Read Love in the Time of Technology 1 for Free Online Page B

forgotten about the encounter until it was time for dinner and he was preparing salad of purple tomatoes, green carrots and white lettuces with orange mayonnaise. He immediately brought his g-pad not sure if he would find Lilydeen. 
    She was in the StatsLine catalogue. He was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had hacked into his personal data so that it registered that he was compatible with his choice. Still, he went through the charade of pretending to check out other girls in case they traced back the hacker.
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    But when Wolf finally clicked for her he noticed that there was another pending request! He sent his request to the network centre. He looked at his timer. If she chose him, he would expect her in half an hour from when he clicked through the request. He marveled at the cunningness of the program she was using. By registering more than one request she did not arouse immediate suspicion. The question was; would Lazer accept a rebuff and what would he do about it in that short period of time?
    Since no one was married, men and women throughout Genetica were ordering playmates. Relationships were simple, efficient and involved no emotional baggage. Wolf remembered that Fing was a major shareholder in GroupBond which were group activities between compatible partners. For an additional fee, the partners could be injected with ‘adventurous genes’ to instill spicy activities. Another invention BigPlay involving younger teens had proved quite popular with older inhabitants.
    Wolf, like all other in habitant used his g-pad whenever he wanted company. He keyed in his personal details and vital statistics. There were a number of providers although StatsLine was the biggest. They provided him with a list of prospective ‘friends’ who were compatible. Bored with current girlfriends? The center had an inexhaustible list of compatible partners.  Bored with girls? A GM center (for a modest fee) could temporarily genetically modify Wolf to have a gay sexual orientation. HeritageLine was another service that delivered clones carefully modeled after historical figures. Based on one’s preferences one could order up past celebrities or go back in history to Cleopatra or Julius Caesar.
    Wolf missed Roneel. Everyone got company for sex but he got company to talk and share ideas.
    “You’re acting like someone from the Fringes,” Wolf had joked. “Next you’ll want to get married!” He had heard that many Fringe people spent so much of their time on spiritual activities and family life. All foods were produced organically. Another reason why he wanted to escape was that he wanted deeper bonding with people rather than the superficial relationships that was the norm in Genetica.
    “Isn’t it boring to have these enhanced erections for 1 to 3 hours? Don’t you feel bored, sick and wasted after a while that it’s not the real you but chemicals inside you that provide all this? It’s more fun penetrating each other’s minds. Engineered perfection is boring!” Roneel had argued. Although he had laughed, the argument had struck a sensitive chord and convinced Wolf that he had to move away.
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    “It’s dangerous and we don’t have much time,” Lilydeen whispered as she brought out a gadget and went around the room signaling to him to be quiet.
    She pointed at the artwork by his bedroom wall. She carefully turned it around so that it faced the wall.
    “The eye has a surveillance camera.”
    “I always thought it was warm and endearing.”
    She looked at him closely, “You have a soft spot for that artwork otherwise I was going to put it in the bathroom.”
    Wolf was not quite sure where he was to begin . She looked exactly like the girl in his dreams. “Are you from the Fringes?” he asked awkwardly.
    “Yes. By embedding me in StatsLine I could pass for someone from here.”
    He realized that without this ruse she could not last more than a few minutes in Genetica.
    “It’s amazing. I trained