text: I had finally saved up enough of my salary to afford one, my very own to keep and look after. I had sacrificed 500g of food each week for almost a year, and now finally the time I had imagined for so long had arrived. The blank-looking shop assistant slowly walked to the back of the poorly-lit, magnolia-painted store and over to the gloomy looking fish tank. She didn't share my excitement or need for haste. We both wore the same plain grey uniform with plain black shoes, and likely the same empty expression, the only distinguishing difference between us was the assistant's pale blue, dusty apron. There is no need for name tags anymore. We all had the same pale complexion too, not quite healthy, but then not really unhealthy either. She slowly submerged her plastic-gloved hand in to the seemingly stagnant, murky water, pointing to each of the plump and docile goldfish in turn. My choice of fish was the sleekest looking one nearer the bottom of the school, the brightest gold of the twenty or so, each staring in the same direction with their tails wagging back and forth just enough to tread water and keep them aligned and synchronized. They were all staring towards the front of the tank, perhaps at the plain wall beyond, or perhaps at their reflection against the tank's glass, or possibly at nothing at all, just collectively phased out or deep in meditation. The uncaring shop assistant knocked each one out of the way with her pointing finger until she landed on the one, Marty I was going to call it, after one of my favorite classic films. I nodded once she reached Marty, then proceeded to slowly pick it up with both hands and raise it out of the water. The assistant smirked as she pulled it out, "funny how you can just pick up an animal with your hands. Their primal instinct to run away has been bred out of them to the extent that they don't care about anything at all. They just sit here day after day, with their only purpose to eat and breathe." She then dropped it into a small plastic bag that was partially filled with grey water and passed him over to me. This sad comment quickly dispelled the excited feeling I had in my stomach, incidentally the most joyful feeling I had felt in years. In thought, I looked up and saw the same vacant look which the fish wore in the other people in the store and wondered if the shop assistant's point applied equally to us. I shook my head instinctively, shaking away this negative feeling and remembering the worthwhile sacrifice and achievements of our society. Our lives are indeed simpler now, having created the paradise which so many generations before us had envisioned and sacrificed themselves for. War is no longer a threat. It is not even understood how or why a species with such intelligence, wealth and capable technology invested the money meant for people in development of mass and precision killing devices. With war gone and with it the killing machines, the extra money was reinvested in healthcare for all of the highest quality, extending the lives of some to near immortal standards. Famine is also a thing of history. Now, we are careful about how food is produced, distributed and consumed. The decadence and gluttony of the past replaced by sustainable food sources that could be produced near to fully autonomously by robots. And best of all, the planet was saved. The pillaged and suffocated world of the past, left for dead having been harvested, mined and dredged of nearly all of its resources for the benefit of a small minority, saved on it's deathbed by a miracle of the current culture, a miracle I will explain shortly. Amazingly it was us who achieved all this, finally brought together in unity by a common, truly virtuous vision. We had even eradicated the causes of so many previously common mental illnesses, which plagued so many of my ancestors. No more holding ourselves to unrealistic standards, no more feeling inferior to other people, no more unnecessary time spent on unnecessary hobbies or expending effort into exercise for meaningless pieces of metal and ribbons. The result was that over the generations, our anxieties and depressions slowly vanished. And how did we achieve this world which previously only existed in dreams? Well, the answer was so effortless and relatively easy; we all became the same. We are now all raised the same, hold the same values, earn the same wage, and live the same. We are homogeneous and interchangeable in almost every way. I even know the opinions of the strangers around me, without ever talking to them, and they know mine. It was the human race's differences and perceived freedoms that were holding back our ancestors for so many wasted years. How was anything supposed to be achieved when democracy, delivered by self-serving individuals, allowed for an ever changing goal? Our whole lives now follow the same plan and routines. And of course some weren't happy with the new system or didn't fit in with the new order, and sadly weren't able to breed, cast aside by society or imprisoned. However this made the remaining people more aligned to our vision, reinforcing our trajectory and enabling our journey to paradise now possible. The thought of all this wonder then dissipated as I nodded to myself, remembering the "why". With the bagged goldfish and murky water in hand, I walked towards the front of the store, grateful that i would soon be able to eat properly again. Thinking of food caused