Augmented i



  augmented i

  by Nathan Goater

  Copyright 2012 John Richard Dobson

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  White light. Blinding reflected sunlight on wet pavements, blurred shapes of people and birds and trees, it made my eyes water just from seeing.

  I had wandered into the park to get away from my screens. I could feel a migraine closing fast; it made me think of ice cream on raw nerves. The game I was working on had gotten on top of me as screens froze, and I hit dead end after dead end. I could feel the deadline looming.

  There was a man walking along the pavement towards me mumbling to himself. I ignored him, he was just another park dweller; some twitched and grabbed at non-existent spectres, others just walked into things or laughed for no reason. Nothing was what it seemed, no one was who they seemed, the only sane place to be was on the slices.

  I shook my head, and closed my eyes, to block out the brightness of the day more than anything else. I just got a negative image of the park in reds and yellows and greens, and flinched to try to get away from the image burnt into my retina.

  A cough roused me and I opened my eyes to see one of my splits emerging from the knotty bark of the tree opposite. He was my most recent split, my Eta, I liked that we had a wealth of shared memories and of all my splits, we shared memories at least once a month.

  "You just grabbing five minutes?" he asked whilst walking through the bench I was sitting on. "I'm trying to negotiating a new deadline for you. I do this because you are myself, but for goodness sake finish already."

  "Thanks", I said squinting at him. "I won't let you down. You know I won't let you down."

  He just nodded "Has it been raining here?"

  "I guess"

  "Hmm. I heard about a link between the weather and migraines. I have a feeling you need to flash you headgear bios, as this damp weather must play hell with your synapses."

  "Whatever" I dismissed him with a wave of the hand, he just rolled his eyes. "I was speaking to my first split yesterday. You know he's left the company?"

  "Yeah," he nodded. "Gamma and me have been sharing memories this past couple of weeks, there's a whole load more on the upload slice. He was telling me all about it." He shook his head. "Your Alph has really stirred things up by quitting on us. From what I gather the company wants it's money back but the Alph of your Beta is claiming they don't have a leg to stand on." He shrugged.

  "It's strange what you miss when your get your head down." And shook my head

  "Hmm, without a doubt."

  "I'm thinking of searching out Fay - "

  "Which one?"

  " - the ex - "

  "The celebrity wannabe?" he said mocking.

  " - yeah the wannabe." I squinted at him, as he now stood in front the sun - its white light making him hard to see and piercing the back of my eyes with its icicle rays. "Before she left we traded guids, I might link up with her there."

  He laughed. "On a celebrities of the past holiday slice? But who as? Some 20th Century idol no doubt."

  "Perhaps," and shrugged against the onslaught of light.

  "You're crazy going after her. You know it will end in tears, don't you." and shaking his head opened a door that was superimposed over a bush. "Later ..."

  With the migraine on top of me, I got up to leave the park. I was that unsteady under the onslaught of the migraine, I must have looked like a park dweller myself.

  Out on the pavement the sunlight was sharply reflected off the passing traffic. It was making my eyesight blurred, everything was a mass of white light. Up ahead stood a woman looking directly at me. She flickered and an oversized packet of medicine appeared. Great, a Dispain advert, don't ya just love targeted advertising. Instead of blocking her I crossed the road, I wanted to get back to my office.

  When I got there I locked the door behind me and settled down, headache still pumping behind my temples. If I was going onto the slices, I wasn't going to do it in public unprotected. A lot of the park dwellers didn't care if they were vulnerable while surfing, I used to like to know my body was safe when I left it, partially or otherwise.

  I stepped out onto a bridge of ancient stone, moss growing on the edges and cracks. The sky overhead was clear, the warmth of a gentle breeze raised the hairs on my arms. I felt myself relax, and like so many other before my headache receded into the distance. At the far end of the bridge was a brick built building. I crossed and entered without any hesitation.

