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?????: Oh perfect, you're awake!
?????: Of course, of course... you have been waiting for a long time!
?????: My name is Helen, I am the founder of the Online Afterlife. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.
HELEN: I don't usually get to come in and see patients, but...
HELEN: ...After your procedure we shall be seeing a lot more of each other!
HELEN: I thought I would come in and go over a few things before we begin.
HELEN: Are you excited? You must be ecstatic!
HELEN: Of course, of course...
HELEN: Well, on behalf of myself and my company...
HELEN: We would like to thank you for choosing to move on with us.
HELEN: :)
HELEN: Now, there is no need for you to feel worried about your procedure today!
HELEN: To help you to adjust when you wake, I will be present, as well as the team that has treated you today.
HELEN: When you feel ready, we can spend a bit more time looking further into your case, and from there, begin to get you settled into your Online Afterlife.
HELEN: You must be excited, yes?
HELEN: We have your requested digital estate - containing your most valuable files and profiles - safely secure in your designated server waiting for you!
HELEN: Before you know it, you will be reconnected with everything Online that you have no doubt been missing. I am excited for you to begin continuing your history!
HELEN: :)
HELEN: But first, I need you to sign this contract that would've been mentioned to you during your meetings.
HELEN: :)!
HELEN: Oh! Silly me... it seems I've forgotten to bring it with me!
HELEN: One moment darling! I will be right back!
?????: Hello. My name is Barnaby.
BARNABY: Thank you for choosing to move on with us.
BARNABY: I am here to check that everything is as it should be.
BARNABY: In preparation for your procedure, I mean.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: Everything seems fine to me.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: How are you feeling?
Excited! / Fine. / I'm tired.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: I see.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: You've met Helen, it seems. I saw her leave before I came in.
BARNABY: Did she have you sign a contract?
BARNABY: .....!
BARNABY: I see.
BARNABY: So... she went to retrieve it.
BARNABY: It might be a while before she returns.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: So...is this what you want?
BARNABY: To move onto an Online Afterlife, I mean.
BARNABY: Instead of a Physical one.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: As you are more than aware...
BARNABY: ...The Online Afterlife gifts you the ability to not only continue your previous life, but relive and rebirth it as you see fit through cyberspace.
BARNABY: You'll be able to re-experience memories that you hold dear through your files, profiles, and online footprint.
BARNABY: You can mingle with anyone in any state of living as long as they're Online, and be able to keep up with happenings in the world in real time.
BARNABY: There becomes no need to fret about trying to source these things as you would have to in a Physical Afterlife. Everything you need is at your metaphorical fingertips, whatever the Internet has to offer you is yours.
BARNABY: You don't need to wait for your friends and family to move on - to them you appear just as you have always done on their screens.
BARNABY: There are no restrictions either - we would never limit what you have access to in your Afterlife, as you will have read -
BARNABY: Your Quality of Afterlife is of utmost importance to us.
BARNABY: You are free to do as you please. There'd be no need to worry about time, outside responsibility, or interruption.
BARNABY: The Online Afterlife gives you a life that is truly endless...
BARNABY: It sounds like an amazing promise, doesn't it?
BARNABY: Spending eternity in an Online Afterlife, I mean.
Yes, it sounds good to me. / Yes, that is what I've been told.
BARNABY: The Quality of Afterlife agreement is clear, in that there are to be no restrictions when it comes to what you have access to in the Online Afterlife.
BARNABY: You can continue to browse sites you will have done previously, and you are free to explore the net - no matter how deep you choose to go - and experience a lifetime of constant discovery.
BARNABY: The only barriers are passwords and other blockers, monetary or otherwise, which are unfortunately outside of our control.
Are you worried I am going to do things that are "illegal"? / Oh, I would still be responsible.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: Hm.
BARNABY: I am not necessarily concerned about that.
BARNABY: Your choosing to do things that may be potentially... problematic, I mean.
BARNABY: My concern...
BARNABY: My concern is that you may be the type of person who is vulnerable to existing Online only in places that have been developed to use your psychology against you.
BARNABY: Places that use it in order to keep you there for as long as possible - not for your gain, but rather, for their own.
BARNABY: Should you be that type of person, you perhaps already know what I am talking about, as it is something you have experienced.
BARNABY: Perhaps...you have already spent much of your previous life there.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: I don't have access to your case file...
BARNABY: ...But if you have profiles that already exist in these spaces, then this will become much harder to resist and - due to the nature of the Online Afterlife - much harder to control.
I know what you are talking about. / I don't know what you're talking about.
BARNABY: The Online Afterlife provides no off-switch.
BARNABY: There is no transfer to the Physical Afterlife, should you grow tired of the Online Afterlife.
BARNABY: There is no exit, no way out.
BARNABY: The internet is a vast space, of course...
BARNABY: There is plenty of space on the internet to explore and create.
BARNABY: This is proving to be more difficult to inspire year on year, however...
BARNABY: I have witnessed an unfortunate slow monetisation and homogenisation of the Internet and it's content.
BARNABY: It continues as more sites are reconfigered with the intent for a prolonged usage rather than a usage that is beneficial to the user.
BARNABY: It will become unavoidable as your files start to decay and become obsolete, as your profiles and favourite spaces are shut down or changed in favour of profit - so much so that it could alienate you.
BARNABY: As a result of this, you would become cut off from community, information, and history, and be forced to exist among billions who share a space that is controlled by so few. These things are very worrying. Does this not concern you?
No one can control the Internet. / Spaces can still be created that are separate from this.
BARNABY: Helen's Online Afterlife is not a space that is entirely separate, it relies on what already exists.
BARNABY: She has not listened to me. These concerns should've been a priority.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: The server will keep you online until...the server is no more.
BARNABY: Much like the Physical Afterlife, immortality is not necessarily a guarantee.
BARNABY: Yes, you will exist in this state of living for far longer than your current, but this time is still finite.
BARNABY: Helen, however, is finding ways to ensure this inevitability will not come for a long, long time. To ensure immortality is more or less achieved.
BARNABY: Even if it means finding a way to take the Online Afterlife beyond this planet when it cannot sustain us any longer.
BARNABY: ..........
BARNABY: You know yourself better than I or Helen ever will.
BARNABY: You know your mind, your patterns of behaviour. You know what will happen to yourself should you experience an extensive amount of time Online.
BARNABY: ...I am concerned it will not give you the Quality of Afterlife you were perhaps expecting.
You're right. I know myself, and you do not. / The things that you are concerned about will not affect me.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: I can help you out.
BARNABY: I can get you out of this procedure, I mean.
BARNABY: As you said, you've not signed anything yet.
BARNABY: They won't notice that you've gone.
BARNABY: Helen won't notice.
BARNABY: I can make sure of that. We will probably see hundreds of patients today. She won't notice.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: My apologies...
BARNABY: It seems I have spoken out of term. Please disregard what I have said to you.
BARNABY: It was unprofessional of me.
BARNABY: I see.
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: .....
BARNABY: Everything is ready.