The power of the insurance industry has grown to where all of humanity is under it’s control. All individuals are thus required to give up their autonomy in return for the guarantee of total safety. To facilitate this, the population is rounded up and resettled into a vast enclosed structure, the interior of which is designed to ensure that there is no possibility anyone could be injured in any way. A monitoring system records all activity, and all surfaces are covered with a soft, spongy substance called “Nurf”.
The culture which develops in “Nurfworld”, is one where only behavior contributing to the safety of everyone is rewarded. All media and cultural practices reflect and support this idea. Those who work to bring about the success of total safety as promised, are held up as heroes and the main character of this story is the most famous hero of them all.
Takeshi Nakamura, (one of two great scientists that created Nurfworld) is of course, such an important person that his fall from grace would also be of paramount importance to this society.
Although the Nurf of Nurfworld keeps everyone safe in almost all situations, there are still some rare injuries due to occasional and unforeseeable freak accidents and the even more unforeseeable (and inexplicable) phenomena of intentional self-injuries. Whenever anything like this happens, the government quickly covers it up. All information is suppressed and all witnesses are dealt with quietly, and often terminally. It is one such occurrence, which results in the tragic injuring of Takeshi’s young daughter Momo. But since Dr. Nakamua’s fame makes it impossible for the authorities to erase such an event, Takeshi is found guilty of negligence in a public show-trial and declared an “unsafe person”. This not only provides an adequate explanation for the previously unheard-of injury, but it also renders the prominent scientist unable to receive any insurance coverage for the treatment of his daughter’s sprained wrist which of course then leaves him bankrupt and alone.
Ruined, both financially and socially, Takeshi is forced into debtor’s prison where he sits in shame and humiliation for having so disgraced his now-estranged family.
But… as our story begins, Takeshi Nakamura is not wallowing in despair, oh no! Our hero is doing what he does best. He is working on a solution. His brilliance, now focused more than ever before, is dedicated to making right what he feels was his own fault from the first. Nurf was not perfect. He was responsible for this tragedy that took his beloved wife and daughter from him. It was his own error, his failure, that destroyed his career and reputation. But he will fix it.
He will make the perfect Nurf and fix… EVERYTHING!
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More to come…