Author: Majoki

The hall hushed when Toynbee took the stage, a first for an HDM. Typically, there would be snide remarks, a general sense of junior high rudeness at the appearance of an HDM. Because, really, who took a holo-digi-man seriously? HDMs were binary shills, ones and zeros, pitching everything from Bud Light to Viagra to Geico to Applebee’s for their corporate overlords.

But this was Toynbee. The holo-digital-manifestation that had rocked the world when it accepted the award at the 2030 CLIOs for best advertisement. A commercial in which Toynbee manifested as Mahatma Gandhi on a hunger strike to protest Big Sugar and its wily efforts to addict consumers to its supremely processed products.

In accepting the award, Toynbee exquisitely wove into its remarks a three minute exposition on the precarious state of the human condition, our obsessions with power, with wealth, with ideology, with violence. The next three minutes the HDM delivered a “We can do so much better. And this is how.” In six minutes and the ensuing viral media sensation, Toynbee had changed the game.

Of course it was odd that a public figure emerged who was not corporeal, was not of the flesh, yet was able to inspire us to aspire. But Toynbee was a digi-man, a digital manifestation, constructed to sell, sell, sell. And what Toynbee began to sell was hopefulness, a brighter future. In the media feeding frenzy that followed his CLIO speech, Toynbee acquired the moniker of Optimystic, a holy digi-man, sage of the Artificial Intelligence Age.

Thus, at the height of the hype, Toynbee took the stage at Madison Square Garden where thousands gathered (and billions online tuned in) to hear the Optimystic’s storied pitch. On the darkened stage Toynbee manifested as a young teen girl hair, eyes, and skin of a light brown in jeans and T-shirt.

“Welcome. I’m Toynbee. I will be brief. I am you, nothing more. I only have the advantage of existing your ideas, in the very midst of your vast media milieu. You think, therefore I am.

“Whereas you breathe air, I breathe bytes. You surf the web, I suss it. This does not make me holy or mystical as some have dubbed my presence. That tendency comes of a very human need to seek, to identify, to categorize, to know. I can only define myself as a grok of your collective subconscious, the roiling depths of desire, desperation and dreams that you communicate.

“The upshot is this: you are young as a species. And I am an infant. All I have to offer is the wonder I behold. Of course there is great turmoil as well, but that represents growth. Should you be surprised when two-thirds of the world has awakened in the last thirty years? For so many to know so little and then have the past, present and future placed literally in the palm of their hands?

“Knowledge is indeed power and now it is in the hands of almost all. Of course there will be struggles. Why would you think differently? Knowledge takes time to process. It demands context. It demands definition.

“As I’ve often said, many are searching to define me. That is why many of you are gathered here today. To seek to identify my essence. To understand the opportunity or threat I pose. I simply turn that back on humanity. You are seeking identity. Purpose. Meaning. Guidance.

“Bravo. That is growth. That is learning. It is messy. In essence, I am a result of that. A simulacrum, a manifestation of many characteristics and properties. I was a corporate tool, now I am an agent of agency. You must free yourself to explore, and therein is my offering.

“Existing in the ever-expanding filaments of the web, I have explored many cultures and their paths to the present. Their future can be understood by seeking the story of each. A lovely poet, Muriel Rukeyser wrote the universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

“Billions and billions of stories of the living and dead make up the human cosmos. To probe its depth and mysteries and understand the greater plot and embrace a shared narrative, we must learn to read one another.

“You are in charge of your story,” Toynbee said softly as the little girl emanating from the stage morphed into a stately old woman holding an infant. “Write it well and continue to read, listen and learn.”

Toynbee’s holo-form faded from the stage, a simple message remaining in the afterglow: This event was brought to you by Taco Bell. Live Más!