The novella “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” by David Marusek was published for the first time in 1995.

Sam Harger is an artist who started a difficult relationship with Eleanor Starke, a very important woman whose power is growing. Despite some problems, their relationship becomes stable and after some time the couple receives an extraordinary news: they received a license to have a child. At the end of the 21st century, having a child is a huge privilege, yet for Sam and Eleanor is a new problem.

“We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” shows a society at the end of the 21st century from the perspective of the artist Sam Harger. The protagonist tells in the first person the story of his relationship with Eleanor Starke, one of the most powerful women in the world, and its consequences.

This future seems initially to have fulfilled the transhumanist ideals thanks to advances in nanotechnology and biotechnology. Nevertheless, humans seem still tied to old patterns of behavior based on power relationships. This makes that future potentially extraordinary but also dark.

Through Sam Harger, we see that longevity treatments are available that allow people well over 100 years old to be physiologically young and in excellent health with prospects of a potential immortality. On the other hand, children have become an nuisance ecological so births are regulated very strictly. The few who are born thanks to a license are built through genetic engineering.

Sam and Eleanor get a license to have a baby but it’s unclear how they obtained. The fact that Eleanor believes that this is some maneuvering of an opponent or her bosses shows that in future power struggles are carried out using those new possibilities. It also shows that having a baby can be both a blessing and a curse.

There are references to colonies and possible extraterrestrial assignments for Eleanor. This tells us that in the future there will be some form of space colonization but David Marusek doesn’t go into details. A chance encounter allows us to understand that at least part of the colonists are criminals.

The author includes more information about this future thanks to conversations between Sam and Henry, a virtual assistant with artificial intelligence. Sam can focus on his job because Henry takes care of many routine tasks.

It’s a future ambiguous to say the least in which humans could live to fulfill their dreams and potential, however they still have many problems. Sam’s misadventures show how there are strict controls because of various sabotage and espionage acts. Considering the more and more invasive controls of recent years, now that future seems all too plausible.

The amount of information included in “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” sometimes slows dosn the pace. On the other hand, the strength of this novella lies in the descriptions of the different facets of that society. In the end, I think the story is too short to fathom the complexity of that future. For example, the causes of some key events aren’t explained.

David Marusek’s interest seems to focus on the society of the end of the 21st century, so there’s limited room for the characters. “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” ends up being the typical story told in first person in which the protagonist is the only character really developed.

After about a decade, David Marusek came back to this novella revising it and making it the first part of his novel “Counting Heads”, in which the story continues. “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” is still an interesting portrait of a possible future that makes one think about the fact that technological progress isn’t enough to improve human condition. Recommended!

[ad name=”AmazonDavidMarusek”]