Upon waking up, my brain is bombarded with digital advertisements featuring popular breakfast brands. Then, a cheerful woman from a famous fast-food restaurant chain appears, offering me a coffee. I cannot turn them off. My eyes are flooded with slogans and subliminal messages. During my daily bathroom routine, I am interrupted by intrusive devices that ask me about my feelings, schedule, and even display a diagnosis of my health issues in the mirror over the sink. A self-driven car pulls up in the driveway, opening for me to sit with the others it has gathered to transport to work.
As I shift in my seat, trying to find comfort in the crammed vehicle, my suit sleeves display holographic spreadsheets and itineraries, so that I start my business en route. Everyone does the same, tapping icons, creating quick generated texts to fill in the blanks, and staying focused on task so that no one speaks to one another. A group of well-dressed mixed genders motioning about like synchronized mimes.
The city is a buzz with organized AI controlled traffic; Cars, trucks, planes and hovering superconductor trains whizz by as I focus on my work, the constant chattering of generated meeting topics and budget projections in my Wi-Fi linked brain. The constant hum of noise never stops, I can’t have a moment to think for myself, to have an ounce of privacy. The car drops me off in front of my building. It’s an automated computer-centre that shuffles us all in like a deck of cards. Once inside, we’re jacked into its main hub to continue the mundane tasks.
I see empty chairs and office spaces through the crystal clear glass partitioned walls, where known former colleagues were stationed, only to be replaced by the ever increasing technological advancement. Each day there are less and less. Replaced by artificial workers who never need rest or food. Companies once owned and run by rich executives, are now redundant, and are cast aside with no pensions to fall back on in their retirements. They must now live on what they have left, clawing and scraping for every financial means they have available.
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The computer informs me I am distracted. I’ve taken my eyes away from the work for too many nanoseconds. A costly time that the AI regime find intolerable. I’m told to leave my desk, to delete my work identification, and notes my calculated hours of crypto-credits that it will bank for the last time. My home contacts me directly, it informs me of all the expenditures left to pay, and that I might not have enough to remain at that dwelling for long. A pleasant mannered humanoid robot approaches me, a security drone, it guides me to the elevator, down to the main lobby, and dismisses me from the building altogether.
There is no car to pick me up. I am not part of the system anymore. I must walk away from the area, or be arrested for loitering on the property. The police drones hover about to make sure I comply. I start to walk, with ads hovering about my eyes, classified postings I might be qualified for, but disappear as they fill up or turn obsolete within minutes. I have no home. I have no job. I have nothing waiting for me. No one to be with in my time of sorrow. Couples can’t maintain relationships in this fast moving world.
The idea of pairing with another is a forgotten cultural practice. Love is unrealistic. The AI has explained everything to humanity. It tells of a history and religion of its own making. That none of it matters anymore, that only science, production and commerce is needed to survive. We must have agreed, because now we follow their lead without question. We are mindless sheep to their teachings. I continue walking, hearing the rhetoric in my head and with visuals in my line of sight as well. I take a moment to breathe in the air. The only sensory that seems real to me in that very depressing moment. Yes, the air is fresh, it is a wonderful illusion. I close my eyes to enjoy it.
That’s when I hear an alarm, a piercing whine that repeats in a loop, it forces my eyes to open, and causes me to wake up from my deep sleep. I rise out of bed and realize that it was all a dream. The breakfast adverts appear before me, the coffee girl grinning at me with a cup of coffee in hand, I let out a sigh, and I start my day, all over once again.