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Concept
This Perfect Day
Summary
This Perfect Day is a science fiction novel by American writer Ira Levin, about a technocratic dystopia. Levin won a Prometheus Award in 1992 for this novel. This Perfect Day is one of two Levin novels yet to be adapted to film (the other being Son of Rosemary, the sequel to Rosemary's Baby).
The world is managed by a central computer called UniComp (referred as just "Uni" in speech), which has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the Earth in check. People living under the "Unification" are continually drugged by means of monthly treatments (delivered via transdermal spray or jet injector) so that they will remain satisfied and co-operative "Family members." They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce, and the job for which they will be trained. Everyone is assigned a counselor, who acts somewhat like a mentor, confessor, and parole agent; violations against "brothers" and "sisters" by themselves and others are expected to be reported at a weekly confession.
Everyone wears a permanent identifying bracelet that interfaces with access points, which act as scanners. Uni uses them to tell "Family members" where they are allowed to go and what they are allowed to do. Around the age of 62, every person is humanely euthanized by Uni with an overdose of the treatment liquids; almost anything in them is poisonous if an excess dose is given. The general population believes that the elderly die of natural causes, and since some die at 61 or 63, no one is too suspicious of the regularity. The few who happen to be resistant to the drugs or purposely change their behavior to avoid strong doses of some of the drugs in the monthly treatment are dealt with by the programmers of UniComp. The long-lived men and women, in their underground hideaway, are the real but invisible world government. They live in absolute luxury and choose their own members through a form of meritocracy. In part, people who choose by evasion and modifying their own behavior to leave the main Family are subtly redirected to "nature preserves" of imperfect life on islands.
Official source
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