PERFECTION PROTOCOL

I

Jaxon Reed lives in a world where everything is possible and therefore nothing is urgent.

His apartment in the Melbourne Arcology responds to his biometric readings in real time. When he wakes, the walls adjust their colour temperature to match his circadian rhythm. When he sits down to eat, the kitchen fabricates a meal that is nutritionally perfect and tastes exactly as he desires. His clothes are selected by the ambient system, which has learned that on days when his cortisol is elevated, he prefers darker colours and looser fits.

He works as a memory architect. In a society where physical needs have been entirely satisfied, where death has been reduced to a voluntary procedure called "fading" and where children are optional, the primary economic activity is the design and distribution of emotional experiences. Jaxon's job is to take a client's vague request "I want to feel something real" and turn it into a fully immersive simula