(The Tales of Skuld brings together news of anticipation and science fiction: how will the world evolve? What will we eat in 2040, what will we think in 2030, what will we want in 2060?
In order to trace the contours of what is ahead of us — provided we follow current developments, or go beyond them — here is how I imagine the next 10, 20, 30 and more years).
You can read the lexicon used (and invented) here.
The episode of the Cabane is a version of the 2049 real-life fiction. By superimposing virtual worlds on the real world, people live and share their (real) experiences live, and in the form of a game. A bit like the reality TV of the years 2010/2020, like any cycle, more than 20 years later, famous heroes are strangers who accept challenges to be taken up in real life, and live, in full view of everyone. A juicy business results, both for the protagonists and for the system that feeds off the public’s reactions :
The episode of The Hut
Leeze sits comfortably on her couch and connects to the popular story of the moment about Jotunheim, which she projects with a movement of her finger on a wall that serves as her big screen. She searches in the settings of her local account (her container where she works and where she is located) to activate the sound, in order to have the best projection experience.
La Cabane is a story, a real and famous adventure, orchestrated by a waiting effect: a secret that was slow to be revealed, and well anticipated to generate desire among a large audience whose interaction is hoped for. As with all buzz-filled real-life stories, this kind of event is expected by booksellers for an expanded book edition, as a way to keep track of the story. La Cabane is coming to an end, but it is possible to start viewing the story from the beginning until the live moment.
- Adam, I’m pitching: are you set up?
- I’m all set. I’ve already seen the beginning, but I’d like to have your reactions to you! he answers.
The story alternates with written passages to explain the context or situations and videos. Viewers can react all the time, whether live or recorded. Live allows you to challenge the protagonists directly or to influence the course of events, hence the massive popularity of following the story simultaneously:
Introductory sections 1 to 6:
Max lives in the suburbs of Amsterdam. Together with his colleagues, they have been working for 6 months on the development of a tree house. There is nothing avant-garde about the project. They started from the observation that there is nothing, no dwelling in the forest of Utrechtse Heuvelrug: in other words, a perfect place to propose as a canopy service for a simple stay, Airbnb style.
Specialized in woodworking and construction, they submitted their project to the Development Unit of the Utrecht Structural Entity.
They designed an egg, they conceptualized the rounding of the all-wood structure, they solicited thermal insulation experts and experienced engineers. They have just finished the installation of the screen plates.
Max came up with this idea after a fantastic adventure he did in immersion when he was in Hungary. One of the tests took place inside a dragon’s egg. While looking for information on the possibility of designing an immersive tree house, he was able to find some specific concepts from the 2020’s where it was the trend to build small egg-shaped houses in natural spaces.
He then imagined a three or four room, on several floors, with the room under the top of the egg, entirely covered with a transparent plate, allowing to see the sky while being able to change into an immersive screen. The bottom of the egg should be used to house the system, the power generator, and the data collector. The top level would be the bath, with ionized water to also connect to the real-life network; above it would be the living room with a small terrace to accommodate the delivery drones. The idea being to offer a simple experience of dreaming true: to join humility to the infinite possibilities of the imagination; to be isolated and at the same time be at the center of all the worlds we wish.
The idea is to amplify the feeling of space by offering full powers: in short, the dreamed place that everyone is looking for today. They got the agreement to carry out their project once they had compiled all the most popular SEF requests, and the potential proved promising for the collective in his cell.
The day before, they were able to test in their internally developed matrix (a copy of the International Kinesthetic Tactilo System: the real Matrix) the assembly of the egg and managed to get it working.
Videos:
It’s 8:00 a.m., they took their precious helmets, exoskeletons, three computers and ordered the delivery of the equipment on site within an hour.
They are leaving by shuttle bus. The pebble-shaped car accommodates 8 people and storage space for an 8-hour autonomous journey.
Max passes his finger to unlock the door: the car opens from the top like a box. In the center, there is a screen and a space to put a computer.
