The year is 2100. The human race is growing at an alarming rate, nearing 20 billion. This great increase in population must be met with an even greater increase in food production and energy generation, as expected, but what scientists of the 21st century did not expect was how heavy the dependence on cell phones is.

Dr. Normal, despite the name, is everything but normal. She studies aliens, but tells everyone that she is studying astrometry. After all, no one really cares enough to see if she is really measuring distances between extrasolar planets or not. Her last mission, which took 80 Earth years, was to another galaxy, which sadly, did not have any alien life. Due to this high speed, she aged only 10 years. The differences between now and then are immediately apparent. Robots run the world and the humans know nothing but their cells phones.

That night, she finds that the area around her house is now occupied with a nuclear power plant, so she stays in her laboratory. Feeling that society is hopeless, she resorts to the last measure: praying to the almighty, powerful, and possibly nonexistent Alien God.
“Please remove all cell phones from the Earth! I cannot bear another day surrounded by mindless slaves to the cell phone!”

The time was late, so Dr. Normal lay on the uncomfortable, cold tiled floor trying to sleep. As she drifted off, loud screams jolted her awake. Her watch said 12:00 AM. The screaming would not cease anytime soon and only got louder. Dr. Normal jumped up and ran down the stairs and out the door. She could see many people on the sidewalk screaming and looking up. Their hands were frozen in a position for a cell phone and their eyes showed disbelief. Dr. Normal wondered what had just happened, but her own question was immediately solved when she looked in the direction everyone else was looking. A massive alien spacecraft was sucking up everyone’s cell phones.

Dr. Normal was in utter disbelief, but for reasons different from everyone else. Did this prove that there really was and alien god? She pumped her fist up into the air and exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! There exists an alien god who just answered my prayer! Deus ex machina! Deus ex machina!” No one heard her, of course. Everyone was still screaming and entranced by the sight of their cell phones floating upwards. Cell phones broke through roofs and the ground of cemeteries where people were buried with their cell phones.

All around the world, people were in panic mode. However, this time there was no phone for comfort, no online stranger to text. No one could bring himself or herself to confront a neighbor and talk because everyone was so accustomed to texting and face to face communication was nearly nonexistent. Everyone can mask themselves on social media, but if you rely too heavily on your phone, when that mask of a phone is taken away, you become nothing. 

“So these are the humans we have heard many things about,” said 980-980 in a disappointed tone.
“I do not sense any intelligence among them,” said 746-746. “Actually, there exists one brilliant human. Let’s take her.” 746-746 pressed a button.

As Dr. Normal was celebrating, she suddenly found herself being lifted into the air.
“Ahhh!!! I’m not a cell phone! Put me down right now!” When Dr. Normal kept on rising and reached 50 feet, she screamed, “Actually, I change my mind! Do not drop me from this elevation!”

In the spacecraft, the aliens questioned Dr. Normal.
“How can you stand these brain less humans?” asked 123-123.
“I can’t.”
“Would you like to go to our home planet, 10-01?” Dr. Normal thought about this proposal for a while.
“It has always been my dream to go and live on another planet. However, now that cell phones are nonexistent, I think I must be here on Earth to be a world leader and help guide people to a good, happy, and cell phone free life.”

Dr. Normal made good to her word. She led the effort of solving many global issues such as electronic device addiction, global warming, and pollution. As for the 10-01 aliens, they did not want to carry tons of metal so they discarded all of the cell phones into space and increased the number of floating objects in the solar system by 20 billion.