my stomach to rumble, reminding me also to collect some satiety powder, our sole food source, on my way to the checkout. Similarly, this food was apart of the miracle of the modern world too, genetically altered grain produced by robots in huge glass warehouses and supplied in biodegradable packages via lines of conveyor belts hundreds, if not thousands of miles long, and delivered direct to the stores. It is such an incredible achievement I can feel myself smiling to myself. Better still, the elimination of low-paid physical jobs meant that over time, the oppressed lower class workers slowly disappeared. This in turn reduced the differences, resentment and bitterness between classes, leading to the near-elimination of crime. How were we ever to achieve all this when there was so much choice and difference? I shudder at the thought of how things used to be, the videos I watched as a child of all of the trash heaps and floating islands of plastic in the oceans. All because my ancestors couldn't work together, because they were too selfish and wanted choice and supposed freedoms. I placed Marty and my bag of satiety powder onto the checkout and the automatic scanner checked the goods and calculated the cost. I held up my wrist to the machine, which scanned my microchip, beeped and deducted the amount from my account with the efficiency that had evolved over hundreds of years. The butterflies in my stomach came back as I walked out onto the street and headed home just a few hundred metres away, little Marty staring up at row after row of towering grey apartment blocks. I should have mentioned the reason for such excitement over a fish. They are considered a luxury and are the only pet permitted under current regulations, after being bred over time to be barely sentient and almost feelingless. Animals, so commonly and cruelly kept as pets in the past were no longer permitted, with it deemed far too mean to keep an animal outside of its natural habitat. The thought of keeping a dog and away from its pack, locked inside your stuffy room all day by itself and fed on dry, barely nutritious feed, for no discernible reason or benefit shocks me. I took a deep breath to calm myself, which reminded me of the freshness of the modern city air and returned the smile to my face, reminding me of another one of our achievements. Everything was designed to be in close proximity, using tracking data to optimize how we move and operate - the shops and the parks were all designed to eliminate the need to travel long distances and therefore the need for cars. We even worked in the same building where we lived, with workstations located in the basements. I haven't even mentioned the best part of our new, modern world or explained where both this wonderful fresh air comes from or this feeling of worthwhile sacrifice. Slowly, over the years, governments progressively consolidated into more cohesive ones, using the money they saved through reduced social and military needs to procure vast areas of our country for a special new purpose. In addition, as the farms became more and more autonomous, people became reliant on the government and the need to live in the country reduced, causing the cities to grow significantly in size. Then, once the remaining country folk became fewer and the exception, their land was purchased for an irrefutable amount by the government. A stubborn few remained in their original country homes and selfishly battled the vision that would benefit so many. However new legislation was introduced, initially aimed at making it unaffordable to live outside a city, but was soon revised to make it an imprisonable offence to live, and now even venture outside the cities. Concurrent to this, huge concrete walls were being erected around the new metropolises as part of the great plan. Once the walls were complete and the humans all located within the vast cities, the lands outside were handed back to mother nature to do as she wished. Then, through her magic and wisdom, mother nature retook the former towns and villages which soon became overgrown with flora and returned the land as intended. This provided homes for insects, which provided food for the other animals, allowing them to return to huge numbers not seen for fifty-thousand years. Great forests and plains now exist, rich in life again, with the skies are filled with birds, the seas filled with fish and huge sea mammals. From the verge of becoming extinct forever, animals now live freely in the environment they were designed for, free from the interference, greed and selfishness of humans. So I am told anyway, I haven't been outside the walls myself as only special workers are permitted. We do however get to visit locations in virtual reality from our workstations as a treat, and they are spectacular. Occasionally a bird will fly over the walls, but soon leave of their own will once they realize there isn't anything here for them. There are of course rumors and conspiracies around what is also outside of the walls, but those are just nonsense created to occupy the minds of the bored. Some say those who run our civilization live out there too in huge palaces. But I also hear other similar lies about wars being fought outside the walls too, which I know can't be true as I haven't heard anything to indicate fighting. Still, I would love to explore outside the walls one day, to see what freedom looks like. And I plan to one day.