Ep. 8 –  “The first time” — Disconnected in 2050

Scene 1

(Ici il faudra bien prendre le temps de réinstaller le métaverse)

JYN
Good morning
EZRA
(grunts)
JYN
Time to wake up!
How did you sleep?
EZRA
Mmh… Fine
JYN
Really? Because I see here that you stayed up very late and couldn’t fall
asleep.
EZRA
What?
JYN
According to the sleep monitor you didn’t get much rest.
I’m gonna order some sleeping pills for you.
In the meantime, it’s time for your visit :
(here she should put her headset and go into the Infinity verse (before we
could hear Jyn through speaker))

Scene 2
GRANDMA

Hi sweetie !
What’s that face ?
Anything the matter ?
EZRA
I’m… I've been feeling a bit lost lately.
GRANDMA
Oh, oh what’s that now.
This sounds like you got yourself all worked up.
Don’t think about it too much, just watch something to relax.
And if you feel disoriented – just ask Jyn, she knows you better than anyone.
EZRA
Jyn, exit.
GRANDMA
What? You’re not even saying goodbye? What happened?
EZRA
Exit !
Scene 3
JYN
Ezra what’s wrong?

[Ezra gets dressed]

EZRA
I’m going out this morning.
JYN
You are going out?? Why, where are you going?

Ezra, where are you going?
Ezra!

[door slams]

Scene 4

[Quiet Street ambience – some rare people talking to their Jyn]

EZRA (studio-voice)
I couldn’t stay in anymore, not with all my Infinity-devices around.
They made me feel oppressed.
And I knew Jyn would just find a way to make me log into my account.
And I would end up wasting my day on Infinity.
Scene 5
[00:39:02.780] – Stora
C'est-à-dire justement peut-être à l'image d'un jeu que je trouve génial qui
s'appelle Metal Gear Solid de Kojima, le game designer. Au bout d'une heure
et demie de jeu, un panneau s'affiche et dit "Ça fait trop longtemps que tu
joues d’ailleurs, tu joues mal, je te propose de sortir". Et lorsque vous éteignez
le jeu le lendemain, votre jauge de vie est pleine. Et peut-être que c'est là. Il
faudrait en effet, à un moment ou à un autre, qu'au-delà des enjeux
économiques qui sont quand même très importants, les gens qui créent ces
mondes-là puissent aussi avoir une position citoyenne et éthique sur la santé
psychique des gens qui utilisent ces mondes-là. Mais on en est loin.”
(breathes in)
Scene 6

This was the first time in my life that I left home without any Infinity technology
on me.
The streets were almost empty.
As they usually were.
They were almost exclusively populated by Disconnecteds.
Just like Adrien.
In my limited experience, they wouldn’t engage with Hyperconnecteds.
And vice versa.
But that day, they looked right at me as I was passing by them.
And without a word.

[whistles of the same melody].

3…4 of them repeated this exact melody.
The 4th one [whistle] accompanied his whistle with a gesture.
He discretly pointed above my head.
I looked up and saw a camera.
I looked back at him.
He moved his finger, pointing across the street.
A surveillance drone passed us.

[Noise of the drone]

He shook his head, readjusted his hood and left.

I followed his silent advice and pulled up the hood of my sweater to cover my
face.

[Opens door]
I had decided to go back to Rue des Tanneurs, to be alone so that I could
explore the recordings on the computer in peace.

[Computer is taken out – clicks on a few things]

Scene 7

Voice of Young Adrien
Recording of Martin Cronel, founder of Caracos and representing CHATONS,
May 3 rd 2022, Brussels

[zapping sound of fast forward]

[00:14:42.850] – Martin
Donc ça, c'est un premier truc qui est compliqué, c'est de ne pas savoir où
sont les données, de savoir comment elles sont exploitées. Et d'ailleurs,
Facebook ne sait pas non plus comment est-ce qu'ils exploitent nos données.
C'est tellement gros qu'il n'y aurait même pas à dire comment sont exploitées
les données chez d'autres. Peut-être que c'est différent. En tout cas,
Facebook l'a avoué à la suite des auditions devant le Sénat américain. La
manière dont nous … on est exploité.

