I soon found out a strange thing about my little friends: they lost interest very quickly. Like children, they were excited to see me at first. But soon, they stopped looking at me and wandered away to find a new toy. After we finished eating, I noticed that most of the people had gone. So, as soon as I was no longer hungry, I walked out of the great hall and back into the bright world. Sometimes I met more of these people. They followed me for a short time, laughed, smiled, and then left me alone.
The calm of the evening was in the air. The setting sun gave the world a warm, golden light. At first, everything was very confusing because it was so different from the world I knew. I decided to walk to the top of a hill, about a mile away. From there, I could get a better view of our planet in the year 802,701 AD. That was the date on the little clocks of my Time Machine.
As I walked, I looked at everything carefully. The world was beautiful, but it was full of ruins. I saw huge piles of old stone and metal, covered in beautiful plants. These plants looked like nettles, but they did not hurt my skin. Later, I also realized that there were no small houses anywhere. The family home, which is so common in England, had completely disappeared. There were only huge palaces where everyone lived together.
"They must share everything," I thought to myself. Then I noticed something else. I looked at the little people who were following me. Suddenly, I saw that men and women looked exactly the same. They wore the same clothes, had the same soft faces without hair, and the same small bodies. Even the children looked just like tiny adults.
Because these people lived such a safe and easy life, this made sense to me. In our time, men and women often do different jobs, and strong families are needed to protect children. But in this future world, there was no violence or danger. So, there was no need for physical strength or protective families. Over thousands of years, the differences between men and women had slowly disappeared.
While I was thinking about this, I saw a pretty little structure. It looked like a deep well. I thought it was strange to still see wells, but I kept walking. Finally, I reached the top of the hill. I found an old seat made of yellow metal and sat down. The sun was going down, and the sky was a beautiful mix of gold, purple, and red. Down in the valley, the river shone like silver. I saw the great palaces standing among the green trees. There were no fences and no farms. The whole earth had become one big, beautiful garden.
As I sat there watching the red sunset, I began to think about the "sunset" of humanity. I believed I understood what had happened to the human race. In our time, people are always working to make life better and safer. We fight against diseases, dangerous animals, and bad weather. We try to destroy weeds and grow better food. I guessed that, in the end, humanity had won this battle against Nature. They had created a perfect world without bugs, sickness, or dangerous animals.
But perfect safety brings a new problem. Why are humans strong and intelligent? Because life is hard! Danger and difficult problems make us use our brains and our bodies. When life is perfectly safe, we do not need to be strong, brave, or smart.
Humanity had spent all its energy changing the world. Now, they had nothing left to do. Without danger or hard work, the people of the future had become weak and lazy. They had no jobs, no money, and no worries. They only wanted to decorate themselves with flowers, sing, and dance in the sun.
As it got dark, I felt very clever. I thought I had found the secret of this future world and its beautiful, lazy people. My idea was very simple, and it made perfect sense. However, like most simple ideas, I soon found out that it was completely wrong.