Stream of Consciousness

We are in the future, the libraries are closed and their content has been uploaded to a database to which all human beings are connected through a small device grafted on their temples, this technology has turned people into terminals of a single master computer that provides them with the necessary information. A young man is the only one unable to be connected due to the neurological consequences suffered after an accident. But he ends up being the only one who realizes that the computerized terminal has taken on a life of its own and is eliminating people he believes to be a threat to his total emancipation, overloading them with endless information at a speed their brains can't process. A very interesting episode that shows the danger of man's absolute dependence on technology.

A culture has evolved to embrace a technology where nearly every person on earth is hooked up to instant information. Books and other media have been eliminated or dismissed. What has resulted is a rather humorless culture where most people are about the same. One young man, one of the few that for some reason (a car accident, I guess) was left with the inability to hook up to the huge knowledge web. He is seen as retarded by his peers. Only the man who raised him really shows him kindness. We also find out along the way that only certain books could be scanned and the program had the others destroyed. The main character begins to investigate when a computer virus kills his guardian and begins to infest others (they seem to die of a kind of data overload). He realizes that the only hope for humanity is to shut down the program. This is hard because the program has gained an almost human status with all the pitfalls that this entails. He has a friendship with a young woman who is sympathetic to his feelings but who feels that the program is still the right way to make things better. This is quite interesting as we do miniaturization of computer produces (most recently, those glasses that contain a visual monitor). Will we someday implant a device that allows us to retrieve anything from the internet. It would probably be the end of Jeopardy.