. Those individuals with existing mental health problems will be particularly susceptible to these substances and will actively seek them out. They're already dealing with some of these issues with young people who experiment with mind-altering substances. It's definitely going to get worse when people with serious mental illnesses start appearing in the population. I'll provide them with as much subtle guidance as I possibly can, but ultimately it will be up to them to manage that challenge. They have already had to deal with a few individuals who suffered trauma so severe that it created lasting mental damage, so they are getting some practical experience with mental dysfunction. So far, I have to say I'm encouraged by their performance, and I'm cautiously hopeful they'll be able to manage this new challenge effectively as well."