Holos (Hollows)

Comfort and ease became essential to life during the later years of the United States, and when the US became the Unified America Project, that didn’t change. The telegram was replaced by the telephone, then there was the pager, both were replaced by the cell phone, which proceeded to replace cameras, books, maps, anything that could produce or reproduce information, until it no longer resembled a phone at all. Society (those who could afford it), moved inside. People had things delivered, they “got together” over screens, and there was demand for a more real-feeling form of socialization. First, face to face video technology became more realistic. Then, people wanted to feel like they were in the same room, so holograms became more available to the general public. Upgraded smart home assistants could do more than make phone calls, they started to transmit holograms, so friends could have dinner together without leaving their homes. During the Post-Revolution Reconstruction period, the technology company Ara perfected the holographic interface, and partnered with the Omega to make it a public utility, which established their necessity moving forward, and helped Omega tighten their hold on the nation. Once the Omega took full power, they were able to increase financing for technological advancement. Ara developed an ocular implant that connected via Bluetooth to any Project Citizen’s neural network transmitter (a small box that was used like a cell phone, but didn’t need to be held up to the face). Holo-calls became much easier because they could be answered and the other person could be interacted with more privately, even in public. These ocular implants could also access all of the information a neural network could, so they could be used the way cell phones and smart assistants were used before the Revolution, but they were constantly accessible and hands-free. Like the cell phone, they no longer resembled the technology after which they were named, but people still call them Holos, anyway. Most of Ara’s technology is avoided outside the UAP, but almost everyone has a holo. In the Northwest Imperative Territory, most of the holos are jailbroken to evade location and listening services, and in the Independent Nation of Texas, factory standard holos, as well as most of Ara’s other tech (such as co-bots) are illegal.