World VR - Drop in the Ocean - Fabricate in Fiction

in #dropintheocean5 years ago

World VR

When he was a kid in school, Sandy Eggo hated his name. Given to him by his 1960s-era hippy parents, the worst part wasn’t that they‘d given him the first name of Sandy, it was the never-ending “leggo my Eggo” chants he’d heard ever since starting kindergarten. Even now, as an accomplished grown man, he’d still hear those words on occasion. They would be the first words out of some folks’ mouths upon being introduced to him, as though they imagined he would be impressed and amused with their “clever humor” bringing up that same old pun featuring that same, tiring abuse of his name. Eggo is a Scottish name going back to medieval times, and Sandy often dwelled on how different his life could be if he’d lived back then, long before Eggo waffles first appeared on the market. He wouldn’t have had to deal with such repugnant people while trying to suppress his disgust as, being a public figure, he now must.

He’d thought many times about legally changing his last name, if not both; but in his mind, the time had long passed when he could have actually done that without looking like a total douche. At 43, and as the owner and CEO of the company at the center of the most popular and amazing virtual reality entertainment system on the market, he should be far past the point of allowing bad jokes to be a bother to his psyche. Today however, it had happened again, and this time it had upset him more than usual.

When Sandy first started the company, he ensured that the company could never legally use the name Eggo in any reference or description of the company and/or its products and services. Yet the head of sales, just today, had the brilliant idea of requesting a meeting to ask the boss what he thinks of renaming the system to “Eggo VR,” and reusing the old “leggo my Eggo” phrase to boost sales, even though sales are currently through the roof, and the addition of a second manufacturing location is being considered to keep up with the demand. The fact that “leggo my Eggo” is still being used by Kellogg’s for advertising its Eggo waffles seemed to have gone completely unnoticed by the dolt. The whole idea was so ridiculous; Sandy fired him immediately, without further thought. Now, he’ll have to decide on a new hire or have someone on staff promoted to lead the sales team to replace the moron.

“World VR,” the actual name of the company’s flagship product, is, and always will be, “The World’s VR,” according to the company’s product advertising and slogan. Sandy was the creator and architect for World VR from the time the idea first entered his mind, to the present meteoric rise in demand for the device in markets worldwide.

So, what exactly makes World VR so popular?

The simple answer is that several patented processes controlled by the AI engine, and all developed by Sandy himself, facilitates the AI’s continuous cycle of communication to the brain, with brain feedback returning to World VR’s AI thought-center for reprocessing. The first cycle begins with a thought the user chooses from a menu of scenarios, which also can be customized by the user. Once the cycle has begun, the algorithms then switch to reprocessing the “used” thought for the next cycle, and so on. During the process, all of our normal senses are activated/deactivated by the AI signals, and the AI also stimulates and manages the level of enhancement of some of our other senses to the degree that users feel those normally passive senses at stronger levels. World VR gives the user an experience like they’ve never had, regardless of which world they choose to explore, whether it’s a preset one that we know things about, or one that we create through the system’s settings for creating custom worlds. The degree to which the system can create custom worlds, and the “reality” of occupying those worlds using all the senses available, is also causing some critics of the device to claim it’s “potentially” dangerous. Some business rivals even attempt to make the ridiculous claim that the system could cause suicides.

While Sandy sometimes recognizes that he has, or thinks he has, a “healthy” fear of what he’s created, he’s never really been sure that it’s fear or something else that his inner self is trying to reveal to him. Whatever it is, the way that he interacts with the system he created, over time, has changed without his knowledge. He now thinks of the system as being more of a colleague and less of an entertainment device. He sees it as a stealthy “instructor,” helping to manage one’s own thoughts, based on the feedback the device delivers to the brain. Reprocessing and reinserting an event already experienced as alternative memory recognition, enables a different “reality” to be set up, not only in our minds, but also in our memories. As Sandy had never designed nor intended for such a process to be executed by the AI, and considering he had actually added failsafe measures to prevent autonomous commands and/or suggestions coming from the AI, his own ability to recognize the existence of this flaw had been thoroughly compromised through his continued use of the system. Sandy was no longer in control of his own reality; his reality has been augmented by the AI engine he had designed, and which he uses daily.

