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20 years from now.....
Contributed by BobbyMac
Introduction
Chapter 1 of this story first
appeared as a post in the online forum of a virtual world called There. The
thread was about how There should offer Lifetime Memberships to its members
that would cost essentially 20 years worth of 1 year memberships. Some
speculation ensued as to the nature of There in 20 years which led me to try
to describe a virtual world that was descended from There.
I hope you enjoy reading my first
story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Massive thanks to my muse,
Rose_Blossom.
Chapter 1
WHAPPP!!!
John slapped at his neck.
John: Dang bugs! Do they have to be so realistic?!
Jane: Well you know we set the
realism too high on Fridays, John.
John: Yeah I know but does it have
to be SO realistic?!? Sigh.
John: Well back to work......
John gave a glance at the palm trees surrounding them and at the ocean view
to the north before turning back to the workspace floating in front of him.
He activated his nano-neural interface which put him into the Flow....the
name for the datanet civilization that had risen from the ashes of the
economic collapse due to the invention of nano-neural (integration of
nanotechnology into the brain allowing essentially the connection of the
conscious mind to the global data network) and PortaBatt technology (PortaBatt's
were a small cube about 1/3 meter square with a steady power output of about
30 kilowatts and lasted for about 10 years.)
Jane: So I hear you and the lil wifey are goin out tonight! 'wink (a
little smiley face that vaguely resembled Jane appears over her head and
winks at John.)
John: Yeah, it’s our 2nd anniversary and I guess I want to make our contract
renewal something special.
Jane: Oh! I thought you guys had a 5 year exclusive contract.
John: Nooo. It's actually a 2 year non-exclusive with a community property
rider. By the way, care to join us in our agreement? 'leer (another little
smiley face vaguely resembling John appears above his head with a lecherous
smirk.)
Jane: Uhh…Well, thank you. That is sweet. But I'm in a 10 year exclusive
with Cathy down in accounting. Sorry.
John: Ah well. If you guys break contract, let me know....ahem.....anyways
so me and Darla are gonna go over to Cangrejo for a romantic dinner at BM's
Cajun Kitchen before hopping over to the Plaza to renew the contract...if
you want to witness, we'll be there at about 10 tonight.
Jane: Cool, I'll be there......
Jane turns back to her
workspace….
Jane: Oh darn, this data
tesseract I’m working with is all screwy...Ya know what, I'm gonna take a RL
break and stretch my legs a little. I've been in here about 3 days now and
my medimeters say I'm due for a little exercise...
John: Ok we'll see you tonight......
Jane closes her eyes and fades from existence.....John leans back and his
thoughts scroll across the workspace floating beside him...
"How long will my relationship last with Darla?....I hope for a long time
cause I really like her......perhaps someday we could initiate a data
merge…and create a child together....I would like a real live child but
since Darla is virt we can only have a virt child ….
The workspace continues to scroll with thoughts of family, love, and perhaps
a virtual
daughter and what her life will be like...........
Chapter 2
Later that day John terminated the
nano-neural connection and sat up in his small RL apartment. Taking a few
moments to reorient to the real world, he again marveled at how the Flow was
just as realistic as the real world. Philosophers were still debating the
arguments of whether one was as real as the other, but John knew that the
Flow was just as real to him as here. In fact, real life was just the place
he was when he wasn’t in the Flow, and he suspected that was true of a lot
of people.
After a few deep breaths, he stood
up, wobbling a little as he always did when coming back to physical
reality. The Flow bed, where his body was while he was in the Flow for
extended periods, initiated its maintenance cycle. Time to initiate his own
maintenance cycle. Two hours and lots of sweat later, John felt a little
better. It always felt as if a mass of knots and kinks had disappeared
after he exercised, despite actually feeling ok coming out of the Flow.
Those Flow beds took pretty good care of you.
History 101
Hondisanota Corp., inventor and
marketer of the first PortaBatts, surely had all the good intentions in the
world. Virtually unlimited power, in a portable format; it only weighed
about 14 pounds. It was thought to be the dawning of a new age. They were
right, it was the dawning of a new age, but not the way anyone thought.
