This is a start of a story I was working on a little bit ago. Will finish working on it at some point probably. I've never shared these fragments with people before, and seldom the finished product. I thought I'd try something different.
When you’ve got option of the wide world and the same thing you grew up with, how do you say no?
The old world seems so small now. And I just feel so stupid remembering how I used to see things. I swear I’ve barely used my physical net connection since I had the surgery. So much shit bypassed now, knowing what people think about you, none of the second guessing reading faces crap. Well unless they aren’t here.
“One of us! One of us!” giggles Streena
“:P Nice way to be 20th Stree” comes my quick reply
Its hard to describe the trans-web to people who aren’t on it.
“then why try?” Winder asks
“because people are scared?”
“Their own loss” he replies, accompanied by Stree’s felt agreement
There is a certain amount of cynicism felt I have to agree. But when we’re getting second or third generation netheads, from the earliest adopters… Its growing, and hasn’t stopped growing.
People who aren’t connected still worry about losing identity, losing control. They are having more and more problems arguing with the longitudinal studies though, about net families being closer, relationships lasting longer. They worry about spying and privacy issues, just because they think everything is open.
So they regulate it. Rules about when we have to be off. Lists, registries, limitations, luxury taxes.
“They’d just neuter us and stop it all if they could”
“Yeah, if there was anything they could do to show it hurt someone”
“Good luck with that, net’s have been self policing for the last three decades. Converts have the lowest crime committal rate of any population. And we haven’t had an internal murder or suicide since the first year of being online”
Some quick taps on my control and I cut out the chatter. I still don’t get the people who can be on all the time. The children who grew up with it and who only chat. Sometimes I think they do more hurt than good in the long run. They can speak any language that’s connected fluidly but don’t by volition. Myself, I can only do it with a little strain, like trying to remember something after years of not thinking about it.
But they’re right that most implant receivers at least become non-violent towards each other. Memories of pain, anger, hatred, when seen from different sides… give most people perspective.
That murder though… It was nearly three decades before I went online and its still there. Its not as intense as it was, but its definitely taken on a “lest we forget property”. The net was so small when it happened, the death was a noticeable loss. Sharon screaming into the general chat so loudly and stopping so suddenly, and she just… wasn’t there. Everyone on knew what it was. It wasn’t a half hour later that police cars arrived.
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