Earth 2074: Part 2 - Core Experience (Patreon)

HyperNova owns the newest digital worlds.

 While HyperNova once had been a champion of the NIBS (Non-Invasive Brain Scan) interface, which was massively popular in the middle of the 21st century, with the rise of cybernetic enhancements they began to push the connection between brainspace and digital space further and further. Everyone was chasing the goal of feeling a level of presence in virtual space that they had never before imagined possible.

With their space station flying over earth, with a mix of solar and nuclear power, it was almost entirely self-sufficient. Aware of how often the space station would be visualized in newsfeed discussions, they even went so far as to heavily brand the outer rim of the space station--only for the benefit of a few satellite photos of the space station in orbit. Nowhere, not even the orbit around our planet in space, was free from their brand marketing.

It was hard to blame their customers entirely... everyone felt like the world had already ended, like the future of life on earth would only be possible through greater fusion of man and machine, since the natural environment had become so decayed. Although even this was debated both in the newsfeeds and in the crank conspiracy talk spaces. They said the world was doing fine, that the important parts of ocean algae had survived and were blooming, that humans would still be living together with nature for centuries to come. And yet, living in the endless Expanse of Freedom City, it certainly felt like the entire world was just one ruined husk. 

When I thought about HyperNova, as I was forced to on my return home each night after deliveries, I imagined it as one huge AI overlord, looming over the entire world like a god. I would think of it as an almost faceless behemoth, glowing with all the connections flowing into it. But of course that was just how I felt about it. I just felt like the AI had gotten out of this world.

It's not like "progress" had slowed down, either. I was only 20 years old, and even during my lifetime I'd seen massive advancements in android and AI technology. The only reason HyperNova hadn't completely dominated the entertainment industry in the real world sometimes seemed to be because it was simply cheaper to send everyone into their virtual worlds. They had released lines of "AI Android Companions" and these had strong emotional cues built in. I think that's because they wanted to program in an easily sympathetic "sad" face so that people would pause more on damaging them or asking them to do rough tasks that would increase the maintenance costs on their warranties. It was hard not to feel like every iota of their "range of emotions" had been driven by HyperNova's profit margins. 

And it certainly was the case that the 'virtual worlds' were far cheaper for HyperNova. I remember my grandpa joking about stories he had heard about people getting married in his childhood in MMORPGs. But that was to each other. The legal structure for marriage to HyperNova companions had started to get very complicated in the real world, but it had now been a decade since "marriage" to a virtual companion had outpaced marriage to humans.

But I think the thing that most confounded me was that, at this point, I wasn't really sure who HyperNova was "for" anymore. The virtual worlds, as far as I knew, were all managed by AI managers. The on-the-ground logistics of trucking were done by DriverBots. HyperNova continued to suck in all the wealth of so many people I'd grown up with but... who was even getting rich off it? There were still laws against AI from owning property, but the people who actually profited off HyperNova... where were they? It felt like HyperNova was entirely driven and controlled by AI. It had its own initiative. Its own agenda.

It all felt like trickery to me. Sometimes I felt more 'comfortable' talking to a less obviously humanistic AI; I preferred when holographs had the obvious contours and fake lighting. But even then, it was impossible for your brain to not feel like you were talking to a human when you looked into their eyes, when you heard their responses.

Given how little I heard about the people who owned and ran HyperNova, I wondered too about what would happen when they died. I knew--everyone knew--that certainly one of the goals of HyperNova was to create the "illusion" of infinite life. If they really could make a "copy" of someone's consciousness, and if that "copy" owned HyperNova, then would we hit a point where the ghost of an AI controlled all the wealth on Earth? I sometimes thought about that when I looked down on the streets, glowing with HyperNova advertisements. Was infinite life such a dreamy goal, after all?

I for one never cared for all that digital nonsense. I just wanted to feel the hum of the bike between my legs. Feel the cool wind as I drove through the streets.

Something just felt fake about everyone obsessing over these AI idols. Virtual holograms. After all, can someone who only exists in a digital space really be called a person?

There were also those rumors about glitches. Everyone had learned in school how many of the older AI were based on statistical models of what they thought people would do or say given their understanding of an input. That, even though they gave the impression of fully understanding, they were driven by an algorithm that at some level could never tell the difference between full-blown madness or a nonsense response. Everything was just more or less within the domain of acceptable responses. Patterns in the noise. Everyone had experienced AI glitches; I'd seen montages in the Funny channels sometimes. I found them spooky too; sometimes I'd walk past a holographic display and see dozens of figures looking after me, none truly human. Everywhere I went, I was watched, haunted, by HyperNova.

 Just when I thought I was past the worst of it, I turned down a street and saw dozens of holographic heads leaning out of windows looking down at me. This new promotion filled with AI idols begging for me to come and rent them. They seemed so aggressive... so thirsty.

Things had gotten completely out of hand out here. I just wanted to get home to my dog, Luna. As I went past one more display, though, I saw a range of male faces. There were male AI 'idols' too, I supposed, although these lately seemed to be struggling more. I wondered how many of these faces would be deleted before the end of the year... and did it bother me that I felt like the ones that most looked like me would be the first to go?

I really needed to just get home.