Childhood’s End

Work Title: Childhood's End
Medium: Novel
Episode Title:
Year: 1953
Writer(s): Arthur C. Clarke
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: Yes
Summary:

The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their space ships, governing through indirect rule. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age. However, the last generation of children on Earth begins to display powerful psychic abilities, heralding their evolution into a group mind, a transcendent form of life. From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood's_End

Era/Year of Portrayal: distant_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

A futuristic Earth utopia. The Overlords have created a untied Earth, no crime, no war, etc. however people become unmotivated. No one strives to do anything any more, especially art. New technologies such as flying cars, deep space travel, freeze rays, and advanced holography.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Total Identification
  • Description of the technology: Seems to be a virtual reality room or a program. Still in testing phase. The user enters it and can enter any world he wants to and can do or become anything he wants, a person, an animal or even a tree. Involves the stimulation of all the senses. There is total freedom. Described as the user would forget they are a user at all. Total immersion. There is nothing in the text about its behavior.
  • Nature of task or activity: Everything.
  • Performance of the Technology: Never shown in the text. Only an explanation of what it could do.
  • Description of creator(s): The creators were all human. The colony is a collective of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, free thinkers etc. who seek to keep art alive. No description of the people who actually are working on it but they are probably a combination of the
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): To enormously enrich the human experience.
  • Description of users of technology: Not shown in text.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: both
  • Description of presence experience: Never actually shown but said to be entirely indistinguishable from real life. A user has complete control and can do anything, real or imaginary.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: Are not aware they are using any technology.
  • Valence of experience: Never shown in text.
  • Specific responses: Afterwards, the user would have acquired a memory as real as any experience in their actual life.
Long-term consequences:

Never shown in text.

Other:

Coder name: Griffin Glazer
Coder email: tuc27722@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University