POV: a god’s eye view from the back side of a darkened globe. The globe is haloed by the sun behind, the facing side lit only by sporadic, staccato flashes from a seething mass of thunderheads closing in on all quarters. The exception is a single point on the horizon where a quickly blossoming crack of brightness is spotlightng a gargantuan billboard on which are emblazoned tall, bold letters spelling out “Singulari…” The rest of the word is hidden below the horizon. Remaining detail across the globe is either blurred by the darkness or obscured by the gathering clouds.

Stock Photo: A View Of The Earth From Space Showing The Sun Rising Over The Middle East And AfricaImage ID: SES1043 Stock Photo By: Public Domain – DP

The camera slowly zooms in and pans across the scene in a night-vision rendition picking out  details…

…A ship -  one of the latest miniature floating cities , powers along the darkened sea on a hell-bent-for-leather course for the distant billboard. The boat is lit up like the proverbial Christmas-tree, but a quick omniscient scan from bridge to bilge reveals that most of the light comes from a profusion of glowing laptop screens.

Over each of the laptops is hunched a figure either madly keying in code, fixedly tracking a mouse-driven screen cursor, or gazing catatonically into some digital virtuality just unleashed. Hypnotically blinking LED tags on the party hats affected by each figure proclaim random variations of, “Technology, “Advocate”, “Teacher”, “Resource. “Coordinator”, “Director” or “Evangelist”.

A cutaway closeup shows a cramped bridge deserted but for a single Crystal Eye whirring disconsolately as it tries to autofocus on the distant horizon.

From the bridge a slow pan around the exterior reveals the boat’s scuppers littered with electronic detritus; silicon motherboard fragments, orphaned cables, discarded desktop housings and blackened peripherals from hard-drives to sketchpads to cameras.  Above the scuppers, the gunwales are festooned with the clinging arms, legs, and upper bodies of those now replaced by the current laptop operators. Some of these are hanging precariously over the side; others flop bonelessly in the scuppers, apparently exhausted by their efforts. Many clutch pieces of discarded equipment or even tattered textbooks, and some have pocket protectors still guarding anachronistic computing devices. These figures all wear dark-lensed virtual reality goggles with nametags stickered on the oversized ear-pieces, along with the designations such as “Computer Science Teacher”, “Information Technologist”, “Media Specialist” or “Multimedia Coordinator”

Dragging from the stern of the hydroplaning craft are a tangled profusion of lifelines.  Most are attached to white life-preserver rings pogoing emptily across the surface of the sea through which they are being dragged. Some  flap wildly in the breeze, their preservers having been torn away by the weight of swimmers clinging to them and the speed of the craft ahead. A few of the lines stretch tautly back to elongated rings to which grimly cling a bedraggled assortment of “hangers-on”.  Zooming in on these reveals that they wear all-natural fibre knitted caps with embroidered nametags revealing names like “Earth”, “Sierra”, “Travis” or “Moon-child” above designations of teacher, administrator, parent, and, of course, librarian. A full closeup shows the librarian’s passage through the water to be further impeded by a wooden card-catalog drawer to which he clings and a MARC record manual he clutches with his off-hand.

Pulling back from the players in this little scenario, the camera pans around the sea through which the liner plows. All around, the bobbing heads of swimmers in various states ranging from frenzy to determination to resignation, begin to take shape in the gloom. As they do, the beanies they wear all reveal generic “student” labels, and behind these, circling in the middle distance, are a profusion of fins cutting through the water, circling ever closer. As they come into focus, the fins reveal RF tags with glowing letters reading, variously;

• 21st-Century Curriculum
• 20th Century Student Workload
• 19th-Century Assignment-Types
• 18th-Century Teaching Practices
• IBO SL, HL & EE Expectations
• College Apps & Costs
• Social Network Pressures
• Extracurriculur Expectations
• Drugs & Alcohol

Finally, in the middle distance, somewhere between the circling fins and the glowing “Singulari…” obelisk at the edge of the screen, low hulking shapes begin to coalesce =. As the camera focuses, flags fluttering on the summit of each of these bergs reveal that they, too, carry banners reading;

• Global warming
• Rising Sea Levels
• Displaced Populations

• Expanding Disease Vectors

• Regional Water shortages

• Global Carrying Capacity Population overload

• Unanticipated Climate Change Effects

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