Immersification (short story)

This sport is all about pacing.

Warning: this short story is 10,000 words. So not that short. Enjoy.

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The stats didn’t lie, their endless scrolling a constant reminder of his decline. All six screens blazed in the darkness, but the lower left monitor with the ever-present bioreadings held his attention.

According to the chair the goo mix was fine and working well despite the persistent anxiety. It was the 19:5 ratio that was the problem. Difficult to fix though. He was probably more dependent on other competitors slipping than making up lost ground regardless of what the analysis suggested. Should he reduce the ratio despite all that? Drop to eighteen hours viewing, or even as low as sixteen? Or maybe increase his sleep to six hours? He had to do something.

Looking away from the screen to take in the rest he shifted in the chair. The discomfort forced him to glance down at the data again. Still under fifty pounds of weight gain so that was something. But the G-levels were erratic; he could feel that every few hours as his body began to crave the sugar. He should have only used the low carb, high fat regime for training and switched to high carb at the beginning of the competition. The metabolic shock of such a late adaptation wasn’t helping. A foolish error.

He briefly considered introducing an antibiotic feed as his body ached. Was it too much at this stage? It was only day seventy-eight, mid-March. He hadn’t expected to be this deep with weeks still to go so he didn’t really have a tried and tested strategy to fall back on. This close to the final stretch an infection would be a disaster.

He let it go, the wheezing only apparent when he moved. Since he planned to stay in the chair until the end it shouldn’t be a major factor. Anyway, he had more to worry about.

The data screen flashed the intermittent warning about the waste system again. It only ever lasted a few moments, but it was there nonetheless, pulling attention away from his viewing efforts. Was it a faulty sensor or an indicator of a deeper problem? He couldn’t afford the time to shut everything down to check so he would need to keep an eye on things and just hope it sorted itself. Another reminder to never use untested equipment in competition.

Observing Clancy effortlessly take the lead while he himself slipped outside the top twenty preyed on his mind reminding him at least some of the unease was probably due to the cortisol levels taking their toll. The indicator was still at amber, but he would have to keep more of an eye on it to avoid complications.

Clancy’s performance had been decent if less than spectacular. Although it was working. Observers often said the winner sometimes just had to be less bad than the competition. Clancy’s wakescores had barely reached seventy percent, the judges unenthusiastic about the subject matter. But it was still enough to keep him ahead.

He desperately needed a better content strategy himself. His early lead had evaporated. The alienation material was falling flat and losing him followers every day. Most of them would never come back. He needed to pull something drastic out of the hat just to approach the top ten never mind overtake someone like Clancy.

Resisting the urge to analyse his own stats once again he focused on the primary view screen and got to it.

January

Passing the two-week mark felt like a milestone, despite the rigours ahead. Early days indeed.

Checking the bioreadings he noticed he had gained less than a pound, a personal record. Although dwelling on it just made him wonder if he should be worried. He would have expected a minimum of two or three pounds by this stage. That said he was still eating proper meals and even walking around the apartment burned off some calories.

He needed the walking as much as anything. The new chair had been a last minute decision. A new start in a way. After using his old chair for almost twenty years he had upgraded in a fit of enthusiasm once accepted for competition. But despite its cost, and how much more advanced than the previous rig, it had proved uncomfortable. He briefly toyed with bringing back the old one from its retirement in the garage, but it was too much hassle. He should have known better than to change such an intrinsic component so close to competition.

Easing into the chair he scanned the screens arranged in their three-by-two grid as he adjusted the position of his legs. Five of the screens relayed a broad sweep of information encompassing the important areas of coverage including monitoring rivals. The primary and secondary screens displayed content and continuously fed the audience, with the first-row tertiary screen reserved for analysis. The second row contained the bioreadings, a view of rivals’ content and finally the judges’ endless commentary and analysis.

Images danced across his vision, from live news to documentaries and movies, the stark brightness of the screens obscuring the otherwise empty study, its recesses lost to darkness. It was all here, everything managed from this new chair, the armrests a confusion of controls. At first he had missed his old approach, using a keyboard of all things. But now every conceivable option was managed by the chair itself.

Despite the newness of the setup it still felt like home. A distant relative of dentists’ chairs, it moulded perfectly to his body and these newer ones would naturally compensate for the weight gain. His favoured position, at an incline of eighteen degrees from the prone position, always calmed him in a way normal sitting never did. This was what he was born to do.

