Tabula Rasa is the first story I ever wrote (back in March 2009).
I was in my second year of college at UC San Diego and was taking a course where the professor asked us to write a science fiction short story as our final assignment.
Five years later (aka June 2014), as I begin to launch my first company (i.e. Launchora, the website you're reading this on), it just feels right to have Tabula Rasa be the first story that I publish.
The image you see below is the cover I designed for this story. Let me remind you that this was a college assignment. Sure, the cover wasn't a requirement, but the 19-year-old me just thought it was too cool to not use.
Anyway, the cover will make sense when you finish the story. I hope you like it.
Warning: every word you read in this story is as of 2009, so don't judge me.
Feel free to judge 19-year-old me.
Chapter I
08:01:00 AM
Conrad woke up with a smile on his face. Today is his birthday. With his eyes still closed, he turned in his bed to face his bedside table. He opened his eyes to look at the grandfather's time-piece - the one Conrad had worn to work everyday since his death. The time-piece read: 08:01:39 AM.
He lay still for several seconds, staring at the timepiece. “It’s here,” he whispered.
Conrad got out of bed and entered the bathroom. By the time he was out, F-104, his home robot, had already laid down his clothes for the day.
“Good Morning, Sir. I wish you a very happy birthday from all the staff.” said F-104. He sounded familiar, Conrad thought. His voice today reminded him of a voice in a film that his grandfather once showed him. He couldn’t seem to remember the name of the film or the actor.
“Morning, Four”, he said, “I won’t be wearing that suit today. Would you please bring me my grandfather’s black tuxedo from the closet on his floor?”
“Certainly, Sir. You may head downstairs for breakfast - Two has prepared your favorite meal. I will have the suit brought to you downstairs. Will that be all, Sir?”
“Yes, Four. Thank you. I’ll be right down. Would you please inform Zero that I will be at the office by 10 AM?”
F-104 stopped for a few seconds, then started walking out again. “Done, Sir. He says he will keep everything ready for you.”
Throughout the journey to his office, Conrad couldn’t help but think about the importance of his work today. His family had sacrificed everything for this day and until today, he hadn’t really thought about the weight of his actions.
As he entered The Foundation, the 80-story concrete colossus, Conrad was reminded of the first time he set foot into this building. He was only 16 years old when his grandfather first brought him here. “Today, I will tell you the truth about our work, Conrad,” his grandfather had said to him as he showed Conrad to his new office. Now, twenty-two years later to the very date, Conrad remembered the promise he made to his grandfather; that he would fulfill his vision for the future.
The future, Conrad thought, is in my hands.
“Happy Birthday, Sir,” said the giant screen - the length of a tennis court and as high as a two story building - forming a wall behind Conrad’s desk, “Are you ready for your last day at work?”
“My father must have been in a good mood the day he gave you his voice, if not his sense of humor, Zero. I still hesitate from calling you Father. Anyway, it’s going to be a long day, Zero. Display status report on Operation Tabula-Rasa.”
F-0 lit up with many different windows on its screen, the background being a live map of the world.
“The operations in Australia and Antarctica are going as planned. I just received an update about the Clean-Up in Antarctica and its ready for the rest of the Plants. We have already reached our expected number in Seeds. So far, I have transported 50 million Seeds to the Europe, 80 million to Africa, and 40 million to Asia. More are being transferred as we speak. We are ready for the final step, Sir,” F-0 explained.
There were two countdowns running of the top left and right corners of the screen. The one on the left was labelled “Seeds” and was increasing by the hundreds. The one on the right was labelled “Plants” and displayed a fixed number: 1,343,230.
Looking at the screen, Conrad was suddenly overwhelmed by the grandeur of his work so far, which made him uneasy for the first time since he had set foot into this room. He had been working endless hours for the past 22 years for this day. Today was the first day in his life that he did not look forward to the next day.
He reached for a blank notebook and a pen from his desk. He wrote the date -
July 1, 2072
He looked at his watch - 10:04:25 AM - he had about 13 hours left.
The night before, Conrad had decided that he would spend today writing down everything he knew about Operation Tabula-Rasa. He was going to give the people of this planet a brief history of their time, their existence. Over the past few months he had supervised the deletion of more than 90% of the population of the Earth. And today, it was time for him to turn the gun on himself and fulfill his family’s legacy.
