A short story - 'Life Goes On'

[Tallyman]

SPOILER ALERT!!!

 

Ron and rogG,

 

I wouldn't dare pre-empt anything Mantaspook might say, but I'll throw my two-pennyworth in and tell you what I thought it meant!

 

This is a kind of past, present and future story, so I imagined that we were set at some time in the future towards the end. What if, once the iPhone, iPod and iEverything else had become commonplace, technology advanced to such a stage where your loved ones didn't have to disappear altogether when they died. What if you could capture their spirit - for want of a better word - and somehow contain it and keep it going...?

 

Thus, every hip and trendy person would sport an 'iCache' (not been invented ...yet!) where you could store your dear departed's spirit in a sort of post mortem hotel - a bit like Sims for the dead. Complex technology would ensure that they felt right at home, with all their familar bits and pieces around them. And they'd never want for anything, as the virtual groceries would just keep restocking themselves.

 

But imagine that the drawback of the iCache is that it can only contain one person's spirit. To hang on to both your parents, you'd need to have two. And so they didn't get lonely and separated, those boffins have developed this 'common landscape interfacing' which - I'm guessing - allows the two iCaches to link (like two phones communicating by being connected by Bluetooth). The 'common landscape' would let both 'spirits' occupy the same environment, but - as they exist in different iCaches - they aren't really able to make physical contact with each other. It's as if they are images from separate slide projectors, but shining on the same lawn.

 

My guess is that, as they're not sure what's happened to them, they try to behave in the same way as when they were alive, so it would be completely normal for Dad to phone his daughter and tell her that mother's seeming a bit difficult to get hold of. And the wonderful iCache technology is such that you can talk to the (not quite so) dead!

 

At least, that was my understanding of it! I could be completely wrong!!!

[Mantaspook]

-SPOLIER ALERT-

 

At least, that was my understanding of it! I could be completely wrong!!!

 

Not this time, you're about 99% correct for a change!

 

This is another 'Ghost in the machine' story which is inspired by the notion that if computer technology grows at its present rate, in 20-30 years time we will see computers with an equivalent processing and storage capability as a human mind.

 

After a decade of development of such machines could conceivably have reached our desks or pockets, whether they will be capable of supporting new life forms, or incorporating existing ones, remains to be seen.

 

In the story, Karen obviously loved her parents and would do anything to maintain contact with them, their physical manifestation mattered less to her than their presence, if she could speak to them every day on the phone, make them happy by ensuring they live in a nice house like the one from her childhood, ensuring their needs are met, until one day in the future, perhaps she would join them…

 

"it would be years before I would see him again, assuming I could afford it...If only he knew how much this phone cost…"

 

Imagine what a comforting thought this is for Karen, an electronic heaven where you are re-united with your loved ones. (Alas, the closest that I've come to this is I once lost the wife in Maplins )

 

Tallyman was very perceptive to realise that the technology (at this stage) could only store one person per I-Cache and his assessment of the Bluetooth 'landscape interfacing' was as I imagined it, apart from the ghosts would probably have been able to 'touch' each other in their world. To them, their virtual world would be almost indistinguishable from reality, once the cupboards were programmed correctly & mum's transparency issues were addressed.

 

Thanks to all for the feedback, you've given me some good ideas to develop this story further.

[soft ayperth]

It's a brilliant concept. Well done. The interpretation was deeper than I had recognized. It would be a good story to develop. I'd suggest as you develop it maybe a clue or two about the iCache just for folk like Ron and myself who missed it first time around? Obviously, you wouldn't want to give too much away or it would lose its sense of mystery. cheers.

[Karis]

It's a bit gruesome! Hehehe.

 

But definitely something to think about.

 

It could do with another polish editing wise, you've got some missing words in quite a few paragraphs and some typos (happy to send 'em over) and it's Morecambe an Wise.

 

There were commas used when semicolons would have been more appropriate.

 

Also, I know this could just be my interpretation, but it seemed to me that the first few paragraphs were about two guys. It was only when Karen was mentioned that I realized the main character was female. I can't quite put my finger on why I felt that, though.

 

Other comments: the technology is a bit too subtle, especially for luddites like myself.

 

Very intriguing, though