The Oculus development office floor was jammers as usual as people went about their daily grind. Releasing updates was now the main focus of the program, with many of the desired new features being top secret. Due to the secretive nature of some of these updates, the programmers were often under strict, update specific need-to-know instruction, creating silo’s and tribes right across the one hundred deep floor of developers. Charlie was the top dog in Oculus when it came to the technology itself. Almost nobody on the floor knew the entirety of its coding labyrinth bar him. There was a handful of programmers who came close however, the ones that Charlie trusted. As Charlie walked through the office, cherry picking these programmers for an impromptu meeting he was greeted by everyone he passed. Charlie’s office was equipped to block signals when needed and todays meeting was one such occasion. As the men and women filed in behind him he closed and locked the office, hitting a switch on the wall. Their HUD’s went down and they all gave each other a look to see if anyone knew what this was all about. Charlie pulled out an old projector and put up his document that he had prepared. “You have all been loyal employees, colleagues….friends even, to me since this program began. I have came to you all at some stage or another with my concerns about the direction of the program. You have buried projects that would have served to empower the state above and beyond what even we would be comfortable with and you did so at risk to your careers and your very lives. It should come as no surprise to you that our worst fears have been realised. The CIB is now in full operational control over Oculus and is now pushing to implement its battery of features in institutions such as the police force with many more institutions to follow. With this trajectory in play, we can expect to see the citizen class Lenses being weaponised against their hosts by the end of next year. Legislation is already on the agenda as they alluded to as much at the twenty third State Policy AGM last week.” Charlie played a clip of the Central Commissioners talking and debating the use of the technology. “How did you get hold of this Charlie?” Asked one of the programmers. “Yeah Charlie what’s going on, what are you involving us in?”. Charlie switched to a slide that showed a headed document with the Oculus CIB patch. “This patch is the sigil of despots, of big brother becoming maligned towards the citizenry. It is clear to me now that they are indeed trying to become the arbiters of truth where the human eye is concerned. It will not stop with Oculus. They will use our creation to destroy our reality entirely. When they made the Lens mandatory, we acted. We gave access to the tech to anarchists. They created doubt in the minds of the public but not enough. We are uniquely positioned to do something to prevent this going any further now”. Charlie observed the room to get a feel for the response to his words “ I understand that we can’t completely rebel and walk out, our lives would be in danger. But we can operate a go slow, create delays and problems where there are none”. “Charlie I will do whatever you ask but we already do this stuff. You’re holding something back here. Trust us man. Out with it. What do you want us to do”. Charlie’s toe was tapping nervously. “I believe two of our Operators will act with us, if we aid them. I believe that if we provide them with countermeasures, their own Oculus of sorts, they will do what we cannot”. “Which two Operators?” Asked another programmer. “This is where it gets complicated” responded Charlie, changing to a slide that showed three dissidents running through the park at the Plaza riots.
© 2024 Stephen J. Delaney
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