Cameron - Liminal

LIMINAL

2017 all rights reserved

Cameron NoLastName

Creative Commons License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The only way I can get this story out safely is to call it fiction. However, I assure you, it is not. This is a warning to all of you out there, something has been unleashed and I must accept responsibility for it. I can only hope that once you have read my confession, that you can forgive me or at least understand how this happened. Cameron

Every kind of ignorance in the world all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gambles. We believe what we see and then we believe our interpretation of it, we don't even know we are making an interpretation most of the time. We think this is reality.

~ Robert Anton Wilson~

We open on Cameron, not really his name, but this is the only name we will ever know him by. Hes in his office, replete with self-inflating mattress and sleeping bag, putting the finishing touches on a website with the name Liminal displayed in a prominent banner across the top. We change perspective and see some books on a shelf behind the computer. We pan across the titles; The Art of Memetics, This is Not a Game, Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ongs Hat, Homo Ludens, Finite and Infinite Games, and The Future of the Book are the ones that stand out.

The website has the look and feel of a game related property. The front of the website is dominated by the Liminal logo, a large circle intersected by a large L that extends outside the circle. We see and hear him tapping out some final lines in a text box, very determinately, then rather pseudo-dramatically and with a flourish he presses the enter key. "I finished! It's launched!" he yells to someone apparently out of frame. From a few rooms away, we hear a female voice answer back, "That's great, honey! Now maybe we can have dinner together for once!" Cameron winces and spins around in his chair, plugging a USB drive into his computer as he mutters to himself. "I launch the game that will change the world, and she's worried about dinner." Then louder, so that the voice off screen can hear, "Netflix and chill tonight my love. Takeout from that place you love. Cyber Dust or"

"Cerebus." Maya has stuck her head in the door of Cameron's office now, and from the bemused look on her face, we can tell she probably heard Cameron's muttered aggrandizement. "Cerebus," Cameron says. "Who tee-eff names a restaurant, Cerebus?" "I dunno," Maya replies. "Who says, TF instead of The Fuck, in real life?" They both look at each other and begin laughing. "You did it, honey and I am proud of you," Maya says, with genuine feeling. "I hope the investors feel as sympathetic, Maya," Cameron says, face going serious for a minute.

We see multiple monitors in the background, some with graphs and pop-up avatars with a cartouche shape and feel, moving around a screen, as well as networks maps and other geeky screen activity. "Your theories about gameplay will be accepted as fact now, no doubt about it now that you have a proof of concept in the field," Maya replies. She now moves out of the doorway into the office. She places her hand on his head. "Einstein." She adds after a pause, smiling as she does it. Cameron looks up at her with a genuine look of affection. He takes a deep breath and then says, "Yeah, you're right. I am an effing genius." "With a puritan streak a mile wide. Just say fuck already." Maya teases in return. "Ok," Cameron says. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he's shouting now. "I fucking launched this goddamn, fucking, bombs ass, mother fucking goddamn game!" he's pulling Maya down into his lap as he shouts. They embrace in a passionate kiss, and she lifts her skirt and straddles Cameron, who is still in his chair. She unbuckles his belt and our point of view shifts to one of the many screens behind them. We can hear Cameron and Maya making love in the background as a box that says, Players, Signing Up, begins to tick upwards in number.

Cameron is sitting in an office in downtown San Francisco. The Transamerica tower is prominent in the background through the sixth-floor window. He is in a button up shirt and tie, but it is obvious that he is uncomfortable in this kind of attire as he nervously picks at his collar from time to time. Cameron is wearing a stick-on visitor badge on his shirt. The upper part is visible, a red rectangular area that has VISITOR written in white. Below is a white area where the name is traditionally written, but Cameron's coat obscures it so we cannot see what name is written there. There is an interactive wall behind him, typical of the ones all the SV companies have in their meeting rooms. There's a junior exec opening screens and moving things around on the wall, reminiscent of the screen in Minority Report. Three men sit across from Cameron at the long boardroom style table. One is in a white shirt, obviously some kind of senior exec; one is in a hoodie and slouches, evidently a programmer or IT guy; and one is in a suit, like the token lawyer or some kind of corporate legal type. They all have laptops in front of them and are looking very intently at their respective screens while typing and moving their fingers on their trackpads periodically. Cameron sits, uncomfortably, waiting for someone to speak.

