would be one generation or
other still alive when the ship reached its destination?
Then his brother and sister ran in, back from their sessions at the holodeck. By this time Jeremy was exempted from going to the holodeck, since he had read about most of the
things being shown. But the teachers didn’t exempt him because he’d read a lot, rather it was because they found him weird and irritating since he knew what they were teaching even
before they taught it, and that embarrassed them for some reason. They didn’t want him around when they were teaching class. Who needs a know-it-all in class anyway? Especially if the
know-it-all apparently doesn’t need class either. They told him to keep up his reading, go home, and keep out of the classroom.
Jeremy thought that this would impress people. Make him more interesting and maybe even a bit cool since he was so smart that he didn’t have to go to the holodeck for
class. Instead, it made him even weirder.
Now you’d think that there would be some weird scientist on this ship that Jeremy could turn to as a mentor. Someone a bit weird too, someone interested in science and
literature and philosophy, things like that. But Jeremy missed the last smart guys on the generation starship by a few generations.
When the ship left for the far-off planet that was its destination, there were scientists, scholars, and specialists on board to ensure that things went right on the ship. They
would study the way that people reacted to living on a ship and in space. They would record the ship’s progress, passing on the responsibility to the next generation by educating them.
There were also a lot of families that were there just so that they could leave the Philippines. The smart guys thought it would be alright to bring in people who weren’t
experts so that there would be people that they could study. And so that they could educate these people’s kids, providing education that the kids probably wouldn’t have been able to
receive on Earth. This sounded like an idea that could work, but the smart guys didn’t count on politicians sneaking on board the ship.
The first few generations weren’t susceptible to the temptations the politicians offered. But the other families were. As Earth became a memory and the integrity of the
first generation was lost or corrupted, competition and factionalism developed. The great ideals of the first generation had gone out the exhaust pipes along with the consumed space gases. Only
remnants of it, like scattered space dust on the airlock floor, remained.
For generations there was feuding among the politicians and scientists-turned-politicians. Massive debates would be held and factions would be exiled, left on the next
hospitable planet. Unless they could pull off some coup and overturn things, thus leaving the other faction on the planet.
Then the smart guys that Jeremy missed by a few generations came along. These were just a few guys who tried to bring back the ways of the first generation, tried to get focus
back on the development of their knowledge, and tried to turn people away from politicking. Tried, of course, is the operative word. They wound up climbing into an escape pod together and making
their way to the nearest hospitable planet where they hoped to establish a colony without politicians.
So here Jeremy was, without anybody as weird as him to turn to, brooding about existentialism on a generation starship, when his brother and sister come running in. His brother
and sister were too young to realize that he was brooding, and they thought he was just bored. So they decided to entertain him.
“Kuya Je-my, look what we learned in holodeck,” his sister Janine uttered; it was something between speech and a giggle. “Watch, hehehe,” she began to
dance in front of him.
“Wait,
ate
, you have to do this,” Jeremy’s brother Jon-Jon said. He pulled his shirt up halfway so that his baby-fat belly showed, then
other still alive when the ship reached its destination?
Then his brother and sister ran in, back from their sessions at the holodeck. By this time Jeremy was exempted from going to the holodeck, since he had read about most of the
things being shown. But the teachers didn’t exempt him because he’d read a lot, rather it was because they found him weird and irritating since he knew what they were teaching even
before they taught it, and that embarrassed them for some reason. They didn’t want him around when they were teaching class. Who needs a know-it-all in class anyway? Especially if the
know-it-all apparently doesn’t need class either. They told him to keep up his reading, go home, and keep out of the classroom.
Jeremy thought that this would impress people. Make him more interesting and maybe even a bit cool since he was so smart that he didn’t have to go to the holodeck for
class. Instead, it made him even weirder.
Now you’d think that there would be some weird scientist on this ship that Jeremy could turn to as a mentor. Someone a bit weird too, someone interested in science and
literature and philosophy, things like that. But Jeremy missed the last smart guys on the generation starship by a few generations.
When the ship left for the far-off planet that was its destination, there were scientists, scholars, and specialists on board to ensure that things went right on the ship. They
would study the way that people reacted to living on a ship and in space. They would record the ship’s progress, passing on the responsibility to the next generation by educating them.
There were also a lot of families that were there just so that they could leave the Philippines. The smart guys thought it would be alright to bring in people who weren’t
experts so that there would be people that they could study. And so that they could educate these people’s kids, providing education that the kids probably wouldn’t have been able to
receive on Earth. This sounded like an idea that could work, but the smart guys didn’t count on politicians sneaking on board the ship.
The first few generations weren’t susceptible to the temptations the politicians offered. But the other families were. As Earth became a memory and the integrity of the
first generation was lost or corrupted, competition and factionalism developed. The great ideals of the first generation had gone out the exhaust pipes along with the consumed space gases. Only
remnants of it, like scattered space dust on the airlock floor, remained.
For generations there was feuding among the politicians and scientists-turned-politicians. Massive debates would be held and factions would be exiled, left on the next
hospitable planet. Unless they could pull off some coup and overturn things, thus leaving the other faction on the planet.
Then the smart guys that Jeremy missed by a few generations came along. These were just a few guys who tried to bring back the ways of the first generation, tried to get focus
back on the development of their knowledge, and tried to turn people away from politicking. Tried, of course, is the operative word. They wound up climbing into an escape pod together and making
their way to the nearest hospitable planet where they hoped to establish a colony without politicians.
So here Jeremy was, without anybody as weird as him to turn to, brooding about existentialism on a generation starship, when his brother and sister come running in. His brother
and sister were too young to realize that he was brooding, and they thought he was just bored. So they decided to entertain him.
“Kuya Je-my, look what we learned in holodeck,” his sister Janine uttered; it was something between speech and a giggle. “Watch, hehehe,” she began to
dance in front of him.
“Wait,
ate
, you have to do this,” Jeremy’s brother Jon-Jon said. He pulled his shirt up halfway so that his baby-fat belly showed, then
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