Husk

By Razvan Morar

As always, what seems too good to be true probably is.

The flow of cyber products and the focus on platform media has devoured the potential profits in the blackness of an untapped market, leaving behind something that resembles a net on fire. The profit motive goes very close to the end of the line without regard of creative destruction. Like a deep-sea creature it follows the light of its own projection.

The same motive finds the obscure Husk Cybernetics Co., a computer manufacturer, OS developer and leader in app advertising. Husk derives its obscurity from the simple fact that it is 99.9% transparent in its operations. For most of its stakeholders it is invisible. And nearly everyone is a Husk stakeholder, for it is the only economic pillar that trickles into all facets of society; a maypole around which everyone dances all year long.

The business is booming at an exponential rate with over 4 billion long-term clients, who demand software updates on a daily basis. The scale of transaction volume is out of sight, its share price, astronomical. Suddenly, the investment department reaches a standstill. A solid steel plate crushes the windshields of their top competing brokers, 2583 and 4051.

Does a multidimensional benefit make the cost virtually threatening?

2583 checks his feed:
Feed segment – Politics:

“So what’s the best medium for controlled human efficiency?” asked the communist counterparty.
“That would be the future of mobile operating systems,” said the anarchist counterparty.

Feed segment – News:

“A suburban housewife died today from a broken neck while handling her tablet down the stairs.”

2583: “We’re in the clear, this hasn’t leaked yet.”
4051: “How could it? We’re in deep space.”
2583: “More like deep shit, brothers are chatting and asking what’s happening.”
4051:  “Apparently, we peaked, and, naturally, what follows is decent… but I’d say if we’re on the wave we can cycle back up again.”
2583: “Don’t give me that natural bullshit. That ship has sailed long ago. We’ve been running autopilot for the past decade. This, here, is a solid steel plate that goes beyond saying. You cannot disregard the fact that you miscalculated the trajectory of our penetration.” 2583 smirked
4051:“I don’t calculate, brother, I evaluate. Look at this. The artificial neural networks are still crunching data and spewing out optimal decisions. Who the hell could have predicted this would happen? It’s those telecom fuckers I bet, trying to stymie our pathway. Maybe we can find something in this junk to explain the ceiling.”
2583:“This junk you mean past data? You must have tunnel vision. Did you forget the model under which we are currently operating? The standard is innovation… you can say competitive disruption. We cannot retrace our steps because our new applications overwrite the old ones such that even a day old software update makes everything prior obsolete.”
4051: “What I do remember is having a bad feeling when this enterprise changed towards light
speed. I think it had something to do with risking our existence for market domination.”
2583: “Top desk wants a word.”
4051: “Well, flash him on. I’m already getting cozy.”
1: “Gentlemen, let’s put something into perspective. We outgrew the market. And we were feeding on dark matter outside of the scope of our operation.
Let me explain to you the nature of our demand. Data results from mobile platform service and the radical preference shift from TV to Internet revealed to us the salient opportunity to capitalize the web and essentially bring everyone in our lovey-dovey intranet. Firstly, the purposeful strategic move made by the government to obliterate the quality of TV broadcast pushed consumers towards platforms that they can have at all times in order to further influence and standardize efficient human behavior. This helped us with our solvency. Did you check the chromatography?”
2583, under his breath, to 4051: “Talk about a gentle nudge.”
1: “Secondly, gentlemen, the labor resources have been overrun and existing outside their physical capacity, mediating between walls of override. We overestimated the extent to which the human brain can adapt to our product. They were dying prematurely and they knew it, either by some aggressive disease or by cluster node suicide. Allow me to be poetic, gentlemen, and bring you down to earth. With mortality creeping slowly through the cracks between the floating chunks of shattered spirit, the human ethereal supply has drained. Ignorant of bodily energy emissions, a great percentage of our resources accepted to curl into fetus positions and press tech tablets with their bony hands deep into their chests. They used to give us a new form of energy to be consumed in a controlled pace for maximum preservation. That energy brought our company to new frontiers, but this solid steel plate can only mean one thing: we were wrong to deem this resource flow as perpetual.”
4051 coughs: “That sounds familiar.”
2583: “Sir, what do we do now?”
1: “We push mobile! We can’t afford to lose any more revenue from trying to penetrate this solid steel plate. We’re moving west. Commence operation “Husk”. Start positioning our somatic nanoscale operating system towards college students.”

Feed segment – Advertising:

“Are you tired of wasting time sleeping? Do you suffer from chaotic sleeping behavior? Cancel your sleep debt by downloading our new Sleep Rush application. Sleep Rush reorders and amplifies existing neural patterns in the brain to offer you, at your convenience, a self-induced anabolic state with all the benefits of those lovely REM waves. For only 3 Credits, Sleep Rush condenses all the effects of 8 hours of sleep in just 5 minutes! You can even use our application at your work desk for maximum efficiency.”

2583 comments on feed: “First!”