Author: Mike Elkins (---.iphrase.com)
Date: 11-07-2002 08:45
While computers COULD imitate pop culture magic, why would they? Their motives and methods would more likely be very alien. What about instead of looking like fairy lights, they were completely invisible and spoke only an unknown language that seems a mixture of modern languages (if you manage to stumble upon the 'magic words' that cause them to propmt you). They remove toxins from the area and lengthen the lifespan of anyone who spends enough time there, but punish violations of a future moral/legal code very harshly; for example if you kiss someone before standing together before a particular rock, you contract a strange uncurable disease--until you perform a penance. If only you knew how to ask...
Or how about exploiting the fact that today's technology is invisible too. Just like no one noticed servants in 19th century Britain, no one notices all the computers, cameras, and robotic appliances in the mid-to-late 21st. Imagine, someone moves out of the apartment next to you, but no one moves back in because it never shows up on the landlord's vacancy list. There is never any noise, so you think it's deserted. If you peek, it looks like someone is just using it as an appliance storage area. Then one day, you notice Fed Ex leaves a package on the doorstep, and it disappears inside when you aren't looking.
Then one day, they decided they need YOUR apartment too, and you receive an eviction notice, and emails from your landlord (although you can never get him on the phone or in person) and if that doesn't work, one day the elevator takes you to the basement instead of the correct floor, and there is someTHING waiting for you...
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