Metaverse 404 — Chapter 4: Towards a systemic joy

6 January 202211 min read First on Medium

Administration, which requires the application of vast knowledge and many personal qualities, is above all the art of handling men, and in this art, as in many others, it is practice that makes perfect. Henri Fayol

A few months have passed since the beginning of the “new 404”, Joy is still in charge, supported by Sora, who got a new role: the one to make sure that all these new rules are working properly. The world is moving forward, new rules have been voted, for example you can’t make a decision without the agreement of two other managers, or you have to go to the metaverse for a round at least once a day. Managers in the 404 world now spend an average of almost twenty hours a week in the metaverse, compared to one before. What Joy is most pleased about is the smiles on the faces of all her managers. They who used to be so sullen, so stoic, now have beaming faces. As they walk through the doors of the global office in the morning, everyone notices the impressive giant redwoods that have been there for years. One enjoys the different intoxicating smells scattered around the building, the artificial rivers and their relaxing sound. It’s as if these people who seemed to be dead came back to life. They who used to be so sad, now have a heart full of joy.

However, this joy may soon be cut short. As Joy arrives at her sphere, an unknown figure is waiting for her. As soon as Joy arrives, he asks:

- Good morning, Are you Joy Colette?

- It’s me,” she replied, a little worried by the formal attire of the person standing in front of her.

- Nice to meet you, I’m Emmanuel Goldstein, office manager number five, I’m here to give you a call from the office.

Joy is scared. The office? Of course she had thought about it for the past few months. She knew her business was risky, and that she would have to be accountable one day, but she hoped it would be as late as possible. So the latest is today? Knowing that this summons was not optional, Joy nodded, and asked:

- When will the meeting take place?

- Now,” Emmanuel answers directly. I’m also in charge of driving you to 314ème.

Now? Joy is a bit stunned of course, she didn’t have time to prepare anything. She would have liked to exchange with Sora, to prepare this meeting to ensure herself a minimum of credibility, but no, she will not have the time at all. She’s going to find herself naked, explaining to the creators of a “perfect” system why she, a simple office worker, decided it wasn’t so perfect after all. As worried as she is, Joy drops her things in her sphere, and follows Emmanuel to the elevator, and then to the 314 èmefloor, accessible only to the office.

This is the first time Joy will meet the office. She has interacted with office managers like Emmanuel before, especially when she took the position of senior and responsible for the 404 world, but she has never met an office member in person. What do they look like? Are they as old as they say? Are they the original creators of the metaverse? All these questions are running through Joy’s head, and she’s about to get some answers.

314ème is a very simple floor. In fact, there is not much there, which surprises Joy. The elevator arrives in the center of an empty floor. No tables, no plants, just an impressive view of the whole world. Everything is done to sublimate this breathtaking view, which seems to place us at the top of the world, as if we were its god.

As soon as he is sure that Joy has arrived, Emmanuel apologizes and leaves for the lower floors. Joy finds herself alone, on top of the world, observing the vastness of her world. With no way to measure time, Joy has only one certainty: whether it is a few seconds or a few minutes, time is long. After a moment that seems to Joy infinite, the elevator finally starts up again, the switch turns on, the doors open, and five people appear. They all seem to be in their sixties: three women and two men, including a face that looks familiar to Joy. Neal? Yes, that’s him, Neal Stephenson, so he is part of the office? Yet, until a few years ago, he was working as a manager of the 404 world, and Sora had also had him as a teacher. They all look happy, they smile, they laugh. They hardly pay any attention to Joy. It’s like seeing a bunch of old friends getting together for the first time in many years. Finally, Neal turns to Joy, and greets her:

- Hi Joy, it’s been a while, how are you?

Joy, who was expecting to get a slap on the wrist, is a bit lost. She stays there, without answering, in front of this group of strange people, much too cheerful. Understanding a little the situation, Neal resumes, laughing:

- I understand, you probably didn’t expect this.

- No, indeed, Joy answers mechanically.

Neal laughs, and continues:

- To be quite frank, the office is mostly a fictional entity that serves as a charismatic leader. You’ve read Weber, right? You know what I mean.

Neal expects a chuckle from Joy, but she seems too confused to react to such a remark.

- We don’t see each other very often, hence our cheerful looks. The system regulates itself. It doesn’t really need us.

- Yes, I understand,” says Joy, who is slowly coming to her senses. I must admit I’m a little surprised. I didn’t expect such a joyful arrival, when I’m going to be reprimanded.

- Reprimand? Neal laughs. Not really, no. We don’t quite agree with the fact that you bypassed all the global procedures, but we don’t plan to reprimand you either.

