I met my time-traveling great-grandchildren

There were two of them: Great-grandchild #1 and Great-grandchild #2.

They didn't even tell me their names, but that was far from the rudest thing they did.

Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

GGC1: Is it true that when you cleaned your clothes, you had to take all of them out of one machine and then put them into another machine just to get them dry?

Me: Well—

GGC2: It's even worse than that, I heard. They also had to remove some of the clothes, or they'd get destroyed in the drying machine. Or shrink down to the size of baby clothes.

Me: Some fabrics are very delicate.

GGC1&2: [laughter]

GGC2: I also heard that people dropped dead right and left from cancer.

GGC1: What's cancer?

GGC2: Like, mutated cells that kill you.

GGC1: Why didn't they just get rid of them?

GGC2: They didn't even know they were there until there were like a bazillion of them, and they were spread all throughout your body, and then a few months later you'd be dead.

GGC2: And people drove cars all over the place, and they'd control the car themselves, and they'd crash into each other and die all the time.

GGC2: And they had to cut all their own food with knives, and people cut their fingers all the time. Like, a person would spend 20 minutes just cutting vegetables and stuff before they even started cooking anything.

GGC1: My grandma still does that.

Me: Are you guys actually here to ask me questions? Do I get to ask some questions?

GGC2: When they needed to order new services, or get refunds, or even schedule an appointment with a doctor, they would call a number on a phone, and a machine would ask them what they wanted, then list numbers like, "To schedule an appointment, press 1. To change an existing appointment, press 2."

GGC1: That would take forever!

GGC2: Yeah, you'd be on the phone for like 10 minutes before you even got to say what you wanted. Sometimes even longer than that. Since you always had to talk to a person, and there weren't enough of them, sometimes you'd have to wait hours just to talk to someone.

Me: I mean, maybe if you're calling a government office or something.

GGC1&2: [laughter]

Me: Do I get to ask a question now?

GGC1: Okay, what?

Me: Have we figured out politics in the future?

GGC2: What does that mean?

Me: Like, are people good at getting stuff done? Do we avoid wasting ridiculous amounts of money and making people vote for things they don't want in order to get things they do want? Do we stop giving people two options they dislike and making them choose one? Do we provide help to the people who need it the most while also incentivizing people to work hard because it can make their lives and the world in general a better place? Do you feel like your concerns are being addressed by your government?

GGC1: No, pretty much the opposite of that.

Me: Bummer.

GGC1: But we have security robots that will taser home intruders. And if you take care of them, dogs typically live 30+ years.

Me: Nice.

Everyone: [high fives]