The Fut is Now, and it’s Dated
Darrel was feeling gloomy that Monday as he bumped his way up 7th Ave towards his office. He was ready to shove the next glare victim distracted by the hud on his glasses but he shied from physical force. He could count on one hand how many fistfights he had gotten into. He finally made it onto the elevator, his face inches from a pair of darting eyes behind glowing glare specs that freaked him enough, so he shut his and shuddered, the other was unaware of him, and probably didn’t see him.
Darrel was surprised to see Zaq sitting at a nearly empty createspace near the cafe. “I had a fight with my p”, Zaq said as he sat down a few seats away from him. “Didn’t have much choice but to brave the journey here from the Bronx. But my glare was fully charged so I didn’t see much.”
Darrel put on his glare and began to load his dash space with editors and dashflow consoles to guide his various AI. He loved his glare. AR, HUD glasses had revolutionized the workspace by giving depth to everything and turning any quiet spot into a fully functional workspace. he still preferred a mouse and keyboard over the new controlpoints, but he could survive, especially if they had thumballs.
What Darrel didn’t love were the uninhibiteds that wore their glare always and everywhere, forever distracted by whatever content curator aggregators were more appealing than looking another human in the eye. Darrel still believed in politeness and the value of human connection. More than belief, Darrel experienced the beauty of real human relations every day. He maintained many face to face friendships and valued his wife and kids above all. Darrel experienced a level of peace and meaning that he doubted any glare addict would ever feel. Glare was a great tool that broke many limits to productivity and communication, but glare belonged in the workplace, much like a jackhammer was best left on the job site.
As Darrel flicked through his news feed a tag caught his eye; “Lifestream, Can you live someone else’s life?” Morbidly, Darrel tapped in. “Glare is set to unveil new streaming service aimed at it’s more than 700 million daily users”. the subhead read. “Glare’s Member Success Leader, Justin Glombe, explains.” “We all yearn for better, brighter days, to be with people who vibe us and live life. Our members have come to expect the very best in user experience and now we can offer them the opportunity to tap their lifestyle for an hour or a day or howlongever. Opt-in backers can now glare into 20 channels of 24-hour life lived by top lifestylists such as Bohde and CRAKE and experience their entire life in fp.”
“Dar, help me out here will you?” Zaq’s voice filtered over from where he sat. He sounded nervous, if that was possible, his arms floating frantically as he manipulated his glarespace. Darrel tapped in to find him hopelessly overopened and proceeded to shut down most of his apps. “Have you heard of lifestream?” “i was one of the betas”, Zaq even spoke uncapsed. “I helped get one of the lifestylers in.” Darrel felt a twinge of pity. “Do you sleep in your glare?” He asked Zaq.
Zaq felt a slight nudge as his scope settled into a spot in front of his office. He brushed his finger against the authpad and walked up. He ignored the payment popup that was then stashed among all the other pop-ups in his glare. ‘I still wear glare’ he thought to himself. ‘even the sharpest edges dull.’
he walked passed Jann and waved. Jann probably didn’t see him. he had been an early lense adopter and it was imposs to know if he even saw you. the most avant lensers were even able to type with their eyes. ‘My future is already dated lol’ he thought to himself. He didn’t miss or regret his lifestream era. Days, nights, weekends spent living out someone’s fp. He walked a bit until he found a seat that glowed green and sat, making room on his cluttered workENV. he spent the rest of the morning reading about macrofast, the latest big to acquire an ai origination startup.
Ai originators, a kind of euph for deep learning systems that scouted trending startups and then copied, launched, and marketed them in less than a day, usually for cheaper, had only explorupted two years before, but the tech landscape had already changed and founders had their litigation mapped and flowed out even before they pitched the backers chosen for their strong counsel capabilities.
That afternoon he took a Hop home. Hop was another two wheeled FAV startup. Only cheaper, slightly in fare and muchly in the gauge of the material. Fully Autonomous Vehicles were an irk for a while, but he was adaptable.
Later that night after he had logged off his therap.ai account a memory of Dar, whom he had worked with five years before, poked into his head. ‘I bet he’s ok with all this change,’ he thought, ‘adapting where he can and letting the rest go’. Dar mused his own unwinding from futurethuse to innovhater. squashing a small pit in his stomach. I’m too nerved to try even the daily lenses. he thought. The lenses had just a few circuits, getting both power and data via an inductive field sent forth from a band on the wrist, or the neck, or the office Wi. ‘Maybe I don’t want my brain bathed in induction’ he thought as he fell asleep to the soothing lights, sounds, and waves of his glare atmo.
