Metaverse 404 — Chapter 1: An Automatic World

3 January 202224 min read First on Medium

The perfect automatism will be, for example, that of the civil servant functioning as a simple machine, or the unconsciousness of an administrative regulation applying with an inexorable fatality and taking itself for a law of nature. Laughter*, Henri Bergson*

“Joy, it’s time for your appointment with Aime,” Orwell articulates in a soft, calm voice, “You should get ready, else you might be late.” Late? That’s not Joy’s style at all. First in her class at Sretan, Joy is more of a “first in class” on time than a “normal” who seems to show little interest in the notion of punctuality. Yet this morning, each step reminds her of the entire weight of her existence. Each step of her routine, which she has been repeating for 23 years, seems blurred. It’s 7:41 a.m., her long brown hair with a few blond highlights are still disheveled, the Mauritanian coffee she buys from the vending machine on the corner is barely ready, and she doubts her outfit. So much disruption for a appointment that will be over as quickly as it started, get a grip Joy! But Joy hates these appointments. As fast as it started? That made her laugh. She’s been working for GHC for almost twenty-three years, twenty-three years of going through these “quick” appointments. No, for sure, Joy will never get used to the feeling of sending someone away. She hates seeing the look on her colleagues’ faces when she tells them the news, hates being the source of their unhappiness. But what she finds most repulsive, even though she can’t admit it to herself, is the knowledge that the person in front of her will soon have to join the normals. Those people who have decided to left reality and live in Metaverse doing useless job to seek happiness. Even though she hides it as much as possible, even from herself, Joy can’t help but express a certain disgust for these phony humans who only live for “happiness”. Happiness, this Holy Grail, which makes them abandon themselves to a life without the slightest reflection, where everything is dictated to them by others.

How can they be so stupid? How can we accept losing our free will when it may be the only thing that makes us human? Joy never understood this. Even as a child, she had run away from this normality. Working at the top of the pyramid, and becoming part of the elite of the Global Happiness Corporation, had quickly become her priority. To do so, she studied relentlessly and entered Sretan, the most renowned school for happiness agents in Eastern Europe. She graduated at the age of 19, valedictorian, but also one of the youngest to ever graduate from the prestigious school. Joining GHC after that was a breeze. It took her only 5 years to be promoted from analyst to agent, 7 years to become manager, and, since last summer, she could proudly wear her senior manager badge. But with the ranks came responsibilities and very quickly Joy had to learn how to conduct those termination interviews she hates so much and that disrupt her day every time.

Good. Yellow suit it is! Joy read last month that yellow represents joy, hope, positivity, maybe that will help. She puts on her outfit with a sober gesture, as it governs almost all her life. As soon as she’s dressed, she quickly gulps down her coffee, just cooled enough to be drinkable, grabs her connector, and escapes from her apartment in the direction of the GHC offices.

With her new rank of senior manager, came a beautiful apartment on the 39th Avenue, a stone’s throw from the 42th where the global’s offices are located, as the young recruits call it. On the 75th floor, the apartment, pre-furnished, is composed of a large kitchen, a living room as spacious as the whole of Joy’s previous apartment, and three bedrooms with their bathrooms. But Joy doesn’t see the point of all this, she has done without inviting anyone into her home for the past 23 years. She misses her small apartment, which is farther from the GHC headquarters but simpler and more cosy. Although, on this somewhat complicated day, living three blocks from her work suits her well.

It’s 8:32 a.m. when Joy walks through the large oak doors marking the entrance to the main tower. It’s a colossal tower, 314 stories high, and although Joy hasn’t paid attention to it in a long time, the aesthetics of the building defy any measure. As soon as you enter the building, you find yourself teleported to a new world. Yet, for once, this is reality, and not yet another virtual world defying the physics of our world. The hall is a haven of nature. There are dozens of giant sequoias, a species of tree that can reach up to 95 meters. Gone for decades, the GHC researchers succeeded after many genetic manipulations to reinstate the species, since then they are enthroned there, at the entrance of one of the last thirteen buildings where real work is done. The rest of the building is also worth a visit, full of trees of all kinds, from the halesia carolinia and its magnificent silver bells to the tetradium daniellii, which revives the sense of smell of even the slightest passer-by with its melliferous flowers. In an eccentric madness, the office has even reinstated extinct animal species within the walls of the tower, chipped to adopt a domestic species behavior of course. Navigate then in the middle of the lush vegetation, abundant rivers, but also offices of happiness agents, Acinonyx jubatus or even Ursus maritimus. These premises are of a beauty that would have been difficult to dream of 38 years ago, yet Joy has not paid any attention to them for years now. She would hardly remember the last time she stopped to observe, to smell, to listen.

