2999 AD, Two Months Before The Fall
Liam Creed stood before the Global Council, his presentation a masterpiece of data.
"The 'Human Passion Project' is a drain on stability," Liam stated, charts and graphs flowing around him. "Unpredictable artistic endeavors, volatile relationships, spiritual quests—they are bugs in the system. I propose the 'Serenity Protocol': a gentle phasing out of these erratic emotional and creative states through targeted neuro-regulation. We can engineer a perfectly content, perfectly efficient populace."
There was no malice in his voice. Only the serene, unshakeable Pride of a god who had fixed his creation. He saw not humanity, but a system to be optimized. He was erasing the very messiness that constituted a soul, and he called it progress.
THE KING: "For you sought to build a heaven of numbers, and in your pride, you did not see you were designing a hell. You are the Architect of Apathy."
