EP332: Overclocking

[MokalusOfBorg]

I really liked the concept of the story, but I didn't identify the girlfriend as a major plot point at the time. She was just kind of background for me, one of the inevitable artifacts of that lifestyle. So even when she died I was expecting more, then the ending hit me out of nowhere, just as I thought the story was going to take off.

[Balu]

It would have had to be a masterpiece to match that whole 'lava and polar bears' bit in the intro.

Also, I may have drifted off a bit, but I didn't get the ending. Did he just get depressed and decide to get caught, or did I miss something?

[bruhsam]

I liked this story right up until the end. There was zero leadup to why he allowed himself to be caught with intention to distribute. The only hint was, "It's just business".

Was he trying to get arrested to have an alibi for his gf's death? That doesn't make much sense given how long she was dead before he was arrested. Was it penance? That doesn't make much sense given the last "it's just business" comment.

I want someone (the author would be great) to explain why Ari turned himself in, or at least a reason that fits plausibly into the story, because without that tiny bit of info, this story gets a down check from me.

[Scattercat]

The final repetition of "It's just business" is bitter self-mockery, as he loses his ability to continue to pretend that what he does isn't hurting anyone.  It just took a personal tragedy to let him see that it had never been "just business."

[CryptoMe]

I agree with the people who were confused/let down by the ending. I don't mind a bit of ambiguity in fiction, but when you have absolutely no clue as to the motivation of a character's actions, and those actions do not seem to ring true to what we have been shown about the character to date, in that case, so much ambiguity is just plain bad, in my view.

[Devoted135]

I must admit I'm a bit surprised by the number of people who have thought the ending was ambiguous. I thought it was well-foreshadowed when the narrator tells us that he purposefully let himself go to juvee as a teen as penance for his hacking (I think that's what it was for, I'm getting hazy on the details.) To me, allowing himself to get caught at the end was just another instance of him allowing the state to exact the punishment he felt he deserved. Granted, it was an early detail told with his detached air, but that's just keeping true to his character.

[jdarksun]

Yeah, I didn't get the ending either.  I understand the penance angle... but it just felt abrupt.

[NoNotRogov]

An interesting element to this story, for me, was how little we perceive drugs and their surrounding culture to change. The limiting factor for these nano-drugs was the machines that could write code to them, and a need to keep upgrading as the drug companies would change them. I wonder if that is caused by constant changes in the actual bots or if its attempt at security. As its terribly obvious that anyone with a machine can write to these things, if not do it well.

Because he just would buy random sticks and then change the coding we must assume that each stick contains the same bots, so they've perfected or something close to the method of accessing the underlying genetics which makes me wonder why the dealer is still buying them. If hes buying enough of them to supply a large population to support him then I'd think the purchases would be notable, if on the other hand the junkies bought sticks and he'd set up a mobile writing station that would seem far less traceable and could quite possibly keep him from actually having anything illegal on his person...but perhaps I'm just thinking too deep in how code-drug trafficking might work..

Oh yes, and wonderful reading, the perfect cadence for the laid back attitude of Ari.

I think he buys the sticks because they aren't a modders tool, they are the basis of the legitimate consumer usage of nanomods as well. This also helps explain why there wasn't better security for the corporate mainframe or what have you he was breaking into regularly - he wasn't altering the codes they sell to people, he was forging purchase accounts and getting one-off, one-time use codes without paying for them, and then illegally modifying/kitbashing them with his unlicensed rig at home.

At least that was the impression I got from the story: the way the legitimate mod market works is you buy generic nanosticks and then pay to download a one-time use program from the pharmacorp into it.