Short Story / The fall of GMI (Analysis)
August 5th, 2014: After many years of competition, a deal is struck between Google and Microsoft, the companies would merge under the combination name Google-Microsoft Industries.
March 2015: Google-Microsoft Industries creates a hardware R&D department.
June 14th, 2016: Google-Microsoft Industries announces the development of a 128-bit multi-core processor that is 56x faster than any currently on the market.
February 1st, 2018: Google-Microsoft Industries announces the creation of a new operating system specifically created to harness the power of their new processor, as well as a stripped down version that will work on currently existing hardware. The full version of the new operating system will only work with their processor. It would feature much of the software available for currently available operating systems, an office suite, media players, internet browsers, email clients, instant messaging programs, image manipulation programs, etc. with one significant change: it would all be free. The new OS would be entirely free on an ad supported basis. The user would watch one commercial whenever they opened up a program, and the programs would have small advertisement sections in a portion of the window.
April 22nd, 2020: Google-Microsoft Industries changes their name to GMI Inc. Their new OS is given the temporary title GMI-OS and a projected release date of 2025.
August – November 2022: GMI Inc. purchases the computer companies Dell and Asus, as well as computer component manufacturers Gigabyte, AMD, and Western Digital. GMI Inc. uses the secured companies to expand it’s hardware R&D department.
April 2023: GMI Inc. expands its hardware R&D department even further and announces that they will be creating brand new proprietary hardware for computers built specifically to run GMI-OS.
July 17th 2023: GMI-OS’s name is changed to Xephyr. The proprietary computers running it are called Xephyr-boxes.
December 2023: GMI offers several mobile phone companies the opportunity to collaborate with them to create new smartphones that will run a stripped-down version of Xephyr. The hope is that they will be able to release their new proprietary computers that run Xephyr as well as the new smartphones at the same time. Nearly all phone companies agree.
June 30th, 2025: The stripped down version of Xephyr is released for download, it is downloaded nearly 600 million times in the first week.
July 10th, 2025: The Xephyr-box is released, it’s four times as powerful and half the cost of any of the competitor’s products. At the same time, mobile phones that were created to use the stripped down version of Xephyr are released.
September 20th, 2025: The success of Xephyr and devices that run it lead GMI to begin development of a new television service that will utilize a cable box running Xephyr.
1st quarter 2026: After the mass proliferation of Xephyr, Xephyr-boxes, and phones running Xephyr, remaining computer and phone companies that don’t use it report massive profit losses, many declare bankruptcy, the ones that don’t decide to hop on the Xephyr bandwagon.
November 3rd, 2027: Xephyr TV is launched, with the purchase of the cable box, users are given free television service complete with a DVR and video-on-demand. The box also connects to the user’s Xephyr-box via a wireless connection, allowing streaming video, music, and pictures to the users television.
2028: Victims of Moore’s Law, any remaining devices that aren’t running Xephyr, as well as computers running the stripped-down version, become obsolete as new software is unable to run on such devices.
October 2028: GMI Inc. debuts GMISP, their ISP that offers faster speeds and unlimited bandwidth at a lower price. Unfortunately it requires Xephyr to use, but since only a fraction of electronic devices left in use aren’t running a version of Xephyr, it’s almost a non-issue.
February 12th, 2029: GMI Inc. creates their own banking service, allowing users to purchase things without the use of paper money. Xephyr is updated to utilize the service, and within a week users are able to pay for purchases at stores with the click of a button on their phone. As well as pay bills and purchase items online with the banking service.
3rd quarter, 2029: GMISP effectively destroys it’s competition, most other ISPs are either bought by GMI Inc. or go bankrupt. A few ISPs remain for the fraction of people that refuse to use Xephyr.
January 1st, 2030: GMI Inc. announces the release of Xephyr2, it will streamline their operating system, ISP, banking service, and television service into one sleek package. Xephyr2 will also be running on a new line of mobile devices created by GMI Inc.
May 24th, 2032: Xephyr2 goes public, new Xephyr-cubes are released to replace old Xephyr-boxes, GMI Inc. offers a discount on their new phones with a trade-in of an old phone running Xephyr.
August 2032: GMI’s banking service has effectively obsoleted the use of “analog money”, most companies will only accept payments through their banking service.
September 2032: The release of Xephyr2 and the streamlining and incorporation of any device running it effectively eliminates the “old internet” as well as any other devices. All that is left is GMISP and products running Xephyr2.