  Inside the building was my room of doors. I like a clean look, so it was white floor, white walls and white ceiling. It was filled to capacity with doors on all six surfaces; I wandered over to one adorned with an orange swirling dragon and entered.

  Inside was a social slice. It was free as in beer and speech, and was packed. The ceiling was low with rustic beams and white plastered walls. There were benches everywhere. People (and sentient bots) sitting, laid out and relaxing, talking everywhere. Some looked around as I entered, one or two waved. I recognised a few of them.

  "Hi Joe"

  "Hey," I replied and walked over to a couple who had spoken. The woman was dressed with a sphere that floated above her head, it rotated casually showing abstract patterns on it's surface. She didn't so much as wear clothes as she wore a similar design where her body should have been; the design was a rotating cylinder with her two feet in leather sandals poking out from the bottom. Her hands were no where to be seen, but she wore a big smile on her face.

  "We're off to a new slice that's opened up later." She said, nodding towards her partner who was currently cuboid and multi-segmented, much like those antique puzzle cubes. The cube changed to a body dressed in jeans and t-shirt. Stubble, dark wavy hair, a design on the t-shirt showed a feed of the inside of a train. "It's at Vube," he said.

  "Vube?" I shook my head, "Never heard of it."

  By thought, some icons appeared on my left, I slapped vube on the "room of doors" picture, and I felt it slip into place at the back of my mind.

  Mister Stubble had changed in the two seconds that I took. He was now a small transparent rock with a screen embedded in its side.

  "He's just seeing if it's open yet."

  I nodded, "Thanks Dinah," and smiled back.

  The entrance door swung open and a small cartoon dragon walked in snorting sweet smelling smoke from its nose. Its claws made scratchy noises on the wooden floorboards as it walked up to the bar. "Moz is in the house," someone shouted amongst the revellers.

  The dragon placed an open box on the bar.

  "Got new slices here" it blurted out to everyone in a gruff dragon-like voice.

  "Hey, let's see what we can digg," Dinah said and went transparent.

  A second later she was back, chortling to herself. "That is really funny, Joseph. You've got to check it out."

  The rock beside her became opaque and changed back into Mister Stubble. "Hi guys, something going on?"

  Dinah turned to him, and they both went transparent. They must have gone to a private channel.

  Stubble came back. "That was brilliant, Joe. Take a look."

  An image appeared in front of me of the slice Dinah and Rav (Mister Stubble) had just visited. It was a slice about a bullied web engineer and his ignorant boss. I'd seen it before and smiled remembering it. I waved off the image and returned to the dragons den with my friends.

  I first met Rav ten years before at a company we both worked at, it was a small slice-con outfit. This was way before I'd ever been split, before I'd joined a company with the money to throw at resource engineering.

  Rav looked up at me from the bench. "Someone's popped up in our Sonet that I thnk you'll really get on with, she's going to meet us later. Wondered if you be up
for a double date. We reckon you two will really gel. D'you fancy it?"

  He was a good chap, was Rav. I trusted him cause he'd had my back in the past, but I bit my lip as I didn't know how to tell him I was gonna search out my ex later. I needed to be with her. Whenever I thought of something else, my mind would come back to her and I knew with an almost religious conviction that she wanted me still.

  I nodded to him, " I don't want to promise anything, but hey it'll be good to add her to my Sonet."

  Rav's face dropped. "Oh no. I know that look." He looked round at Dinah and raised his eyebrows. Dinah laughed.

  "Oh, Joseph. You know she's no good for you, don't you?" Dinah's smile made me feel nervous yet safe at the same time.

  "Guys, I really appreciate what you're saying, but I know Fay wants to get back together, so I've got to find her to tell her I want to as well."

  "Ok," Rav nodded, "But don't say I we didn't warn you. "

  "Sure".

  "You know Fay dropped out of the Sonets a while back," Rav continued. "But we were talking to Grossman-"

  "The human-horse."

