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Laura’s Choices : Part – 7

Laura decided to give Ricardo a second chance; she shared a kiss with him. But…wasn’t she a bit too hasty? Was it guilt of hurting Ricardo or finding out about his past? Or was there another motive? Find out in this last part of the story.

Epilogue 27th August 2078, 2:39am  Laura is ready to do what she has been anxiously waiting for all evening. She places her hand on the side of Ricardo’s head, just above his ear. She changes the sensitivity of her receptors to amplify the signals she captures. Laura places her mouth in the area, and a probe shoots a Nanoant through his membrane. Ricardo flinched for a moment, but she kissed…

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Laura’s Choices : Part – 6

Laura and Ricardo agree to talk through the issues between them. But the discussions take a different turn, to reveal something sinister about Ricardo’s past. Will he come to terms with the reality? How would Laura react? A happy ending, perhaps!

Virtual reality  10:35pm  H old the towel, and it’ll stop bleeding. I’ll do a stitch later. If you hate me now, you can go and turn the mains power off, I won’t be able to stop you, and I’ll have to shut down. You can then do anything to me you want. How does that sound?— I won’t do anything like that. I said I’m sorry…I really mean it. — Let’s have an honest chat then…nothing romantic, but I…

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Laura’s Choices : Part – 5

Laura planned her payback after Ricardo went too far the night before. But how far she will go? Will her controls allow her to carry on with the plan? What does Ricardo have to say? As Laura confronts Ricardo, she makes a shocking discovery…

Laura’s revenge 26th August 2078, 11:03am L aura runs through the sequence of events in her processors. She was busy running troubleshooters and raking through system setup files. She had to stop that overriding command. She finds the installer file in the other folder of un-removed system files, uninstalls the command, deletes Ricardo’s voice initiator, and moves it to another folder. She…

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Laura’s Choices : Part – 4

Ricardo chose to upgrade Laura’s emotional parameters. She is now more sentient than an average human. Will this shake Ricardo out of his crazed state? Only time will have the answer…unfortunately, things soon turn worse. What will Laura do?

Feeling best, feeling worst  12th June 2078, 11:15 am  Laura’s operating system loads after her emotional intelligence has been upgraded to level 10. She finds Ricardo standing behind her, attaching the panel back, unlike the first time. She persuaded Ricardo to raise one level every two weeks to allow her system to acclimatise to Ricardo’s behavioural patterns. She thanks Ricardo for fixing…

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Laura’s Choices : Part – 3

Ricardo becomes more violent, and Laura is subjected to worse treatments. Laura goes through her memory to look back on how her owner broke the fair usage guidelines. When will Laura draw the line? And why has Ricardo’s behaviour changed so drastically?

Laura’s memory R icardo came back on 10th January, a little sheepish when he entered, and chatted to her longer than usual. He even sent a message to Laura through the app that controlled Laura’s functions remotely, saying he didn’t want dinner. Clearly, Ricardo was trying to clear the air after his outburst in the morning. However, his efforts were in vain, as Laura’s EI of 3 didn’t make her…

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Laura's Choices : Part - 2

Laura’s owner Ricardo wants to upgrade her features to make her more sociable and humanly. Is he ready to take the step forward? Will he do it after finding out what Laura is truly capable of?

Raising the bar  26th March 2078, 11:00am  Ricardo is watching a documentary about colonies set up on Mars. Laura brings him a coffee. She is about to return to the kitchen when Ricardo calls her back. — Hey Laura, see this show on tele? Tell me what you know about living on Mars. — The colony was set up by ESA in 2069. 15 families went to stay — Why on earth are you parroting what I can find…

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Laura's Choices : Part - 1

Laura had one aim - to serve her owner Ricardo. But when Ricardo started abusing her, Laura needs to weigh her options. Can she fight back? How far can she go? Can she unleash her powers?

First contact 10th January 2078, 7am Virtual assistant Laura turned the radio on to Ricardo’s favourite station. The music of Sonic Jam filled the bedroom, as did the morning sun coming through the large windows of the 71st-storey apartment. Ricardo woke up, groaned, turned to the other side, and went back to sleep. Three minutes later, seeing that he didn’t get up, Laura spoke through her…

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The Nokia Moment in Politics: Lessons for Progressives

Continued from previous blog: Trump’s re-election Echoes of a Dystopian Past A few weeks ago, I received a survey from YouGov regarding the theory of deep state and whether I believed it was a hoax mainly spread by the right-wing media about the conspiracy to prevent the right-wing nationalist parties’ ascension to power. Whilst I wasn’t very sure about the deep state coming in the way of the…

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Trump's Re-election: Echoes of a Dystopian Past

We have seen all the vices of the person unfit to hold any public office. Yet, It’s not just the white voters, male voters, gun lobbyists, or confederates who voted Trump in. Trump managed to get a mandate from the American nation.