June – August 2033: The United States government attempts to strike a deal with GMI Inc. to gain full access to all information traveling through GMISP and stored on end-user’s devices running Xephyr2. GMI Inc. declines, the U.S. government replies: “you can either give it to us or we can take it.” GMI Inc. refuses yet again on the grounds that all of the U.S. government’s devices utilize Xephyr2, and any hostile movement will result in a swift communication shutdown for the entire United States.
September 2033: The United States government concludes that the power GMI Inc. has with the Xephyr2 line of products is far too dangerous and must be dealt with. At the end of the month they commence their attack on GMI Inc. With the forewarned threat of communication shutdown, they plan their attack in advance as well as utilize old technologies such as short-wave radios. The attack is highly frowned upon in the eyes of other countries, the United States’ reputation suffers a tremendous blow.
Early October 2033: GMI Inc. shuts down GMISP and their banking service, rendering everybody in the United States bankrupt, and with zero communication. Rioting, vandalism, and looting occur in record numbers, tens of thousands are killed. The United States is placed under martial law.
October 15th, 2033: The U.S. Finally seizes control of GMI Inc. and returns service to GMISP and the banking service. Over 750 billion dollars of damage occur in under a month.
Late 2033: With the U.S. government finally in control of GMI’s services, they restored it to the latest backup. What was left of the “wild west” aspect of the internet is completely eradicated. With full access to all information traveling through GMISP, as well as access to every user’s Xephyr2 devices, privacy was all but eradicated. The U.S. government sends out bills for any stolen media, software, or any other illegally obtained data. The bills total over 3 trillion dollars, the amount was automatically deducted from user’s accounts, leaving the majority of the nation in severe debt, leaving it in the largest recession since the great depression.
March 2034: The U.S. Government starts using the GMISP and Xephyr2 network to monitor for crime, they install cameras and microphones on the streets of nearly every city. The only time people are not under the eye of the government is inside their own houses, and that excludes internet and phone activity. The constant watching of the citizens of the United States leads to a great increase in fines, all of which are automatically deducted from their GMI bank account. The GPS device in phones are used to detect whether people speeding, running a red light, or out after curfew.
August 2034: Many people decide to stop using Xephyr2 products, GMISP, or anything created by GMI Inc. They begin to create new towns and settlements where the U.S. government doesn’t observe. Others simply “give up”, quit their jobs, give away their GMI Inc. products, and band together within the city, some of these groups are violent, some are not.
September 2034: The U.S. government starts a propaganda campaign against the people opposed to GMI Inc. products and the Xephyr2 network. After their actions and the nearly month-long shutdown almost a year previous, the general populous replies with a reaction contradictory to the desires of the U.S. government, the “analog movement” was gaining speed.
January 2035: With 80% of the population of the United States in the “analog movement”, the government and country is in shambles, the government can barely support itself, it starts liquidating much of it’s hardware. The opinion of the average person that’s “disconnected” varies, some like “going back to nature”, some are left on the brink of insanity. However the general opinion is that they’re much better off without Xephyr2, GMISP, or GMI Inc.
“Hey, we’re gonna go look for some more computers and stuff.” Jerome said.
“I’ll be right there.” I replied.
My name is Freddie, I’m a member of a small settlement of a few hundred people in the woods of southern Washington. After GMI Inc. was taken over and started to crumble, everybody decided that moving out of the cities was a better idea than living the way we were. In a way it was kind of nice not having a bureaucratic power-house breathing down the back of your neck at all times, instead living by the social contract. And the privacy is certainly a welcome change. However the convenience and instant access to information and entertainment is missed by all of us. The trade off is worth it however; after the government started handing out fines and tickets on a non-stop basis nobody but the most wealthy could afford to live in that situation.
Despite our society being fairly self-contained, we still enjoy the benefits of technology. Some might assume that technology is our enemy, but that’s far from the truth. The people misusing it are our enemies. We still have computers, video games, televisions and such, however it’s all pre-GMI, so it’s around 30 years old or more.
Information, and knowledge, is a wonderful thing. And in a society as small as ours it’s even more precious. That’s why we make trips to the cities to search for old computers, discs, books, or anything else that might store information. Before GMI shut down their ISP in 2033, we took information for granted, we had instant access to anything we could want to know at any time. Now we’re restricted to what we can find on our trips into the cities.
Most people came into the society with useful knowledge from their previous occupation. Doctors, plumbers, farmers, chemists, hell even people who made moonshine. However occupations are a thing of the past, we do what we need to do. Do we need another building? Then we all help build it. Do we need to plant some crops? Grab some tools and get to work. When you have a couple hundred pairs of hands available to do a job, the work is really easy.