The team settles in and enters the coordinates of the destination. At the same time, they monitor the delivery route of the materials.
They quickly drive along roads populated by other autonomous cars of all shapes and sizes. Seen from the sky, it looks like a silent flow of sweets sailing between cities.
They discuss the stages, watch again the matrix test of the day before and seem quite confident.
It takes them exactly 57 minutes to get within a few meters of the chosen location. Very enthusiastic, Max starts to publish on Taoui the continuation of the project he announced as soon as it was validated, inviting followers and their colleagues to follow the construction live. The material has already arrived. Everyone is busy with his task after having taken care to put on his helmet and activate the follow-up of the process, validated upstream and executed in the matrix.
They get dressed in their reinforced outfits and start to separate the different materials and elements of the egg. Ben and Fabio are in charge of numbering each object according to the stages of elaboration. Henry activates the computers and synchronizes everything: the outfits, helmets and materials that have the data collection technology. Within a few hours, everything takes shape. A few hours later, an alarm sounds in everyone’s earphones, interrupting the rhythm:
“You should hydrate, in half an hour, take a mineral supplement. Ben’s exoskeleton needs to be recharged. You should reach step 8 before completion at 4:12 pm.”
The boys, mechanically, obey.
They realize that they haven’t spoken to each other since their arrival.
They take off their helmets and take a break while waiting to recharge the exoskeleton.
Max’s bracelet vibrates. He has just received a message about Jotunheim.
He does not open the notification and goes back to work.
At 4:30 pm, they finish fixing the top of the egg with the transparent plates for immersion in the realm of reality.
Once finished, and before starting everything, Max puts down his professional helmet to take his personal helmet. He has several notifications. With a movement of his hand, he opens them all without looking at them and activates the camera to do the live. Fabio is in the lower part of the egg, ready to activate everything.
Leeze and Adam can see that 26 people were watching the live at the time of the launch, then 57, then quickly 600. No less than 2200 people were following the first steps of La Cabane, commenting and encouraging the team.
He turns on all the monitors. The egg comes to life. Max begins to present the egg to the audience at the live show, interacting with those who were reacting. He arrives at the first level where the bath is located. As the water is ionized, via the headphones, it is possible to see the bottom of the ocean, as he had programmed the atmosphere. He goes to the living room, opens the shutter to reveal the small terrace, and goes around to show the whole environment in 360. A living room in a circle, a table with a screen in the center, surrounded by shelves to serve as connected coffee tables. On one side of the wall, a transparent plate on which you can see the bar and the provisions. These are simply the shortcuts to order food and drink delivered by drone. By caressing the plate from top to bottom with his index finger, he makes a library of books appear; then he draws a semicircle, which brings up the web windows with access to the personal spaces for 6 people (the capacity of the egg). He explains that by entering his personal space, you can access games, immersive worlds, accounts, data, etc. as usual.
He closes his fingers to put the screen to sleep.
The public of the moment is over-excited, already asking for pre-bookings.
He takes the small staircase to show the room: “la belle étoile” as he has chosen to call it.
He lies down on the bed so as to offer a direct view of the sky and the branches of the trees around. He looks for the window with his eyes to access the real world he has created: a haptic creation that he has already put online on Taoui, but this time it can work without a helmet. For the need of live, he stays in camera mode and activates everything to enter the fantastic world.
But there is a problem. The plate got stuck on a black screen. He pauses the live and calls Fabio.
At this moment, a scopic vision takes over to spread the adventure.
He hears that his colleagues are getting restless downstairs.
“I’m cutting, I’m cutting, I’m cutting,” Fabio shouts.
“What’s going on?” asks Max.
Ben comes into the room and grabs his wrist.
“Damn, you’ve had an alert since earlier! You’re stupid or what! “he shouts.
He takes the helmet off his eyes.
