Edenborn

Work Title: Edenborn
Medium: Novel
Episode Title:
Year: 2004
Writer(s): Nick Sagan
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: Yes
Summary:

This novel follows 5 adults, some of whom are caring for the around 10 children. They are the last people on earth, following a horrific plague. The adults are super humans, with enhanced immune system, and were engineered by scientists beofre they were killed. They spent the first 18 years of thier lives in virtual reality, only to wake up and find that in real world, everyone was dead. Now, they must replenish humanity by engineering children.

  • Self-Written?: 1
  • Source Name:
  • Source URL:
Era/Year of Portrayal: distant_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

There are less than 20 people alive on Earth. Skeletons and deserted buildings cover previously populated areas. People spend much of their time in virtual reality.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: IVR: inside virtual reality
  • Description of the technology: People plug into the virtual world, which is as large as one can imagine. Each person has their own domain, which they can build as they please. Each child has a certain amount of money they can spend on enhancements - for example, a person could engage in a fight against a program, but the blood to make it look more real costs money. Everything in IVR is great: funny, beautiful, wonderful tasting. It fills the senses and everyone wants to spend thier time there. Very vivid and total immersion.
  • Nature of task or activity: Inside IVR you could do physical activities, such as surfing or fighting, or design a castle exactly as you wish. Anything activity is possible in IVR. You could write operas or paint masterpeices.
  • Performance of the Technology: The technology functions well, except for when hacked, which is then quickly fixed.
  • Description of creator(s): The creators of IVR were the brilliant scientists who were killed by the plague. We don't learn much about them.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): They created IVR as a place where the first immune enhanced children could grow up in a seemingly normal world. Thus, the technology was created to pacify the kids, as well as socialize them to a world that no longer exists. Thus, they would want to repopulate the world so that it could be restored to the place they grew up. It then became a source of entertainment.
  • Description of users of technology: The people who use the IVR range in age from 36 to 9, and are male and female. They are the last people on Earth.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: both
  • Description of presence experience: The presence experience is depicted as wonderful, where everyone wants to be. Everything is more vivid and more intense there; colors, tastes, smells, beauty. Anyone may do anything or go anywhere they wish. For instance, you could be in an impressionist painting or a prefect beach or the Louvre.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: Everyone is aware they are in IVR. However, before this book began, the adults spent the first 18 years of their lves in IVR and were unaware.
  • Valence of experience: They enjoy it - it is more real than real. In the real world, there are only about 10 people - in IVR anyone from history, and anywhere.
  • Specific responses: enjoyment, involvement, improved task performance and skill training, all during the experience. The real world is dulled in comparison - food does not taste as good.
Long-term consequences:

The ending is bittersweet; some characters die while some live. But, the presence experience does not cause the deaths. In general, the entire situation is bleak, and while the IVR is a part of the bleak situation, it is not necessarily a direct cause of the deaths. Rather, it was a tool used to keep people alive after everyone else was killed by disease.

Other:

Within the IVR world, there are characters that seem very real, with their own sense of humor. One program/person is created to emulate someone who had died earlier. The new character is so like the dead person, it is easy to foget that she is only a computer progam.

Coder name: Amanda Scheiner
Coder email: amandags@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University