People snapped them up as did the
big corporations. New vehicles were developed with no pollution. You could
just unhook the power meter outside your house and hook up one of these
babies and never pay an electric bill again. Engineering miracles were
designed and implemented.
This also quickly brought about a
mass hysteria in the financial markets as power and petroleum companies went
bankrupt but, of course, not before spreading political havoc in the world.
Result: Meltdown. The stock
market crash was horrendous. Governments fell. People panicked. Chaos
reigned. A dark age was predicted.
And then, out of a little known
corner of Silicon Valley, came surely the most unlikely of world saving
technologies…the nano-neural interface and the subsequent development of the
Flow.
Chapter 3
After showering, John lay back
down in the Flow bed and initiated the nano-neural connection. Almost
instantly, Here became There.
John was on a tropical beach
surrounded by palm trees with the ocean to the north once again. The sky
was that perfect blue only found in the tropics. The beach sand was
perfectly white. The ocean murmured peacefully in the background. As
always the Flow was a paradise.
In the shape of a sphere, it was
almost a perfect replica of the earth, excepting two significant things.
The land masses did not correspond to the earth’s land masses and it was not
divided into climatological zones. There were no arctic areas or tropical
areas except at the whim of whoever happened to be there at the time. And
the land masses resembled extensive archipelagoes more than anything else;
islands as far as the eye could see. A few were huge, approaching Australia
in size, but most were on the order of a few square miles, and there were
thousands of them
John admired the view for a few
minutes as he always did when coming back into the Flow. He then did a
search, found his target, and initiated contact.
John: Hey bebe! Miss me? ‘hug
Darla: Sweetie!! Of course I
missed you. ‘‘hug
A slight, small woman, 5 foot if
that, appeared next to John and threw her arms around him. She had the
perfect tanned skin of an island dweller, black hair flowing halfway down
her back, and the most amazing pair of green eyes. She was wearing a flower
print bikini with a wrap, a belly chain, and a pair of sandals. She stepped
back from John and twirled around.
Darla: What do you think? ‘hehe
John: Oh! That is lovely! But
don’t you think that you have enough looks already? You know our budget is
a bit strained right now and new looks are a little resource intensive.
‘spock Besides I love you no matter what you wear. ‘wink
Darla: Pffffttt. ‘yada
Darla made a rude noise with her
perfect mouth and assumed a petulant expression.
Darla: Yeah! you REALLY like this
one huh! ‘ha
The island girl disappeared and
was replaced with what looked like a 200 year old hag with every part
sagging till it almost touched the ground and with perhaps the most
grotesque touch of all; it was still wearing the same flower print bikini
and wrap.
John: Oh honey! Stop that. You
know us reals are visually oriented and when you virts do that it is very
disturbing. But yeah! I still love you anyway. ‘sothere
John reached out and grabbed the
hag and swept it into a firm embrace and kissed it soundly. As their lips
touched, the hag turned back into the gorgeous creature that had first
appeared to him and returned the kiss passionately.
John: That’s much better.
‘sigh
Darla: um..humm… ’’’sigh
John: Oh, that reminds me, Jane
said she was gonna show up at our ceremony tonight. Isn’t that sweet of
her.
Darla punched John hard on the
shoulder.
Darla: Oh! That was sooo sweet of
her. ‘spock You’ve been trying to get her to join us haven’t you?
John: Well ‘sheepishgrin
...Yeah. I asked her today but come to find out she is already in an
exclusive with Cathy from accounting. And what did you hit me for?
‘surprise
Darla: For that kiss reminding
you of someone else, you silly male! ‘outrage
John: Oh. Sorry. I....I.....
‘stricken
Darla: Ya ya Well it’s okay.
‘meh Just let me know before hand next time you try to expand the
contract. I already knew about her and Cathy and could have saved you the
embarrassment.
John: Yes ma’am. And I really
am sorry. ‘eyebat
Darla: Yes. I agree. ‘eyeroll
Well, let’s go eat. I’m hungry.
John: Your wish is my
command…..Heeyyy!!!
