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NFASF: Chicago Re-elects Davidson Posthumously
15 years
Chicago Re-elects Davidson Posthumously
Residents say there was no other good alternative
Story by Loretta Sikes
Denizens of Chicago have once again re-elected Tom Davidson mayor, granting him his tenth consecutive term as mayor of the city. There’s only one problem: Davidson died two weeks before the election.
“Everyone knew he was dead,” Andrea Shooter said, her voice full of frustration. Andrea had been the only person to run against Davidson in the election, and when she died most people assumed it would be a landslide victory in her favor. But residents of Chicago had an unexpected trick up their sleeve. Despite the fact that Davidson had died, his name remained on the ballot.
“The ballots had already been printed, and since no other contestants made an effort to run after Davidson’s death, we decided to keep the existing ballots,” Carrol Dean, head of the election committee said in an interview. “We didn’t think having his name on there would have been a problem. After all, everyone knew he had died.” That didn’t stop residents from showing up to the city elections in droves, many of them casting their ballot in support of Davidson.
“Honestly, you know, Davidson was the best mayor we’ve ever had,” a long-time Chicago resident told one journalist stationed outside of one of many voting locations. “I just didn’t feel that anyone else was capable of doing the job.” The sentiment was apparently widespread: Davidson won by a 13 point margin.
“I just can’t understand it,” Shooter said. “I had a great plan, and I was going to do a great job.”
Normally, to combat situations where fictional people or historical figures are mistakenly elected via fill-in ballots, procedure dictates that the city council select a new mayor. The problem in this case is that Davidson, though dead, does still exist.
“His family had him cloned, and so he does not fit the definition of fictional person as defined in the city bylaws,” a city councilwoman said. “These bylaws were created before cloning was possible. We have no way to handle a situation like this.”
The fate of Chicago’s government remains in the air. While the current politicians argue over what to do, many citizens already have the same idea.
“If Davidson’s being cloned, then he can be mayor again, and we can take things right back to where they were,” one citizen said. Many citizens agree on this point, but when asked how a newborn would be able to administrate the city, most of them simply shrug. “Can’t do worse than anyone else.”
Think this is entirely too far-fetched? Think again.
NFASF: Woman Upset Over “Unauthorized Cloning”
15 years
Woman Upset Over “Unauthorized Cloning”
Claims donating her husband’s body to science didn’t authorize them to clone him
Story by Marshall Grey, Op-Ed Writer
A local woman, exasperated and running out of other options, is bringing her story to the media, and it’s quite a story. Joann–Jo, as her friends call her–Willman is a sixty-one year old widow who has lived in this city her entire life. Don’t let her age fool you: she’s still as spry as she used to be, and is determined to fight this “sad circumstance” as long as she can. You see, a little over thirty years ago, Jo’s husband Rex passed away.
“He was always so into technology,” she said, looking at a picture of him forlornly. “He was a first adopter for everything.” It was true. Rex worked hard and saved his money so he could afford the latest and greatest offerings from the world of technology. As she showed me around her apartment on the upper east side, I spotted all sorts of devices that were top-of-the-line when released. Rex had collected several versions of different DNA and memory backup systems, both of the memory disk players put out during the studio wars of the 2170s, and a myriad of implant accessories. Rex’s love for technology didn’t stop there, however.
“He told me one day, you know, that his dream was for his body to be donated to science when he died so they could improve human-machine interfaces,” she told me with a distant look in her eyes. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time, because it seemed like something he would say.” Of course, it was always assumed that this would happen far off in the future, at the end of Rex’s golden years, but fate has a way of making fools of us all. Rex died at the age of 30 in a work-related accident. Jo made the tough decision to respect her husband’s wishes and donate his body to science. What she failed to do, however, was to place restrictions on what type of research Rex’s body could be used for.
“It never even occurred to me at the time,” she said, glaring at the wall over my shoulder. It was a tragic mistake. One thing led to another, and Rex was cloned for a research project. Once the project was complete, a local family adopted him and raised him as their own. The clone of Rex is now thirty years old, the exact same age Rex was when he died.
“I had no idea it would happen. One day, two years ago, I was at the grocery store and saw him–the clone I mean. I couldn’t believe it! I ran up to him and started babbling like a maniac, telling him he was my husband and what was he doing alive and…” she trailed off. “It was damned foolish of me.”
Once Rex’s clone realized who he had been, he filed a civil suit, demanding that Jo turn over his memory backup devices. The long court battle has stretched out for the past two years, but a verdict is set to be delivered tomorrow. Jo’s argument centered on the fact that she didn’t authorize cloning. Rex’s attorney–and attorneys representing the scientists that performed the cloning–say that she didn’t forbid it from happening, so they were within their rights to do so. Analysts suggest that the court will rule in Rex’s clone’s favor.
“Once I found out who I had been, I felt I needed to get those memories back. My life had been cut short, but science brought me back, and I feel very strongly that being cloned was something I would have wanted,” Rex told reporters outside the courthouse yesterday. Whether or not he is correct about that is anyone’s guess. Reading private memories stored in a memory backup unit is currently forbidden by law, and security measures within the units themselves only allow the owner–verified by DNA–to access the memories to begin with. Regardless, Jo isn’t buying it.
“I just want to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Scientists shouldn’t have the right to clone anyone unless the person and their family specifically authorize it.” Jo also wants to know if there are any other copies of her husband out there, but the scientists refuse to answer, citing the fact that much of their research is classified, and they wouldn’t be at liberty to say. When this article is published, she may very quickly find out.
“I wish I could take it all back!” she said, weeping, her head in her hands. Don’t we all, sometimes…
Teaser Tuesday: Cloning
15 years
by Josh Smith
in The Sequel
For this week’s Teaser Tuesday I bring you two paragraphs from a chapter that has a brief discussion on cloning (why, specifically, I will not reveal). This is only part of the narration from this section, and is part of my efforts to make more of the revelations about future life and tech come from the narrator and/or the character’s personal experiences rather than having Darin, Lyla or someone else explain things directly. Enjoy!
The major problem with clones is not so much the feelings of deja vu one experiences after encountering several of them in rapid succession, but rather in the semantics involved with keeping track of them. When the technology to clone first came into use, the scientists involved briefly experimented with numbering, lettering, even code-naming each clone to try and distinguish them from one another. This practice was quickly discovered to be rather ineffective due to the fact that as soon as the clones moved around the room, it was impossible to know which of them was ‘Alpha’ and which of them was ‘Beta’. It was rather disheartening for the scientists because the idea had seemed so good on paper, but in use was rather futile. This realization resulted in brief trials with name tags, but this too failed when the clones realized how much fun it was to distort the results of the experiments by switching name tags halfway through.
The labeling system caused just as much frustration for the clones. After all, it was rather disheartening to hear that Victoria M had gone off to a really great party and met a dashingly handsome young man while you, Victoria E, sat at home watching a sappy romance for the sixth time. Thus, most clones came to refer to themselves as if they were a single entity, causing the lines between which clone had done what to blur. Of course, with the technology to truly merge memories still based entirely in theory, the clones were left to merely revel in the delusion that they had all done really cool, awesome, and exciting things.