where we are today
once upon a time, in the not-too-distant past, the world was under the reign of an animal species called homo sapiens sapiens: the human. these creatures, despite having few physical specialties like claws, fins, or wings, had incredible intelligence, and turned their sparkling minds into a force to be reckoned with: they had the ability to create and destroy at will. they were almost like gods.
but they were not gods, even if many of them thought themselves to be; no, unlike gods, they each had a soul.
like any other animal, each human would be born with an empty glowing sphere which would be filled with the individual's personality, interests, relationships, memories, values, identity, and other such things as they learned, grew, and lived: it would turn from transparent to colorful. at the end of their days, a human's organic body would die, and their soul would drift into the expanse of heaven: its contents, its color, would be removed (perhaps it is stored somewhere), and the now-empty soul would be recycled for a newly-born life.
these humans had lots of power, among them the power to live long, fulfilling, love-filled lives; unfortunately, because of structures they imposed on themselves, many lives were cut short by cruelty, and many were full of suffering and anguish. some say that humans were always going to stoop to selfishness, to hurt and steal and kill, as it is their nature; the much sadder truth, however, is that they had so much potential to be kind, to make the world beautiful… but they failed to live up to it. they failed themselves.
many humans longed for a better world; they dreamed of a utopia, a place where people could live freely and happily and together, where they can sing and play and frolic in the great green of earth's heaven. they didn't want the world to go on like it had been anymore. but could their dream become a reality? or had their species broken the world, and themselves, too much for things to be fixed?
perhaps, if every human paused their human lives, for just a moment… if they just sat and thought and looked at the world, for just a single moment… they could listen to the world, how it hums. the same tune that their fragile hearts sing, from deep within their bony chests. without all the noise of themselves, humans could come together and see the world, and themselves, for how it truly is. but humans are a rube goldberg machine; there is always something moving. how could any human put it all on hold?
nobody knows. but somebody must've pressed the pause button.
not long ago, a mysterious event transpired: every human being on earth died, all at once, leaving not a trace.
this might seem horrific -- and yes, it was scary, disorienting, earth-shaking -- but more than anything, it was enlightening. this phenomenon came to be known as "the human-object singularity".
at the singularity, the body surrounding each human soul suddenly disappeared, leaving each colorful orb to travel aimlessly through space. under normal circumstances, each soul would go straight to heaven -- but these were not normal circumstances.
the souls, glowing their rainbow light, unconsciously drifted, like sleepwalking through air, looking for their human bodies: they could not find them. at the end of three days, each soul imbued itself in whatever object was nearby. each individual retained every mental characteristic they had before, though lacked a human body: they now possessed a body of abiotic, and likely man-made, material. when they awoke, wherever their souls' wanderings had led them, and whatever body they now inhabited, they had to come face to face with a new world.
these now-sentient inanimate objects, with no biology to their forms, did not need air to breathe, or food to eat, or water to drink; in addition, given the circumstances, any destruction ("death") an individual faced would not lead to their soul's ascent to heaven and subsequent emptying -- it would just float for three days, as before, and enter a new inanimate vessel. their mind and heart would stay the same, just in a different place and different body.
everyone was now effectively immortal.
now, what do you do if you cannot die, and you cannot hunger or thirst or grow ill? what do you do with your time? do you spend it fighting, like the humans had done in their prime? certainly not over resources; if you do fight, it is over trivial things -- like football, or other silly competitions. it's all for fun.
across the globe, country and economy soon faded to nothing, as did property and war; greed does not last long in an infinite world. no, the world became everyone's playground: let's explore, let's do something stupid, let's pick up a new hobby, let's build an invention, let's meet new people, let's ask questions and maybe try to answer them, let's play pretend, let's count the stars and make up new numbers to count them all.
the world was now full of water bottles and screwdrivers, puzzle pieces and belt buckles, all weaving between the flora and fauna as they learned to truly love the garden of eden they'd never known to love.
of course, as fear began to fizzle, many objects ended up destroyed in their carefree escapades; a friend could often try and guide the soul into a nearby object, and perhaps a similar one to the one before, but it wasn't a perfect process. some embraced the entropy; others were unnerved by it.
since the singularity occurred, scientists from all around the globe began investigating what had flipped humanity around, and were particularly taken to analyzing the soul. after several exciting years, they created the soul ID system, with which a soul, its previous bodies, and its location can all be identified. once their technology was fully developed, these researchers began creating recovery centers: these futuristic containers could hold a soul, identify it, and fast-order a replacement object to be teleported to it for a new body (with all of the time and curiosity in the world, it is no wonder that teleportation would also be developed by this time).
suffice it to say, that in this current age of objects, "humans" are happier than ever. they are inventing new games to play, and forming new connections with one another. no longer human, their humanity truly bursts forth.
but every so often, one object turns to the other, and asks, "who made this happen? who are we to thank?"
perhaps it doesn't answer the question, yet it is answer enough: "each other. for realizing what this could mean for us."
and they fall silent once more, as any inanimate object would in older days -- but thinking. breathing. living.