Amaverse

Chapter 1

Some time ago, during a conversation with my father, I said something that I have been thinking about lately. "Just remember," I told him, "that people in the world my age have exponentially more implanted data storage than you have." Of course I was implying that all people my age knew more of value than all people his age. He knew what I meant. He just looked at me and said, "Oh."

He didn't say any more, and we haven't talked very much since. In any case, he prefers face-talking, when most normal people these days are almost exclusively online. He doesn't even have the standard implant extender, only the mandatory ID birth chip with so little data storage as to be virtually useless. He is even curiously ill-at-ease with his hand-held. He puts it down and walks away from it for minutes at a time. My friends, and I, consider that behavior to be antisocial. He doesn't even own a headset, and never plays Amaverse. He thinks it's just a trivial game. Admittedly, it is legally a game, but in Amaverse a person's avatar can earn Amaverse Credits that are as valuable as World Credits. You can even pay bills with them, and conversely, you can spend World Credits in Amaverse. Some people are online permanently in Amaverse, it's their job, hobby, business, play, work, and society – it's their life. There are criminals and vigilantes, the word "trivial" does not apply. My father just doesn't understand it.

Most people I communicate with consider face-talking to be archaic. Truly, it went out with gasoline since before The War. I know older people like to do it. They take a perverse pleasure in making younger people uncomfortable by standing close, making eye contact, and asking for personal data. I never liked it that I can remember. Young children supposedly do it for a short time. For my part, it's unnecessary at any time. Online is so much clearer and more natural. It's never tainted with false meaning by facial expression or body language. There is no intimidation or prejudice based on appearance. Furthermore, it's recorded. On the other hand, face-talking isn't always recorded, so it may not be stored, replayed, copied, transmitted or retransmitted. Some people are more skillful than others at lying with their eyes. So it's unreliable as well as useless.

It was strange, then, that I communicated so much with J, who seemed fatally attracted to the kind of stupidity my father valued. J was the father of M, who was my social partner. I even sought him out. Not that he was like my father. J did not scorn the virtual world, quite the reverse. His apartment was full of the most fabulous hardware over which he exercised effortless control. People came to his Amaverse parties in large numbers, enduring physical closeness for long periods of time that would be uncomfortable elsewhere without the fabulous wall-sized XHD monitors, the holograms, the brain-based intuitive controls, the whole-body scanning controls – all the latest releases of the highest capacity, fastest devices.

I do respect my mother and father, and my grandparents, but only up to a point. They hold on to old ways, like face-talking and physical travel, when the virtual versions are so obviously superior in every way. They would talk of a distant time or a place, or maybe only an idea, where a person could be undetected, "incommunicado" they called it. Where ID chips did not register anywhere on any network or database or GPS map, or even when there were no ID chips. I find that idea preposterous, and frightening to tell the truth. I didn't know why they would have some twisted romantic attachment to being completely offline, personally and electronically. I find it a comfort to know that every single square millimeter of the Earth and every person are online. Even if all your devices were out of power, your friends and the authorities would know instantly and could find you via your chip. Since The War and the advent of the World Peace Government, 100% of the world's population has ID chips, as do 100% of the electronic devices and items of any value in the world. Before that, there may have been a small percentage of people without chips, but they in effect didn't exist until they walked past a camera and were arrested.