Blind.Faith 2.0.50. Tomasz Tatum

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СКАЧАТЬ crippling blow after the successful introduction of the ZipperCard.

      Following an independent council’s recommendation to constitutionally guarantee the assignment of a lottery number to each and every ZipperCard, making each one permanently eligible for all future.time drawings, public acceptance of the concept skyrocketed far above the levels deemed critical to ensure a successful introduction.

      But despite all of the public discussion over the merits associated with such revolutionary technology, there were also applications that only a few persons had a real notion of at the time of its inception. The result of this thinking was, within a few short years, the advent of the new and improved ZipperCard.

      The key to the realization of this new and improved ZipperCard lay in its complete compatibility with a remarkable biotechnical wonder called the VitaMeter, a miniscule electronic chip implanted beneath the skin of each and every citizen of Libertyville@Esperantia. This chip was unique in that it was equipped with a permanently installed recognition feature much like a kind of transponder, consisting of a series of tiny needles with unique patterns defined by varying metal content and measuring just over 1/100th of a millimeter long. This tiny gadget, carried under the skin after a painless implantation similar to an inoculation against the swine flu, premature hair loss or Beriberi, was legible to specially manufactured scanning devices, known as Spot.Checks, not entirely unlike the ubiquitous barcode readers found in the mega.Marché chain of retail stores around the worldmonde.Planet.

      The overwhelmingly innovative feature of the VitaMeter, however, and the compelling logic behind its widespread introduction, was its ability to influence the biological rate of aging. This capacity was achieved through intricate manipulation of certain targeted amino acids and enzymes, resulting in measurable, and even sometimes pronounced, variations in the carrier organism’s metabolic rates. The origins of this technology can be traced back to efforts to enable the efficient production of hormone-free meat in regions with geographical resources which were effectively too limited to allow the luxury of setting aside grain, water or even land for the sole purpose of raising livestock for human consumption. Since the animals reached maturity much faster utilizing this technology, it was soon possible to use higher grades of feed–whose hitherto prohibitive higher cost was offset by the significantly shorter time required to bring the meat to market–resulting in overall better products for quality-conscious grocery shoppers who were not averse to getting a good bargain.

      As was to be expected, though, before long, scientists and politicians began skirmishing over proposals for other far-reaching uses of the benefits inherent in this astounding technology.

      At the very beginning, the discussion was couched in purely ethical terms but that soon changed.

      A significant political hurdle was duly taken at a time when a consensus rooted in security considerations began to emerge, favoring the widespread introduction of transponder technology to make Libertyville@Esperantia a safer place to live and work in.

      Using the latest transponder technology installed in the VitaMeter, the movements of known criminals could be tracked around-the-clock almost effortlessly.

      Disappearances of small children or disoriented senior citizens would become a thing of the past.time. Would-be polygamists and palimony slouches would be shaking in their shoes.

      And while some doubts were voiced, sometimes loudly, on behalf of civil liberties that could likely be potentially at risk with such effective monitoring capabilities placed at the disposal of the political establishment, there was on the other hand nearly unanimous agreement that the ensuing economic benefits would be immense for Libertyville@Esperantia.

      By enabling intelligent communication between an individual’s ZipperCard and his or her respective VitaMeter, it would for the first time in history be possible to tailor the entire spectrum of logistic requirements necessitated by a thriving consumer economy to real-time data directly identifying and linking the consumer to his or her economic transactions.

      But the benefits didn’t stop there. The advent of this technology was just a first modest step about to culminate in a giant leap toward the thus far elusive goal of widespread consistent socially responsible economic behavior.

      By tailoring the utilization of this technology in such a manner that it could be implemented to encourage consumer spending habits oriented toward meritorious products and services that were deemed to be advantageous to the health of the citizenry or simply toward the financial structure of the state, Libertyville@Esperantia could simultaneously increase its own revenue substantially and minimize costs for the health care system. Because of the associated immense savings that this could potentially translate into, successful application of this technology would ultimately give each and every citizen more and better services in return for a smaller percentage of their tax revenues. This was, from the onset, an incredibly popular selling point and ultimately paved the way for the successful introduction of legislation making the implantation of the VitaMeter mandatory for all citizens and long-term residents.

      The truly ingenious key to this system would be the successful linkage between certain consumption patterns–without exception defined and accepted to be healthy or socially beneficial by an independently appointed monitoring commission reporting directly to a cabinet-level officer of the government–and a marked reduction in the rate of biological aging through carefully targeted manipulation of telomerase enzymes to ensure that the strands of DNA contained within the chromosomes wouldn’t be expended as the cells divided. Replenishing the DNA in this fashion was not dissimilar to continually adding wick to a burning candle, allowing it to burn indefinitely: as long as the depletion of the DNA strands necessary for cell division was slowed down significantly or even halted altogether, the cells, and thus the overall organism, were not forced to age in the normal process of regeneration.

      To enhance the overall public acceptance of this huge technical revolution, a splendid bash was thrown on the day of its introduction, complete with balloons, free beer, laser light shows, brilliant fireworks displays and buxomly lasses adorned with bold-lettered CASH SUCKS! slogans emblazoned across their barely concealed boobs.

FAITH ON THE BEACH

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