The Greatest Vision

The Greatest VisionWherein the Reader is Introduced to the World

It was Alfonso Parazzi who constructed the first biosphere meant for residentialhabitation. Reporters and politicians flocked to Baffin Island, Canada, to watch him cutthe ribbon to one of the air-locks that separated the interior from the environment outside.It was the dawning of a new age of humanity. It signaled the beginning of a new debate,that weighed the fate of stars and galaxies upon the scales of human wisdom. It begot thequestion, what is the greatest vision for the future of mankind?But Alfonso Parazzi could not have known that. To Parazzi, the bubble

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hisgreatest vision. And today was the ultimate fulfillment of his life, because today the wholeworld marveled at, and thanked him for, all the years and tears he had given to that vision.Today was the first day he knew for certain that his efforts had been worth it. Perhapseven the first day he knew it was for certain good that he had lived. Let’s not dwell onhow the biosphere worked, if you asked Alfonso, he could surely tell you. We’re heresimply to witness the beginning, the first cause, the giant leap for mankind that finallymade the colonization of space not a possibility, but a plausibility.We can say that the biosphere

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work. The government of Canada had helpedfund the research from the beginning, when he created and demonstrated a cheap butrelatively impervious lattice. First it was used in cars, Tupperware, and thousands of other little things that required flexible but tough material. The toughness was only a nice sideeffect, though. The most impressive aspect of the material was its inertness. It did notexpand or contract under heat or cold, or react to any common element in the air or on theground. It did not decompose. It was a near-perfect insulator. It formed an absolute barrier of is-ness that could not be bullied into becoming-ness. The plastic, once made,could not be changed short of being melted down. But Alfonso didn’t stop atTupperware, he dumped all the money back into his research and kept pushing for thematerial that wouldn’t just make life easier, but instead aid life itself. The product he hadfirst imagined when the first glob of plastic was formed in his lab.This plastic is what allowed for the creation of the biosphere, a completely self-maintained environment. Water evaporated, condensed, and precipitated inside the bubble. Air was changed from carbon dioxide to oxygen by plants, and from oxygen tocarbon dioxide by people. Crops were grown inside the bubble, for the purposes of air recycling as well as self-reliance. A couple roads and an airport outside the bubbleconnected it to the rest of Earth’s inhabitants. The airlocks made it a chore entering andleaving, so people mainly stayed inside. That was the idea. A macrocosmic temperatureregulator. A little bubble of comfort on the face of a desolate barren frozen wilderness. A blanket that kept in the heat Canada so greedily tore from her countrymen. Soon after, bubbles sprouted up in Russia, which had previously had the satisfaction of being thelargest wasteland in the world. It spread into the Arctic, and the Antarctic, though onlythe most hardy of pioneers thought it worthwhile to stray so far from the rest of humanity.Methods were soon devised to keep it cool inside the bubble, rather than warm, andAustralia became a new frontier. Bubbles were made to keep things drier, and specificallyto completely purge the environment of unwanted diseases, insects, and unwanted

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parasites, to the transformation of Africa. Cities that had previously existed without bubbles argued over the cost of erecting one versus the benefits that could be expectedthereby. There were no longer tropical, temperate, and arctic zones. The zone was nowwhatever the bubble wished it to be. The quality of life and cost of living skyrocketed and plummeted. And though there were still wars and rumours of wars, the multiplicity of little Edens that were sprouting up like a new species of vegetation, spoke of a newopportunity and beginning for mankind.Mankind’s most mortal adversary, the mosquito, squished itself against the plastic barriers. Ants were told to dig elsewhere. Scorpions and cockroaches and flies wereforced to remain outside. Weeds almost always managed to sneak in somehow, butweevils at least were stopped. Locusts could no longer plague Egypt even if they’dwanted to. Crop yields rose as fewer bugs spoiled them. Reducing pesticides lowered thecost of food, improved its taste, and helped maintain the environment, which could thensupport a far larger population. The energy versus environment debate quietly dissipated,as the primary need of fossil fuels for heating and cooling was banished. Most of Earth’s people still lived ‘outdoors’ as the new term became, but mini-bubbles even amidst thecities sheathed wooden houses from termites and Fido from the rain.After Alfonso Parazzi died, the progressions of his model were made by fresh brilliant minds, hoping for their own epitaphs in the annals of mankind. The bubbledefined the century. No other improvement even approached it. No other inventionspawned so many blessings to people in so many ways in so many places. But like allthings, the change was slow and quiet and more gradual than the predictions. Many people, if asked whether their lives had changed, or were much different from the lives of their parents, or grandparents, would have answered no. There were still barbarouscountries and poor countries. America still struggled to find a balance between satisfyingthe basic needs of the people, and supporting the growth and freedom of the economy.There still wasn’t ever enough money to go around. Families still broke apart. Loversstill broke each other’s hearts. Children still cried over every little thing. Men still drank too much and smoked too much and cursed too much and gambled too much. Lawsuitswere still used as milk cows and weapons of spite in countries with civil courts.Politicians still flouted the system, and changed their promises after the election. It wasstill scary for a woman to walk alone at night in Detroit. It still wasn’t even allowed for awoman to walk alone at night in Iran.The bubble, you see, didn’t change all those little things about life. The bubbledidn’t remake life, it was the gift of more life, and better life. Though there were evenhopes of forming bubbles that could withstand the pressure of settlement under the ocean,humanity still had to live inside it. The bubble was just plastic. Ingeniously constructed plastic. Humanity still provided the stories.Then something rather unexpected happened. Back in Canada, where bubbles had become the majority of cities, next to an icy cold shore, the community of Langless agreedto dispense with clothes. A nudist beach had spread to nudists returning from the beach tonudists going shopping after returning from the beach, until people wondered why a placewith temperature control really needed clothing anymore. Perhaps it was a peculiar,strange community, or perhaps it included an abundance of beautiful men and womenunafraid of scrutiny.In any case, after clothing was declared optional, many other Canadians movedthere to appreciate the view or to become part of it themselves. Others moved out,scandalized and with hands over their children’s eyes. Soon enough, the only people in

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the bubble either were naked themselves or were happily staring at the Emperors andGodivas among them. Reporters flocked to carry the story. Soon the whole world waslaughing over the dilemma Canada had been placed in by this rogue bubble so at peacewith itself. Whole TV channels were devoted to simply feeding the live images of the bubble’s citizenry going about its business.After a swift debate, Parliament voted to reimpose clothing on its citizens.Protests flared, flashers across the world showed solidarity with their nudist brethren andthe bubble carried on a campaign of civil disobedience, to the point that many wives of police sent to enforce the code were as disgruntled as the women who’d been manhandled back into shirts and pants. After a year of sporadic disrobing, though, the communitycame back into the Canadian fold. Many nudists left who no longer could be nude, andmany others came who didn’t want to be nude. The whole incident became a national joke and historical footnote. Nobody thought the matter could be described as the firstdebate over the fate of humanity. But federalists and anti-federalists alike throw the nameof that city around as though it were a mini-Megiddo. That’s the final battlefield of Godand Satan, for those of you who haven’t studied the Good Book nearly enough. Theyonly disagreed over who was on which side.

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