It is 18:15, 2012. Publicly funded scientific research is breaking down, and during the Second Great Depression, the entire archive is sold. The recordings, that once were available to the public open-source, are now intellectual property of Sony Interactive Entertainment. They published a game called Journey, in which a player controls a nameless robed figure traveling towards a distant mountain. Other players on the same journey can be discovered, but they can’t communicate via speech or text. The only form of communication between the two is an abstract vocal expression.

It is a simulated voice, created as some kind of average out of every voice that was ever recorded. The idea was to move beyond language to forge a pure emotional connection between the anonymous players. Throughout Europe, the voice was promoted as a means of avoiding issues with representation and the ever-growing hyper-individualism in the west.

It was a success. Little by little, Journey took over our lives. We all are being recorded all the time, and our voices are being replaced by one universal voice, speaking one universal language. Unemployed, we walk around in shopping malls, calling out into the distance in a search for lost voices of lost species. It is getting late and we are forgetting the sound of their voices.