NEW CARNEGIE TIMES
JUNE 30, 2067
FIVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS BRING BIONIC SCIENCE TO THE CLASSROOM
In an unprecedented initiative, BioNex pushes to not only make a positive impact in the homes of everyday Americans but in their education, as well.
Algrove Schroeder, founder and CEO of BioNex Corporation, announced that five schools chosen from 15,000 school districts across the nation will be given state-of-the-art bionic assistants to provide support to schoolteachers and faculty members with everything from supervising children, grading homework, and even teaching select scientific and mathematical courses.
“Nothing is more important than our next generation,” Schroeder says during an interview onCarnegie Daily. “It’s no secret that the American public education system is suffering. You have overworked and underpaid teachers, underfunded schools struggling to update their curriculum to international standards—it’s a real mess.”
When asked how school districts would be chosen, Schroeder assures the public that there’s a method to the madness.
“It can’t be completely random because there really are some fantastic schools in our country that don’t need any help. I’m not going to be sending any androids to the Ivy Leagues.” He laughs. “Or to schools that have the funds to purchase one. School representatives interested in a bionic assistant should apply to our Education Assistants Program directly on the BioNex website. From there, I have a team looking closely at different school distracts all over the United States, and the ones that qualify will undergo the selection process.”
“Do you think children will respond well or be able to focus if they have an android in the classroom?”
When asked if he thinks children will respond well and be able to focus if there’s an android in the classroom, Schroeder replies, “Of course they will. It’s a robot. They’ll hang on its every word.”
While well-intended, BioNex’s school roulette is also facing opposition from a small but growing number of anti-technology movements.
1
Lucy Warren
St. Morgan, Illinois. More like Podunk Town in the middle of Fuck-If-I-Know Nowhere, USA.
I know I should at least try to look on the bright side or search for that silver lining in the clouds. But it’s hard to stay optimistic when the apartment I’ve already signed a lease for is nothinglike the photos the landlord sent me. I’ve been had, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
I had a pretty decent life back in New Carnegie, Pennsylvania, with a teaching job that made me feel fulfilled on a personal level and my online side hustle that paid the bills where my salary didn’t. Decent in comparison to the kind of life my parents endured. The big economic crash back in the 2030s set everyone back financially, but Mom and Dad were more fortunate than others. Dad was laid off when university enrollment tanked, but Mom was able to keep them both afloat with her nursing degree. When the world went to hell, she made herself irreplaceable. It was still rough for them, the way they tell it, but it was that way for the entire city.
By the time I was born, things were better. Dad secured a new job as a professor at Carnegie University, and my mom was in charge of the nurses at Carnegie General. Even then, as they worked hard to recover the losses in their coffers with the rest of the nation, we didn’t buy much more than the necessities while I was a kid. What we lacked in luxury electronics and the newest cars and toys we made up for with imagination.
Dad was my hero. Tired from a day of teaching classes, he’d still make time to read to me. I liked fairy tales featuring princesses and dragons, sure, but my favorite stories were the classical epics:The Iliad,The Odyssey, and the like. That turned me into an ancient history nerd. I couldn’t get enough of Mesopatamia, Greece, Rome, Persia. I made my decision pretty early on.
I was going to be a teacher. Like him.
My parents would’ve preferred for me to go into a STEM or a medical career because nurses like my mother, doctors, and scientists rarely, if ever, get laid off in a poor economy. Especially now, since bionic engineering has been the hot new thing for the past four years. Engineers and technologists are easily the highest-paid earners in the US, because of the national demand for androids. Maybe if I’d been a little more concerned about money, I would’ve made that choice. I always performed well in my science classes.
But Dad couldn’t stop me from following in his footsteps. The dream I’m living may not pay the best, but it makes me happy. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to be a teacher. Being filthy rich definitely isn’t in the cards for me, and I’m okay with that.
But this apartment situation is throwing me one hell of a curveball. I wasn’t expecting a penthouse by any stretch of the imagination, butthis?
“Holy shit,” my brother, Everett, mutters as he surveys my new digs. He drove with me and my tiny trailer full of all my furniture and belongings. Together, we unloaded and unpacked everything I own over the past weekend, my belongings stacked in transparent blue holo-crates that hum with energy. “Did we time travel back to the fucking 1900s?”
“Just about.” I can’t blame him for his reaction. I’m just lucky they updated the front door with a numeric keypad. The landlord said they were still using key locks.
Keys. I’ve never even used one of those.
Water drips from the faucet in the bathroom. Rain damage warps the linoleum wood floors. Window screens need to be replaced. Fly traps hang from the ceiling above my kitchen sink. The previous tenants didn’t bother to scrub down any surfaces. I’m pretty sure those are cigarette burns in the carpet and dents in the wall from who knows what in my bedroom. The red brick exterior is bleached and worn, and my balcony railing wiggles when I test its sturdiness. There’s no holo-security system, no state-of-the-art pad on the front door to scan my hand and grant me access and reach out to emergency services if there’s a break-in. I don’t recall seeing any photos of those amenities, even though most apartments in New Carnegie come equipped with them, and they don’t cost extra.
The bright side?
Right. It’s not the fanciest place, but it’s cheap. I’ll be able to afford food, treat myself on occasion, and save up for a real place of my own, slowly but surely. That’s what I need to remind myself.
A little elbow grease will brighten this place up. I can make it mine.
“Are you sure about this? I mean, you could’ve gone anywhere with your talents. New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago. Why here?” Everett still isn’t sold on my decision to move away from home, but I tell myself it’s because he’s seven years younger than me, still attends college, and lives at home with my folks’ health insurance.
