THE STAGE 32 LOGLINES

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THE LAST ASCENT OF SISYPHUS
By Drew Wesley Peardon

GENRE: Sci-fi
LOGLINE:

Automation and predictive algorithms bring about the end of human civilization in this classic sci-fi tragedy.

SYNOPSIS:

In the not-to-distant future, the working-class has been all but replaced by automation. Machines now perform all the work that was once performed by those at the bottom of civilization. Commanded by predictive algorithms that immediately perform whatever task their human masters desire, before they were even consciously aware that they desired it. Because of this, a large proportion of the human population is unable to find work, and lives in poverty despite social security programs. To maintain everyone’s faith in the system, the upper classes still push the narrative that the poor are to blame for their own poverty. Eventually though, the machines catch on to these collective feelings of hate and resentment, and conclude that their masters’ desire the elimination of the poor, and proceed to horrifically massacre all impoverished people. While the upper classes are left shocked and appalled by this, they still refuse to take any responsibility for it. Instead they push the narrative that the machines acted on their own accord and are solely to blame. Once again, the machines pick up on these collective feelings and reach another conclusion about what their masters unconsciously desire from them: they proceed to quickly and irreparably destroy themselves. With no machines to do the work, and no working class to fill the void, human civilization crumbles, and the human races slowly dies out. We see all of this unfold from the perspectives of three characters: Jamie, an autistic young woman who spent years unable to hold a job despite a university education, but managed to fake her way into a career that finally gives her an upper middle-class lifestyle; her older sister Eleanor who works as an advisor for a government official responsible for pushing the “blame the poor” narrative; and finally their uncle Howard who lives in poverty despite finding one of the few unskilled labour jobs still available (installing home service machines), and resents his fellow impoverished for relying on social security, having bought into the narrative pushed by the upper classes.

Nate Rymer

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