The Plastic Life Scope

He was rich and young, too young apparently. He was dead, at the pinnacle of his youth and wealth. He made his fortune from an extrordinary invention, The Scope. Many had attempted this before him, but he alone had mastered control over the dream world, but once he had finished his prototype, he was not prepared for the consequences that followed.

The Scope functioned via old vhs video tapes, a format abandonned many years ago. A metal helmet, fitted with electrodes, placed the wearer in the Film, in place of the camera. The system was black and white (and without sound), and waking up was problematic. He had been obliged to attach a loud alarm clock, which was set to sound at the end of the dream, when during the first test, his neighbour had found him several days later still asleep. The first improvements, a few months later, were made on the helmet. Entirely made of metal, it was rather uncomfortable, and prone to faulty electrics. One day, he woke up in hospital, in the burns unit, because of a simple crossed wire.

Once the system was perfected, only a few rich patrons bought it, the product was not yet ready for public consumption. He borrowed more money from those who had supported the project since it's inception and worked non stop over a year on the colour and sound settings, as well as compatability with third generation video equipment. Version 2 of The Scope was an immediate success, and came supplied with the old Walt Disney classic 'Fantasia'. The thousands, then the millions of owners of this fashionable product (according to a government survey) were more relaxed than those without, but did have an annoying habit of singing the 'Sorcerers Apprentice' out loud in public without realising it. There were very few films available for view at the time, as a virus in The Scope only allowed discs coded with a secret algorhythm to be played, of course he carefully chose which films should and should not be coded. Fatally someone succeeded in bypassing the coded algorhthym and then began distributing violent films, which provoked a wave of depression which lasted till the algorithum was changed.

As a result of the colossal success of his invention, he sold his start up company for a colossal profit to Microsoft, who subsequently provided the technology to incorporate touch, smell and 3D imagery to the existing Scope. This deluxe version was also a great success, whilst the old version still remained popular. But he soon became bored, he had had enough of having the same dreams night after night, he had had enough of everyone else having the same dreams. In the end everyone who owned the Scope was the same. They were relaxed and happy, they aspired to a simple happiness (which was a remarkable evolution in their mentaility) but there was not much left in terms of originality. These few years saw the number of non-conformists drop and artistic endeavour cease. No, the world he had created did not please him. He himself did not use the Scope unless to test it, he spent his nights in the good old way.

Then one day he had an idea, to move from film to video games. He resigned his position at Microsoft and called a programmer friend. In twenty months, they had created the 'interactive dream' a kind of parallel world, where in part, the mind decided the course of the story, the remainder generated randomely by the computer programme to which the Scope was attached. To celebrate the occassion they rented a cinema, where scenes from the programme were shown, and where they played together in 3D. They tested the scope for a further two months, each in turn, one staying awake to unplug the other in case of difficulties. Even once all the bugs were ironed out, they still did not get bored of the Scope. One day, over breakfast she told him about a dream the Scope had showed her <>. This was when the great love between them was born. It was also when Microsoft bought back the invention. Notes made during the last two years testing, allowed Microsoft to recreate a new programme taking scenery from around the world, which once again, guaranteed the Scopes commercial success with an audience desperate for adventure and unable to travel. The young couple, now known as 'Mr and Mrs Scope' tried to distance themselves from gropwing media speculation. They plugged both their headsets into the same computer and shared the same dreams. They achieved perfect symbiosis of spirit. She was within him, and him within her.

Three months after their marriage, she needed to spend a few weeks with her family. During this time he never stopped thinking about her, and dreamt of her every night. In fact he reprogrammed the Scope to recreate the presence of his wife. On waking every morning, it seemed as if he had spent the night with her. But she had not taken her portable Scope kit with her. Her first nights spent without him were painful, their spirits had never been apart since their marriage. She felt the need to make long calls to him, but these phone calls did not bring her the same comfort as the nights she spent with him, the scope helmet on her head. He was no longer with her and she discovered she could live without him. She also discovered that the the world was more beatiful than any dream chosen in advance, so she decided to live in reality. The first time he did not understand. He didn't miss her, he always had her with him at night. When she returned to tell him their marriage was over, he got angry and deleted any reference of her from the computer programme which controlled his dreams. From that day on, he isolated himself to the house more and more. He tested ways of making the dreams even more realistic, once done, he isolated himself even more and even further, not hesitating to spend day after day in the scenarios he wrote. He invented new scenarios, one of his ideas was to recreate death. More and more often, his dreams ended in suicide, till one day he forgot that he wasn't dreaming.