Via Ellipsis – Spain
Second Steps (Capítulo 1)
A few weeks had passed since the rebellion lead by Dara had made the whole world e-brain system collapse. People were still celebrating the euphoric outbreak of freedom in the streets. Nobody knew what to do next, but freedom is a feeling so intense that it doesn’t let you think about anything else. Nobody had felt this unfettered in a long time, so they couldn’t move beyond a childish eagerness to do it all, grasp it all, touch it all, experience everything.
However, there was a place in the westernmost corner of Europe that still had an e-brain network functioning, but in a very chaotic way. The local rulers saw themselves with a sudden and unexpected amount of power, unparalleled in the era of Spain as a sovereign kingdom.
They behaved like children with a brand-new toy in the morning of Christmas day: the human appetite for money and power left it to be expected that sooner or later they would try to occupy the place of the planetary board – at least in the Spanish territory. But uncertainty was king in those days, and they couldn’t tell for sure what amount of that potential power they would be able to grab.
From our perspective, here in heaven, or whatever this place is, the situation couldn’t be more hilarious. But this was not the intended outcome when don Marcial told me to whisper in my granddaughter’s ear, “No plan is completely flawless, and at least we have managed to liberate most of mankind…” before the old man shrugged his shoulders.
“Most of the world… except Spain, where my family lives, you see,” Antonio replied.
“You are getting too picky these days, aren’t you, Antonio?” said a slightly annoyed Marcial, before walking away.
“Hey! Don’t go! What do we do now to solve this? And what about ‘lo mío’? When will I be able to get into heaven?” A heavy silence fell in response. During my years on Earth, I could expect a certain degree of incompetence in our leaders down there, but it was certainly disheartening to see the Other Life equally ruled by morons. I really needed to contact my Dara.
“Any news from abroad?” asked the recently self-appointed president Gómez unable to hide a gesture of contempt over his subordinate.
“The e-brain media don’t seem to be broadcasting at the moment. In fact, the e-brain network doesn’t work anymore on a global scale, sir,” said the adviser with a nervous hesitation in her voice.
“And, what about the autonomous communities?”
“For some reason, Spain seems to be the only country still using e-brain, but in a very fragmented and chaotic way. Each autonomous community apparently has created a local e-brain network of its own. Since most of the original virtual layers have collapsed, every region is either creating or already running their own virtual reality.”
“What?” replied Gómez, failing to believe what Lidia, the adviser, was trying to explain. “And the main core?”
“I don’t think we are going to be capable of ever making it restart.”
“As we speak each autonomous community is utilizing its own AI as a base for their own system and right now there are 15 of them, very soon there will be 17.”
“And who is in charge in every region? Are we able to enter every system?”
“For the time being we only have been able to get into the Andalusian subsystem…”
“So?”
“You better look at it yourself, sir,” replied Lidia, while connecting an e-brain device to the post cranial socket of president Romualdo Gómez.
The president felt something like a sudden shock to his neocortex, a crazy admixture of second-rate flamenco, third-class rebujito (a local drink made of white wine and soda), white dots, carnation and the smell of fried fish. It was kind of overwhelming, but he saw himself in the magnificent España square in Seville, surrounded by the immense Roman columns decorated during Moor rule and the beautiful hand painted tiles and a million different antique details that overload the senses.
Apparently, the Andalusians not only had their own media broadcasting through e-brain, but also had created an individualized virtual reality ecosystem through which they could communicate among each other. The Andalusian chieftains had been very clever this time. Their centuries-long dream had finally come true. They had isolated control over the Andalusian region, as the Andalusians couldn’t communicate with other regions, and were even starting to enact their own laws.
What was happening had an obvious impact on real life, the economy and the politics of Andalusia. President Gómez saw with “his own eyes” a parliament session in the Hospital of the Five Sores (the Houses of the Andalusian parliament), and they were creating a sort of flamenco utopia, utilizing Camarón de la Isla’s lyrics as a base for their legislative texts. It was bedlam. From now on, issues among parties would be solved by knife fight, and any act, no matter the context, would include sentences like “I’m a gypsy and I’ve come to your wedding to rip my shirt”… Which may sound quite poetic but could have disastrous consequences for the local economy and society.
Gómez unplugged the device and sighed.
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino Uberti (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Colombia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Puzzled – a collaged nivola by and of perypatetik authors (International)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
December: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? (Parts I and II) – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Background photo: Madrid, Spain – The subway – Diego Alexander (Unsplash)
Peripheral photos (clockwise from bottom left): 1. Taborno, Spain – Tucked away – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 2. Madrid, Spain – The building – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 3. Tenerife, Spain – Mountainside – Babi Kacharava (Unsplash); 4. Madrid, Spain – Veining – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 5. Madrid, Spain – Purple and red – Maria Lopez Jorge (Unsplash); 5. Taborno, Spain – Saffron – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 6. La Orotava, Spain – The countryside – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 7. Madrid, Spain – Bathed in light – Robin van der Wal (Unsplash); 8. La Gomera, Spain – Enmountained – Mike Workman (Shutterstock)