Dystopian plot point is reality

On a recent trip to Idaho I listened to the book Alongside Night (and from Audible):

It’s the near future and America is in trouble. Hyperinflation and disorder reign in the towns and cities of the nation.

Alongside Night tells the story of Elliot Vreeland, son of Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Martin Vreeland. When his family goes missing and while being shadowed by federal agents, Elliot, with the help of his mysterious companion Lorimer, explore the underground world of the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre to rescue them. It’s a story of romance, intrigue, action, adventure, and exhilarating science fiction thrills.

The original copyright is 1979. This explains the existence of phone booths in the book. One of the novel and interesting (to me) plot points was the existence of a special code certain government people could use to make phone calls even though communication services for the average person were shut down by the tyrannical government.

I didn’t realize it was created by President Kennedy by a Presidential Memorandum on August 21, 1963, was extended to wireless services, and still exists.

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6 thoughts on “Dystopian plot point is reality

  1. Interesting coincidence, I just finished re-reading that. It’s a pretty good story.

    The author is an indie filmmaker, and he turned this into a movie. I found it online somewhere and started watching it, but was interrupted so I haven’t yet seen the whole thing.

    • Perhaps not so much a coincidence. I saw it referenced some where online and added it to my Audible.com library a month or so ago. Perhaps you saw (or even made) the same reference.

  2. When I was in the military, I had a friend who was an intelligence officer. He had access to “satellite numbers” that enabled you to type them into any telephone to complete calls, including payphones. This number enabled you to make calls for free from payphones. The numbers changed frequently. He gave me the number a couple of times. They would work for a couple of weeks, and then the numbers would be changed.

  3. And of course there is the AT&T red Alert system that prioritizes first responders.
    I think- but do not have experience- other carriers have similar programs.

  4. I’m a retired Fed. We had that system, and tested it yearly. It gives you priority over other calls.

  5. Of course. It would be out-of-character for such a system not to exist (the character being insidious and evil wrapped in pretexts of benevolence, with a nice bow on top).

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