by Will Stanton » Tue Apr 12, 2016 7:09 am
"Mmm. Next big thing--next gen Facebook and stuff like that.
You, uh..." she said, looking for words. "You've got this little earbud, right? And you wear that, and it sends you all sorts of real-time information--newsfeeds, and where your friends are and what they're doing, and sports scores and weather reports and all this kinda stuff. And it's all sent to you, bam bam bam bam bam," she said, snapping her fingers. "A constant stream of things.
And people wear, uh, little throat-mike things, right here," she said, gesturing to a spot on her collar. "And you'll get these people walking around muttering into them, you know, like they're...uh...updating their Twitter status? That's a thing, right? And they'll use them, like, I might say into it, 'Simon and I want to get some lunch, where should we go?'. And, uh, the engines will know who I am, and who Simon is, and what kinds of food we like, and what we've eaten recently, and how much variety we like. And they'll know where we are, and what restaurants are around, and what they serve. And they'll know which ones are crowded at the moment, 'cause they know where everyone is, and they'll know which ones are having good days, because everyone else is muttering into their throat mikes, talking about how good the food is, and the engine can chunk through all of this information and tell us that we should go to Luigi's on 12th street, and so we do."
"And then a lot of people wore little contact lens-type things, and it could display the directions to the restaurant, and let you preview the menu, and all sorts of stuff like that."
She gave a half smile. "I seem to remember most telepaths hating it. Enough trouble with one set of voices in their head, or something like that.
Maldon's a lot...quieter than I remember."