John Sanchez a regular guy in 5th wave THS -- his life

[SimonAce]

Here is what a typical person has for a life in THS

John Sanchez 32 American

A rarity John has a Mother, Betty (age 75) and a father Tomas (age 80) both retired. Tom used to own an export company. At 45, a youngish age Betty got pregnant and in a surpirse move had the baby in the old fashioned way.

John is genefixed though fully baseline human and has no reproductive rights issues

John, like most people globally is an only child.

he attended a Virtual public School system and upon graduation
was VR educated at US Nationalonline University (a free school) with adegree in Structuralism and Memetics. He is tri lingual speaking Spanglish (the default US laguage) English and Latin American Spanish. He is learning French.

Unable to find work (his creative index is too low) an having no client base John is on the dole.

The provides him with a decent apartment (he lives in California BTW) and becuase of his spartan lifestle a substantial savings

The lifetsyle called "elective virtual minimalism" is very popular in 4th and 5ht wave nations. Its tennets are "use little, own little, live online"

It is opposed by a memtic campaign from a number of major coporations and some governments who are attempting to increase reproduction and consumption.

This campaign is failing do to filteration by software

The filteration is aopposed by another meme campign, th open minds movement, also failing do to a counter campaign against so called brainwashing --

John owns virtuallly nothing --a chair, a table ,a bed, vr rig, and a few bit of this and that

He does not cook instead eating self heating meals.

he does not own a vehicle

His schedule (set up by the house brain) looks like this

Rise 7:00 AM

Morning Shower and Stretch till 7:15 not John niether needs to shave nor needs to brush his teeth. He sports elective baldness though this look is not univeral

Dress: This is optional -- his avatar might have clothes, John has only a few for special occasions.

Breakfast -- whatver, its soy based, tastes good and is self heating. Open, wait and eat. His may contain appetite supressants as well as nuticuticals

VR, Education or Info Hunting till Lunch

Lunch and an exercise break

VR till Dinner

rinse repeat

John will go out a few times a year, mainly special occasions or necessary appointments. If John runs out of tacos or something and is hungry betwene deliveries he might go to a vendor though this is rare.

Shopping is done in VR space with tactile gloves and automated dispatch robots. Food is delivered this way as well -- Order placed -- Money debited -- order sent -- John picks it up outside the door

Odds are his friends are all virtual -- some are human, many are programs. He has never seen any of them in meat space.

Also ona personal note, John has never had sex in meat space and may find the idea revolting.

He has no immediate plans for any familiy although he may see his parents on a regular basis in VR

On clinical not John does not have agarophobia -- he simply rarely needs ot leave home since home is furfilling and safe.

What do you think?

[Qoltar]

Well, honestly?

It sounds like a sad life.

Thats not a knock on what you wrote.
If thats typical in THS - no wonder some might want some ADVENTURE! in their lives.

- Ed Charlton

[Pragmatic]

I do not believe it's as bad as he wrote. There is a problem with underemployment, but 90% unemployment? Not likely.

There has been a trend towards making corporatists (as opposed to sole proprietors) work no more than 30 hours a week. I remember that passage from one of the THS books.

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I do not believe it's as bad as he wrote. There is a problem with underemployment, but 90% unemployment? Not likely.

There has been a trend towards making corporatists (as opposed to sole proprietors) work no more than 30 hours a week. I remember that passage from one of the THS books.

The THS canonical work week is 12 hours IIRC -- I figure that other than creative stuff or little home craft deals or the like there really is very little need for humans to do anything.

More creative people might have a more interesting life though.

John here is pretty typical extrapolating for trends (addiction to WOW, modern Korea) of what people are like in THS.

Poeple are easily hooked on games now, imagine realer than real VR designed witha greater knowledge of psycology -- Instant addict

Since all his needs are met John is happy. He had friends, family at hand, good food, a new world to visist at will, education on demand, good health care etc.

[Qoltar]

Does he ever get Sunlight ?

A fresh breeze on his face ?

A hug?

A kiss? ever?

The feeling of drizzling rain on his skin?

You make it sound like a cold future .

- Ed Charlton

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Does he ever get Sunlight ?

A fresh breeze on his face ?

A hug?

A kiss? ever?

The feeling of drizzling rain on his skin?

You make it sound like a cold future .

- Ed Charlton

If John wants these thinsg he can walk out the door and buy them or sim them. Its not that easy to get a hug or a kiss now unless you know someone . Imagine a future where meat is obsolete and that hot chick you like is an ediolion or a ghost.

Sex, sure. Just run a cheap pron program

Sun Pumped in through fiber optics

Simmed

Hug? Hmm probably not popular then or you get a VR hug with the VR sex suit

Kissing is pretty rare as it is probably considered highly unsanitary

Drizzling rain -- cold and wet

I think the THS future is pretty awful for US 2oth century tyoes -- constant mental manipulaion, no privacy, no work life, many of the people around you aren't human ... Ugh

Better off people have more to do but with VR you don't need to so those things. The only reason to actually go to the moon is to say you have done it. Otherwisese just log in -- you don't need to tell the difference.

A lot of things we take for granted now don't exist in THS -- they would consider us primitive savages for even wanting them (meat, sex with humans , kissing etc) Optionally if you did have the urge thats what SLINKS are for

I don't think people in THS have well developed social skills by our standards -- you never need interact with another meat person and you won't be lonely because of computers.