  He froze, mid-smile. " - the one. He's got a gastro slice now, eat as much as you want, don't put on any weight. He thought he saw her there, but," Rav rubbed his eyes, "not sure the profile was right. Just thought I might say."

  Dinah shook her head. "I shouldn't be saying this, but I heard she was on an identity holiday slice. Hol-Id or something." She paused. "But just don't do it, Joe."

  At this the cartoon dragon started walking to the door, his claws scrapping the wooden floor as he went, leaving a trail of smoke like an ancient train.

  I felt my jaw tense, why do they never trust me? I realised I needed to leave, I couldn't deal with them not trusting me. Not at the moment.

  "Ok. Bye." I said, perhaps a bit too briskly? "Um, thanks."

  "Later."

  "Bye Joseph."

  And followed Moz out the door.

  * * * *

  I stood in my room of doors, feeling confused. The doors stretched out all around me, on the walls, on the ceiling, some even on the floor, but I wasn't concentrating on them. I was confused with myself.

  I felt foolish and embarrassed. Most people on the slices don't use the doors, it's an unnecessary waste of time, I should have just discontinued it, like I normally do. Only people who don't understand the slices use the doors.

  I brought the house lights up in my Sonet, to see an old style theatre with the seats stretching back from the stage into the distance. Sat in each place were pictures of all the people I knew on the slices, so many that I could barely make out the faces of those near the back, they were just acquaintances to be that far away, to be fair. In the warm orange glow near the front sat images of Rav and Dinah, as well as my splits, and a semi-transparent image of my ex. Which meant her old profile was offline. No surprises there.

  Seeing Rav, I remembered a conversation we had about the size of social networks, and as I focused on his picture a group of ideograms grew like petals around him. I saw the conversation was archived, so I played it:

  Rav was sitting in a coffee shop opposite me, sun streaming through the window behind him, we had a shared overlay on the table top showing a diagram of the human brain. Coffee cups dotted about, around the sugar bowls and menus.

  "It's this bit here," he said moving a cup and pointing at the outer part of the brain. "It's the neocortex. They say over the last hundred or so years it has been growing faster than any other bit of the brain." He looked up at me, "You know in medical history they call the old homo sapiens, homo smallheads?"

  I took a draw on the froth of my coffee. "But so what?"

  Rav smiled, "Ah, that's the thing. The size of this bit here, the neocortex, is proportional to your social network size. They've proved it with monkeys too, their group size is proportionally smaller than the smallheads, who are proportionally smaller than ours! Can you believe that before the slices, we couldn't hold in our heads more than a couple of hundred people." He shook his head. "That just amazes me."

  Watching the memory, in my Sonet, I smiled at the remembrance of it, and then realised that my ex, Fay, had been sitting behind Rav, my loins tightened. Gads, I hadn't noticed before with me sitting there facing the sun, but this memory was from before we had got together. And on that realisation I got a shiver go up my spine. We were meant to be together.

  * * * *

  Hol-id from the front looked like the entrance to an airport, it was all wide open spaces and light with glass and steel. But as I stepped in, the airport bustle was missing as the reception to Hol-id was deathly quiet. I stepped back out through the revolving door into their sunny day to see if I could hear anything there too. Utterly pointless as on the slices they could show it however they wanted. Stretching off to the left and right of the reception was a tall wire fence with the barbed rolls of protection on the top of it. I wondered off towards it and peered through the fence. I could see the various celebrity identities inside, relaxing around pools or going in and out of rehab. Just as they advertised, it was all laughter, tears and tantrums.

  I shook my head. People like doing this for a holiday? Taking on another person's thoughts, feelings and impressions? Losing themselves in another's experiences so totally? Bizarre.

  I wanted to see my ex, but I preferred not having to book a holiday with them to do it. I knew she was here and I needed to speak to her, but Hol-id didn't do temporary or evaluation passes, or so the pixel perfect image of a woman behind the reception desk had told me. There had to be another way, and I knew from my work there probably was.

