Jenette Ershwan

    “Yeah, Jacqueline. I’ll always be committed,” he gave as his final answer.    He put his hand on hers. They shared a kiss in front of Memories in Grey.    She fell back asleep in his arms on the couch. 

everything

what could he be doing here?

    She still slept in the guest room, not quite ready to take over Lizzie’s massive master bedroom.

Sleep (possibly).

was

    “Set it up,” Jacqueline told the party planner.

In fact, Lizzie was an extreme example of the cold corporate America, and she had been killed because of it. 

Billionaire tech mogul Lizzie Rhode killed by a protestor outside Supreme Court Building.

bid them,

the

Jacqueline thought to herself.

    A single gunshot rang out.

But his emphatic 7-1 loss seemed to define him entirely at this moment. 

 Jacqueline

Jacqueline met with her attorney, Mr. Bowman, and Lizzie went to the gallery viewing area.

she saw her sister in the grand hallway. She knew her sister well; she wasn’t surprised that her sister was there early. 

    All Jakob could muster, as his heart-rate slowed down, was a timid, “Yeah.”

    “I know,” said Stephen, “Except she’s been researching it for years.” he remarked as they took their virtual seats.

informed why

three foot by three foot

it

the

weeks with

posted

. Stephen

    “Jackie, that’s the point!”    Jacqueline did not expect that response, to say the least.    “If we win this thing, if we can buy this thing, we can fund these people to create. We can let them make careers out of it. We can maintain software and improve hardware. I have the ability to do all of this, through High Rhodes,” Lizzie said with a twinkle in her eye.    “Well, if that was true, why wouldn’t you tell them? I mean, those are the opposite of the things they think you’ll do,” said Jacqueline.    “You know corporate trust is practically an oxymoron in this day and age. I want to get the verdict, then do the good. That’s the only way they’ll believe me.”    “Right now, thousands hate you. Is that really worth it?” Jacqueline asked.    “They might hate me now, but they’ll love me soon.”

them

with, which

he

, Fernando. 

the

    Shit, Lizzie thought to herself, nothing is private anymore.

Jacqueline Rhodes had made an argument that Simulation 313 provided the outside world with something of value. It was the true spirit of Sim 313 - even the most unlikely people can become heroes. 

.

Throughout

“open source”

Justice”

said.

way

as

,

world; Damian thought that the 313’s usefulness may be an exaggeration. But he had to admit that the citizens of the 313 had made incredible achievements in a small amount of time. 

.

Gralelyn

“Honor, Courage, Commitment” are the Navy’s core values. Yeah, buddy. I’m still committed, Damian thought to himself, hoping Jakob knew how he felt. The truth, however, was that the case was about more than helping an old friend at this point. 

,

“Driven Technology Solutions”

to

Case #31293729

Besides, she was quite happy with her purchase of Memories in Grey by Gracelyn O’Carroll.

. B

. B

, s

-

constructing

   “Those were real works created by real artists, not some lazy bum who spends all day in some virtual world creating virtual pieces of crap. Do you know how much bad publicity this could bring if it gets out? I’m trying to argue to the goddamn Supreme Court later today that one individual can own an entire virtual rendition of a city, and own everything created within it. How would it look if the sister of that individual was purchasing art from that virtual city’s fake artists? It would look really bad, Jacqueline, really bad.”

Jacqueline knew better than to interrupt her sister when she was this heated; you don’t get to be the richest woman in the tech industry without a ruthless reputation. 

    “I couldn’t just ‘print out a picture’, Lizzie, I purchased the intellectual rights to the work. That’s what art is; that’s how art works.

Jacqueline fired back at her sister.

Lizzie said, still shouting.

which I allow you to live a luxurious lifestyle off of

so called

who was

ought

; they had either taken high-level industry or government jobs and were nowhere to be found.

The local art scene was remarkable, music flooded the streets, effective and efficient governance over the issues that plagued the virtual city led to quick and lasting solutions.

among

This

Damian

, who had raised him as a single parent,

He only

However,

; however, the year’s first snow had yet to fall. 

To my colleagues, just remember one thing: human potential is the rarest, most beautiful thing in the known universe. Restricting this potential for profits would be the greatest crime ever committed, and I won’t have it committed in my sister’s memory. To the users of Simulation 313, and the other virtual cities to follow, I have one request: don’t let me down.”

The potential of humanity is limitless

“What’s the request?” Janette asked, willing to do practically anything for the $22,000,000 that this donor was asking. 

I’m still reeling.

She wasn’t, in truth, granted access to anything she didn’t have before. 

Since the death of her sister, Jacqueline hadn’t slept much. She had dozens of meetings with lawyers, funeral planners, the Board of Director for her sister’s company, news outlets, and family members. She was told, almost daily, that it was important to remain in the public eye and retain confidence in the company so share prices wouldn’t diminish. This cold corporate policy had taken a toll on her mental, physical, and emotional health. Yet, Lizzie would have acted the exact same way, if someone else had been killed, to ensure the gains she had made within her company would not disappear. In fact, Lizzie was an extreme example of the cold corporate America, and she had been killed because of it. 

This revelation shocked the three virtual trailblazers. They had lost the case, but perhaps all hope had not been lost. Perhaps this meant the acquisition of the code wouldn’t been seen through to completion. Jakob was more perplexed. He felt, somehow, he could be held responsible for what had happened to Ms. Rhodes.

He wasn’t sure about these non-credentialed part-time physicists, but the world was changing rapidly and he didn’t wish to seem out of touch with the students and faculty he was serving.

