| | What if the "gene" weren't a gene at all, but a contract. You agree to Google's rules (circa 2020) about the use of their "overlays" (often termed "augmentations," but I prefer the non-judgemental term). From that point on, your intelligence is generally multiplied, but sometimes reduced, by your transparent and ubiquitous immersion in a world in which you don't even have to pose the question; the answers happen as part of Google's cloud computing of what you're about to think, or what their personalized system predicts will interest you, overlaid on your perceptions at a resolution, personalized style and sophistication beyond the opium dreams of Kubli Khan.
This is really handy for keeping kids out of trouble. Nobody - or a small minority - goes without "wearing" (see Vinge's xlnt "Rainbows End") as it would be like being blind and deaf in a land of the sighted and hearing. Little kids have an effective adult advising, guiding, educating them every waking - and likely sleeping - moment, a big brother (to coin a phrase) who is always there, always watching, always offering hints, advise, wisecracks, affection and understanding, to the point that if one were to suddenly lose that cloud of intelligence informing every aspect of ones experience, it would be like losing ones mind.
However, some people like their minds and consider Google's "augmentations" to be long-term disasters that suck every ounce of real volition from the individual, leaving them a happy, but unaware consuming robot whose real consciousness is increasingly just an algorythm from the cloud that is meanwhile developing its own intelligence. The problem is that as long as you go along with the game that effectively Google and its hosts of advertisers are playing with you, you can play for free, gaining points by paying attention to what they are being paid to get you to pay attention to.
But, should you start deeply questioning the system, then the points don't come in and the costs rapidly mount...
|
|
