Frank Petrexa
Tribune
Kate and Laura were good friends. They were also attracted physically to each other, but suffered from what Dr. Ruth Westheimer called “the mutually sublimated hotsies”. Both had religious backgrounds, and both were fascinated by crucifixion. They had never talked about these things. Both had boyfriends, and both were happy with their sex lives. But new horizons sometimes beckoned.
Laura saw an ad on-line. “Virtual experience.” “Live in the past as if it were now.” “New start-up seeks volunteers to test revolutionary technology.” “SERVICE PROVIDED BELOW COST.”
Yelp wasn’t much help—the company was too new. There was some on-line buzz, however. Laura and her boyfriend had both worked in Silicon Valley start-ups, and he had heard of this company. It was backed by some serious venture capital. The principals had done successful start-ups before. They were inventive, and attuned to new technology. It didn’t seem to be a fraud or hyped vaporware.
Laura asked her boyfriend if they could try it. He was fascinated with ancient Greece, and always wanted to attend an Olympics. So, they went in. “Sure, we can probably do that. We can let you spend a day at the games. We can probably program that relatively quickly. Tentatively, you can come in next month. But first we’ll need to do a session to measure your brain and body responses to stimuli—electrical behavior, blood flow, that kind of thing. It will only take about an hour. It’s a little like an MRI. It’s painless, but you do have to be as patient as you would be for a medical exam. For the actual experience, you’ll be in an MRI-like machine for a day. It will be a little like a sleep lab—you’ll be out, in a REM dreamlike state. You’ll be immobilized. Your headsets will be connected so the program can feed your reactions to your partner when he/she is watching you or listening to you. You may feel a little weird afterward, but again not much different than after a sleep experiment. There is no danger from people or things you may ‘encounter’—it’s all a simulation. We stimulate your nerves and brain to create the simulated experience.” The company wouldn’t of course go into a lot of technical detail, other than to say that the final program is written “iteratively” by a computer—each pass is used as input to refine the next. They decided to try it.
It was fantastic. Laura’s boyfriend loved the games. Laura, as a woman, was not allowed to attend. But she wandered the agora, took in the sights and the smells, talked to the locals, saw the temple, and watched all the ancillary festivities. They wrote rave reviews for the company. The software was in beta, but it seemed to work fine.
Laura told Kate. “You wear a helmet and a body suit. They stimulate your brain and nerves somehow. They can make you see, smell and feel. It’s like dreaming, except much more vivid and focused—weird stuff that is common in dreams just doesn’t happen. We should do something together.”
Kate blurted out, “I’ve always wanted to be crucified. Can they do that?” Laura didn’t know, but she did know that she had crucifixion fantasies too, and Kate was usually involved—sometimes as a spectator, often as a cross mate. She didn’t say that to Kate, but she did say. “Me too. It would be very interesting. We’d be two ‘thieves’ whose luck had run out, displayed for all of the city to see.”
But this would be a delicate request—like asking to work in a bordello or something. The staff at the company might wonder. Laura had gotten to know one of the women who worked there. She decided to approach her discretely about it.
“It may surprise you to learn that we’ve had this request several times already. We’ve been able to program it, and the customers seemed to be satisfied with it. Our policy is to take a customer’s request and build the experience around it, based on our research. So, you won’t be able to specify all the details, or even most of them. But you will be able to select the location. Your privacy is respected—the technicians who run the experience don’t know exactly what it is. The people who program the experience won’t know your identities either. Only the customer representative and her assistant will know the details of your request and your pre-tests and write the instructions to the programming staff. We take privacy seriously.”
Kate and Laura chose pre-Christian Judea, in the first years of direct Roman rule. That was close enough to the notions they had learned in school. They were asked to come in for a pre-session. They were fitted with headsets to monitor their brain activity, led into a room full of mirrors, and asked to strip naked and watch each other go through a complex stretching routine that lasted about half an hour. Laura was especially thrilled to see Kate’s big boobs on display. Kate admired Laura’s taught, fit body. They were both highly aroused when the female technician ended the session. It only whetted their appetites for “the experience”. Not knowing exactly what would happen and how it would in the actual program heightened the anticipation. Laura remembered Bob Hope’s old quip when asked what he wanted on his tombstone. “Surprise me.”
There was a somewhat sobering meeting after the session, though. They had to sign a waiver. “I thought this was only a simulation of reality.
“It is. You will not really be crucified. But your nerves will be stimulated—the pain will be real. As in REM sleep, you will lose muscle tone, so you cannot thrash around and hurt yourselves. Your brain, however, will be tricked into believing you are walking, running, thrashing in pain. You will be able to actually sweat, scream, pant, breathe erratically. Pain triggers all kinds of things: immune responses, hormonal responses,… These can cause dangerous physiological reactions. We will monitor you and stop the program if we see any problems, so it should be safe. But, we have to warn you to protect ourselves from liability.” This was sobering and exciting at the same time. It would seem very real. They would feel a real crucifixion.