Finally, the man in the white shirt speaks up. "You have done something here" he begins and pauses. Cameron kind of snaps to attention, looking almost panicked, with that look reminiscent of a deer in headlights. Cameron clears his throat but doesn't say anything. "I have to say," the man pauses again. "I am pleased, very pleased with these adoption rates." Cameron's body visibly sags with relief. The other two across the table nod in consent, with Mr. Whiteshirt. "Very impressive." hoodie guy says. The lawyer stays silent, jotting down some notes on a yellow legal pad next to his laptop. "At this rate, you can expect to hit the magic 10,000 user mark by the end of the quarter."

Mr. Whiteshirt continues. "Tell me, how did you do that so quick?" "I used some new viral marketing techniques that I dreamed up last year when I was forming the basis of the gameplay theories," Cameron replies, gaining confidence now. "I knew that my data collection scenario was only going to work if I could attract a large enough sample, so I studied some of the more radical semiotic SEO and SMO work that has been used successfully in Russia, for some of their internal information campaigns. Like the hacking stuff? Mr. Whiteshirt asks? "No, my research predates that and besides it has nothing to do with hacking a computer per se and more to do with what hackers call, social engineering. I guess you could say this is a method that originated with the work of Vladislav Surkov and Alfred Korzybski , but then was later picked up and refined by rogue elements, who I'd call language hackers." Cameron stops and looks around to make sure everyone was following him. Are you talking about mind control? Hoodie asks, with an incredulous look on his face. Oh, no. No. Nothing so heavy-handed. Cameron replies. This is more like subtle recommendations.

Cameron stops for a second and adjusts his tie and then continues. "There are some fringe theories out there about methods like semiotic or semantic driving, and I decided to hop over onto the Darkweb and see if there was any meat to those rumors. Needless to say, I found some research papers and they looked harmless enough, so I modified the application of the research a bit since the papers I found were specific to an online advertising application and here we are." The hoodie guy snickers and gives Cameron a big grin. "Well, I'm almost tempted to say I don't want to know any more in the interest of plausible deniability." Mr. Whiteshirt says, laughing. The other two men flanking him, join in the laughter. Cameron laughs too, but less confidently. "Well, at this rate, I have no doubt but that we'll be able to gather large enough samples to do meaningful data mining and as a bonus, our player base will be large enough that the product placements will indeed yield returns. "Yes," Cameron replies, "I took some hits on the ReaddIt boards for those particular aspects of the game," Cameron continues, "but I think enough people understand that this game is essentially free and we have to subsidize it somehow. At least enough people understand that so that it offsets the naysayers by a large margin." he pauses for a second and take a sip from a glass of water that is on the table. "Also" he continues after swallowing his water, "game geeks are falling over themselves to play on this new platform. They recognize it for what it is. If I may be so bold, an entirely new way to play games that bridges the gap between the digital world and everyday life. With the inclusion of augmented reality and the street teams I have stenciling and postering stylized QR and AR triggers all over towns that have the largest concentration of our target demos, it has really created an immersive field of play that is unparalleled. When you see a Liminal logo painted or papered on a wall or bus bench, you know youve found a portal to another world. The game board has literally become the Google map or in other words, the world. Next week we launch the mobile app that will let us track users in real-time, as well as notifying players when they are near each other." He pauses for a moment then continues, "We will also be introducing "hyperobjects " into the scenario, some of which will be 3D printed facsimiles that we'll geocache and others will be digital representations we'll release on the internet. We'll also release the.STL files for people to print their own facsimiles..." "Why do you call them facsimiles?" Mr. Whiteshirt interrupted Cameron "Ah because 3D printing an actual hyperobject would be impossible, so for the purpose of the game, we are using a facsimile of a hyperobject..." Mr. Whiteshirt waves his hand in a dismissive gesture, "Ok, save the geeksplaination for the tech people." He smiles and continues. , This is the he looks down at his screen, The Living Book Process? he asks? Yes, Cameron replies, the process wherein a story can actually come to life and come off the page or screen as it were. People are very excited by the prospect of meeting a character from the storyline in their day to day life as well as interacting with them via text messages and calls and such. Mr. Whiteshirt is looking intently at Cameron now. After a long pause, he speaks. "Yes, total information coverage. I can't wait to show this to the folks in marketing and data mining." he pauses, then looks over at Lawyer guy, Can we see about the legal associated with tying this into offline shopping behaviors and online persistence. Like the kind of data, grocery stores gather when you use loyalty cards or those ads that follow you around recommending things based on what youve seen and done lately? The lawyer silently nods assent.