“Dude, your buddies on Jotunheim they’ve infiltrated the system! You accepted a weird notificaiton or what? We didn’t secure anything there! We’re dead!” he continues ulcerated.
“What are you talking about?” Max takes offense.
“We’ll never get through. We’re going to be in the Mu-eTTe zone. I remind you that a system 40% controlled on Jotenheim does not pass. We’ll never be listed on the network. Fuck, do you have shit in your head or what!? Fuck. We could have made a hit, we could have had our own little place, shit, it’s ruined now!”
“I promise you, I didn’t accept anything…” Max interrupts.
“Damn, for the live show, I opened all the notificates, I didn’t pay attention”, he stutters.
They hurry downstairs and get into the living room.
Fabio has activated the firewall to check the problem.
They see that a group, the Moltav, are followers on Taoui and active on Jotunheim.
At that moment, the audience starts to grow on the story because it’s an unexpected event that soon buzzes. Comments are flowing but the group is no longer connected to the public and therefore cannot receive anything. They find themselves stuck in a tiny virtual space where they have no interaction. At times like this, the public pays to be on the first list to access the inaccessible content, it pays to help them reconnect because the hackers ask for some kind of ransom to free the content flow again.
“Okay, these are guys defending the Mu continent, forget it, they’re in the system, they can disable and enable whatever they want.”
“Go ahead, what was your notification?” Show me!” Ben asks.
Max opens his mailbox.
It was an octopus.
Octopus is a program that once activated (simply by opening a message, if it’s not deleted within a minute) deploys its tentacles and fits into any open network and multiplies.
Leeze pings Adam, asking him if he’s the one who did this or if he knows the guys who did it, already completely caught in the history of the group.
Adam answers with a ghostly emoticon, laughing.
The videos continue.
They all look at each other in disbelief.
Max tries: “Well, do we install the security anyway?”
Ben hits him in the back of the head.
“Trumpet! Your egg is a hut with a view on the sky, it’s in the Mu-eTTe zone there, it’s dead” he answers him offended.
A subtitle appears on the screen:
A zone called Mu-eTTe is the name given to the zones not covered by the network. If one wishes to establish a new construction, it is necessary to make a request for validation of access to the network on condition that security standards are validated. You can send tokens to members to pay hackers. Jotunheim is the network that is potentially the most dangerous, it should never exceed 20% presence, which is the equivalent of a simple connection via personal helmets or a connected plate. Send tokens to the next group: @Moltav89998.
Having installed a stand-alone network requires the precaution of at least a security network.
The story ends with various messages and groups trying to reconnect to the group. The hut is a real place with no connection, in the heart of a forest that now excites several hundred thousand people who try to get there to help the group, send help solutions to free them and create support groups.
Leeze stands up to connect to Adam on video.
- What can we do for them? They are in the Mu-ette zone and we don’t know what they are doing? she asks.
- Leeze, you know it’s a story. There are already five groups that have left to join them to help them.
- But why is there no more publication? There was a scopic vision at the end.
- It was not complicated to control it once the Octopus was released…
- You know, you know,” she exclaims.
- I promise I’m not close to these guys: that’s not my business. If I do hacks, it’s not for mainstream stories, I’m not interested. I’m not going to make a living out of it!
- Adam?
- Yes ?
- Be honest. What do you know that I don’t know?
- What do you mean you don’t know?
She hesitates for a moment.
- I would like to see you in real life…
Adam does not answer. He hasn’t shared his location with Leeze since they reconnected.
- We need to talk about some things first,” he replies.
°0 Skuld’s Tale Lexicon
°1 Identity Games
°2 Kenopsia and theme cities
°3 Bookstores or the modern profession of story seller
°4 Care and Beauty in 2049
°5 Food and future sensory pleasures.
°6 Society in 2049 and modern citizenship
°7 City, Planning and Transportation in 2049
8 The Matrix, the apogee of the era of the Hypothesis
°9 The episode of The Cabin
°10 Family, memory and inheritance in 2049
