

For an Integrated experience, the author suggests listening to: Heavyweight by Infected Mushroom whilst reading (the author claims no ownership, copyright or control of this song).

... Walking down the street, you can't help but succumb to the onslaught. Billboards flashing, speakers screaming.



"Newer", "Faster", "Stronger", "Brighter", "Safer", "Thinner", "Buy now", "Upgrade, upgrade, UPGRADE!." I do need a new titanium exoskeleton, that would keep me safer. Yes, my download times are a tad slow. All that you need to do is think "purchase" and the upgrade begins automatically. Ever since iCorp released their Direct Cranial Bio-Integration software update, Integrates no longer need to use their hands. We just see, think and accept - simple. For months leading up to the release, it was the only promotion worth knowing about. Delivered directly to the inner ear, iCorp's Spokesbot endlessly educated us about the benefits of the upgrade, letting us know why we couldn't live without it. "With iCorp's latest offering, upgrading has never been easier. Simple and elegant, just think and accept. The endless tedium of manually selecting and clicking is a thing of the past, you need never use your hands again. Remember, you made the choice. This is the next step in your evolution." There are upgrades and patches for everything. The latest in memory retrieval software comes in the form of cloud based enhancement, complete with instantaneous retrieval. We all remember the tag line: 'never forget a thing'. Remember the hilarious advertisement projections showing those skinny, sickly Naturals stumbling and stuttering for words? "Errrr, ummm, hang on, it's err ... right on the tip of my tongue." Pitiful. Logos and slogans are plastered throughout. Bright fluorescent displays across every walkway, splashed on the side of buildings, over the roads and on all consumer products. iCorp injects each with an algorithm, specifically designed to slightly alter the advertisement in terms of colour, tone and texture to optimally appeal to the individual Integrate that is observing it. It's everywhere, intimate and unescapable. It's in your dreams. Ghostly voices whispering into your ear details about the latest in surgical-neuro enhancement and Integration technology. New top of the line cars, the latest celebrity trends and gossip. How can I be like them? ''With this upgrade of course!" The Naturals hate the flashing neon lights, it drives them insane. Epileptic seizures and chronic headaches are commonplace for them. Dirty filth, littering the sidewalk, foam bursting and frothing from their mouths. They had a choice, just like the rest of us. Now I have to deal with them and their constant begging. Disgusting. Their bodies are so meagre, so feeble, so unevolved. Constantly faulty and failing on them. Those butcher shops they call hospitals do prolong their pathetic lives somewhat, but at what cost? Even if they manage to scrape together enough to buy their fragile 'organic' bodies some more time, the required procedures are unimaginably traumatic. Could you fathom having to feel pain? Suffer the chronic debilitation of crude medications with their endless amounts of contradicting side effects? For what? Just to prolong the inevitable slide into old age and death? No thank you! They had the option to evolve. They made the choice to stay Natural. Look at them now, scurrying to survive, slinking around in a futile attempt to satisfy their basal needs. It's woeful really.