Kelly Clarkson Show Like Black Mirror '15 Million Merits'
As Tim Pool points out, there is a close correspondence between recent science fiction (Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits) and a new episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show":
this is basically that episode of Black Mirror where people lived in tiny boxes and had avatars represent them at shows https://t.co/mUHqwnhM9j
As Hiro approaches the street, he sees two couples probably using their parent's computer for a double date in the Metaverse. He's not seeing real people, of course. It's all part of a moving illustration created by his computer from specifications coming down the fiber optic cable. These people are pieces of software called avatars.
(Read more about Neal Stephenson's 'avatar')
The word "avatar" itself is ancient. It is taken from Hindu philosophy. An avatar is an incarnation of a deity in human form; the literal meaning of the Sanskrit word is "he passes or crosses down." Just as the deity "passes down" from the higher realms of being to the simpler realm of the material Earth, so a person becomes an avatar in a simpler computer-generated reality.
The concept of using a computer-based character to represent oneself was used earlier in Vernor Vinge's 1981 story True Names; see the entry for personality simulator.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/25/2020)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Smart TVs Are Listening!
'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'