Today, was going to be Conrad Shepherd’s last day.
Chapter 1
08:00:00 AM
“Good morning, Ryan. Time to wake up. Good morning, Ryan. Time to wake up.”
But Ryan didn’t need his alarm. He had been up for an hour now, and was almost done with his daily routine of exercise.
“I don’t know why you still bother to make those sounds, Father. You know I’ve been awake for an hour now. Why, you just got me that glass of orange juice five minutes ago!” exclaimed Ryan at the wall screen while pointing at his personal robot standing at the corner of the room holding the empty glass.
“Sir, if i may, I don’t understand why you still prefer me to wake you up everyday at 8 if you’re already awake at 7. It is enough that you make me call you by your name. If my Father knew about that, he wouldn’t be very pleased. But, I also remember us having this same conversation yesterday, and the day before.” said the wall screen while playing videos of the same incident happening on different windows.
“Very well, Father. As long as you keep on sounding the wake up alarm at 8 AM, instead of 7 AM since you see me waking up at that time everyday, I will keep on telling you to set the alarm at 8 AM. Someday, you might just give up.”
The screen was quiet. Instead, it increased the sound to the video that showed Ryan asking the same question, to which Father replied “”Sir, You are very well aware of the fact that I will always do what you ask me to do. And this is the same answer I will give you tomorrow when you ask me the same question.””
“You have your answer, Sir. Now, if you are done with your exercise, you may choose to freshen up now or after you have breakfast. After you are done with both, you may proceed with the rest of your day. You have a very busy schedule for today, Sir.” The screen then displayed Ryan’s plans for the day:
12:00:00 PM - Final lessons of Knowledge
17:00:00 PM - Class visit to The Foundation
00:00:00 AM - Celebrate 18th Birthday
At the bottom right corner of the screen was written -
June 30, Year 42.
Ryan left for breakfast, and as he was leaving the room he switched on the clean/fix button next to the door. Within seconds, there were four robots fixing the entire room; after five minutes the room was spotless.
Chapter II
July 1, 2072
10:05:09 AM
“Towards the end," Conrad began writing in the book, "all I can think of is the beginning."
"Thomas Shepherd, my grandfather, was born on this very day, in the year 1986 to a very wealthy family. His parents were highly influential intellectuals with many political connections. They raised Thomas to the highest level by sending him to the very best institutions in the country. At the age of 25 and with the help of his father and his resourceful friends, Thomas set up a chain of medical institutions and health care centers. Within the next nine years, Thomas Shepherd controlled every single hospital, medical institution, and pharmaceutical company in the world. He turned healthcare into a business. He was the richest man of his time, and he controlled every single form of medication available in the entire world.
Then came the third World War of 2020. It ended in a matter of days, killing about 45% of the world’s population at that time (which was approximately 7.2 billion) in an instant, and many more over the next few days. It was uncertain who won, since the first ones to be taken out on each side (there were many) of the war were the political parties and governments in control. The world was in chaos, without any hope of control. On the brink of a world crisis, Thomas saw an opportunity and created ‘The Foundation’ in 2021 as a privatized company that controlled two extremely essential pillars of modern society - health, and military. Thomas’s real intentions with The Foundation were known only to him, and it wasn’t until I was 16 years old that he told me about his plan to save the world.
Thomas wanted the world to be free of pain and to build it again with the help of its people. With only two billion people left in the world, his first order of action was bringing every single person to New America and recreating their world into an organized living community. Thomas expected for the people to finally give up the hatred and fear against each other, but nothing changed. The biggest problem with the people was their unexplainable and undying faith along with their constant search for answers and proof that there is a higher power. These people spent thousands of years worshipping gods and goddesses and warning others of Judgement Day or the return of their God -but they only succeeded in making themselves prisoners of their own faith. This was when Thomas made the unthinkable decision that someone should have made a long time ago - he was going to give humanity and the children of tomorrow a fair chance with an entirely new beginning.
A blank slate.
Chapter 2
June 30, Year 42
12:00:03 PM
“Before man or woman, was the machine.”