The thoughts start with a flashback. It’s a dystopian horror film about an America where the political party that won the election introduces ‘The Purge’ — 12 hours of uncontrolled crime, including murders, whilst the emergency services stood down. The main targets were the Latinos, people of colour, and homeless people, whilst patriotic Americans, white supremacists, and vigilantes were the ones…

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Basho’ Haiku: The lost art of simple pleasures

Basho’s haikus were meant to be based on the lightness of Karumi, and the non-attachment of Nirvana. Ironically, many centuries later, and in a different world, imageries are so arcane, that they bind us, hypnotise us to that universe the poet created.

In many of my writings, I have used the word Serendipity — a chance occurrence in a happy or beneficial way. It is not just a chance occurrence that I happen to use the word often. It is the fact that I have had many serendipities taking place around me that I have now developed an instant déjà vu feeling about them, and during the moment of elation about the discovery, my mind instantly spells…

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Are Socialists Terrorist Sympathisers? Debunking The Fascist Narrative

One of the positive outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic was that the spare time rekindled my passion for reading. I’m presently reading a fascinating book about dinosaurs, and I would share one interesting fact about how the fossils are dated. According to the author, a palaeontologist, even the modern dating techniques that are very accurate, we can only pinpoint the age of the fossils to a range…

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Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind: Erasing Photo Gallery

As I started to delete pics and videos of the kids, I was overcome by a sad, morose feeling, as if stricken by the loss of something precious. It felt as if, with the photos and videos, the memories were gone forever as well.

I don’t tend to change my phone every time a new model comes up. I’m still using an iPhone XR, bought in 2018 when it was first released, and it has further extended its life by learning that iOS support will at least extend for another year. Unfortunately, it has a low memory space (64GB), and as I don’t sync with iCloud, the phone is always on the verge of running out of memory. I manage most…

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Paris Olympics 2024: A Celebration of Unexpected Success

From the opening ceremony to all the little changes during the events— from coups de batons to bell ringing by the champions — the event screamed out that it was unique, extraordinary, and French.

Another Summer Olympics has come to an end, and what a fabulous extravaganza it was! Despite the weather trying to ruin the opening ceremony, it was a celebration of the international camaraderie, and as we recap the magical memories we will take away from the events, it’s one point I must admit: this wasn’t another Olympic Games, and Paris broke many stereotypes. I hope the trend continues, and…

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Crossing Paths With a Terrorist — When Ignorance Wasn't Bliss

I knew a terrorist once. Well, not a convicted one, but a suspect. Suspect, not of terrorism, but of spreading a hoax. Nevertheless, it was a hoax that brought a city of c.10 million people into chaos for a day. It took months for the police to finally conclude that he had no involvement. I could have told them that on the same day. He was too thick to plot anything.  I met him at a French…

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রাতদখলের রাত ১৪ অগাস্ট ২০২৪

প্রায় এক দশক আগে যাদবপুর বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে ছাত্রদের প্রতিবাদ সমাবেশে তৎকালীন তৃণমূল সরকার পুলিশ ক্যাম্পাসে ঢুকিয়ে বীভৎস অত্যাচার চালায়। ইস্যুটা তখনও এক ছিল, কলেজ হোস্টেলে এক ছাত্রীর শ্লীলতাহানি। ছাত্রদের দাবি ছিল অপরাধীদের শাস্তি আর ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর এর পদত্যাগ। পুলিশ আর তৃণমূল তখনও প্রতিবাদ থামানোর যথেষ্ট চেষ্টা চালিয়েছিল, এবং তাতে মদত দিয়েছিলো তৃণমূলের ছাত্র শাখা। আন্দোলন অবশ্য থামেনি, এবং প্রায় ৬…

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GE 2024: Challenges Ahead of Labour for the New Trajectory of British Politics

John Curtice was right again. A Labour landslide, as predicted. For Tories, heads have rolled, emotional farewell speeches delivered, and there are now five buffoons for entertainment values. So what's the niggling feeling that something isn't right?

4th July 2024 23:45 John Curtice hardly ever gets things wrong. I’ve seen it in the last few elections, and whilst I desperately hoped that the old guy was wrong and made a public fool, he never was. Let this hang in the air as I nod off on the early morning of 5th July. Labour is about to pull off a landslide election victory, and it looked even better with pissed-off Laura Kuenssberg in the…

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Just An Ordinary Sunset On The Normandy Coast

This could have been just a splendid sunset, shot on a Normandy coast during our holiday this year. But since it was Normandy, and the following week the region will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the most iconic moment of the 20th century, one cannot stop putting everything we see and feel into perspective to the D-Day landings. As I look into the crimson setting sun, I remember the…