Art watched a news feed on TV about brushes used to massage cows. Cows turned their bodies to brushes from all sides and as much as the cow's faces were able to express something at all, they expressed pleasure. “A happy cow gives more milk” this was the moral of the flick.
"That’s how it is in life,” he mused. “Only a mother, obedient to her instinct, loves a child unconditionally. All other relationships are conditional. Physical attractiveness goes only so far. After that, it becomes necessary to keep your cow happy," he looked at his wife, who followed the price curves of cryptocurrency on the monitor, "…then your cow will give you more milk." He winked to himself at that thought.
"Ok, hon, where do you want to go?" he returned to the interrupted conversation.
“Somewhere far away from here,” with the wide gesture, Jenny pointed to wallpaper, reproduction of Dali’s with melting watches, and monitors, on which the curves of cryptocurrencies that happily jumped, sadly dropped, and tragically fell to the abyss of non-existence. “Somewhere, the hell out of dodge, to Egypt! Somewhere where I can get emotions. Or else… here, between these four walls, you can go crazy!”
"I thought you loved this job. We bought you these tables and all this equipment. Everything you wanted.”
"And now you reproach me for it?!"
“Well, no, of course not. But… think about it… to look at pyramids, sarcophagi, and there sphinxes we need extra money. But, we spent so much on this equipment and now there's no money to travel.”
“Money, money, money! With you everything always about money. Because you're a primitive creature. All your emotions reduced to one thing,” she imitated coitus movements, “Nothing more refined and profound is available to you.”
“No, hon, you don’t understand. I am, not just a fucker. I have profound feelings, too…” Seeing her turning away, he waved his hand like he would at the poor business deal.
“Ah, thank you, I see it,” having followed a security guard’s index finger, Art saw on the second floor of the shopping center, flickering with the display footage of exotic places, the travel agency "Real travels."
Getting up the elevator to the second floor, he saw the business slogan "We will send you to any point of the planet! Real travel at a really small price!"
Before entering, Art stopped to watch the fragments from different travels, continuously rolling on the video screens. A beautiful blond in a bikini was commenting and sharing her impressions about her trip to Egypt. She was on a boat with scuba equipment behind her back. ‘What a hot chick! Some rich dude must be banging her,’ flashed in Art’s mind, as he was coming inside.
Source
Upon entering the glass door, a smiling girl greeted him. Learning that he was interested in traveling to Egypt, she offered him to sit on a sofa.
“Please wait for a couple of minutes. Coffee?” She asked with a charming smile. Art nodded and she brought him a cup of hot coffee and a plate of little eclairs. "Yes, that’ll occupy me for a couple of minutes."
Indeed, in about three minutes the girl approached Art with another of her charming smiles
"Our representative is waiting for you.”
The representative appeared to be pampered looking man, with snow-white zirconium teeth glittering in the midst of his tanned, freshly shaved face, on which light strip of burnt skin surrounded flat lips.
“So you want to travel to Egypt, young man?” after shaking hands he invited Art to a chair across from him. “Where specifically?”
“At first to an all-inclusive resort - to rest, and then… whatever… pyramids, sphinxes, and so on. My wife has never seen all that stuff.”
“Beautiful choice, beautiful,” he slid toward Art a brochure of Hurghada resorts with pictures of luxurious five-star hotels, spread on shiny white sand by the shore of the emerald sea.
“Hurghada is one of the most popular resorts in the world!” a dreamlike expression appeared on the face of the salesman. He raised his hand up and as if he was painting an imaginary picture – “the Blue Azure of the endless ocean and the lost islands. The noise of the surf and the whisper of sand under your feet. A wonderful underwater world and its fabulous inhabitants.
Source
A limo will pick you up at the airport. Do you prefer Chrysler, Mercedes, or BMW?”
Art who never rode in one of those cars shrugged.
“Your accommodations will be a royal suite for six thousand dollars a day!”
"Hold on a second,” Art narrowed his eyes, “we are talking a virtual journey, aren’t we? If so than what difference, does it make whether you create a beautiful palace or a dirty shack?” Art chuckled.
"Not quite so. Preparing for such a vital journey is a costly matter. The company has to rent expensive accommodations, hire professional actors, and track their emotional experiences, then do expensive neuroplastic editing.”
“Ah… That’s how you do it,” Art unwillingly squinted. “I mean virtual sensations…”
The salesman lowered his hand as if the flight of his inspiration had suddenly subsided, and continued to speak already in a sober, though trusting tone.
“A person perceives the outside world with various sensors: visual, auditory, taste, tangible, pressure, temperature… When all these signals come into the brain, it interprets them and creates a comprehensive picture of the world. Why am I telling you this? You're an intelligent guy and I 'm sure you know about these things.”
“Yes, in general terms,” Art nodded, “still... I’d like to know more details...”
“Certainly. Our system intercepts these signals and replaces them with different ones. The pre-recorded emotional experiences, if you wish… The challenge here is just how accurate we can reproduce a person's impressions of what is seen, heard, tasted, or touched. After all, it also depends on human character, mood, cultural background, and many other parameters.”
"How real is it? You see, my wife, she wants emotions, experiences. She says that what her informational metabolism demands.”
“Don’t worry. She'll have plenty of emotion. After all, what is emotion? Nothing more than biochemical survival algorithms that have been polished by millions of years of evolution.” The salesman winked at Art, “Our system, already understands people better than they understand themselves. Take a look. This is what the virtual traveler sees. That lady.” The salesperson clicked the button and Art saw a woman lying on her back with closed eyes. “You will see everything she sees and hears what she thinks.