Ryan entered the classroom just as the lesson started. He walked to his desk which was closest to the wall screen. As he sat down on his chair, he placed his right thumb on his desk screen. The screen processed Ryan’s fingerprint, validated his identity with the help of the e-ID and within seconds it was synced with the common screen at the front of the class.
“Today is your final day of lessons, class.” The robotic sound coming out of the eight wall speakers and 20 desk speakers filled the entire class, with each word appearing on each screen as it was being said. “Over the past week, we have discussed the key functions of Father, and how The Foundation’s main system manages your daily lives from schools and hospitals to airplanes and trains. Today, I am going to tell you about your existence. Today, you will learn how humans came into being.”
“After creating life through flora and then fauna," the screen continued, "Father decided that he wanted to create a species that could speak and learn. He called this species ‘Human Beings’. Each human is created in a machine known as the ‘Womb’. Those of you who are already of the age of 18 may have seen it in The Birthplace during the time of your annual health check-ups. Each human is created with its own unique set of fingerprints, in order to give each individual a distinct identity. After birth, each human is kept under observation for the first six years of its life, after which each one is provided with a room of their choice in any city in the Four Worlds. The Womb, which was invented in Year 06, is situated in The Birthplace. There is a Birthplace located in every city in every country in all of the Four Worlds - America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The first batch of humans created using the Womb numbered approximately 200 million. Then, after observing the humans till they reached a mature age, the second batch was created in Year 24, this time numbering 50 million. Now in the Year 42, and as of this moment, the human population is 432,100,451.
“Now, as customary of every lesson, I am going to end the session with a few questions. Is everyone ready? Let’s begin then. James, Seat 18: What would do if you wanted to book a trip to Italy?”
“I would ask my Father,” James said.
“Very good, James. Now, Ryan, Seat 1: What would you do if you wanted to know how your everyday meals are prepared?”
“I would ask my Father,” Ryan said.
“Excellent, Ryan. Now, Clarisse, Seat 9...
Chapter III
July 1, 2072
13:00:03 PM
“A world of free individuals that are taught to think and know the same things. An entire population of empty minds being told they are full," Conrad continued writing.
"Truth, Lie, Good, Bad, Right, Wrong - these words have no meaning besides the ones we have given them. My grandfather used to tell me that words, definitions, and meanings are just lies made up of lies. There is no god, only us humans - helpless creatures with a purposeless existence obsessed with fate. If you look at a stone long enough to see if it moves, by the end you will end up believing that it did, because even your mind would be tired of your foolishness. Now imagine doing the same thing over thousands of years - the result is our world today. We are men and women who live and die with the hope that the stone we are staring at will move some day because we read it in a book that it did for someone thousands of years ago. We live in the world that we have created, but we dream of a better one. We dream of heaven or an after-life; anything better than what we have. We are obsessed with the concept of the unknown - and the ones we count on for answers are made of stone.
The idea was to eliminate the unknown forever; to already provide the new generation with all the answers possible and make them believe that there aren’t any other questions. We will provide them with a system which has all the answers. Then, If we control the knowledge, we could control its effect on people.
It took time, but with the help of my father and his team of scientists and engineers, Thomas was able to create the e-ID - a microchip the size of a thumb-pin which was inserted in the brain of every newborn child at birth in New America. As for those who were already born before the chip was invented, the chip was inserted into their body through various different forms of psuedo-surgeries. Thomas had learned enough about human behavior over time to know that it doesn’t take long for a fear to become a fact if everyone experiences it. In a few years, the entire living population of New America had the e-ID chip in their bodies.
The e-ID, along with the main computer that controlled the e-ID, called ‘F-0’, was invented by my father, Nathan Shepherd. An e-ID was a person’s digital identity, health monitor, and controller; and each e-ID was linked to F-0. Since there was no longer a judicial system, The Foundation made, passed, and governed all laws. The punishment for breaking any kind of law was instant death issued by F-0 in the form of activating an electrical signal in the e-ID which killed all the brain cells in a matter of seconds.
