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9.1: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF POLLYANNA

9.11: A Day in the Life of Pollyannna

Pollyanna cocked open one eye. The message on the screen read

DATE: 1 JANUARY 2000 08.27.52
TO: POLLYANNA
FROM: CENTRAL DATA BANK
RE: NEW YEAR
MESSAGE: HAVE A HAPPY
Pollyanna smiled. She liked CeeDee's sense of humor. She leapt out of bed and impishly typed at the console "Same to you, CeeDee. Signed Polly".

Polly could hardly wait to get going. There was so much to do, so many places to go. And so little time. Her grandmother, who she could meet any time she wanted to by simply typing her number on the console, had told her of the old days when people had jobs. Those jobs took up most of the person's life-time. Admittedly, people had got a little "spare time" at the end of the day, of the week, of the year, of the life. However, that ultimate non-renewable resource - one's life time - was hardly one's own.

This did not mean that people no longer worked. However, they worked/played/learned (whatever the activity could be called - they could hardly be distinguished any more) as a means of personal growth. Self-actualization had become a legitimate form of self-employment. As grandmother said "it was difficult to get any work done when you had a job".

Some people described the society as a modern moral Athens in which the machines are the slaves. Some described it as a second Garden of Eden in which, they whimsically added, taking a byte from an Apple had a somewhat different meaning.