Past the giant sequoias, Joy enters a glass elevator, which uses a pneumatic system that allows for fast and soundless operation. 47 seconds later, a soft beep indicates the arrival at the 271th floor. 10 seconds later, Joy finds herself in her sphere. Joy’s sphere is simple, sober, like her. No photo, no decoration, just a plant that was given to her by her mother for her promotion to senior manager, and which is lying there at her feet. “On.” The sphere lights up. In a few microseconds, it starts to sparkle as usual, the screens light up and the news appears. The 404 world is there, under Joy’s meticulous eyes, analyzing every corner of it. Each screen of the sphere shows her a different angle of this metaverse for which she is responsible, each screen of the sphere shows her a different angle of this world of which she is the goddess.

Joy has been working for the world 404 for 9 years now, and it’s been two years since she was promoted to senior manager, and thus sole manager. She was recommended to the office by Neal Stephenson, the former 404’s manager, who felt she had “all the qualities necessary to maintain happiness in a metaverse.” As Neal is one of the longest serving members of the GHC, and some rumors have it that he was one of the founding members of the first metaverse, his decision was approved without hesitation, and Joy was promoted to the complex position of senior manager.

“Good morning Joy. My recommendations for today: N187 had an adrenaline spike yesterday after discovering a strange person in his house, it is recommended to suppress his memory to avoid the intensification of this unfortunate event; N067 has a very high cortisol early, it is recommended a brain amygdala simulation to reduce cortisol production…”, the list presented by HAI takes up a dozen events that happened in the night that Joy has to face every morning. HAI, an acronym for Hapiness Artificial Intelligence, is the intelligence at the heart of GHC’s processes. With a processor of more than 20,000 QuBits, this system set up by the creators of the global, the office, offers each happiness manager valuable advice on how to manage metaverses and normals. As she does every morning, Joy quickly scrolls down the list, iterates over each item presented by HAI, and accepts the recommendations. Clicking the “Accept” button has become mechanical, and Joy can barely remember the last time she refused a recommendation from HAI. After reading and accepting the dozen or so actions HAI recommends, Joy takes a few minutes to observe the 404 metaverse. Thanks to her sphere, which is only a ball filled with screens, Joy can move around the metaverse easily, see the smallest corners, know the smallest secrets, without being noticed, like a god, she seems omniscient. So every morning, she quickly explores this world, verifies that each normal is in its place, and that each one displays this small green star above its head which indicates a correct rate of happiness, calculated by the subtle mixture of the rates of serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins. In the rare event that a normal person’s level is lower than the norm, Joy would open a follow-up form and call the manager of the normal person in question, but cases like this never happen.

While the clock indicates 9:51, and Joy is still in the process of solving some of her morning worries, she sees a young woman arrive through the opening of her sphere. This one rushes straight to Joy with a decided but a little bit scared approach, her long black hair undulates following her steps… Sora ! but yes, of course ! Disturbed by the upcoming dismissal she was going to have to announce this afternoon, Joy had completely forgotten about the transfer of a new happiness manager to her team. What’s more, Sora is not just anyone. Just like Joy, 23 years ago, Sora has made her mark as one of the youngest recruits to join the global team. She is only 18 years old, and there she is, coming right at Joy, who although stoic on the outside, feels a strong sense of panic that she has completely forgotten the arrival of this young recruit. It takes hardly thirty seconds to Sora to reduce the gap separating her from Joy, she is now there in front of her sphere. “Excuse me, are you Joy Colette?” she asks in a dynamic but hesitant way, probably due to the stress of her first day. It takes a few seconds to Joy to order her thoughts. Immediately, her ideas clear, she announces herself:

- Indeed! You must be Sora de Morny?

- Yes, I am! I am delighted to meet you, Neal has told me a lot about you.

- Neal?

- Yes. Neal Stephenson, your former supervisor, he was my management history professor at the Aristip school, a very good teacher! He sends his regards to you by the way.

It’s true! Neal was the one who had recommended Sora to join the world 404, and Joy to accept Sora’s application, how could she forget?

- Indeed! I’m sorry. My ideas are a little fuzzy this morning,” replies Joy, who is not the type to invent nonsense to hide her ineptitude. Thank you for acting as a go-between.

- No problem! Neal warned me that you were very upright in your boots, but with a tendency to easily get lost in the clouds.