You can’t create a better future unless you are selfless. Plan the future with the future generations in mind, not yourself. These were my grandfather’s first words to me as he showed me to this room 22 years ago. “Children are the future,” he used to say, “They come with a clean, blank slate. Each new generation was our chance at a better future. But we spoiled each chance by teaching them our false beliefs. Our various faiths told us we were each unique; but we are not. Our history is witness - people killing their own kind just because they were taught different. We have to teach everyone the same; only then will we be able to eliminate hatred. We have to choose the correct lessons. Only then will we succeed in making life better.”
When I started at The Foundation my father introduced me to F-0 and its capabilities. It was in this very room that my father, my grandfather, and I planned the future of mankind - the New World.
“Seeds do not need the plant to grow,” My grandfather used to say, “As long as we leave a mechanism that will nourish them.”
In 2052, we informed the people of New America that due to the rapid increase in population and no land yet ready to accommodate more people, any family that reproduced would be deleted without any explanation. Tell the world that they are doomed forever and they listen to you with all ears. We told them that this was only a temporary law, and would be lifted within a couple years once we were done rehabilitating Europe and Asia, after which we would redistribute the population into the other continents. The continents were being rebuilt and prepared for rehabilitation, but for different reasons. A few years later and people were already adjusted to the new way of living off birth-control pills and contraceptives; without any migration to Europe and Asia. The goal was to make sure that every child grew to an adult age of 18, and all forms of sexually transmitted diseases were eliminated by deletion.
In 2070, a little more than two years ago, The Foundation began its plan for deletion of adults or ‘Plants’. Slowly and over the course of a few months, I, using the e-ID, deleted every person in New America over the age of 70. It was my grandfather’s last wish that he and my grandmother be the first. He told us that there was no place for him in the New World. He, just like my father and I, was part of this flawed world. The children of the new future deserved better than us.
“The children of the New World do not deserve our problems, our insecurities, and most of all our diseases. We are going to give them a world where it is the machine that progresses, not man,” my grandfather told me right before he was deleted. I was with him in the room. He was wearing his favorite suit, the one he wore at his wedding - a black tuxedo.
His last words were:
“If fate or god had existed, I wouldn’t have come so far.”
I spent the next few months deleting every human over the age of 35(while keeping an equal ratio of men to women), as well as all the people with hereditary diseases. At the same time, I was programming F-0 with instructions and plans for the New World. In the summer of 1971, The Foundation announced that production was to be stopped on all forms of birth-control items for a period of 3 months. The Foundation had already made medication availability online-only, in order to control demand by supply. Over these 3 months, more than 200 million pregnancies were reported by a population of approximately 550 million. At the end of the 3 month period, The Foundation reintroduced the law against reproduction and announced the future of child health care. All the pregnant women would be kept under observation till child birth so that new equipment could be built to achieve womb-less birth. F-0 guided the entire operation which was designated the title ‘Seeds’. We were successful in making an artificial uterus perfectly capable of child birth. Our vision of the perfect future was almost complete.
The artificial uterus, or the ‘Womb’, would then be used to create future generations of humans. Once the first group of Seeds reach the mature age of 18, each person would be asked to visit The Birthplace (where the Womb would be situated) and donate sperm or egg based on their gender to initiate further births. However, the people wouldn’t be educated with the fact that they are capable of reproducing themselves, and therefore these visits would be termed as regular annual health-check-ups. They would be taught that protected sexual intercourse is the only method possible, as this would help eliminate uncontrolled population growth as well as any new diseases. We want to create a world of free individuals; their only relative would be their own computer-care system called Father.
As for the matter of the remains of those who were deleted, The Foundation re-designed Antarctica, which was the suitable choice as the burial ground due to its low temperature.
Since 2040, The Foundation has spent almost all of its resources (the funding was not a problem, the sales generated by the birth-control items were more than enough) and time in designing Europe, Africa, and Asia for rehabilitation by the New World. Creating the living environment was not as complicated as deciding exactly how they would live everyday with doing any kind of ‘work’. This is where the reinvention of language came in. We decided to keep English as the universal language of the New World, with a few modifications.
The problem with our created languages was how we had connected words to each other in some way or the other in the form of synonyms or antonyms. We were taught that if something exists - it’s opposite exists as well - heaven and hell, god and the devil, and so on. By redefining words to be completely independent but with the same meaning, we were able to create the New English language, which in turn helped in deleting curiosity in human behavior. Hot will be hot and cold will be cold, but these words would no longer have any relation to each other. Words like lies and truth were replaced by fact. Examples of other words that were deleted were bad, god, evil, fate, pain, secret, lie, hate, truth, opposite, curious, boredom - almost anything that would make the New Generation question their conditions; if they didn’t have a word to express their feelings, they wouldn’t have the feelings at all.