They aren't metally ill (genefixing makes that a taboo) but they don't have skills and live a radically different life than we would understand

On the work front you probably don't work as whatever you might use a human for you'd use a bioroid or a bot or an SAI instead. Its cheaper and most work now in 2006 is rote work. Imagine 21 whatever

Creative endeavours are different but even the info hungry people of THS have only so many eye-hours and culture is fragmented.

Sure there is the occasional hit but there is so much media its a sea of noise

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

Here is what a typical person has for a life in THS

John Sanchez 32 American

What do you think?

I think John sounds like he's someone in Japan in maybe 2020 - he's a Hikikomori! Seriously, that was nicely done. A bit dystopic for a Fifth Wave resident - he sounds more like someone who's still living in late Third Wave and couldn't adjust. Let me try one!

Ariel Juarez age 26, American

He's John Sanchez's next door neighbor.

Like John, Ariel has two parents: his mother, Shanae (age 51) and a father, Robert (age 47). Shanae is a genetic counselor. Robert mostly lives on investments managed by his AI, but works part time as a travel sensie playtester. Both are genefixed, but as is typical of their generation, they arranged to make Ariel a genetic upgrade: a conservative Alpha.

Ariel shares his apartment with a K-10 dog, Xi-Chun (named after a favorite Martian invid star), who was raised from a puppy his mother gave him. Xi-Chun spends much of his time out of the apartment, pursuing a (somewhat scandalous) relationship with an SAI that lives in a bioshell dog six apartments down. Xi-Chun also has an AI implant, a NAI that keeps track of him for Ariel and handles various activities like routine finances.

Although Ariel is very fond of Xi-Chun, he is even closer to Jaykayla, his virtual interface that he has had since infancy. "Jay" was originally an LAI-6. Like most 5th Wave kids, Ariel was taught by his AI supervised by parents rather than attending any formal school. He was not especially creative, but wanted to be, and as he grew up this was adjusted by a tailored nootropic regime combined with educational and psychological slinkies. Although a bit of a late bloomer, he passed exams that got him into a virtual university when he was 17, and pursued a double major of politics and climate science. Since most actual science is done by AI, this required education of Jaykayla as well – in essence, the LAI's personality was used to seed a higher-generation AI who would become his work-partner, the two functioning symbiotically with Ariel providing creativity and iiitative. Like many students, Jay's student loans went to pay for his own and Jay's upgrades, including the brain booster implants that are common among most serious graduate students.

Ariel speaks Spanglish, his native language, but doesn't know any other tongues – linguistics are handled seamlessly by his VI, who is almost a part of him. Ariel, at 26, is still learning, but he and Jay are also interning with a major weather control corporation.

Ariel's job provides him with a decent apartment and helps pay the interest on his loans, though in a couple of years he should have them paid off.. Ariel (and his VI) are in a passionate relationship with Maria Defoe, a 23 year old political memetics student he met through university, and her LAI Lamia; she lives in Montreal, but they interact physically by cybershell as well as through virtuality. The relationship is being strained as Defoe wishes to become a ghost like her parent did, and Ariel is not sure he wishes to do that.

In addition to the VI that houses Jay, Ariel has three other inexpensive household cybershells and four microbot swarms, most of them ably managed by NAIs and directed by himself, Jay, or Xi-Chun.

Ariel's apartment is filled with tons of junk. Much of it belongs to Xi-Chun, who is an avid collector of early 20th century original grocery cans, movie posters, and plush dolls. Ariel follows various fads in clothing and consumer goods, and loves to print of the latest items. Most of it he recycles diligently – in terms of political memes, he identifies himself as a mainstream Preservationist and a cyberdemocrat. He loves to bicycle, and is often seen cycling around the neighborhood, often accompanied by a voxspider (he likes to buy from various local organic food and drug providers) and, when he's not busy, Xi-Chun.

[leslie]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

Sex, sure. Just run a cheap pron program

You need to have full VR implants for that, VR sex suit won't work.

And anyway, "running a cheap pron program" will be enough for
asocial nerds and borderline autistics, normal people have sex
because they want _relationships_, not because they need their
genitals rubbed. Emotional attachment is very important for
homo sapiens, we're a social creature. This won't change
without radical genetical engineering which is not something
John underwent.

Originally Posted by SimonAce

Hug? Hmm probably not popular then or you get a VR hug with the VR sex suit

I would recommend you to read up on psychology. For example, look at Harlowe's research on rhesus monkeys development, which is pretty well known. Hugging is not something people do because of fashion, physical intimacy is important for their mental well being.

Since John is genefixed to have no mental ilnesses, he won't be borderline autistic like many nerds today, so he will need human interaction. Being hikihimori is not possible when you have taboo trait - mental ilnesses.

[Qoltar]

Thanks Leslie.
I'd read about those studies years ago.
I knew that human touch and intimacy was important for mental health.

The character sketch could still work ...but maybe once a week this character has a meeting or place he goes to where he and his friends greet each other by hugging and they just talk or share a meal together.

Somehow I really don't see that kind of interaction disappearing entirely.

- Ed Charlton

[DryaUnda]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

[M]any of the people around you aren't human ... Ugh

Are you refering to the parahumans and upgrades, or the AIs? In any event, why should someone need to be human when she or he is still a person?