Conformity versus Individualism
A darkly powerful organization calls itself the Collective with good reason. The members are so sure that the only way to ensure the future of humanity colonizing an alien planet is to purge from our collective consciousness all the subversive ideas to which they do not subscribe. The story of humanity has been one of continuous conflict and genocidal war and these have all been stimulated by fundamental divergence of beliefs. Thus the only way to make sure the colonized evolution of the species succeeds is to hack into a sophisticated teaching program to erase all memories of the existence of oppositional thought. The plan has just one single flaw: the failure of just one person, Petra, to have those memories erased. Thus, the book explores the theme of how just a single individual rebelling against the power of an oppressive conformist status quo can ultimately enact a widespread evolution of subversion.
The Power of the Educational System
This story is geared toward readers still attending school, many of whom seldom question the accuracy of what they are being taught. An educational system is typically thought to be, by definition, a process whereby the uninformed learn facts and truth. An advanced computer program designed to teach kids while they are unconscious in a state of suspended animation is created so that after hundreds of real-time years have passed on the journey through space, the children will awaken with a doctorate level understanding of certain scientific disciplines. This program is hacked by the Collective, however, so that it instead feeds into the unconscious minds of the kids an alternative version of the history of mankind. Since there will be no access to the actual truth should the hack work without flaw, there will be no way that anyone on board the ship except for those aware of the hack will know that what everyone thinks is factual truth is a lie. Through this device, the story examines themes related to the control of any information that can be falsified and presented to the masses who either can’t or won’t seek out confirmation.
Dystopic Utopians
The story begins with a nightmarish scenario in which Halley’s Comet colliding with Earth ensures the devastation of the human species. The response to this impending disaster is to send three enormous ships into space to colonize the nearest Earth-like planet. The only goal of this plan is to allow humanity to continue with a natural evolution process. The plan is not dependent upon creating any particular utopian ideal. This idea enters the picture through the disruptive agency of the Collective. Its members perceive that humanity will always be destined for extinction as a result of its flaws regardless of external conditions unless the genocidal instincts of the past are purged through a unified system of universal beliefs and ideologies. What is a utopian ideal for one person, however, is inevitably a dystopian reality for another. The power of the Collective to manipulate the perception of truth transforms into the necessity of the Collective to sacrifice the weak for the strong to survive. Thus, even within the utopian paradigm, dystopian measures must be carried out against their members. What keeps the story from becoming another in the long list of YA dystopic novels is the optimistic pragmatism of Petra who, because she was not subject to the mind purging, is left to awaken from suspended slumber with her imagination fully intact. The book suggests that the imagination to think outside the boxes of utopian or dystopian certainties is what can save society from such unwise pursuits.