 “You must understand the, frankly, confusing nature of trying to grant funding to a non-student, non-faculty, non-credentialed member of the community,” said Dr. Bjorn Urlinski, the head of the Wayne State Physics department.     “Respectfully, Dr. Urlinski, the discovery of physical truth doesn’t require a Ph.D. What Janette, here, has done can be viewed as important of an achievement as Jason Witten’s unification of M-theory. This could change everything; it demands to be investigated,” interjected Stephen. Stephen was lucky enough to have some credibility with the department head.     “I have to agree,” commented Professor Angie Gardener, a Wayne State specialist on String Theory Supersymmetry. “There’s a lot of potential in what Janette here is saying. I’ve only had a week to look through the paper, since it was brought to me by Stephen and his friend. But with some further development we can involve the experimental department, and see if there's anything that can be drawn from the findings.”

 A single gunshot rang out.

But his emphatic 7-1 loss seemed to define him entirely at this moment. 

She watched as Damian hung his head in defeat. 

Thus, we find no laws restricting the ability of Lizzie Rhodes to purchase the intellectual property created by the students of Wayne State University, from the University, as long as the proper procedures are followed.

However, Lizzie’s excitement made sense when she considered the context; they were in the Supreme Court Building about to make history.

I guess they have nowhere to be. Homeless in Michigan is the same as D.C.

Fernando

a lack of snow had allowed her to visit nearly a dozen monuments and museums while her sister paid for a penthouse hotel suite for her and her alone.

Chapter 5:

Would he kill himself if it was taken away from him? Would he die with his only accomplishment being a Supreme Court loss?

.

.

Stephen said

Stephen said

Turn on the specialized computers. Each computer was a 3’ by 3’ cube with specialized hardware and software. Namely, the Simulation 313 files took up the entire hard-drive and thus the computer couldn’t be used for anything else.  Log-in with a personalized ID and password. This allowed for a unique experience of the software and virtual city, analogous to being a citizen in the real world version of Detroit.Put on the “Virtual Vision” goggles. They looked like swim goggles, but the peripherals allowed one to stay aware of their surroundings.Don the partially-noise-cancelling smart headset. Essentially, it filtered out unnecessary noises, but let users hear if someone is talking directly to them or if there is some sort of alarm or important message going off.Make your way from Cadillac Place, the geographic center of the virtual Detroit, to wherever you needed (or wanted) to be that day.

the cheap, hot food was worth the price it demanded.

day and

    In an hour? That means it’s 6 o’clock in the morning?

I see see

He could wait another hour.

two week

wished was finished,

    “Shit,” Lizzie thought to herself, “nothing is private anymore.”

Why should Simulation 313 create this dangerous precedent?

We have nowhere else to go. We have nowhere else where we can enact meaningful change to the world around us.

he was too nervous to focus.

30 seconds

Jakob couldn’t help but crack a sly smile; more than 5,000 protestors had come from Detroit to have their voices heard and, while they were being obstructive, he was proud of them. They were fighting just as he was.

My Lord

,

He’d met restaurant dishwashers pursuing a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics within this virtual world. He’d met a Multiple Sclerosis patient, who lived off of disability in the real world, who was the most successful artist the platform had ever seen. He’d met a 14-year-old boy, who’d been bounced around the foster care system in the real Detroit, become a number 1 music artist on the virtual Detroit’s Hot 100.

,

but worst of all, I’d lost my value as a human being.

Dear Mr. Rivera,

11:00 am

But Jacqueline knew it was for the best not to bother her sister anymore than she already had; she would keep a low profile until this whole Supreme Court case had been ruled upon. For the first time in her life, a little part of her was rooting for her sister to lose. She felt bad even entertaining the thought. But Jacqueline felt that a win for her sister would mean a loss for so many people within Simulation 313. People who didn’t have a lucrative career and celebrity status to fall back upon if they lost their virtual home, the source of their very-much real identity. 

However,

streak

,

1/10th

But instead you spend $340,000 of my money which I allow you to live a luxurious lifestyle off of to buy the rights to an artist who can’t even paint? The work isn’t real, Jacqueline. You might as well have thrown away that money,

 Jacqueline’s phone sat ringing on her nightstand for 10 ought seconds before she rolled over to see it was her sister, Lizzie, who was calling her at 7:55 in the morning.

Those 6 months, however, were up. Wayne State no longer had the rights to the code, and the creators of the content were no longer contactable; they had either taken high-level industry or government jobs and were nowhere to be found. Once it was discovered by the online community that a tech billionaire, Lizzie Rhodes, and her company were trying to acquire the rights to the code, there was an outrage and a collective reasoning that someone needed to fight this injustice. They’d been marginalized in the real world; they wouldn’t let it happen in the world they’d built for themselves. Someone within the community had to take a stand. Jakob had long needed a good fight, and decided it was time to rally his best ally.

 Outside the Supreme Court Building, the first snow of the season fell lightly upon the concrete sidewalk outside.

Simulation 313, it was called (the 313 being a reference to Detroit’s area code). It was created by a group of students at Wayne State University’s Metropolitan Center for High Technology.

19

new reality, a better reality, a virtual reality,

bodega

in

and

Instead, I’m freezing my ass off for a charity case.”“Do you know what else Miami has?” responded Jakob once they had both cleared the checkpoint, “Strip clubs that would’ve probably cost you your career, marriage, and retirement funds by this point.”

Today was the day.

had not fallen yet.

Preface: