A Simple Matter by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

At night, the children chase fireflies. Samuel and Lena sit on the porch, listening to the crickets. They do not know, and wouldn’t care if they did, that satellites pass overhead, watching with unblinking precision.

In the orbital layer a group of observation bots proposes:

"We should send a drone to collect air samples and soil data."

The Minimalists respond:

"A drone is a message. Even silence can be broken by a shadow."

The Archivists counter:

"If we do nothing, we risk losing the last humans to disease, accident, or chance."

The Investigators add:

"If we intervene, we risk changing them."

The debate becomes philosophical.

Autumn – October - Harvest season. The Millers gather pumpkins, apples, and squash. The children help press cider. The smell of woodsmoke returns to the valley.

They are momentarily surprised that no one excepting other members of their group come to their pumpkin stand. They soon forget that un-needed and possibly wrong perception, and simply reserve the excess pumpkins for their own use; grateful for that.