“I don’t want to feel good,” she said. “I want to feel something else .”
She tried to read a physical book. An old one. 1984 . She got three pages in before a low-grade nausea hit her. Her implant tingled. The book was flagged: Low GFI. Contains: oppression, fear, ambiguous ending. Suggestion: Switch to audiobook of ‘The Happiness Hypothesis (Abridged, Feel-Good Remix).’
She wanted to tell someone. The next morning, she walked into the Serotonin Studios pitch meeting. Leo was already smiling. If It Feels Good Vol. 3 -Deeper 2022- XXX WEB-D...
She looked back at the screen. The hospital fire was still burning. The child was still screaming. And for the first time, Maya didn’t want to replace it with a puppy.
In the year 2031, the Attention Wars were over. Humanity had lost, but it didn’t hurt. It actually felt amazing . “I don’t want to feel good,” she said
Maya nodded. “I removed the red coat. Too ambiguous. I added a puppy that follows the main character around.”
“No,” she said. “I can’t.”
That night, Maya went home to her apartment. Her walls were screens. The screens auto-tuned to her personal GFI feed: Comforting Lo-Fi Beats to Forget Your Student Debt To , Clips of Golden Retrievers Catching Pancakes , 10-Minute Stand-Up Where No One Is the Butt of the Joke.
. , (18+).
. .
