A Brief Conversation With Ava

And so I found myself here, on the ship RMS Colossal, talking to Ava. I could recount to you the long and treacherous journey I had taken, through the wormhole from 2021, the year I was from, to this age, 2102: but that would be a story you'd need to settle down for the night to read. For the moment, I'd like to invite you to take a glimpse through the window of my life where you can watch it as it unfolds now. I'm sat with 22 year old - or at least she looks that age - Ava, within the inner depths of the biggest ship of this time. The personal bedroom we're in is minimalist yet still luxurious. We're both sitting in our own deep red coloured sofas with glasses of coffee, facing each other from across the wooden table. The walls show no sign of being part of a ship: I've been told they're composed of a new meta-material - one of the hardest composites created in our labs to date - but that information goes over my head. All I know is that the cream wallpaper covering these inner walls conceals all hint that we're inside a ship. As I sit, sipping my coffee, Ava is telling me about a romantic adventure she had.

"... and as he held that puppy, completely covered in growing jelly, all of a sudden I was overcome with a deep sense of quicklamber for him", Ava said. 

"What’s quicklamber?" I asked.

"Oh, for a second I forgot that you’re from the 21^st century. How do I explain this..." Ava frowned and groaned. "I can't believe your people didn't have a word for this!"

"What do you mean?"

"Your generation’s ability to articulate feelings was so primitive. No wonder you all had troubles expressing yourselves. The labels you had at your disposal were just inadequate."

I sat that, confused. "Like quicklamber?" I asked.

"Yes, like quicklamber. Well, take love for example. When you say, 'I love you', it could mean all manner of things. You’ve only just scratched the surface of what you're trying to say. You’ve only just introduced the topic. What kind of love do you feel? Is it a warm, brotherly kind of love? Is it a sharp, romantic kind of love? Is it a yearning, a needing kind of love? Or an appreciative kind of love? None of those have their own specific labels in your time. And that’s just describing the type of feeling that you have. What about when you need to bring time into the description? What if it’s a love brought about in the brief instance of our moment together? What do you call that? What if it’s a love that’s eternal? No wonder everyone’s so scared to say that they love others in your age! You might want to say you have an appreciative love - just in that moment - but you know the ambiguity of the sentiment expressed and you’re worried that I may interpret it to think you’ve had a fierce romantic love for me for as long as you can remember!"

"Wow... I've never thought of it like that," I said. I was lost for words. I sat, trying to ingest the information, drinking the remaining amount of my beverage as I do. To fill the silence, I got up. "Hey, I'm going to atom-assemble some more coffee, would you like some?"