Joy is still a little taken aback by the use of such familiar language. It is not common at GHC, people here are used to communicating little and using too many honorifics. Yet the office did nothing about it. While they had been given the choice, people had imposed limits between the ranks, and thus a form of fear of the superior, and thus of Joy. Yet, at this very moment, Sora doesn’t really seem afraid of Joy’s status. Yes, she is afraid, yes, she is stressed, but it is mostly because it is her first day, and besides, she is rather excited to finally meet this famous Joy that professor Stephenson told her so much about. At Joy’s somewhat bemused look, Sora realizes that she may have indulged in some overly inappropriate familiarity:

- Excuse me, I realize I got carried away with my excitement. I have an annoying tendency to talk too much.

Joy doesn’t mind, in fact she finds it somewhat amusing. It’s been years since she’s been addressed in such an informal way. She even remembers that the last person to do so was the famous Neal, who tended to constantly accompany his familiar words with pats on the back that made Joy flinch every time.

- You can’t blame yourself,” Joy replies, “it might even remind me of Neal, which isn’t a bad thing.

- I can only understand!”, Sora added, smiling, proud to be compared to this teacher she likes so much.

- Good. Give me thirty seconds to finish sorting out a problem, and I’ll be right with you.

- Do you have a problem? Do you need help?

- It just seems that a normal person has scratched himself while skiing a dune, Joy answers by adjusting some details on her sphere, it is enough to apply the recommendation of HAI, which is to instantly heal the wound to avoid any trauma.

- Instant healing? Why not let him heal himself? A simple scratch, it should not be so serious, at best he will even take pride in it and will use the mark to tell his misadventures.

Again, and while this happens so infrequently, Joy finds herself caught off guard. This time, however, she feels some form of irritation. Questioning HAI’s advice? Who does she think she is?

“HAI is the most complex intelligence algorithm possible, would you dare to question its advice?” Joy then retorts with a certain annoyance that she would have preferred to hide. Understanding quickly that she has, once again, spoken too quickly, Sora apologizes and becomes more discreet. Joy finishes the manipulation in her sphere, locks her accesses, then, after having invited Sora to follow her, moves, in silence, towards the west wing of the floor.

Quickly, the two women arrive in a large sober room. The room is dark, windows can be seen but they are blocked by large wooden panels acting as shutters. As they enter the room, like in symbiosis, the panels begin to rotate in order to let the light through. The room, so dark at the beginning, is filled with light, and as if by magic, moon-white capsules on which the word “connector” can be seen are discovered before Sora’s astonished eyes.

“Are these the latest models?”, Sora exclaims in a half questioning, half rhetorical tone. Joy answers with a simple nod of her head. Yes, these are the latest models. The latest models of connectors, these revolutionary capsules that allow a perfect man-machine interface, and leave human with the feeling that the metaverse and the real world have nothing different except the physics laws that are observed there. Such a complex tool that seems so simple, and even somewhat amusing with its kidney bean shape. Joy invites Sora to take a seat in a capsule, adding, “The GHC integration protocol requires that your entire introduction to the team take place inside the metaverse.” Sora then heads towards a capsule. As soon as she gets there, it opens automatically to allow her to take a seat inside. The interior is comfortable, everything is made so that a humans can spend a maximum of time there without their body eating itself. Sora settles down in the capsule which closes by encompassing her gently, then suddenly, the emptiness. A black so deep that it makes you loose the notion of space and time. A bib, a light beep, and she is transposed in the metaverse 404.

The 404 is a vast world that looks extremely simple at first glance. The majority of normals who live there practice manual jobs, like farmers, breeders, or tailors. There are also some less ordinary jobs, such as inventors or readers, but not many, otherwise it would create a societal imbalance. Sora wakes up on one of the islands near Laputa, the central island of the world. As soon as she opens her eyes, she is overwhelmed by the beauty of this world. Neal had not lied to her… Before her eyes stands the majestic island in the sky, Laputa, inspired by a myth of ancient Asia centuries old. The world that offers itself to Sora’s vision seems limitless, green expanses as far as the eye can see, interspersed here and there by turquoise blue rivers that break up forests and fields. We see shadows in the water, probably children playing, or adults fishing while enjoying the warm afternoon and the calm. Suddenly, a thud is heard in the distance, a silent red mass brushes the top of Sora’s head. A plane?! Yes, it is indeed an aircraft, on board only one person, whose face Sora has time to glimpse, a radiant face, happy, rested. And above all this luxuriant and silent vegetation, floats Lapiota, the cathedral of the world 404, a city where everything seems to flow so smoothly that one would doubt that it would ever stop.