Trips to the cities were always an event. The government took a very harsh stance against criminals, so we had to be careful not to get caught. But after they spent all the money they took from everybody to buy their equipment to spy on the citizens, they didn’t have any more income. They slowly sell whatever they can afford to sell to keep their operation running. This means that most of their equipment is either sold or not functioning, however the threat is there. Now they mostly occupy places that have a large amount of material useful to them. They also occupy places that the few rich people left pay them to, because they feel the need for protection, and it may be justified, there’s some violent groups of people out there.
A lot of us disliked the idea of carrying weapons, as we never have a use for them in our little settlement, but they’re necessary for the trips into the city. There are other groups of people looking to steal our spoils or hurt us, or the government attempting to uphold it’s “laws”. It’s amazing to think about how much has changed in the past few years. We went from such a high-tech civilization to only a few steps away from The Road Warrior so fast.
We all grabbed some gear, hopped into our vehicles, and took off. Twelve of us in four pickup trucks. I went with Tommy and Jerome, they took the cab and I took the bed. It’s a short 30 mile drive on a pretty much empty highway. We saw a couple military vehicles on the road, they could have busted us for me being in the bed because it doesn’t have a seatbelt, but they probably didn’t want to bother with people who obviously didn’t have any money.
Our usual method for city trips was to take off about five minutes apart, and take different routes to our destination. We were the last group to leave, and when we arrived at the storage place everybody was waiting for us. Upon regrouping we split into two groups and began securing the area, we spray-painted the lenses of any cameras or simply draped something over them. Microphones are harder to find, so much of our communication is done either with signals or with codewords.
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I enjoy what I’ve read so far. You might want to make it clear to the average reader that what the character was describing were journal entries or another form. I like the parallels that have been drawn between current events and what is being described. You might want to give a little more background to the story. Maybe who got into office and what kind of administration led to this point.
I think there would be a lot of hardcore people that would have stayed with the old powers. Especially those who use Ubuntu right now. What about the hackers though? What about those who never used these programs for anything illegal and stayed financially in the black?
I’d really like to read more, I hope you write a lot more on this story line.
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The story itself is very interesting. There are several pages of mundane summary, and I think this ought to be cut down. It might work better if you condense the summary to a couple of paragraphs, then proceed into scenery. The reader will get impatient if you hold off on the action. Also, you may want to use fictional names for the companies, as if you ever did publish this, there could be legal issues, although I’m not a lawyer.
I’m sorry. You can refund this isf you like. I couldn’t finish it. It read like newspaper ads.:(
I appreciate it’s a first draft but mainly I’m left a little confused as to what the actual story is here.
A better structure for this would be to start in the middle of some action. It sounds like you’re setting up a conflict between these guys and some military types when they try to steal something. If that’s the case I’d jump right in at that point. Start with some action, get the readers blood pumping from the get go.
I would avoid the expositional stuff altogether, tbh, especially loading it in as an info-dump at the front. I mean, the fundamental question I have is why are you telling me this stuff? Is it vital to the plot of what is going to happen? Or is it just the stuff you thought up for a setting?
If it’s vital to the plot then there are a couple of ways you could go. One could be to flesh it out into actual scenes depicting the important events. Another might be to drip-feed it to me (if this were a movie, would the audience really sit through multiple screens of exposition all at the beginning?). Or it could go at the end—some clever prologue that puts new light on the story I’ve just read.
If it’s the latter then you have several options. First off, your character is unaware of the past—your story is him discovering the truth. Another option is that he knows it all (like you have it here) in which case you need to think of a better way for us readers to find out than simply telling us.
He could tell someone else, but you’ll struggle to get it all in with this level of detail.
Fundamentally, stories need to focus on people and their relationships. That could be a friendship, or within a family, or in romance, but that’s where your story needs to have its core. The background stuff you come up with is the frills and the window dressing and sometimes we the reader can actually do without it.
That doesn’t mean don’t keep it—but do you need to info-dump on the reader? Could you maybe hint at it and let them work it out themselves?
I also appreciate it’s in first-person, but I think you’re using that as a bit of an excuse to tell me everything. Some things will only come alive for the reader if you describe them a bit more.
For example where you just use “some gear” and “pick-up trucks” instead you could describe the gear (is it battered? Rusty? Jerry-rigged?) and the trucks (random steel plates welded to them; no two panels the same coulour; spider-webs of cracks on the wind-shield) and that would give us readers the information we need to realise (and feel) it’s “a few steps away from The Road Warrior” rather than you just saying it dryly.
I hope those suggestions are of some help.
You’ve clearly got some strong ideas and have thought about the piece—it just needs a bit more of a juicier structure to go with it.
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