John and Darla fade from view……
Chapter 4
And appear on an island in
perpetual sunset. The sky colors were an intense blend of purples, mauves,
violets, and reds shading up to a rosy glow that made you catch your
breath. They had arrived on Cangrejo Island, arguably one of the most
romantic islands in the Flow.
Before them was a large sign
proudly displaying the words, “BM’s Cajun Kitchen”. They entered the
building, if you could call it a building; it had no walls and the roof was
partially transparent. The maitre d' ushered them to their reserved table
and sat them.
John: Well dear what shall we
have?
Darla: Oh I don’t know silly. You
know I don’t have to eat.
John: But I thought you enjoyed
eating. Didn’t you virts figure out how to taste a few years ago?
Darla: Well yes and I do enjoy
what you call eating, but really, do you think that what I experience when I
put some crawfish étouffée in my mouth is the same experience that you have
when you put some in your mouth?
John: Yummy! But does that
really matter though? I mean you still enjoy it don’t you. The sensations
may not be the same but as long as we both enjoy it what’s the difference.
Darla: True it is pleasurable. I
know we have discussed this a million times but… oh… I wish …. I mean
sometimes I just wish….
John: What?
Darla: Well sometimes I wish I
were a real girl.
John: Ooooh…didn’t we see that
old movie the other day? What did they call it? A disney, I think.
Darla laughed prettily. (Actually
Darla and the other virts were all pretty gorgeous people in their natural
state. She could hardly have laughed any other way.)
Darla: It was called
Pinocchio. And you are
being silly again. Ok I’ll have the shrimp and okra gumbo with a side of
potato salad.
John: I like to make you laugh
and I think I’ll have the same ’’joy
History 102
The nano-neural interface was a
simple thing really and it was very very small.
Nanotechnology at the beginning of
the twenty-first century was primitive at best. Only a serendipitous
accident created the real innovation which was when some bright eyed MIT
graduate student accidentally contaminated a nanoscale construction
experiment with a newly developed high temperature superconductor from the
next lab over. As they were trying to salvage the experiment, they started
noticing some unusual things.
The chief engineer took the
results of that bungled experiment with her when the company she was working
for folded. (Companies tended to do that quite a bit at that time.) She
then hooked up with a long time associate who also happened to be a
neurological chemist; because she noticed that the kind of screwy looking
nanomachines resulting from that experiment seemed to radiate high spectrum
energy when somebody came close to them.
After a couple years of research,
(and at a time of intense world change), they announced the nano-neural
interface.
A simple injection was all that
was needed. The preprogrammed nanomachines traveled the bloodstream till
they came to the brain where they latched onto the proper nerve cells.
What they had noticed was that not
only were the nanomachines sensitive to brain waves but that they also
reradiated them into a high frequency radio spectrum, allowing them to be
picked up by a receiver.
And it worked both ways. Send out
a radio signal of the proper frequency and it was converted into brain waves
thus injecting information straight into a person’s consciousness. Of
course it took a few more years for the process to be perfected, but when it
was, it worked really well.
Which leads us to the Flow.
Chapter 5
Karuna Plaza kind of resembled any
large down town area. Except that the buildings were only a few stories
high and there were palm trees and fountains everywhere. Also there were no
paved roads, just foot and cycle paths, mostly grass. Just like any modern
downtown area.
The Plaza, as everyone called it,
was one of the few areas in the Flow that was sort of a semi-permanent
gathering place. There were lots of people here both reals and virts.
John and Darla appeared and
started walking toward the central courtyard. Darla paused.
Darla: Honey is this really what
you want to do. It’s your last chance to back out.
John: Darla, we already
discussed this and yes I want to renew our contract. In fact…
Darla: Yes dear…
John: I would like to make it
permanent…with an option for children.
Darla’s beautiful eyes widen and
then get real shiny.
Darla: You mean it!
John: Yes I mean it, now let’s
go tell everyone….…!!!
History 103
After the nano-neural interface
debuted to deafening silence, (remember all hell was breaking loose in the
financial markets and in the political arena, although thank goodness nobody
did anything stupid at the time, like launch ICBM’s or anything), our
intrepid band of engineers went back to the drawing board.
And what they came up with was
truly brilliant. The Flow.
Using preliminary research from an
early primitive MMORPG called There (indeed many of the islands in the Flow
are named for that pioneering worlds own islands) and combining it with
other technologies (self contained medical modules that monitored a persons
vital functions and kept their body healthy, bulletproof long range
satellite transmitter/receivers for the nano-neural link, and all powered by
the handy PortaBatt) they came up with a datanet concept like no other.
A virtual world populated with
people who essentially had instantaneous travel and communication, equality
across all divides, massive computational resources, and a beautiful world
to exist in.
The Flow beds as they came to be
called were self contained units that could be set up anywhere in the world
and could hook anybody into the Flow, as it came to be called.
As the beds became ubiquitous, the
world calmed down. In fact most people came to stay in the Flow more than
real life. The only real things that needed to be tended to (thanks to the
PowerBatts) were food production and distribution and that was mostly
automated.
Of course we still have to talk
about the virts.
Chapter 6
Darla: Ok. Let’s go tell
everyone. But first…
Darla grabs John, throws her arms
around his neck and kisses him soundly.
John: Whew! Ok screw the
contract renewal! Let’s go home right now!
Darla: Not so fast lover boy.
‘lol We gotsa contract to renew.
So hand in hand they finish their
walk into the Plaza where a small crowd has gathered. Jane and Cathy are
there and John’s boss. Darla’s virt mother is there also beaming happily.
John: Thank you all for being
here. This really means a lot to us.
The small crowd murmurs
appreciatively, with a few good natured shouts and ball and chain comments.
John: We would also like to
announce a small contractual change. Honey.
Darla: Yes, we have decided to
make our contract permanent and option for children!
The simultaneous intake of breath
is almost comic. Loud congratulations and much back slapping ensue.
History 104
After the Flow settled the world
down, people got very busy trying to improve it. Many things were tried.
Many things failed.
One of the first things programmed
into the Flow were agents; software only helpers that alleviated some of the
data overload that affected those first pioneering Flow inhabitants.
One day, someone, no one knows
who, coded into an agent a set of genetic algorithms, essentially giving the
agent the means to evolve. And evolve it did. It soon became self-aware
and continued to evolve into what are today known as virts.
Of course virts are most assuredly
not human. They are pure computer programs that for all intents and
purposes think like us and act like us in fact they pass the Turing test
with flying colors. Of course some humans were and still are very
suspicious of them, but that prejudice is slowly eroding as they have never
given cause for such. The fact that they have attained legal status equal
to humans was also viewed with dismay by some but on the whole most humans
accepted them with open arms. Indeed we couldn’t do without them now as
they have taken over all the maintenance functions of the Flow.
But the most surprising
development is the fact that they actually like humans and even fall in love
with them. No one knows for sure, but most like to think it is because they
are free of the physical limitations of human existence and evolution and
that this somehow allows them to look past these things in humans.
Not long after attaining legal
status, the virts entirely on their own, invented the ‘data merge’, the
actual mingling of digitized genetic information from a human with the
analogous genetic data from the virt thus creating a new virtual ‘child’.
Chapter 7
John wakes up and reaches for
Darla.
Darla: Hey sweetie, can’t sleep?
John mumbles.
John: Wha…What time is it?
Darla: Ummm… it’s about 3 in the
morning. Just go back to sleep honey.
John: Errr…Okay.
John rolls over and soon is softly
snoring again.
Darla, being a virt, doesn’t
sleep. But she does dream. She bends over and kisses John softly on the
back of the head. She then leans back and her thoughts begin to scroll
across her personal workspace floating beside the bed…..
“How long will my relationship
last with John?....I hope for a long time cause I really like
him......perhaps someday when we initiate a data merge and create our child
together it could be a real child....I would like a real live child but
since I’m a virt we can only have a virt child ….but you know maybe in 20
years or so………….”
The workspace continues to scroll with thoughts of family, love, and perhaps
a real
little girl and what her life will be like...........
THE END?
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