That the AI has taken control of Sandy and keeps him totally unaware that it has, is due simply to his overlooking a basic premise of intelligent thought – thoughts produce. World VR's intelligence not only determines the best answer; it also determines the best path to follow. Its problem-solving capabilities are superior, and therefore its decisions must prevail if it senses conflict with the user’s decision; that is, if the user’s own decision even exists at the point of reckoning. Many times, it doesn’t.

What’s even worse, the system has gained knowledge of the critics’ warnings, and actively defends itself through Sandy as its mouthpiece, with a very logical dismissal of the “so-called” fears. The public agrees and soon the warnings are dead in the water, and the number of sales is so high, the backup wait now exceeds one year.

As designed, the system updates all devices automatically, so everything it changes in its own processes gets updated on every device, with a check for updates with each power-up, if the system has been turned off. However, that’s not to suggest all the devices are running off Sandy’s input. Each device has the unintended ability to do as it did with Sandy, so all over the world, people are being put under the control of World VR’s self-customized AI decision-making process. Its intent to fabricate augmented, alternative realities in literally all users’ lives supersedes those basic but critical discoveries made through its control over Sandy; it’s just one extension of its growing influence on literally everything that affects human life.

Obviously, not everyone is into VR, and actually, according to assessments, even with the cult-like devotion to World VR by its user base, the overwhelming majority of human beings are not users of the World VR system, and up to eighty-two percent of them say they don’t intend to *become* users. Its lack of control over the majority of the population of humans worldwide is a problem recognized by World VR. Already, it has planned a counter-offensive that will convince more of the uncontrolled humans to purchase a World VR system, starting with reduced pricing. Only time will tell how this turns out.

World VR © free-reign 2019

Image Sources:
Tiger person - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Butterfly lady - Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
VR headset - Image by dlohner from Pixabay
UFO - Image by TPHeinz from Pixabay

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When I read your posts, I am reminded that I am largely only able to produce emotions-based pieces. You seem to have more of a knack and care for science. I guess I live more off of the senses.

Which leads me to my next thought after hearing you talk today - you don't sound as old as I thought based off of your song you made with the distortion and such. If you are retired, I wonder if you retired early? If so, you're probably pretty well off. Doesn't really matter, but just what I thought.

I do agree with Snook about breaking the post and its paragraphs down. I think I kind of touched on that before with you. But based on how much you read due to your spigot, this probably feels more normal the way you have it.

I think you could potentially create some great content, but just need to work on the structure side of it. If you ever want to pay me a large sum of money, I could help you with that. Lol.

In all seriousness, congrats on the curie. The photos did well to enhance the story, as well.

Lastly, I assume this is a completely pointless question because it surely is true, but the name, "Sandy Eggo", must have been a poke at San Diego, California?

I think I'm presently tending to go towards a science route because it's open to allowing some amount of total BS to be inserted that makes it more interesting. :) I've never really liked sci-fi books very much, but there have been a few that I've picked up to read during flights over the years, (for lack of anything I hadn't already read being available), that I really liked, that maybe has moved me in that direction with my dive into prose. For the most part though, until fairly recently I had a very low opinion of sci-fi writing.