Joy is surprised. Of course, all this reassures her, but she had expected such a dark and sad atmosphere that this situation, completely opposite to her imagination, is beyond her. Why was she called in if not to be dismissed? She reviewed the protocols, broke the rules by not including her superiors in any reflection for fear of being censured, and yet she will not be sanctioned? She really doesn’t understand what’s going on. Not to mention what Neal is teaching her. The system is “self-regulating”? The office is just a “fictional” entity? Yes, of course, she has read Weber, and she understands what it’s all about, but it’s so disruptive to her world… Joy doesn’t know what to think anymore, how can we trust anything when in the space of a moment everything we believe in is taken away from us? Neal continues:

- I know how disturbing this must be for you. I’m kind of shattering your dreams and beliefs. I’m very sorry about that. Please sit down.

As he says these last words, Neal raises his arm, and in the process parts of the monolithic floor of the room rise up to create raised areas to sit on. Joy sits down. A woman to Neal’s left steps forward. She is tall, with long, wavy red hair and a soft, freckled face. Joy doesn’t know it yet of course, but this woman is the creator of the global, Anna Bissel. Anna sits down in front of Joy:

- Nice to meet you Joy, I’m Anna. Neal has told me a lot about you. I’m going to be quite direct. You will understand that all your actions cannot go unpunished.

Joy nods her head, nodding in agreement. “Finally a normal person,” she thinks to herself. Anna continues:

- However, we must also admit that your results are proof that we made a mistake in designing the system.

She takes a moment to breathe, and let things settle down while the other members of the “office” settle into the newly appeared seats.

- We have known about your intrigues for some time now. Since you went to see Yuval, HAI has been reporting an abnormal situation. We didn’t want to act though, Neal convinced us of your abilities, and we preferred to wait and watch.

- So you knew about all of them?” asks Joy with a disgusted feeling of having been manipulated.

- Yes, says Neal. We hesitated for a long time to intervene instead, but you were doing a good job, and we wanted to see where it would all lead.

- And we did the right thing, says Anna. You showed us the limits of our system, we thought we were in control of things, we thought we were making people happy. You showed us that in our search for happiness for others, we had forgotten to make our own employees happy.

- So we would like you to help us replicate what you did in your 404 world, to the entire global, concluded Neal.

Joy can’t believe it. Not only does she not get fired, but she is also congratulated for her work? And as if that wasn’t enough, she was offered to implement her system on the whole global. She had arrived with her stomach in knots, anxious to see her efforts reduced to nothing, but finally found herself in an unexpected situation where not only was her work recognized, but she was even offered to put it forward. Deep inside, Joy began to feel an unusual warmth. She felt extraordinarily joyful. So she replies:

- I… I don’t know what to say. I admit that I came here with a different expectation. If I can be of any help in building a better global, I’d be really happy.

The office members smile, and Anna addresses Joy again:

- For the moment, we still prefer to take a pinch of salt with all this. I think you understand.

Joy nods her head.

- That’s why we thought of an intermediate solution. We would like you to take over another newly created metaverse, and from the beginning manage it with these new methods in place in the 404, and others. This would serve as a testing ground for all of us, we could understand what works best, what doesn’t, and then move forward together.

Joy can’t believe it, so she’s been offered a new job? And what’s more, a job where she can fully let go and change things as much as she wants. She can’t help but think of Sora, how happy she will be. How much everything will change for them, how they will finally be able to change the world, and make everyone happy.

The meeting ended with a lot of discussion about the meaning of all that Joy had accomplished. The other members of the office introduced themselves. Joy explained the design of the 404, her exchange with Yuval, her doubts, and then her courage and tenacity to change things, not to mention Sora’s precious help. Joy did not miss a single detail. Finally, the meeting came to an end, and they explained to her the steps to be taken to set up this future metaverse. It was decided to set up the new role of Happiness Designer, a function that would aim to prepare fairer worlds upstream to ensure that everything would be done for the Happiness of all, Happiness managers as well as metaversians. Joy, along with the rest of her 404 team, would be the first happiness designers. The meeting ended, and Joy headed back to the 271st.

It’s been a few months now, since Joy took the lead of the new world happiness designers team V2–001. Gradually, they are making progress, building new rules, conducting new tests. Once a month Joy gives feedback to the office managers. She is happy, her whole team, which before all this seemed so gloomy, is now happy. Sora disappeared, when Joy came back from her appointment with the office she was gone, as if she had vanished. No one knew where she was, and in time Joy had accepted that she would not return. What mattered now was to build a better global, and better metaverse where everyone would be as happy as possible, and that and that alone Joy was working towards, she too had found her happy job. She too had finally become a “normal”.

Thanks for reading, I hope you appreciated this short novel. I had a lot of fun writing it, and it was an amazing experience to develop the story along with my 3 other classmates. If you have any comment do not hesitate to express yourself, any critic is welcomed!

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