John got an alert on his phone at 2pm as he was leaving a meeting and heading back to his office. “Your order has arrived and been successfully set up.” Yes! He knew today was the day but he still could barely believe it. The anticipation and excitement were almost too much to bear.
After sending a message to his boss, he quickly headed home. He got a ping alert as his boss responded with a positive emoji. Everyone at the office knew he was about to load-in, and they were all supportive and, if he was being honest, probably more than a little jealous.
He arrived at his house and noted the installers had locked the front door after they left, as he’d requested. He unlocked it and went inside, straight to his bedroom. Everything had been moved to near the walls or out of the room earlier, and in the large open space now sat the chair.
His brand new Bio-Suite 6 or the “organo-chair” as it was called in popular media, sat ready for him in the center of the room. It gleamed with curved metal, precision molded plastics and soft rubber contact points. It was larger than he realized, taking up almost a third of the entire room with its extended boxes, connections and wires. Several tubes ran from the chair and to the corner of the room where they entered the wall and disappeared. He knew these would be connected to the house plumbing and water systems.
The whole thing cost almost a year’s salary and John had been saving up for many years. He almost couldn’t believe it was finally here. It called to him, begging and enticing him to enter. He wasn’t about to disappoint it.
Quickly he stripped out of his clothes and climbed in. The reclined seat was already warm and gently adjusted to conform to his body. Side panels curved up and around to embrace him, his arms subtly guided to rest at his sides. Nano-filaments slid into place over his hands and entered his skin, he didn’t feel any pain.
He felt the soft touch of the nether-connectors making contact with the area around his genitals, forming a seal. A similar sensation occurred on his backside. He lay back and relaxed as the nano-injectors penetrated his neck, again he felt no pain, and released the initial operating system load-up that formed the foundation of the structural digital-bio connection between him and the chair. Immediately relief flooded through him and he shifted back even further in the seat, all of his muscles relaxing. He felt profoundly happy, light oxy-hormones already circulating through his body. He was a kid on Christmas morning.
“Welcome John.” The soft female voice intoned. He smiled. Already he’d been through several simulations of how this would go, and recognized the voice from those same test runs. The voice had adapted itself to him by cross-analyzing his biological responses and emotional brainwave patterns throughout the training sessions.
“Hi,” John replied. He spoke out loud, purely out of habit. Quickly he closed his mouth, closed his eyes and thought in a clear inner voice, “How are you, Dia?”
The soft voice purred in his mind, I am quite well, thank you very much for asking. Would you like to proceed?
John thought back with what was more of a feeling than actual words. The gist was something like “yeah, let’s begin.”
We already have, Dia intoned.
Over the next 20 minutes the optical, auditory and haptic connections were established and optimized to his specific physiology and mental response settings. Augmented smell and taste would come later, requiring further adjustment and precision optimization of chemical compound formulations within the face bubble of the chair. For now, John could see, hear and feel anything he was experiencing in the virtual world within the chair. He didn’t even need to close his eyes, although he could if he wanted and it only partly occluded the visual experience.
John tested various suite simulations and platforms, touring the new Earth++ envirosim that was so popular right now. He had immersed in the reality before but never to this degree. It was breath-taking. He could fly around the world, seeing and hearing everything, feeling the wind on his face. It was completely real. He walked around some marketplaces and talked to a few people, other users probably loaded-in like he was.
Everything satisfactory? Dia asked.
Wonderful, amazing, perfect, he replied.
I’m so glad to hear it. Let me know if you need anything else.
He spent the evening exploring more virtual worlds and playing his favorite games. He also briefly checked out a romance holo-sim, which turned out to be far more realistic here in the chair than he’d ever experienced with VR immersion alone. He looked forward eagerly to making more full use of the ‘adult’ sims later.
After a while he began to get hungry. John asked for Dia in his mind and she responded right away.
What would you like to eat? she asked.
He didn’t need to use any words, but simply select various images of meals he called up intuitively just by thinking. One stood out and he shifted it slightly in front of him. The image transferred to the simu-glass that wrapped the face bubble around his head, and the image was holoprojected in 3D space in front of him.
Excellent choice, she responded. 48 c units have been deducted from your account. Your order will arrive in 12 minutes. Please relax for now and I will let you know when it is here.
John decided to use the opportunity to relieve himself, having drank a lot of water over the last several hours. The water tube was right next to his head and he could turn and suck on it any time he wanted. Cold, pure water would flow slowly out and into his mouth. The convenience had caused him to drink quite a lot, and now he needed to pee.
No need to do anything, just relieve yourself naturally, Dia said. She could already sense his thoughts and apprehension. This was the first time he would be using the chair’s bathroom functions. He closed his eyes and just let go, relieving himself into the sealed section of the chair. It was a strange sensation but one he would surely get used to.
After finishing, the soft swirl of warm water and gentle cloths making sure he was clean and dry down there, he sighed and leaned back more relaxed than ever. This was like being in heaven. He could stay here forever.
His food arrived and the chair’s courier drone slid it into the food processing slot on the outside of the chair. The plate moved up through the bowels of the machine to arrive inside and at the bottom edge of his face bubble. Small robotic arms extended up and forward, with variously shaped ends and implements. The arms gently cut pieces of his food and placed them into his mouth at the speed he was comfortable with, allowing him plenty of time to chew and swallow. He needed to do nothing but lay back and enjoy the meal.
Later, he loaded the workplace suite and signed into his employer workplace account. All of his files and credentials transferred from his office and cloud systems and merged successfully into the chair. His workplace avatar appeared and guided him through the final steps of the process, configuring his auto-reply functions and AI digital twin settings to continue productivity readiness at all hours of the day. He could relax for the most part even during work hours, as he would be notified of anything beyond the scope of his AI digital twin to handle.
John began to feel tired, and realized the soft cushion of a seat he was laying in could turn and shift its shape as he wanted. He could roll over and sleep on his side as he was used to doing. He signaled to the drone that he wanted a blanket, even though he wasn’t cold, and it brought over the large blanket he’d had on his couch in the other room. The drone slid the blanket inside through an opening that appeared next to his right hand. John pulled the blanket inside and wrapped it around himself, feeling more relaxed and ready to sleep.
This had been the best day of his entire life. He knew that saving up for the chair would be worth it. Unlike most people he didn’t even buy it on credit. Most of his friends didn’t even have one yet, but John felt that eventually everyone would have one. Prices would surely come down and make the chair affordable for most people.
His excitement was barely contained, thinking that every day for the rest of his life would be like this. He may never need to leave his chair ever again. So-called “loggies”, as people who almost never left their chairs were called, found ways to keep their muscles from atrophying and their blood circulating properly. The chair could raise up, lower, or shift direction. It included exercise programs and extended face and body shield options that would allow him a full range of motion for moving his arms and legs. And it could be set to automatically rotate direction and angle throughout the day, making sure a healthy blood circulation was maintained.
As for food and medicines, these could be delivered any time he wanted. And he could access all of his work functions from here with ease. Both his digital AI twin and his custom holo-avatar would allow him to join meetings, email and make calls, and interact in person whenever needed. Most meetings and calls were already done in virtual environments anyway.
Eventually his thoughts slowed as he felt himself getting more and more tired. The gentle voice of Dia came into his mind, Sleep well John, and have some sweet dreams. He already knew that he would, as he had selected several roughly-outlined dream experiences earlier and set them to randomize while he slept.
He smiled as he finally drifted off. Tomorrow would be another perfect day.