i-Mage is everything

The Apple i-Mage debuted in 2020 with as much fanfare as all previous communication devices had in the previous decade of delightful downloads. That is, the wonders of technology were mirrored in the wondrous eyes of their beholders. The Apple-Google-Youtube-Microsoft merger of 2017 had brought into one corporate hand revenues beyond Wall Street dreams and talent and expertise never before gathered in one place. That place was cyberspace.

Cyber-specialty had already left its mark on the worlds of finance, manufacturing and health care as Improvements in those fields meant specialists from around the world could consult through the click of an appropriate app. Digitalized factory designs coupled with material out-put 'printers' turned home shopping on-line into home-creation. Social media became news became commercial sales became political engagement became an art unto itself. But although the new reality was decidedly novel, its reality was less certain.

Everything at this dawn of the new millennium was blending in cyberspace and power was accumulating between the lines which bound everyone together. " We're all in this together!' was the latest slogan which found its way into every aspect of the rapidly developing click-cliche culture.

The Apple i-Mage, as the name not so subtly implied, turned the humble user, 'i', into a magician extraordinaire. The various apps developed over the previous decade were reworked through Mage-technology; touch-screen and voice-command activation was replaced with touch-mind application. Put simply, brainwave imaging was digitized, transferred and realized within functions. Techies called this revolutionary innovation the 'Descartes Process' for obvious reasons.

App Pro possibilities

The 'X-Celeration' app created spreadsheets when the user thought of their desired results and then input the data.

Poems were generated on the app 'Devise Verse' when the user simply imagined a feeling or concept and clicked pre-programmed literary styles. The results reflected the user's thoughts and emotions as the application gave them structure.

The old saw, ' Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' took on new meaning as Photo and Paint-Pro apps like 'Picture Pluperfect' took retinal neural scans of your imagination and brought them to 'life' on the screen in micro-seconds. Pre-programmed schools of art style allowed the same thought-image to appear as impressionist, cubist, super-realism or neo-naturalist with a click of a menu option. Art was no longer a rare medium nor, to many, was it well done.

In years past, grammar and spell checks within communications applications relieved the writer of mundane tasks. Upgraded composition programs, called 'scriptolograms', meant authors submitted character descriptions and relations, action development and plot outlines on a menu format after choosing a particular narrative style. Writing remained varied as there were so many menu options and combinations. Authorship, however, became somewhat of a fiction. Ghost-writing devolved into digitized design devoid of spirit.

The brainwave transference technology was inherent in the product itself; the various apps provided the platform for realization. Which is why i-Mage became a personal extension of the user's character and abilities. Users' egos were stroked and inflated and so the system and its apps became wildly popular. Ego stroking sells almost as well as sex.

Not so popular with everyone

Many old fashioned writers eschewed this new pre-program approach and, with black humour, called its adherents Trash Comp Hackers. Some learned scholars warned of unintended consequences saying the 'Descartes Process' will be turned on its head as ' I think, therefore I am' will become ' I am already, so why think about it? ' They argued that thinking and control will be abdicated to computerized processes. " Users of i-Mage will get caught in a World Wide Web of self-delusion and deceit!' That was the critics' dire warning but they were largely ignored.

Old and new technology proponents debated though all the media, old and new. The i-Mage critics argued that people's minds were in a cloud in many ways and judgement was clouded. The i-Mage corporate reps and their media partners rebutted saying being on cloud nine let users not only see the light, but experience it in a very personal way. It was the ultimate realization of democracy, they claimed. In the end, critical nay-saying was no match for the dazzling allure of the i-Mage Corporation whose romantic slogan was " L' importante c'est L' i-Mage."