Reviewing the bioreadings, he had always favoured the lower left position for monitoring and this competition was no exception. Some modern rigs came with metrics superimposed over any screen, automatically controlled by eye-tracking software. But the traditional lower-left approach worked best, with one of the six screens reserved exclusively for the plethora of data always available as the competition progressed.

Considering his strategy again he decided against drastic changes, his modest audience growing as they consumed his viewing choices. The early days were always worth using to assess the landscape rather than react to the emerging picture of competitors’ approaches. The seasoned professional adapted over the course of an event anyway.

The three big names were all in the top ten already. The favourite to win was the American John Clancy. He had easily won last year, although pundits had written the competition off as one of the weakest in recent history. The Dutchman, Willem Heemskerk, was one to watch despite ranking lower than Clancy. McDonald, the Canadian, was the final favourite and currently in nineteenth place. As the youngest he would be the hardest to predict.

McDonald was already running an 18:5 ratio. Dropping down to only five hours sleep at this stage seemed like a mistake only a real amateur would make but it was difficult to say with such an unknown entity. Time would tell.

The others were both running 16:6. With two hours less viewing than McDonald they were slipping behind, although that meant little in what was only the third week. His own ratio of 15:7 was ideal for now. The ratio only mattered within a range anyway as new competitors quickly discovered. Once the field narrowed the real impact came from the wakescores and the pulse scores, and these were harder to game. With only fifteen hours of viewing to focus on, and an extravagant seven hours of sleep, he was placing himself in a stronger position over the longer term. And if competition had taught him anything it was the need for discipline.

Although, his balance was out. One downside to being outside the top ten was the likelihood his scoring would be largely automated and some time before his scores could reflect the kind of feedback he’d need to really flourish. Once he climbed the ranks then things would change.

His wakescores were negligible as were the judges’ scores. Not surprising given his entry had barely been noticed. As a one-time winner, the most common type, he was lost in the noise along with the three thousand other contenders. But that would change.

His last win had been eleven years ago. He wasn’t the only past winner competing this year and none had merited more than a passing mention.

His approach had been revolutionary at the time and widely analysed, although never repeated. Not in all that time since.

Back then he had shaken up the sport coming from nowhere to win. His technique had been to hold a steady pace in the first month then focus on the mood of the audience. Everything hinged on the wakescores and pulse scores most competitors failed to master.

And no wonder. It was difficult to hold your nerve and few effective methods existed to practice managing wakescores and pulse scores except during a live competition itself. As a result most focused on the easier elements like the view/sleep ratio and the judges’ scores designed to reflect the perceived balance of viewed material.

But the wakescore was the most difficult since it reflected how well you could influence an audience yourself, its percentage reflecting how many of your own audience actually consumed the selected material. It required a degree of precision few possessed, even champions. Pulse scores proved even more elusive, dependent as they were on audience judgment.

A new generation had emerged since then and many had failed to match his celebrated pulse metrics. They were forced to focus primarily on perceived balance, often aiming too much at judges or even fellow competitors. A fatal oversight. When they did attend more closely to audience tastes competitors often chased audience mood rather than influence it directly, a weak strategy although easy to fall in to. Audiences were there to be surprised and even challenged. Showing them more of what they already consumed damned lesser talents to mediocrity.

Most lacked the stamina to really grasp the complexity of an audience’s fickle tastes, how they could seemingly change for no reason yet also be shaped with a sequence of intelligent choices.

Insight mattered. That’s what really counted, plus the stamina to analyse the patterns and stay one step ahead while your finger truly stayed on the pulse.

It was almost magical to experience, although difficult to explain. That ensured it was rarely explored and ignored by all but the most experienced. His entry this year had passed almost unnoted, with only a few mentions on some of the fan sites. The obscurity of his approach made it a difficult sell. The masses were driven by novelty.

But it had been no different all those years ago. He had been an unknown; no sponsor, no publicity and totally ignored. That had been part of the appeal, the underdog taking on established giants. It could only help this time too.

He knew he could do it again. The circumstances were similar and ultimately that had persuaded him to try. The lack of a sponsor could only help. He had been approached by companies when he announced his entry but they had been easy to decline. That lack of backing would not be lost on the audience.

He had been working on this for eighteen months. Eleven years really. His time was now, he could feel it.

By the end of January Clancy, McDonald and Heemskerk consolidated their positions, confirming the favourable predictions of the critics. Clancy led the pack in first position with the other two trailing. They each added millions of followers every day. All were strong performers.

