08.27.25soft, pudgy hands, fumbling, clumsily, brows bent in focus across a perfect smooth taught skin. a face unbothered by time complicated. his little head swallowed up by his headphones engineered for a person of a different size and place and time. he shone through the grates in a lattice of light. he doesn't know it yet but he's taking part in something that will condition him for the rest of his life. reflections of moving images flash and shift across his face from one chubby cheek to the other and the corners of his lips curl, ever so slightly, in pleasure, he smiles, almost. a system of models weights decimals and configurations races silently imperceptibly beneath the pillow of his finger and a thousand miles away then back again, all at once. if it's lucky he might just buy something. connections map and paths solidify. behaviors rewarded and behaviors penalized all before him into his eyes, through his ears. his generation will be the less literate than the generation before which was in turn less literate than the generation before. life augmented. he wouldn't remember differently; he never knew. life scattered between worlds. digitized before his first breath, digitized coming into the world and digitized out. thrust screaming into this world of decimals and weights he'll never understand but will know. the most sophisticated algorithms in the world have already begun to get his card and will carry on, monitoring. a friendly, guiding hand to perfect his consumption habits. in his life people will come and go but there will always be the sound in his ears and the colors fast, vibrant, and exciting