The most important aspect of this rebirth of the human race was F-0. We wouldn’t have been able to execute our plans if we didn’t think the system we created was capable of handling the situation. F-0 has been programmed to serve the New World their entire life. The people will be free to do whatever they want; wherever their new found imagination, free of the pre-determined pressures of our society, takes them. All the man-created systems and concepts of faith, religion, government, money, tax, law, punishment, weapons, etc. would no longer exist in the New World. F-0 will control every kind of industry from clothing to food to manufacturing; the New World wouldn’t have to work or even know what it means. There will be no possible way for anyone to feel any kind of hatred against one another because there will be nothing different about them. There will be no politics or leaders, because there will be no cause to fight or work for. Everyone will be equal because their kind would have achieved the stability required for people to live their lives equally and to its full extent without any effort.
However, the humans wouldn’t be imprisoned in this world. The Foundation is only giving them the resources to begin their lives. F-0 is programmed to self-update and fulfill any wishes they have. Whatever they can possibly think of with their knowledge, F-0 will create it. The system is there to protect them from committing the same mistakes that the people in our time made.
This is why we named this operation Tabula-Rasa.
We are only giving the New Generation a blank slate to work on - what they choose to do with it is their choice entirely. At no point will the system ever stop a person from doing as they wish; it is there only to guide them and to some extent protect them from themselves. Since we have eliminated all ways in which the future generations can express a feeling that they don’t even know the name of, it is unlikely that the people would spoil this chance. Our main focus is to not let man’s curiosity control their life to such an extent that he is more interested in the past than the present.
By providing them with all the answers without them even questioning anything, we are giving them the opportunity to appreciate the present, without the weight of our mistakes on their shoulders.
Chapter 3
June 30, Year 42
17:00:07 PM
“Good Evening, Everyone! Welcome to the 5 PM tour of The Foundation,” the Tour-Guide Robot said as he lead Ryan and his class through the five-story lobby of the building.
“This is the think tank of the Father," he continued. "Floors 6 to 15 contain the entire Department of Transportation, floors 16 to 25 are where machines work all day to plan and provide food to all Four Worlds, the Four Worlds Health Division is located on floors 26 to 40, and the remaining floors numbering 41 to 80 belong to the Center of Information.”
“Which floor is The Father on?” Ryan asked as they waited for the elevator for floors 6 to 15.
“The Foundation is The Father," the Tour-Guide replied, "Now, let's start the tour with floor...,”
“Wait!," Ryan exclaimed, "I think I left my comm-set at the lobby desk when we signed in. I’ll be right back.”
“That’s okay, Sir. Why don’t you join the tour starting at 5.30 PM? I don’t think you would want to miss the beginning of the Transportation Department. They have the new jets on display today,” replied the tour-guide robot as he entered the elevator with the rest of Ryan’s class.
As Ryan collected his comm-set from the lobby desk, he realized that its batteries were almost over. He searched for a charge station using his comm-set - the nearest one being ‘Room-Zero’ which was a three minute walk from the lobby. Since the charge would only take a few minutes, Ryan decided that he had enough time to be back for the 5.30 PM tour.
“Room-Zero,” Ryan read the label above the door. He opened the door, and found the room empty. He noticed that the room was empty besides a desk and a chair sitting in front of a screen the size of the wall.
The make of the furniture was very different from what Ryan was used to. It wasn’t the usual metal - it was a smooth surface dark-brown in color; the same color as the bark of a tree.
He saw a charge socket at the corner next to the wall screen.
“Charge comm-set, please.” He instructed the screen.
While he waited for his comm-set to be charged, Ryan noticed a black object hidden below the desk.
He picked it up. He had never seen anything like it before. He opened it to see pages with notes on them. The cover of this object had a bizarre time-piece attached to it, but it seemed to be stuck at 23:59:01 PM.
He opened the book and read the first line:
“Towards the end, all I can think of is the beginning.”