No one anticipated his own surge. Certainly the judges didn’t see it coming. Until the fourth week he had been ignored. With only three million followers his impact had been minimal. But it changed rapidly as it only could in the first month.

The others had largely ignored the debate raging in many Western countries around the latest wave of immigration, a controversial subject almost everyone avoided except for the occasional report in news coverage. As the idea crystallized in his mind over several days of research he knew it was the break he’d been waiting for, almost a gift. A sensitive topic the younger players shied away from but still on many people’s minds. Hundreds of millions unable to directly express concerns or fears meant the perfect conditions to require a subconscious release mechanism.

Nobody seemed to pick up on the strategy when he combined news reports of the protests with in-depth documentaries, although he was careful to include both sides of the immigration argument. No sense in annoying the judges at this delicate stage. This alone picked up new followers and triggered some chatter on the forums.

He focused on his primary screen, mainly topical news as it always provided a relentless supply of content making it easy for newcomers to tune in. The protests constantly evolved, and the media outlets produced more than he would ever need.

The current hysteria focused on the volume of immigrants, all emphasized with copious footage of streams of people entering various countries. His own country’s media constantly broadcasted hordes of young Middle Eastern men walking across Europe in long lines. Even better, most spoke English so it was almost inevitable the media outlets would broadcast plenty of incendiary material easily understood by most of his audience.

Unexpectedly, across the Atlantic, riots broke out in San Francisco and Seattle where many refugees had been shipped, providing an impressively visual supply of violence and destruction, instantly attractive to most, even those not following the topic in-depth. None of the networks explicitly mentioned the origins of the rioters but the audience made the connections for them, all of it complementing the immigration material. Most of it was well edited and mesmerizing to watch, the historic outlets old hands at manipulating the masses.

Technically this was second-order manipulation. But the judges would be unable to verify even though everyone knew using material from the historic media meant guaranteed manipulation, it wasn’t direct manipulation.

It attracted many and barely needed any secondary content to pad it out. He just let it run. As the numbers climbed he could practically feel them consuming it as if they were sat nearby. It drove him on knowing the audience was there with him.

Normally the goal was to find useful triggers to load complementary subject matter, the secondary screen to the right of the primary reserved exclusively for this. It added depth and looked more natural dividing his time between the two screens. Most of his audience, especially the hard core, struggled with single-focus content anyway, so he always ensured they had alternative material to pick up when their attention inevitably wandered.

As the shock of the riots died off he focused on documentaries suggested by aspects of the emergent themes, a useful cocktail of fear, uncertainty and societal change. Events were covered by the excitable media so new material suggested itself almost automatically, an endless supply found by his analysis software running on the third screen.

The real difficulty of this was ensuring the secondary content really did emerge naturally from the primary viewing material, or at least seemed to. It was next to impossible to game. Many tried, even running secondary content pre-chosen before the primary subject matter seemed to suggest it. But the judges were always sensitive to this and their judgments harsh. Getting caught set you back weeks and was rarely worth the risk.

It had to feel right for the followers as unnatural or forced connections chased people off. They sensed the artificiality of it and once gone you rarely got them back.

Another delicate aspect of moving between the primary and secondary screens could be the effect on attention. There was always a solid contingent for whom this was dangerous.

Over time, as the numbers grew and especially as his audience solidified, he gained access to more data on them. This helped calculate their attentional deficit quotient with increasing accuracy. Each person was assigned an ADQ of between one and five, grouping everyone into quintiles. The top two, those with scores at four or five, were the most difficult to manage. Too much secondary material, or offering it at too high a frequency, destroyed their already fractured attention spans.

Older age groups were more likely to possess high ADQ scores, their many years of consumption having long since damned them. This made them tricky to manage, their greater experience providing more hooks to achieve attentional capture but easier to lose as they drifted when overwhelmed.

The third screen was always reserved for analysis. After hours of continuous viewing, even with a strong mix of primary and secondary material, it helped to take a break from consumption even if just for a few minutes. The sophisticated software took account of his own choices as well as audience response, updating in real time to provide nuanced suggestions as to where he could focus next.

It only really came into its own once pulse scores became available. Now, near the beginning, data was sparse. It could be hit and miss. But it served as respite from the long hours of watching and consuming.