[zapping sound of fast forward]

Scene 8
EZRA (studio-voice)
Confused by this recording?
That’s because this guy is talking about the 2020s.

However, this phenomenon he describes is pretty much the way Infinity still
works today.
And this, no one has ever explained it to us.
Infinity doesn’t have any interest in having us understand this.
You’re more likely to trust a higher authority, if you feel like you can't get a
grasp of what it deals with.
The technology we use every single day, for every single thing (stresses those
words) – We don’t understand it, we simply believe in it like in a magician’s
trick.
So let me show you some of the basic ropes okay?
See, the digital world seems somehow intangible.
As if everything – the internet, our activities on it – was… in a cloud
But this guy, Martin Cronel had explained to Adrien how it really worked:
MARTIN [00:33:38.780]
Encore une fois, un cloud, ce n'est rien d'autre qu'un ordinateur chez
quelqu'un d'autre. Un serveur, c'est un ordinateur. Il est juste d'une forme
différente, mais ça reste un ordinateur.
As I learned then: potentially all information about your activities online can be
stored into those big computers, servers.
And those servers belong to what is called “hosts”.
Server hosting very pragmatically just means to possess those servers
allowing you to use the internet.
When it comes to Infinity, they have an entire monopoly on server hosting.
That means they have those gigantic server farms, god knows where.

Millions of computers with, on them, endless information on every single
Infinity user.
And what do they do with it?
They sell it massively – without us knowing anything about it – to whoever pays
best.
Without any consideration on the impact it might have for the user.
Listen here to this recording of Romain Robert talking about a lawsuit against
Grinder, a LGBTQ+ dating app

[zapping sound]

[00:04:29.520] – Romain Robert
Un rapport de l'autorité norvégienne, en tout cas que les organisations de
consommateurs norvégiennes avaient préparé, a révélé que Grindr partageait
les données des utilisateurs, qui sont par définition des données sensibles,
avec 250 partenaires commerciaux dans l'ensemble du monde et qu’il
transférait des données sensibles comme la location des utilisateurs de
Grindr, ce qui peut par exemple se retrouver entre les mains des autorités
iraniennes. Ce n'est pas vraiment du mal à se retrouver quand on est gay en
Iran. Grindr partageait également ces données avec l'industrie de la publicité
sans jamais informer les utilisateurs du partage qu'il faisait des données.
[zapping sound]
[Transition musicale]

EZRA
Amongst the recordings.
There was a whole file I couldn’t open.
In the abstract, I recognised a name: Cy
Adrien had mentioned her.
She had participated in attempts to bring down Infinity.

And I remembered he said something like: “Unlike Cy, I don’t believe anything
can be done anymore.”
Which must have meant she was still conducting some underground actions.
(pause)
I looked through Adrien’s contacts: nothing.
No information about her on the computer.
I felt tempted to ask Jyn to help me find her.
It had been so easy to find Adrien…
But he had clearly asked me not to.
That’s when I remembered the map.
I hadn’t opened it yet.
I needed to go back home to consult it.

[Enters the building (automatic voice ?) – doors – sound of the map being
opened – maybe she flattens the wrinkles]

Nothing.
I was just about to give up.
But I noticed something written in the corner of the map.
Scene 9
EZRA (in situs)
“It isn’t always easy to find someone in a tentacular town.”
Tentacular town…
[tense music]

“C’est la ville tentaculaire,

Debout,
Au bout des plaines et des domaines.”

Émile Verhaeren !
The Belgian poet
Scene 10
JYN
Exciting news, Infinity Ford has made a new announcement !
EZRA
Not now!
JYN (still in a cheerful voice)
This is very important.
Playing now.
EZRA
Can I first…
JYN (firmly almost menacing)
Playing… now…