Sora feels a hand on her shoulder, as she turns around she sees Joy smiling at her “Welcome to the world of 404 Sora.” That for a welcome! thinks Sora, inwardly for once.

“It often happens the first few times, you’ll get used to it soon! Okay. So, I know you must already know all this, but I have to tell you about it, it’s the protocol. So I’ll try to make this quick. As you know, after having reached its technological peak and having made itself useless, bored humanity went to war with itself. All over the world, there was no longer a country where one could live in safety. It took several decades before the GHC arrived and brought order to the real world, proposing the system of metaverses with their secretly developed technology: the connectors. Thus, humanity acquired the solution to its last problem: boredom. The GHC researchers proposed a system of multiple metaverses that would allow everyone to find a home that would suit them, to avoid boredom they would practice joyful jobs, not necessary for the proper functioning of the real world, but still for the metaverse. These false jobs would not be an obligation, but a wish. Everyone should practice the job that would be the most beneficial, that would make them the happiest. That’s why the office set up the HAI system and the happiness manager, to ensure that happiness in the metaverse would last, to ensure that everyone could live as they pleased and that a second real world would not happen again.”

Under these explanations that she has indeed already heard hundreds of times, and Joy repeated thousands of times, Sora nods her head in approval.

“Well, do you have any idea what your day-to-day role is going to be as a happiness manager?” Sora leaves herself a few seconds to answer:

- To make sure that each of the people I am responsible for is happy, and that they don’t act too much in a way that would alter the company.

- That’s right. Our job is to make sure that the indicator above the head of each normal stays green. For that, you’ll have the help of HAI of course, who, I remind you because it didn’t seem very clear earlier, is the smartest entity at the GHC, so very good advice to follow, insists Joy.

- I understand, sorry for earlier.

- It’s nothing, let’s start again. So your role will actually be to make sure that the normals are happy, for that you have access to the system in moderator mode. This allows you to do a lot of things, especially if you think about the command prompt, you should see it appear before your eyes, after which, it’s like you were taught at school, whatever you want to do, type it, and the system will materialize it. The only things that are forbidden to moderators are actions that would influence more than a hundred normals in the metaverse.

- Yes, of course,” Sora quickly replied as she focused on “thinking command prompt” to see the window appear before her eyes.

- Good. I would also like to remind you that as a result of Neal’s recommendation, you are not following the normal GHC progression pattern, and did not have to go through the apprenticeship position before becoming a happiness manager. While I personally don’t have a problem with this, it is your responsibility to be twice as careful with your actions to avoid embarrassment. Being the youngest is eye-catching, so be sure of what you are doing to avoid showing something bad. This is personal advice.

- Thanks Joy! I will be very careful of course. I’m aware that it’s Neal’s reputation that’s involved too.

- As every Happiness Manager you will be responsible for apprentice managers, who will help you with your day-to-day work. At the moment, no one has been chosen yet, but as soon as you are, you will be assigned a team.

- I understand.

- That’s fine. Once a day you will have to give me a written report on the state of your normals. You don’t have to write pages and pages, basic information is enough. I just want to know if they are happy, I don’t care about the rest.

Sora nods her head while making mental notes of the tasks she will have to perform from now on.

- And once a week we will have a review, alone and with the rest of the 404 happiness managers. This allows everyone to have an overview of what’s going on in the 404. Never forget that we are a team, acting without the consideration of others can bring big problems.

- Yes, of course!

- Well, normally it’s all good for me. I could introduce you to the tools one by one, but considering your ability to learn, I don’t think it’s necessary?

- No, indeed, thank you Joy.

- Do you have any other questions?

- No ma’am, Sora answers, especially looking forward to visit this new world.

- Well, then you will find in the “Assigned” tab of your command prompt the 57 normals that have been assigned to you so far. The start is always a little slow so take your first day to go around the 404 and locate your normals. As you may have seen in class, you will have at least one meeting per week with them, and more if they require it. You will get the normals of Hergé who left us last week, for the moment your appointments are fixed according to his schedule.

- Got it! Thanks again for everything Joy.

- You’re welcome. Do a good job, and I’ll be fine. Well, I’ve got to go, I’ve got another appointment right after. The pods are self-serve, for your first day stay here as long as you like. Oh, and your sphere is number 42, you must have passed it this morning. If you have any problem with it, ask Gounelle, he’s the manager of sphere 41 next door.

