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Fiction
My Beautiful Avatar
The butler has found the torch. There is nothing more I can do.
After the first virus, my life changed. I suppose life changed for everyone to one degree or another, but for me it was much more than I expected
Avatar robots have been out for a few years now, but because of the high cost, their use has mostly been to eliminate high end corporate travel. Executives of companies who can afford these can log on to an avatar at a remote office and the experience is very close to “being there”. Of course it requires ultra high speed network connections, and fairly expensive virtual reality equipment at the originating end, but it sure beats the cost, time, and danger of air travel. Even with the best filtration and the best masks, locking yourself in an aluminum tube with strangers sounds like a ticket to a life support center. Nobody flies now unless it’s military.
Most companies rent the low end stuff. The things that look like that little robot from Pixar, what was that damn movie? Argh, I can’t remember, but you might have seen one of these rolling up the street on its way to a meeting. They look a bit like a lawn mower with a robot head on the handles. They rent for about $50 an hour and they’ll stop dead in the street because the schmuck at the other end didn’t spring for…
