So this was death.

Gerens was about to find out what happened when brainwaves were stopped, starved of energy. The wheel that had been set in motion would cease, and he would not even be aware of the fact that 'she' no longer existed. His body would be there, of course, and would be decomposed in the atomic crusher. Her constituent molecules would be distributed into the surroundings as oxygen, hydrogen, helium, carbon, and all the other elements. But his consciousness - the identity that told her he was there - this was about to be turned off. Those molecules would disperse without 'knowing' that they had been part of a living, thinking organism.

What had brought her to this situation? Locked in the Buddha pose now, it seemed pointless to look back on the coincidences and train of events that had brought him here, though this period of meditation was prescribed for all trangressors; she would be sitting here like this till he had reflected fully. It might even be that she would be released after this reflection, though he didn't see it as an option. Those who moitored her brain forces would see that there were no regrets.

So was it worth a loss of consciousness? On the face of it, he had achieved nothing at all. There was still no freedom of thought, and things were getting worse. All minds were now networked, so that everyone shared everyone else's thoughts. There were no original or personal ideas, since all minds were part of the whole. The only way to get some respite was to stop thinking. To stop thinking.

At first the idea had been received with amazing approbation, and in time, all new births were accompanied with networking ceremonies. Children immediately had access to all the knowledge in the minds of the species, and as their brains developed, they were able to speak in any language, on any topic. Advances made from this point were well documented in shared thoughts - open knowledge meant that technological advances came by leaps and bounds. Very soon, people in developed countries were flying round the world in their mobile homes, visiting every possible place on earth; the more adventurous were on solar boards, surfing the solar system, heading out to space in their pulsar-capsules.

That was when the troubles began. It had been so heady - the answer to every human social problem - an evolutionary step towards the perfect society. Crime had been eliminated, since the thoughts of the criminal were available to everyone, including the police. The same with corruption and corporate manipulations. The prisons had become so full of bastions of society convicted on their own testimony, that a new legal system had to be developed, especially when it became indisputable that the people running the countries were not politicians, but business-people, drug dealers, generals, and the rest. Fraud, money laundering, blackmail, bribery, etc. were small fry compared to the corporate rape and pillaging that had been the norm for so long. The chaos that resulted from this awareness threatened to turn homo sapiens into an extinct species on earth, with only a few oblivious examples remaining on their inter-stellar tourist trips. All the ideas that had been used to inspire the masses throughout history - nationality, pride, courage in adversity - came down to big business - "Die for your country's chief executives".

Legal reform was therefore only one of many upturns that society had been through in such a short time since then. In the end, thought-offenders were simply stripped of their 'riches' and their bodies hypnotised into the sitting meditation position, in which they sat for undefined periods, while the thoughts of the thousands they had cheated, killed, robbed, and ruined, had full access to their minds.

Such was the transition phase, while the influence of previous generations continued to be felt. Once the whole world had been networked for a couple of centuries, there was no desire to think of corruption or other crimes agains society, and these concepts died out along with poverty and hunger.

Being networked into the whole world's psyche, citizens in developed countries had found that the immediate intoxicating results were underlain with an immense well of sadness which slowly grew in their minds, swamping everything, engulfing advances in technology, tourism, communication; a simple hunger for food, knowledge, pity, relief from discomfort. The first few international interventions aimed at putting down 'freedom fighters' were soon cancelled when it was found that they only increased the trauma and the asociated awareness of hatred, even in members of the intervening world forces - people traditionally trained not to let thoughts interfere with actions. The psychological pain of disembodiment, fear and hunger reached even those denizens of foreign policy previously immune to all but financial stress. In addition to fighting a new war against overwhelming evidence (it was obvious now that all 'terrorists' had financial backing from corporate governements), these giants of deception found the terror of dispossessment and disease in their own minds; they felt the pain that was inflicted on the innocents. Each time they sanctioned further bombings and collateral damage, the feelings of broken families tuned into their minds, raging, tearing, spoiling, crying through every neuron. ARMED FORCES BECAME WARRIORS OF PEACE, and their job became to eliminate poverty and disease. The immense sums that had gone into weapons of destruction now went into preserving and improving life.

Why was she thinking through all this? He knew the benefits from all the history thoughts she had been required to access. The world was incomparably better now than it had ever been. Disease and crime were unimaginable; the world population was kept at an agreed level, and wars no longer occurred. Such amazing advances. Why, then, was he frozen in the stance of Buddha?

Maybe the question was also the answer. Lives were incomparably improved now, since everyone was by definition educated and socially responsible. But it was all imposed. Wars had not stopped because of genuine compassion, but because war-makers couldn't stand the shared pain. The same was true of all breakthroughs - they were all strategies in the avoidance of pain. The initial idea, which had been all about the quality of life for those who could afford to be networked, had had immense repurcussions - an incomprehensible Pandora's box of connectivities. The doyens floating in their air-mobiles had soon been beseiged by thoughts of deprivation and misery, and had had no choice but to abandon their lifestyles and find ways of alleviating the pain to which they had become inextricably linked.

Maybe it was when I started looking into non-thought and discovered that the uneasiness inside me was about some sort of emptiness that previous generations had called a spiritual search. Going beyond the threats and placebos.of those old religions, to the indefinable moment, the ideas that exist out of thought and non-thought, the non-concepts. This mind that has controlled so much and understood so little, has become trapped in consciousness, has even become thought, and therefore fears the ending of thought - something that looms so near to me, though again not by choice.

Maybe this is now my opportunity - to jump into non-thought, non-thought through non-choice,

Whatever, this is my choice now. I have to accept that for the huge majority, a daily meal is much more important than spiritual contemplation. I have to accept that we have got this far throught the avoidance of pain, through eliminating shared angst, rather than through long-term shared compassion.

Maybe this compassion will eventually appear.

Maybe our species will continue to function on a basic survival footing.

I'd like to go elsewhere.
I'd like to see where disinterested awareness takes me.
I'd like to be open, free of controlling restricted and restrictive thoughts
I'm not interested in continual technological revolutions - the same egos are in control. Maybe
I can contribute by ceasing my own thoughts. After all, if
I could have reasoned my way to a perfect state, then .... many people would be there - maybe they are

This doean't mean the absence of reasoning is an answer to any question, but a new ......

Quick! Deconstruct - she's getting away.