April 21, 2002
Rachel’s Personal Web Site, www.cheatdeath.com—weightless computing, making money while you rest and relax on a beach and cheating death
Rachel’s Avatar, “Betty”—her cyber alias and alter ego
Rachel’s Personal Cyber Assistant, “Felix”—an advisor, friend and colleague and survivor—an AI program
The Story of Rachel, a child born in the year 2012.
Rachel is a child born to middle class parents in San Francisco in the year 2012.
Like all parents of that time, Barry and Linda, register Rachel’s personal web site, cheatdeath.com, her cyber assistant and life-time companion, Felix and create her alter ego on the Internet, Betty.
To help us understand the functions of these three dimensions to Rachel’s life, let us look at the functions provided by each:
1. Rachel will upload to CheatDeath.com all her personal intellectual property throughout her life.
2. As she goes through her early years, images and video of her life and work and play are uploaded to the site.
3. At first, the site is more about letting her extended family enjoy her development and learn more about her.
4. The site is password protected so only the right people can share in her life.
5. As she gets older, the site becomes more of a depository for her budding IP. When she travels, she never has to take anything with her—no CD-ROMS, no lap top, everything she needs to do her work is there in the air: web tone is everywhere, by ultrawideband (wi-fi) over-the-air connections or fibre optic links. All the software she uses and the data and her earlier work are accessible from anywhere at any time by web tone.
6. Rachel’s desire and training is to be a teacher and she conducts classes over the net ‘in-person’ using her avatar form “Betty”. When she is not around (lying on a beach somewhere) her site CheatDeath.com continues to make money for her as her students take online tests that Rachel has designed for them—they make micro-payments each time they take one of the tests or download one of Rachel’s learning units.
7. Rachel continues to create new material for CheatDeath.com throughout her life and she expects to will the site to one of her grandchildren, if one of them is interested in becoming an educator.
1. Rachel’s online alter ego was created at the time of her birth. Betty is her online avatar—a representation of Rachel.
2. Faces on the Internet are important and Rachel’s computer scans hers 24 times per second.
3. Betty is capable of emoting and body language.
4. Betty can hang in a cyber café any where on the planet and meet with friends or collaborate with colleagues.
5. Betty can use sight, auditory and touch senses.
6. Betty can relate to the Internet much as humans have evolved to relate to RL (Real Life). Betty can hyperlink around the Internet; she can manipulate things using her avatar hands; she can move in cyberspace using her legs or other forms of transportation.
7. Betty can also call up a keyboard or other types of interface with the Internet inside cyberspace if this is more efficient for her.
8. Betty is Rachel’s alter ego in cyberspace and reflects Rachel’s personality and her level of learning.
9. Betty is intricately linked to Rachel’s web site—and will represent Rachel and Rachel’s learning after her death
1. Felix lives in cyberspace but has an eye that travels wherever Rachel goes in RL.
2. Felix learns what Rachel learns where she learns it.
3. Felix also has an AI (Artificial Intelligence) program that greatly extends Rachel’s capabilities.
4. When Rachel logs on to the Internet from wherever, Felix pops up.
5. Felix can also interact with Rachel through the eye.
6. Felix will remind Rachel of her schedule for the day.
7. Another Felix capability—it can teach Rachel’s students independently of Rachel.
8. Felix can make travel arrangements for Rachel; download her favourite music; remind her of important dates like her anniversary.
9. Felix can do much more—it can hunt new revenue opportunities for Rachel like find her some new contracts for her teaching. “Hey, Rachel, there is a new tender call for teachers in San Diego and our ESL unit should fit the bill nicely. Want to bid?”
1. On her passing, none of her descendants is really very interested in her profession.
2. They take her site CheatDeath.com, her avatar, Betty and her Personal Cyber Assistant, Felix and they put them up for auction on e-Bay. They receive 17 bids and take the second highest one—someone they feel will: a) use Rachel’s legacy appropriately, and b) make best use of it too.
Copyright. Bruce M. Firestone, Ottawa, Canada, April 2002.