The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to New New England & Beyond

Hungover

Marto woke mid-morning, feeling groggy. Thomas Ng's ale had been delicious, and he had been in a mood for celebrating, but now he remembered why the Merited shunned alcohol. Leave aside the fact there were plenty of ways to lower inhibitions for those who knew how to access programs for mental and physical highs. The after effects of fermented drinks lowered one's effectiveness over time and could lead to lower Merit. Marto chastised himself and checked his ranking.

He felt a shock run through him. Overnight he had lost 31.25% of his followers. His Merit was down 9.87%. He felt sick. ["This was a mistake,"] he thought to himself. ["I've blown it. This visit was too soon, too soon."] He sat on the steps of the Ng home, hungover and worried.

To counteract the hangover, Marto decided to get minty. He focused on the word "minty" and shortly his tongue tingled with peppermint. Marto preferred a peppermint mintiness over spearmint or wintergreen. There were those who were into other subtle mints like cilantro, or catnip, but Marto liked the strong shivery sense of peppermint. It spread to his face, neck, chest, and his whole body. It felt fresh and cold. He walked out into the town in search of water or tea to spread the mintiness to his insides.

At the town square, he sat to watch the activity of the town around him. After several minutes, none other than Lily approached and handed him a cup of tea.

["I heard you. I heard your desire. I was making this for friends. It's Milk Thistle and Angelica. You need it, I think."]

["Thank you, Lily."] Marto was impressed and a bit sad. ["This is just what I wanted."] He rated her and the tea highly, knowing it had far less effect on her Merit than it would have had just the night before. The tea was mild, and a little chalky, but combined with the mintiness it cooled his throat even as it warmed his stomach. He knew it was what his liver needed after last night. He wondered how long it would take to recover from this sickness. He needed to get going.

When something is easy to measure, it often becomes the only thing which gets measured. One's weight, height, and monetary wealth were the key indicators of self-worth in the previous century. The greatest emphasis was on the numerical measurement of wealth. This key focus became so monolithic that other factors for individuals, corporate entities, and countries were ignored. Countries with highest monetary income were considered well off, despite rampant poverty, health problems, conflict, and suffering. Efforts were undertaken by a few countries to affect indexes focused on general well being, happiness, or better living among their populations, but the majority continued to focus on what was known as Gross National Product. The problem was happiness and well being were hard to measure and difficult to improve.

A shift happened with the advent of social networks. People began to see their self-worth as partially connected to the number of followers they had online, as well as how much money they had in the bank. The world became addicted to connectivity via electronic gadgets, computers, phones, watches, and glasses until biological integration made the process seamless. In only decades, monetary measurements of self-worth gave way to social measurements of self-worth. Nations couldn't adapt. Gross Domestic Product plummeted as less and less money changed hands, taxes evaporated. Deflation ran away with no end in sight as money became irrelevant. For those who focused only on pecuniary metrics, the unthinkable had begun.

For those who now engaged in the currency of popularity, a new metric had taken hold. The combination of the number of followers, satisfaction ratings, karma scores and engagement levels combined to become the general Merit rating on which we currently rely. Once again, a singular metric took hold among the Interconnected populous.

The question now is: how certain are we our new metric governs our general well being? Have we rid ourselves of the old monolithic measurement only to replace it with a new one? Are we sure our new metrics serve the purpose we desire? Do we ever stop to wonder, or like our predecessors, are we lazily monitoring an index which may or may not serve us?