Hyper Reality/TAP

The people of 3115 live amidst dreams.   To them, the virtual world, born in the imagination but given shape and form by technology feeding sensory information directly into the brain, exists parallel with the actual world. Able to perceive and interact with Hyper Reality as easily as twenty-first century Internet. Indeed, for all save the tiny minority without a TAP(Tendril Remote Access Processor) the threshold between these two competing realities sometimes blurs.   Today, almost everything in the "real" world also maintains some sort of presence in the virtual. Control panels for vehicles and keypads for devices often include virtual prompts as well as physical ones. Indeed, many of the most advanced systems rely completely upon a virtual interface and seem utterly blank to those without a TAP(Tendril Remote Access Processor). Locks on doors also typically respond to virtual commands, the avatar charged with guarding the entrance demanding passwords and other security protocols rather than responding to any sort of physical key, Indeed, for most, using virtual guard dog capable of alerting the authorities, activating defenses and even, if necessary, savaging intruders through the interface of their TAP(Tendril Remote Access Processor) makes more sense than a flesh-and-blood creature.   This fundamental change, so profound and significant that most put it on the same level as the development of agriculture or electricity, began simply enough once people started linking computers over a millennium ago. Though ridiculously primitive, this "internet" nevertheless laid the groundwork for new worldview by assigning values to objects that only existed within computer networks. Indeed, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, virtual game worlds often had economies rivaling those of actual countries. From there, the pace only quickened as more and more people found ways to plug into the global network. The acceptance of Head frames in 2332 truly blazed the trail for the worlds to come. Allowing their wearers to both see and hear virtual constructs, the ultimately made interacting with the "imaginary" a daily event. While people still had the choice to simply not interact with Hyper Reality by taking off their crowns, in more advance parts of the galaxy Head frames rapidly became essential for normal life. Critical to identify and commerce, Head frames also liberated humanity from they tyranny of false expertise by making information available to anyone able to frame the proper question.   Commentators at the time heralded the development of STRAP (Surgical Tendril Remote Access Processor) in 2359 as the final step of this glorious evolution. A VR device connected directly to the brain; STRAP made Head frames relics within a decade of entering the mainstream. Some of the most enthusiastic went as far as to call it the "alpha interface" since it seemed nothing could improve upon it. As STRAP grew ubiquitous, the virtual world truly began to take on its own independent reality - a Hyper Reality. At least until TAP exposed it as a pale imitation of the genuine article.   While extraordinary improvement over VR glasses, STRAP - a mechanical device implanted by a sometimes dangerous surgery - nevertheless introduced an element of risk into the equation. The prospect of complications, coupled with the ever-present threat of technical failure, dampered enthusiasm for STRAP in some quarters. TAP, nearly fifty percent biological, removed the danger once and for all. The galaxy adopted TAP at an extraordinary speed. Between 2372 and 2386 billions of people underwent the procedure that transformed redundant portions of their brains into receivers and projectors allowing direct interaction with the virtual world.   Two years after crossing that threshold, the epoch-making "Get with the Program" concert by Endomorph sealed the destiny of humanity by making it all but socially mandatory for those to receive a TAP. The numbers of people refusing to access the virtual world declined to almost zero.   Today, only a few eccentrics and the pitied handful unable to undergo the process for medical reason still live outside the virtual world. Since STRAP earned the nickname of the "Alpha" or "first" interface, most, recognizing TAP as far superior, refer to it as "Interface Omega" the final step in our evolution. To them, it is a new organ as much a part of their own bodies as eyes or ears, barely counts as an interface at all.