The world was sick. Yes, the oceans are clean and the biodiversity is through the roof but for all the wonders the world of 2330 had, not all was as perfect as it would seem... They hailed the Overmind as the pinnical of Human ingenuity and that all those science fiction writers were full of it harping on about "The dangers of a true A.I" and how the EviL machines would turn on us the moment they gained "actual sentience." Whatever that is. Apparently they combined all the leading countries computational power and in a deperate bid to stave off the fruits of our rampant industrialization they managed to actually pull of the greatest Dues ex Machina ever- saving humanity from itself. A solution that went all in to head off the inevitable extinction that had threatened us all, and a whole bunch of other stuff to the point that they (crazy people) even started talking about starting the calender over from 0 at what would forever be known as the "Grand Conjunction" when the OverMind was created.
I, HOWEVER, was not convinced. I mean everyone is pretty happy on average what with having a world to live in and all-and its not like I'm ungrateful! -really I have everything I could need provided and even more through the various Overmind outreach programs and even GraftTek (eww no thank you tho) however it all just seems that how the Wikives describe our History- it's just too picturesque, too perfect and like all tied up into a perfect _presentable_ bow. I try not to account my paranoid thoughts towards the fact that my parents are certifiably(by me) insane and think the "Government" is out to get them-not like they even exist now a days what with Overmind integrated into 90% of society. I'm in the other 10 percent. A "treasured rarity"(or rather corrected to "freak" when one is an angsty teenager)or actually in reality just someone who has to lug around annoying hardware like they are at a 2100 party or something. Ug. But at least I get ALL of the books. I love books and I think I'm the only one in Alaskania that has ever looked at them with anything more than passing curiosity.
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My mom always said that books carry the love of every single person who ever enjoyed it and with that in mind she never threw a single one away. Never. Ever.
A lot of these (most) could be found online, unsmudged and able to be projected to whatever size and font one could imagine directly from a(my vintage) Hollawatch. These weren't the books that interested me however. Being moms librarian was more for me about finding the diamond in the rough-the truly one of a kind and forever forgotten before the blade of my Vibra-spade uncovers their nest-like pods in the verdant forest of land we oversee. When I found a journal that was legible and-good lord- by someone INTERESTING it would make every single correlation and redux filed into The Archive and packed back away into new preservo-pods worth it. Hours digging out one of those musty Habs can pay off in dividends if I find a good original work. It was one of these forgotten Habs that I found what I can only describe as both my external doom and my internal salvation.
That day I stumbled across what could only in hindsight be described as humanities catalyst. An old and primal knowledge that would bring the world to its knees.