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PVT's Working Class Experience's avatar

Wow! This was a masterclass in escalating dystopias: every new piece of tech in the first cycle of the story feels more and more unsettling, starting with something inoffensive (clothes that change pattern and colour) and escalating gradually to technology that invades and controls the brain. The second cycle deals with upgrades that completely change identity pre-birth and the third reaches the horrific, logical conclusion where people have ceased to be people, completely subsumed by their own technology. The dark humour here is fantastic: At the start, you absolutely nail the chirpy, empty-headed voice of someone monetising their own kids and shilling for corrupt corporations at the same time, seeing nothing wrong in it. The subtlest, most unsettling and best joke is that the voice doesn't change at all when it becomes part of a corporate body and, finally, a soulless AI management system. It says more awful things, but the tone of expression is exactly the same. It helps create the through-line from cynical mommy-blog to technological nightmare. Extremely brilliant work as always, my friend.

Dave Boyko's avatar

"How does the paste taste?"

"Oh, it varies from person to person."

- shamelessly updated Soylent Green joke :)

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