Soar through the stars and galaxies, and into one. There is the sun at the centre, it is our sun in fact. And on the other side, a few planets away, is the earth, but it is not our present day earth.
It looks slightly darker than the earth you are sitting on now, but as we keep getting closer, we can see that there is a ring around it. No, not around it, but on it. The ring goes around the entire equator, and looks to be the width of a medium-sized continent. As earth fills our vision, we can see that the ring is a man-made structure, and also, is moving around the earth, constantly rotating around the globe.
On ground level, it must be moving at an amazing pace. We dive down to this level, on part of the moving structure, and meet a little girl, Lindsey.
Lindsey was sitting in her small private classroom, finding this lesson quite strange and funny at the same time. "So," she said, putting thoughts into place, "people once had to live in the dark as well as the light?"
"That's right, Lindsey," chimed her private tutor Mrs. Trepan, "the sun used to disappear and reappear on a regular basis, so they had to stop working when it got dark, which they called night."
"But it wasn't real night!" Lindsey demanded, "If it lasted as long as it wanted, how could they use it on, I mean, to, erm, knoya, work?"
"I did say it was regular," Mrs. Trepan replied, "they had to live by the time it set. The end of the day came, and they had to leave things till the next day."
"How harsh of the sun..." Lindsey screwed up her face. "Always making a deadline for people to finish things, and forcing them to do things when they didn't want. And, wait-wait, how did they stay alive at what they called night? Were the nights only very brief?"
"No, the nights lasted as long as the days did. But I know what you're thinking. The nights weren't as cold as they would be if we lived on the mud now. Tess Corp. hadn't raised the new ozone layer than, so the sky was lighter and the sun heated up the whole earth more. So, stop-picking-your-nose, when their bit of mud was on the far side of the world, they didn't freeze."
Lindsey was trying to wiggle her nose in case something fell out, so Mrs. Trepan moved on. "So when Peps Incorporates started building the circle of life, back in the bronze age I think, it was only going to be for rich people to live on. Knoya, the same types that live on 3 o'clock now. But when Tess blocked up the atmosphere in 4030B by making their new ozone too thick, everyone realized that controlling the sun (by living on the circle) was the best thing to do."
"Why is it called the circle of life?" Lindsey piped in.
This made Mrs. Trepan frown in thought for a second, before she slowly began "I think, it's from an old religious hymn. Yes, I'm fairly certain that's it. But back then it used to mean that life happened by things changing all the time, and animals eating each other. Silly, yes. But I've heard some fascinating modern theories that some animals did once eat other animals, you know. No. Lin, for goodsake use your hanket if it's that bad!"
Lindsey opened her mouth but then shut it again, and reluctantly but quickly pulled her hanket machine over her nose, coughed when it made a sshlupp noise, and then put it back in her pocket.
"That's better," Mrs. Trepan smiled, "now onto modern application. You know that lots of motors keep the circle spinning, because your uncle works in one of them. They make sure that the circle stays in the same place, with the same bits always facing the sun, by making it spin in anti-o'clockwise at the same speed the mud spins o'clockwise."
"How fast is that Miss?"
"Just over one thousand miles per hour."
"That sounds like a lot.” Lin murmured, but something else was clearly on her mind. “...I wish my Uncle lived somewhere better than 9 o'clock... My mum says he doesn't get paid enough because people in the engines can never stop working or else we might all die, so the Thorities can pay him what they want, and it's not fair!"
Mrs. Trepan looked at Lin's little face, and said nothing.
"Thorities should see how they like it on 9 o'clock," Linsey mumbled, "stupiff middaze..."
"Now, now, Lin!" the tutor scolded mildly, "Don't negative middaze! Or say nasty things about any hours, or the Thorities. We can only control the world and the sun because of Thorities. Don't waste all your miles in life wishing for so many things to be different. Different wouldn't be safe." She finished with the famous slogan and a kind smile.
"Yeeaahhh," Lin sighed, "Different wouldn't be safe, knoya, knoya."
“Now,” began Mrs. Trepan, feeling that that issue had been successfully closed, “let's move on to social time zones, and you can learn why your parents want me to teach you to be 11 o'clock standard!”
Teacher and pupil turned to the next slide, and the lessons continued at either no speed or just over a thousand miles per hour, depending on your perspective.
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Image source: http://experiate.net/2010/07/27/is-digital-signage-an-industry-my-answer/