  With any game I designed I would put a secret back door in the slice, so I could get in to check things out without having to go through the hassle of registering or logging in. With that in mind I was convinced there would be one here too, so I set off for a walk around the perimeter of the Hol-id camp.

  Usually when I created a back door I would hide it as a rock or something unimportant, like maybe the full stop on a sign. I walked the fence looking for anything like that or out of the ordinary. I got to the rear of the perimeter and didn't find anything, it was just dusty soil all the way back stirred up occasionally by a warm breeze. I could see that I was going to have to pay them a month's salary just for a quick look around.

  I shook my head. "Bollocks." I stared through the wire fence at the Hol-id camp. "Maybe I should just cut the wire."

  A sign just above my eye line announced: Keep out. Hol-id ventures is a subsidiary of Slice-i-zons Inc. Anyone found trespassing will be prosecuted.

  "They use a full stop too?" And pressed it with my finger. The fence and slice remained the same.

  I stared at the sign longer, pressed around it, pulled and prodded, then had an idea and laughed.

  As I pressed where it said "Keep out" my surrounds faded away and were replaced by a new slice. It had worked, I was in! I felt such relief I wouldn't have to pay them anything after all.

  I found myself in a smallish dimly lit room with screens filling one wall, a control room of sorts. The screens showed various people going about their everyday activities. They had that air of celebrities, a touch of distance and mild disdain. This would have been a slice coders' administrative view of all those everyday people who had paid up to experience life as a celebrity on the slice. The ex could be on any of these screens.

  I brought one forward that showed a blonde girl, sour look on her face clutching a baby as paparazzi snapped away photos with those - and I laughed at this - antique cameras. How the hell was I gonna figure out whether the ex was using this life as a holiday. It didn't look like the ex, but I suppose that was the point. Did it move like her? I zoomed in on the celebrity. Even then it wouldn't be my ex moving this image as what was relayed on camera was from an archived immersive experience file. My ex had handed over any experience of her own body, thoughts, and even memories so that this celebrity's life was her total experience. If there was anythin
g that could help me find her I needed to find a way of checking if this was her. It felt depressed, this was going nowhere.

  I enlarged the screen and saw a row of ideograms along the bottom. I realised that one of them was for 'guid'. At last, I felt relieved. All I needed to do was press it and compare it with the copy of my ex's guid that I had. My shoulders relaxed, as I felt excited that I would be with her soon.

  Just at that moment one of the screens on my periphery burst into life. I glanced over to see that it wasn't a celebrity holiday it was showing. The quality of the image was wrong, too grainy, and the refresh rate was way too low. This was a real life feed, something offline. I then realised what the image was showing, and my stomach churned. I had to fight the feeling to vomit. It was such a strong feeling I nearly came off the slice by the force of it.

  A man was being held down by two other men, but whose heads look like they had been shrunk. Were they what Rav called "Smallheads"? Another of these smallheads was doing something I could not see, as his back was to me, but I could see the victims face was twisted in a scream.

  "Oh my god. " I felt faint, I heard my heart-beat in my ears. What was this, old footage? So many things didn't make sense, surely this wasn't one of their holidays? And didn't Rav say there weren't any smallheads about nowadays?

  I wiped the sweat from my forehead, it felt clammy and cold.

  They had flipped the man on his front now, and were cutting into the base of the neck with a powered saw. Sparks flew when it hit the man's router, embedded into the back of the head, and the smallheads started pulling at it with a hook. All along the man writhing and fighting against the three men.

  They flipped the man on his front now. All along the man writing and fighting against the three men.

  My head started spinning and I slumped back onto the floor, tears welling up in my eyes. My brain had brought me offline while I vomited onto the white floor of my office near the park. As I lay on my back exhausted, my stomach muscles knotted, and the slice resumed around me.

  "Shit!" I screamed in his face, one of the small headed men was in the room on the slice with me, leaning over me.