What is truly disturbing about the rooms is not their construction—they're only as big as a walk-in closet, minus the clothes and shelves and racks—but what is held within them. Virtual women created solely for the pleasure of men. Except, these virtual replications are for a more visceral type of enjoyment: killing. Programmed solely to be harmed by the men who purchase them, these holograms are termed "Hommies", able to do things real women cannot. Willing to give themselves completely to the man who buys them. Until there is a glitch. A bug in the program. And one of the women, a Hommie, starts to become self-aware and question her existence, at the expense of her user's.
In Trump’s America, our identities are in constant flux. Fake News, gaslighting, lies, attacks on the Fourth Estate, all cogs of an empty signifier held by the Brand in 21st-century Capitalism. Meaning is in constant fluctuation, a truth becoming a lie in just a second. Our identities changing daily by the bombardment of 24-hour news cycles and the constant flow of information from our mobile devices. What is true and what is false anymore? In the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, we were certain about things. We knew what was true and what was false, or so we thought. We bought physical products that remained the same every day. Fireball Mountain would always be impossible to play. Nintendo and Sega gave us mascots we could rely on. Then something happened. The world tilted a bit. And things became strange and full of multiple meanings. The internet and the iPhone gave the masses access to all the knowledge of humanity. We thought we’d become enlightened. We thought with this access to all the information ever recorded throughout human history, people would make intelligent choices. Opinions would be critically examined. The marketplace of ideas would be flooded. But no. We got Facebook. We got Twitter. We got 4Chan and 8Chan and trolls and misinformation and augmented reality—so real, yet not. We became sponges for lies. And our identities changed. The world’s meaning changed. 2016 happened. And we needed guidance from the past. And so, we looked to our authors who try to predict the future. This is what happened: Science Fiction (SF) author William Gibson has never been one to shy away from the problems of semiology in late-Capitalism and post-modernism. His novels deal extensively with the functions of the technological apparatus in relation to human bodies. Bodies in Gibson novels are depicted as flesh machines, a fusing of biological and mechanical parts creating something not quite human but not without humanity: a cyborg. With Gibson, The natural world becomes attached to and defined by the gray starkness of technology. In turn, these worlds are controlled by omnipotent corporations and hyper-Capitalistic enterprises, suspended between the identifiable “natural” human and the controlled and created identity of the machine. Because the “natural” human identity within Gibson novels is intertwined with the created technological identity, these novels inherently focus upon a crisis of representation in a world with no definitive separation between technological meaning and “natural” meaning—Gibson novels focus upon the crisis of meaning within a world overwhelmed by an innumerable amount of signs. In the 21st century, where the sign has become the main method of establishing an identity, it is increasingly important to see where these signs are created and, more importantly, where the signification comes from. And in 2019, the sign and signifier both come from late Capitalism corporations. No longer is a product the focus of the Corporation, but the lifestyle of those who consume the product. Just like a William Gibson model, those of us living in the second decade of the 21st century have become cyborgs, branded by Corporations, our lifestyles determined by the branded ideologies created by these Corporations. Our identities reliant upon modern Capitalist methods of branding. We are cyborgs of the 21st century, both through technological enhancement and in identity formation. Our bodies the playground of the sign, the signifier controlled by the company or the CEO. Or even information itself.
What is truly disturbing about the rooms is not their construction—they're only as big as a walk-in closet, minus the clothes and shelves and racks—but what is held within them. Virtual women created solely for the pleasure of men. Except, these virtual replications are for a more visceral type of enjoyment: killing. Programmed solely to be harmed by the men who purchase them, these holograms are termed "Hommies", able to do things real women cannot. Willing to give themselves completely to the man who buys them. Until there is a glitch. A bug in the program. And one of the women, a Hommie, starts to become self-aware and question her existence, at the expense of her user's.
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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Transcipt of the complete diaries kept by David Douglas (discoverer of the 'Douglas Fir') during his intrepid explorations of North America in search of rare plants and adventure.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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