Chapter IV
July 1, 2072
23:30:09 PM
“F-0, set my deletion time at 23:59:00 PM,” Conrad instructed as he rechecked the plans for the Four Worlds Rehabilitation for the tenth time.
“This is going to work,” he reassured himself.
Conrad looked at the time. Twenty-nine minutes, he thought. He had written everything he knew. But for what? He had to destroy the book. What was he thinking writing this in the first place? There was no reason for such information to exist in solid form.
He took out his grandfather’s time-piece from his jacket pocket. He set the time at 00:00:00 AM, selected the option ‘Self-Destruct’, and attached it to the cover of the book.
He continued with his final words:
“The people of our time did the best they could to learn about our existence, about the Earth and the Universe and so on. They created art in various forms, and although most solid forms were destroyed during World War III, we were able to digitalize most books, films, documentaries, research papers, languages - the history of man so far and the proof of his work. I saved all this information in F-0 in a folder called ‘Our Work’ protected by a password known only to me.”
Conrad stopped. He flipped the pages of the book to the last page, and wrote the password at the very end of the page. He turned back to his last sentence and wrote:
“I still belong to this world, and I believe that if for some reason still unknown to me I wanted to write about the work done by The Foundation, then the information wouldn’t be complete without the password. Even though this will never be read by anyone, I have written that password on the last page of this book.”
Conrad addressed the screen, “F-0, do you know what the ‘F’ in your name stands for?”
“I believe that is perhaps the only question that I do not have the answer for, Sir,” replied F-0.
“The ‘F’ stands for ‘Father’. That is going to be your name in the New World. Now you have an answer for everything.”
“As you wish, Sir. It’s almost time.”
“Yes, I know. One last thing, Father. I want you to set the deletion timer for the rest of the Plants at 23:59:01 PM. Once the number reaches 0, I want you to delete the program that controls the deletion function of the e-ID. It’s all up to you now. You are the Father of the future generations of mankind.”
“Good-bye, Conrad.”
It was his grandfather’s voice this time. He must have programmed F-0 to use it before the end. Conrad opened the book again, took his pen and added:
“If fate or god had existed, I wouldn’t have come so far.”
He closed the book and put it on the side of his desk. He looked at the time.
23:58:56 PM
23:58:57 PM
23:58:58 PM
23:58:59 PM
The e-ID in Conrad’s brain triggered. As his body gave a final jerk, his hand fled across the table, knocking off the book, which fell on the floor next to the table’s foot.
The time-piece on the book broke at 23:59:01 PM.
Plants : 0
Chapter 4
June 30, Year 42
23:55:07 PM
“I still belong to this world, and I believe that if for some reason still unknown to me I wanted to write about the work done by The Foundation, the information wouldn’t be complete without the password. Even though this will never be read by anyone, I have written that password on the last page of this book.”
Ryan, now back in his room and still completely dumbfounded, turned to the last page...
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sir. But your neighbors and class-mates are expecting you downstairs in the lobby for your birthday party,” the screen said as it viewed a live feed of the party.
“Alright, Father. Please let them know I’ll be right down.” Ryan said as he closed the book and kept it aside on his desk. As he left the room he turned on the clean switch.
Downstairs at the party, Ryan couldn’t stop thinking about what he had just read. Its obviously a joke of some sort. Man created machine? That’s just impossible! Should he tell anyone?
“No,” he said to himself. “I have to go see Father in Room-Zero first. If what is written in that ‘book’ is fact, then the password should explain everything. Tomorrow morning, after my first annual check-up at The Birthplace, I’ll ask Father in Room-Zero about the folder ‘Our Work’. I wish I had read the password!”
Suddenly he felt a weird sensation all over his body, but couldn’t quite say what it was. It was a feeling unlike anything he had felt before. He decided to rush back to his room, but one of his neighbors stopped him to congratulate him.
Meanwhile, in his room the cleaning robots were in the process of tidying his things when one of them found the broken time-piece on the book. The robot fixed it, and synchronized it to the current time.
23:59:56 PM
23:59:57 PM
23:59:58 PM
23:59:59 PM
00:00:00 AM
The book disappeared; replaced by ashes. The robots cleaned the table, and returned to their charging docks.