The Chase for Sensation

She knew that the food tasted good. At least, that is what M7’s chip told her. The apple had been categorized as a sweet, crunchy, and mildly juicy morsel of nourishment. However, despite the description, M7 could feel none of it. In fact, M7 felt nothing at all these days. Emotions that once were, no longer rose or fell within her heart; instead, they would appear to her as a list of analytical descriptions. Each time, she had hoped to receive that warm fuzzy feeling, but all she could do was read the words and yearn for its true sensation.

One of the few things that M7 ever felt – physically this is – was the curly yellow fur of her dog, Kay-99. It was not real fur, nor a real dog. But, having it around was better than the mindless and purposeless existence that she led otherwise. Kay-99 provided her with the most memorable activity of her entire life, walking the dog. Of course, she didn’t walk anymore, nobody did. As far back as she could remember, she rolled.

The mobility of the human race slowly but surely trod away from the use of limbs for any form of transportation, and led to where one could travel just about anywhere at great speeds upon a wheelchair of highly advanced technology. The MD, as they are called, or ‘mobility devices’, has become almost symbiotic with the human mind, connected by a neurological link so that all a human would have to do is think in a direction, and the chair would roll to their desired location. Not only would the MD roll you wherever you please, it could perform all sorts of tasks, even keep the rider alive from certain death. At this moment, M7 desired a cookie, but they were on the top shelf, and her legs no longer had the strength to stand up. Luckily, the mobility device unfurled a robotic arm from the side and reached the jar, taking the lid off and plucking a chocolate chip cookie from inside. M7’s mouth instinctively opened as the robotic arm came down and pushed the cookie past her lips.

M7 didn’t actually need to eat anything. She was morbidly obese at this point, and the chair was connected to her bloodstream, administering whatever nutrients, or drugs were needed to optimize health. M7 ate, because there was nothing more to do. And for the life of her, she just wanted to feel something again.

All humans since the age of intelligence hadn’t had to do anything. A robot or program was able to perform the task better and more efficiently than any human ever could. Humans spent their days manually activating their dopamine and serotonin receptors, not moving or wishing to do any form of activity. Due to this, there was a great change in the physical form, such as the loss of bone density and muscle tissue. What remained were motionless, senseless, blobs propped up and rolling around aimlessly through their lives.

M7 sat in her kitchen (a truly redundant location of the home now) shoveling different foods into her mouth, just to feel something. It wasn’t working. She might as well have been eating paper with descriptions of flavor on them. The robot arm reached under the jaw of M7, making it go up and down, manually eating for her. Then, the arm wiped the spill from her seventh chin.