Sora nods as Joy disconnects. Finally! She is finally free in this vast world 404, looking much more exciting than the real world, wasted from years of war waged by humanity.

It’s 10:36 a.m. when Joy finally emerges from the capsule. She puts back her hair, makes sure her yellow suit remains impeccable, and stops for a few seconds to think. She noticed throughout her explanations that Sora was only thinking of going to explore the world. It reminded her a bit of her beginnings 23 years ago, she was still young, and had a certain thirst for adventure. Now she knows, she knows all the stupidity of this world, all the uselessness of normals, she is an adult now and she knows. But, a little nostalgia doesn’t hurt sometimes, does it?

Well, there are about 20 minutes left before Yuval’s termination interview. These dismissals happen so often, Joy thought. It makes you wonder why we don’t let an intelligence agency handle it. Orwell, Joy’s personal AI assistant, could handle it just fine. Speaking of Orwell, Joy receives a notification that the appointment will be held in room 57. As usual, it’s the same room over and over again, probably to get the message across faster. Each time, Joy sees her “colleagues” whom she is about to dismiss with a sad face, marking the fact that they know. Sure they know anyway, the GHC rule is simple and strict: you meet your quotas, you stay, you don’t, you leave. No second chances, no special cases, the office puts a firm point on this impartial rule. This allows, according to them, an equality between each employee, and avoids any discrimination.

Joy passes through her sphere again before heading back to room 57. Each step in the direction of this room seems heavy to her, as if they mark the steps towards her own death, her own loss. Joy had never really been afraid of being sent away. Not that she isn’t really afraid of it, just that she is certain: it will never be an option. She has always stayed well above the quota, and strictly adheres to every rule of the global.

That’s it, 10:51, and she’s in front of the room. She enters, in the same way as in the connector room, the shutters open to let the light through, and Joy settles down. While waiting for Yuval, she thinks back to Sora, to the energy that this young girl was emitting, but especially to the inappropriate comment she had made about the HAI recommendation. Joy still couldn’t believe it, but what was Neal Stephenson teaching to make these young students think of such things? Perhaps Joy should talk to her supervisor, to make sure everything was in order, and avoid any problems.

It is 10:55 am when Yuval enters the room. As usual, he is radiant, smiling, greets Joy and sits down in front of her. Joy smiles too to answer… Yuval smiles ?! It took Joy a few seconds to realize, but yes he was smiling. Yet, he should know why he is there. Yuval has been at the global for more than 30 years, he knows this room well, he must have even been in Joy’s position. Yet he smiles well, with a beautiful smile that sweeps away any doubt one might have about a possible smile forced for form. It is so little, however Joy remains the gaping mouth. It takes her about fifteen seconds to recover her spirits, it is definitely not a day like the others.

- Hello Yuval

- Hello Joy, how are you?” replied Yuval in a happy, calm voice, again in contrast to the position he was in.

- Well, thank you. Well, as usual Joy prefers to avoid beating around the bush, as I’m sure you know, you didn’t meet your quotas last week, which unfortunately means we’re going to have to let you go.

- Okay.

The simplicity of that simple “okay” shocks Joy. The smiles, and this? What is going on in Yuval’s head? It’s to believe that he is happy to leave. For Joy, disgusted with normals, leaving to live in the metaverse, to live for nothing, is unimaginable for him seems to be happy about it. How could Yuval be happy about this?

- Are you sure you understand the implication of all this Yuval?

- Yes, of course, don’t worry Joy. I know the process, I’ve seen it far too many times. I’ll pack up my things, clean up my sphere, turn in my apartment keys, and I’ll be invited to a connection center where I’ll be assigned a capsule and a metaverse.

Joy is stunned. So he is not crazy. Yuval seems fully aware of his situation. Not only is he aware of it, he even seems delighted. He continues:

- Don’t worry, Joy. I know how things work and I will make sure that everything is perfect. I also wanted to thank you for the last two years of managing the 404, it was a pleasure to work with you.

Joy picks herself up:

- It was a pleasure to meet you Yuval. Are you sure everything is okay? You don’t need help with anything?

- Certain Joy. Thanks again, for everything.

It is 11:01 am, Yuval leaves the room as quickly as he arrived, leaving Joy in a state of shock. She stays there, unable to understand what has just happened, everything seems unreal to her. It is to wonder if she even woke up this morning or if she is still dreaming.

Link to Chapter 2:

Metaverse 404 — Chapter 2: Doubt A science fiction novel on the future of work by Jeanne V., Mélina M., Corentin M., and Mathieu V.

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