Comic #4001: identity

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Panel 1: > Corporations have ever finer access to your status. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Hot? Cold? Happy? Sad? They can detect all of these things and use them to manipulate your desires.

Panel 2: > I mean, I agree it's ominous. But look! I'm a little tired and dehydrated, and a flying robot drone is spritzing caffeinated water directly into my mouth.

Panel 3: > Have a lovely day, sir!

Panel 4: > When I need my teeth cleaned, there's an instantaneous bidding war between 14 nanobots to see who can do the best job at the lowest price.

Panel 5: > Another agency knows my desires better than I, so it makes the final selection on my behalf.

Panel 6: > It's like techno-fascism, only instead of obeying an all-powerful state I get fitness ads and coupons for free ice cream!

Panel 7: > What about your identity?

Panel 8: > Most of it’s already gone anyway.

Panel 9: > Humans offloaded memory to books, then thought to computers. Now, we’re offloading our desires to the network.

Panel 10: > All that remains are basic bodily functions, which we’ll offload in another generation or two. At that point, we’ll just merge into one united entity. So, it all works out.

Panel 11: > That’s an unorthodox view of the nature of corporate data usage.

Panel 12: > I mean, it’s pretty clear that’s been the goal all along.

Panel 13: > McNuggets are just 99 cents?!

Panel 14: > We move ever closer to a single oversoul.