Corporal Joe Bauers, deemed to be the perfect average soldier, is selected to participate in a top secret experiment on hibernation. Also selected is a prostitute named Rita who is hiding from her pimp.
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The experiment is supposed to put them into suspended animation for a
year, but instead lasts five hundred and Joe wakes up to a changed world. In the year 2550 the average IQ has dropped dramatically and the country is a terribly dumbed down and anti-intellectual mess with everything aimed at the lowest common denominator and controlled by corporate interests. Everyone eats junk food, is barely literate, and most entertainment and news is mixed with porn and low brow humor in order to maintain interest.
Joe ends up in the hospital and when it is discovered that he has no credit and lacks the mandatory citizen tattoo, he ends up in prison. Joe takes a mandatory IQ test there and finally realizes that as an average man of the past he is in fact twice as smart as anyone in the future. He proceeds to use this to his advantage, escaping and looking for a time machine to return home.
Meanwhile Rita has also woken in this future and returned to her old ways and Joe runs into her. Together they seek out the time machine but end up arrested again. This time the results of Joe's IQ test are known and he is taken to the White House instead of prison. The president tells him that as the smartest man on the planet he needs to fix the current situation, and Joe is named Secretary of State.
The first problem Joe addresses is the failing agriculture situation. Right away he finds out that the Brawndo corporation, which makes a sports drink, has convinced the government it is good for everything including watering crops and has the exclusive contract for this purpose. Joe explains that plans need water to grow and the president agrees to switch over.
Overnight Brawndo stock falls to almost nothing and the economy is thrown into turmoil. Since the crops show no difference they decide to execute him, despite his explanation that crops don't sprout overnight.
Now its up to Joe to survive long enough for Rita to come up with a way to save him, and maybe the rest of the country alongside him.
Best part of story, including ending:
The concept is good, but the execution is a bit over the top.
Best scene in story:
The Brawndo commercials.
Opinion about the main character:
Joe is an average guy trying to get by, which makes him relateable.