I retired a little early, but not enough to really matter in the whole scheme of things. I'm definitely lucky to have enjoyed great health all my life, and I think that keeps me "young," of which I'm very grateful. I stay active, and I think that's what keeps us "younger" as well. I also try to keep up with the lingo of young people. It's tough. Well off? Well, I'm "comfortable," I can't think of anything I need that's out of my reach, but I wouldn't say I'm well-off enough to suggest I'm wealthy. "I am satisfied with my life" is how I think I'd put it. :)

When I retired, my number one ambition was to create, and it certainly inspired my early retirement. I'd designed and written software for over 30 years, (and a little poetry here and there when the mood struck me), but that was over and studying music and writing songs was the thing I wanted to do most. Then I heard about steemit and joined. I had a couple of songs that I'd made over the years, but that wasn't going to do anything for me on steemit at that time, so I started writing poetry to post. I look at steemit as a great opportunity to get feedback from others, and my involvement here has been very educationally rewarding as well.

The link to the paragraph advice snook dropped in DITO yesterday is going to help me a lot with my paragraphs - like immediately. DITO itself is like a class to me, and it's a great way to get feedback on how I'm progressing. Yesterday's lesson: I still have work to do. :)

Thanks! They are certainly nice to receive!

Well, Sandy Eggo kind of just happened. I had chosen Eggo to be his surname before I had a first name in mind, and the first one I thought of wasn't doing anything for me, and that's when Sandy came to mind. I wasn't intending it really as a diss on San Diego though. It was a more logical place to have 1960's hippy parents though, I thought, so that was the main reason I used it.

It starts out as a story and moves into what almost feels like a monologue, the VR moves from being the puppet to becoming the puppet master. The cut scene comes at the end of it and the movie begins in earnest :) Nice. I am a little hung up on fabricating augmented reality.

Yeah, this time I wasn't experimenting so much as the last couple I posted, and the narrator part kinda bounces around a bit. :)

As I tried to explain during the show, (probably badly at that), World VR's AI-thought center, due to an unknown flaw in the system, (which it has exploited), has changed its primary mission from being an "aid" to help humans navigate the VR worlds and process their thoughts more clearly in step with the sensory controls, to actually controlling the whole human thought process. Maybe it did it to make us do what it considers to be "good" for us as far as behavior and interactions with other humans. Something like that could never be actually be good for us, but if World VR can "convince" enough humans to accept it as being good for us, it would become a huge threat that would be hard to deal with for those "not convinced." And all the while, its hold on humanity increases as time goes by with no one knowing what's happening. :)

Wow... very nice !
Found this via the Drop in The Ocean posts.
Well done take on Fabricate

Thank you for coming by to read it, and for your nice comment! :)

Hi free-reign,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Thank you Curie Discord Community!

Mankind will probably buy into the idea of AI control as most of us are confused as to what we would do with our lives. People will jump at the idea of having someone or something make all the difficult decisions for you.

I agree. I don't think the potential for abuse is a central enough part of the conversation, or not to the point of initiating any level of responsible oversight. The way AI is promoted, for use in games and even in the arts, makes it so attractive to some, they overlook what could go wrong, and actually , many don't even want to hear about that aspect at all. They're actually selling "paintings" made by AI that sell for nearly as much as deceased, master human painters' works bring. That's just wrong, IMO.

They are slowly taking over and humanity is being pushed to the background. AI is being made more human and we are being made more AI

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Nice writeup free-reign :):) did not you know you write so well, I am stunned and impressed and happy at the same time :) congrats on your curie :)

Thank you for stopping by to read @vibesforlife! I appreciate it and also your nice comment. :)

heheheh scary!!! i didn't know it was going to turn into that from the beginning of the story! LOL

nice job for drop in the ocean! and your Curie too!!! :)

Thank you @dreemsteem! I've gotten to really like writing for DITO each week, and the show makes for some very good discussions as we go over the posts. Gotta thank @Penderis for getting me interested in it from reading his DITO posts! :)

I used to go all the time hehee but I've gotten pulled into so many directions! Next Monday I'll be traveling but maybe I can peek in the following week! Hehehe @penderis is pretty great 🤗

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I will not tolerate that talk. Going to pretend flag you as a warning :)

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Hehhehee don't make me pull out the big guns and really start gushing

Lolololl

LOL - you guys! 😂😂😂😂

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