Index: n2020.txt ================================================================== --- n2020.txt +++ n2020.txt @@ -600,10 +600,12 @@ She looked at its glistening dampness. "No, thanks. I'll use D-Sign." --- ## The Call To Adventure: + +/* Alley must undertake a program of reinventing herself to overcome her present circumstances. She takes her little box of prioritizer stuff home with her and sits down in the living room with it. She sets everything on her charger and starts reading through the directions. After charging, she pairs devices, dons the glasses, and starts interacting with the prioritizer. She ends up getting a wireless keyboard and typing answers rather than activate the audio input. The prioritizer setup asking her to activate mic input leads to its identification of privacy as a goal. The prioritizer has her go through her inbox and asks questions about job postings. It ends up eliminating all job postings as incompatible with Alley's goals and values. It suggests she deal with important tasks (e.g. paying rent) and otherwise take the day off if she has no other ideas for making money, and that she wear her new HUD all the time so it can learn more about her goals and values. It walks her through winding down for a good night's sleep and charges overnight. @@ -616,10 +618,33 @@ She wonders whether it will just get rid of all her profits. She goes along with it, remembering the fact that she is getting income from the study. Later that same day, the person -- evidently desperate -- agrees to meet in person. The prioritizer directs her to look up information leading her to choose a police station parking lot as a place to do business, and she specifies that as the site of the transaction the next morning. That, too, goes off without a hitch, though she finds the person a bit off-putting and perhaps dangerous-seeming in his evident desperation and twitchiness. She goes home to relax. She idly goes through Craigslist some more, reads, and ends her day. + +*/ + +Alley sat on the couch, reading the instructions that came in the box with the new glasses. She dropped the unfolded instruction sheet and looked from the new glasses to her own glasses, both sitting on the charging plate on her end table. The new glasses showed a glint of green by the right temple hinge; they were done charging. She picked them off the plate, looked at them as the green spark faded, then hooked the earpieces over her ears and settled the glasses on the bridge of her nose. + +Text appeared to float in the air before her: "PAIR WITH PHONE" + +She picked up her phone and followed instructions. When the pairing message faded away, a new message appeared: "PERSONALIZE?" + +Two buttons hovered below it, one blue with the word "YES", the other red with the word "NO". The instruction sheet said she could just point at a button for a full second, or use voice control. She raised a hand experimentally, and saw that it obscured the buttons when it passed through their space in her vision, but not the question. She pointed at "YES" until it blinked twice. The message changed again: + +"ENTER SUBJECT ID:" + +She copied the number from the sticker stuck to the instruction sheet. + +"PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:" + +She waited. + +"DO YOU WISH TO USE AUDIO?" + +No. + ## Refusing The Call: The next day, the prioritizer has her do other stuff, which makes her nervous. She decides she does not want to do that any longer. As a part of this sequence of events, she end up meeting a man but not completing the transaction with him. He seems tense, and tries to get her to complete the transaction, but relents and seems understanding when she refuses. She's glad to get away from the situation. Perhaps there is a pile of money involved, and she decides she should just keep the cash for now instead of buying something "weird". She has resisted the call.