You are at McDonalds.
You order a burger, the cheapest thing on the menu. You just need something to get you through your shift at the grocery store. They call your name and you take the bag, returning to your car. You open the bag, take out the wrapped burger, and look at it. It looks wrong, only because it looks so perfect. You shift your SmartGlasses up. The food doesnât look nearly as appetizing any longer. Generative AI was layering HD improvements over the food in real-time.
This is possible thanks to the McDonalds Auto-App Contract, a system of design where the MegaCorp that owns your SmartGlasses gets paid millions of dollars to make each pair automatically download their companyâs Generative AI Filter app and open it while youâre in the vicinity of a McDonaldâs. You eat the burger, flaws and all, because damn the so-called evidence. Your personal AIÂ said it was âprovenâ to make food taste better, but we all knew it was an excuse to cut costs again.
The CEOs were playing Russian Roulette with profits. Anything to cut costs, to get a little more money than the last guy, then ditch before they fail. People always rise up eventually. But the SmartGlasses just made it take longer.
You wish you could just throw your SmartGlasses away, but every company in the world uses them, now, and ditching your SmartGlasses is like ditching your identity. No one would bother to hire someone without this industry-standard proven technology. And still, the only peace you feel is when the batteries die. You know you have to recharge it, but during that wait itâs like living in another world. One that was once beautiful, now made bland enough for holograms to be layered over everything. Your soul twinges for a different life, but you don't have to wait long because the SmartGlasses are solar-powered and theyâre fully charged again. Your lunch break is almost over. You can't forget because the timer at the top right of your glasses is ticking down to when you have to be clocked in again.
Off to work.
