Through Zero Trust by Denis Zubois

In the late twenty-fourth century, zero trust is not just an IT security strategy: it’s the way of life now. Taken to the next level, the post-truth concept reigns supreme. Everything is relative; everything depends on perspective. Yet there remains the lust for power – the deep, primal need to control another human being, to override their will with your own. It’s amazing how deeply it has always been ingrained in every aspect of human civilization. Now, when everything else has been stripped away, it comes to the fore.

Of course, there always remains fear – of the unknown, when everything new and unfamiliar seems evil by default; or of being casually discarded and crushed by the millstones of the system.

Yet there must be something more. You can fight, murder, scheme, and plot for power, or out of fear. You can sue your enemies out of existence, or troll them to death on socinet. But no one dies for power. You don’t face pain; you don’t risk the fate worse even than death, out of fear. Something else must be driving you when you do that.

It may be naïve. Immature. Uncool. Most people get over it, find their niche in the reality shaped by fear and power struggle, and hold on to it for as long as they can. But others, for all their different histories and backgrounds, just can’t help feeling it, can’t help acting on it. And some of them even try to understand it – is there something besides fear and lust for power that truly is what it seems? Should there be? If you don’t have anything to die for, do you really have anything to live for? This is their story.