The newbie, Enoch, has been the most recent member in the past two weeks. He had introduced himself as Lumala 'Anthropocene' Enoch. A tech support team lead at a startup developing digital self-improvement products based on genetics, brain chemistry, and personality type.
The week after Anthropocene joined, the club was assigned "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari to read and then discuss during the weekly meeting on Friday evening.
Before leaving work that evening, Nett organised his review. A paragraph that stuck with him since he read it on Wednesday.
In Chapter 14: 'The Discovery of Ignorance,' Yuval notes that,
"The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions."
That night, Nett lay awake a bit longer thrumming with his newfound power to look at his challenges as potential revolutions for his evolution.
The paragraph had distilled his motivation to a refined spirit that he received 5 stars on performance in the club review app. His accountability partner for the week, Reagan "Migwa," had commended him on his drive and infectious enthusiasm.
When Nett arrived at the sports centre at 6:13 p.m., the meeting was in session. There were two new members, "Silversurfer," an auditor at a global firm in town, and "Rass," a guitarist and electrician he later learned.
The day he joined, Nett’s clubname was "Repliqua." However, in the first two months of his membership, he displayed great reflexes that the guys started calling him,"Nett." He fully embraced the name after a friendly rugby game the club organised for a fundraiser. He had caught all passes and even the “last torpedo” pass, which led his team to victory.
At 7:30, Nett presented his review highlighting that for him, the "revolution of curiosity" is his next pursuit.
"To do things and go for experiences just to see what happens."
Soon, everyone agreed that they would try out their own "Revolution of ignorance" and share their experiences.
The meeting ended on that note.
His Fridays usually ran this way with few alterations to this routine. From home to work to the club meeting, then back home. He usually took out an hour to check on the progress of his personal projects.
Currently, he is working on Billow.
An app for “Angels” and “Billers” to exchange financial assistance for emergency bills like rent, medical, school fees, and water.
The app is now one year into development with the help of two fellow software engineers, from the club and a lawyer.
Two months ago, they started working with the lawyer on legal issues around data collection, privacy, and regulations.
The idea is that the app requires information like apartment ID, health provider bank details, school bank details, and meter account details to eliminate fraud among the "Billers."
Initially, he had come up with Billow for the club members to support each other. He shared the idea with "Keys," one of the club administrators who promised him full support. The two software engineers, “Dish” and “Papples” had offered to help when he shared a sample of the app in the group chat. Keys encouraged him to make it formal even though the club would be the initial user.
At 8:40 p.m., Nett enters his apartment. As soon as he locks the door behind him, a notification lights up his phone. It’s a message from the Club WhatsApp group. Anthropocene has sent a link to an app with the message,"This is a personal project. Try it out and let me know your thoughts."
"Tank," one of the administrators replies to the message with a thumbs up approval.
That's how Nett spends the next 35 minutes perched on the sofa arm downloading and exploring the app.
The Luminara app icon is two crossed ovals, one blue and the other grey. The interface is sleek, and a minimalist blue-grey with two dots indicating two slides. The first slide reads, "Unlock Your Full Potential."
The second slide asks for information; name, date of birth, city, occupation, and an "I Agree to Privacy Policy" checkbox at the bottom.
Once you tap "Enter," the app opens to a home page.
A single prompt greeted him:
What do you desire?
He chuckled at the inanity of the prompt but typed, "To be better."
"Can you tell me a little about your:
Daily Routine:
Relationships:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Hobbies:
Interests:
Current needs:
Current goals:"
"Just to see what happens," a voice in the back of his mind whispers.
He types out the answers in the boxes.
Welcome, Davis. Your transformation begins now.
Nett puts the phone away. He enters the kitchen and prepares an egg sandwich. He leaves the sandwich warming on a low flame while he takes a shower.
His phone lights up with a rotating 3D image of his face, and a source line of code fills up the screen before it goes black again.
Nett sets his dinner on the table and settles on the couch. He turns on his phone and opens his Twitter.
"Be the version of you that you’d be gay for," the first tweet reads from one “ZenGym”.
He chuckles while shaking his head.
"These motivational speakers are out of control," he mumbles. He shares the tweet in his friend group.
"🤦♀️," Zaz.
"😭😭😭😭 wat?!" Ambrose.
"I'm disturbed." Jerry.
"🤣🤣🤣🤣." Lego.
"This is such an original thought." Nancy.
"Sounds like something Timothy would say." Mumu.
Replying to: "Sounds like something Timothy would say."
"😂😂😂😂😂" You.
"😅😅" Lego.
"Nooo 😑😑" Timothy.
"😂" Essie.
Notification pops up
Luminara: Sign in is complete.
Nett taps on the notification.
A menu appears on the screen.
He frowns and taps on "Eliminate Weakness."
A big blue check mark displays on the screen. Nothing else happens.
He taps a few more times, but the check mark remains.
Whatsapp: "Are we still on the barbecue tomorrow?" Zaz.
"Yes."
He returns to Twitter.
Later in the night, he wakes up to the sound of his own voice whispering,
"You know what you have to do."
He finds himself in the kitchen, holding a knife. His reflection in the window looks back at him, but it isn’t him. It’s a stranger, cold and determined.
The next morning, Nett's phone buzzes.
"Congratulations, Davis. You’ve eliminated your weakness."
He recalls the "dream" and jumps out of bed.
He tiptoes towards the kitchen. He gasps when he peers around the kitchen doorway down near the soap cabinet...