Laura saw an ad on-line. “Virtual experience.” “Live in the past as if it were now.” “New start-up seeks volunteers to test revolutionary technology.” “SERVICE PROVIDED BELOW COST.”
Yelp wasn’t much help—the company was too new. There was some on-line buzz, however. Laura and her boyfriend had both worked in Silicon Valley start-ups, and he had heard of this company. It was backed by some serious venture capital. The principals had done successful start-ups before. They were inventive, and attuned to new technology. It didn’t seem to be a fraud or hyped vaporware.
Laura asked her boyfriend if they could try it. He was fascinated with ancient Greece, and always wanted to attend an Olympics. So, they went in. “Sure, we can probably do that. We can let you spend a day at the games. We can probably program that relatively quickly. Tentatively, you can come in next month. But first we’ll need to do a session to measure your brain and body responses to stimuli—electrical behavior, blood flow, that kind of thing. It will only take about an hour. It’s a little like an MRI. It’s painless, but you do have to be as patient as you would be for a medical exam. For the actual experience, you’ll be in an MRI-like machine for a day. It will be a little like a sleep lab—you’ll be out, in a REM dreamlike state. You’ll be immobilized. Your headsets will be connected so the program can feed your reactions to your partner when he/she is watching you or listening to you. You may feel a little weird afterward, but again not much different than after a sleep experiment. There is no danger from people or things you may ‘encounter’—it’s all a simulation. We stimulate your nerves and brain to create the simulated experience.” The company wouldn’t of course go into a lot of technical detail, other than to say that the final program is written “iteratively” by a computer—each pass is used as input to refine the next. They decided to try it.
It was fantastic. Laura’s boyfriend loved the games. Laura, as a woman, was not allowed to attend. But she wandered the agora, took in the sights and the smells, talked to the locals, saw the temple, and watched all the ancillary festivities. They wrote rave reviews for the company. The software was in beta, but it seemed to work fine.
Laura told Kate. “You wear a helmet and a body suit. They stimulate your brain and nerves somehow. They can make you see, smell and feel. It’s like dreaming, except much more vivid and focused—weird stuff that is common in dreams just doesn’t happen. We should do something together.”
Kate blurted out, “I’ve always wanted to be crucified. Can they do that?” Laura didn’t know, but she did know that she had crucifixion fantasies too, and Kate was usually involved—sometimes as a spectator, often as a cross mate. She didn’t say that to Kate, but she did say. “Me too. It would be very interesting. We’d be two ‘thieves’ whose luck had run out, displayed for all of the city to see.”
But this would be a delicate request—like asking to work in a bordello or something. The staff at the company might wonder. Laura had gotten to know one of the women who worked there. She decided to approach her discretely about it.
“It may surprise you to learn that we’ve had this request several times already. We’ve been able to program it, and the customers seemed to be satisfied with it. Our policy is to take a customer’s request and build the experience around it, based on our research. So, you won’t be able to specify all the details, or even most of them. But you will be able to select the location. Your privacy is respected—the technicians who run the experience don’t know exactly what it is. The people who program the experience won’t know your identities either. Only the customer representative and her assistant will know the details of your request and your pre-tests and write the instructions to the programming staff. We take privacy seriously.”
Kate and Laura chose pre-Christian Judea, in the first years of direct Roman rule. That was close enough to the notions they had learned in school. They were asked to come in for a pre-session. They were fitted with headsets to monitor their brain activity, led into a room full of mirrors, and asked to strip naked and watch each other go through a complex stretching routine that lasted about half an hour. Laura was especially thrilled to see Kate’s big boobs on display. Kate admired Laura’s taught, fit body. They were both highly aroused when the female technician ended the session. It only whetted their appetites for “the experience”. Not knowing exactly what would happen and how it would in the actual program heightened the anticipation. Laura remembered Bob Hope’s old quip when asked what he wanted on his tombstone. “Surprise me.”
There was a somewhat sobering meeting after the session, though. They had to sign a waiver. “I thought this was only a simulation of reality.
“It is. You will not really be crucified. But your nerves will be stimulated—the pain will be real. As in REM sleep, you will lose muscle tone, so you cannot thrash around and hurt yourselves. Your brain, however, will be tricked into believing you are walking, running, thrashing in pain. You will be able to actually sweat, scream, pant, breathe erratically. Pain triggers all kinds of things: immune responses, hormonal responses,… These can cause dangerous physiological reactions. We will monitor you and stop the program if we see any problems, so it should be safe. But, we have to warn you to protect ourselves from liability.” This was sobering and exciting at the same time. It would seem very real. They would feel a real crucifixion.