It could be a double-edged thing. Focusing too much on suggested connections was often noticeable to followers despite their general lack of sophistication. The suggestions tended to lose resonance, the content missing the mark even if technically good, a blunder often made by the less experienced.

Adding apocalyptic movies shifted it into high gear. Tuning in to the tone of the news reports, especially their tendency to present these kinds of events as catastrophes waiting to happen, he decided on invasion as the underlying theme. He chose the first zombie movie almost at random, The Night of the Living Dead, a classic. Its impact was immediate, his instincts proved right. The anti-immigration commentators inevitably viewed the zombies as an allusion to the immigrants themselves. The pro groups clearly interpreted the zombies as their less enlightened fellow countrymen. He soon added more.

As his wakescores increased along with his follower numbers he kept up a balance between sober analysis and entertainment focused on catastrophe. To his surprise a number of high profile debates on the immigration issue emerged and he was careful to pay attention to them all, dipping in when needed. Before long it became a bona fide issue attended to by the full spectrum of commentators. Some of the more controversial were even suggesting he could trigger a full-blown crisis among the political class if he kept up the pressure.

His masterstroke was to include dense material covering argument, perception and distortion itself. This attracted the attention of the commentariat, low in number but hugely influential. One of the few instances of low viewing figures working to impress judges as it confirmed their own sophistication lost on the masses who completely ignored it. As the number of followers climbed so did his wakescores. The corresponding pulse scores approached eighty percent, the highest yet in the competition.

This further impressed the judges, causing a significant boost to his scores across the board. Any evidence of organic effect, the involvement of the serious influencers as a consequence of audience enthusiasm, as opposed to directly attracting them via content, was as rare as it was prized. By the time the unexpected senate and parliamentary hearings were announced some were even suggesting they were partly doing so in response to the significant interest he had triggered in the immigration crisis.

On the eighth day he had increased to almost 275 million followers, the metric alone enough to put him in the top ten. That was when the judges really took note. His wakescore rose to eighty-five percent. His pulse scores settled in the seventies after the expected fluctuations.

As the competition moved towards the second month he managed ninth place. Still behind the three favourites in the top five. But he knew they would be worried since he had started with fewer than three million followers. A weak base but that was the power of insight and taking risks.

With a feeling of satisfaction he reviewed his personal metrics as the millions downloaded their zombie movies. He had only gained eight pounds, still less than he would have expected after a full month. But welcome news. It must be all the thinking burning calories. The Dutchman, Heemskerk, had gained twice that, although he noted the man was 6’4” which partly accounted for it.

He decided to continue as is, keeping his carb intake on the lower side. Best to keep a few things in reserve.

Watching as his followers increased, always satisfying to see, he felt himself begin to relax a little for the first time. Maybe he really was in with a chance after all.

“Well, Bob. It’s difficult to know where to start. What a first month!”

“One of the best in recent years, Dave.”

“Couldn’t agree more. I doubt anyone could have predicted the line up of the top ten.”

“Well everyone expected Clancy to hold his own. And McDonald.”

“Touch and go with Heemskerk mind you.”

“The flying Dutchman himself. Although I never doubted he’d manage it, Dave.”

“Very strong showings from them all, Bob. But the real story is Hamilton.”

“The comeback kid himself! A previous winner.”

“Eleven years. That’s how long it’s been. And he hasn’t even competed for most of that.”

“Who says the British can’t field strong contenders?”

“Absolutely, Bob. They always have someone in the top ten. Consistently, every time.”

“And Hamilton has come from nowhere. Just like he did eleven years ago.”

“No sponsors either, Bob. A solo performance.”

“Well everyone roots for the underdog. Not just here, but the Brits too. That doesn’t do any harm.”

“The judges are impressed. Not easy to be impressed with this lineup, they’re all good.”

“Yeah, we forget that. In a competition like this it is next to impossible to stand out.”

“Although Hamilton has certainly done that. Those wakescores.”

“The movie companies will be lining up to sponsor him next time round.”

“And the balance. Almost perfect.”

“Masterful, Dave. All the more so with such a sensitive subject.”

“No one else touched immigration. They all went for easier targets. Who would have thought it?”

“The judges obviously appreciated it.”

“All reflected in the scores, Bob.”

“The question is can he keep it up? That balance I mean?”

“Difficult to say. Although he has the experience.”

“True. He’s the oldest competitor in the top ten. Forty-two.”

“I guess that’s what experience brings to the game.”

“No doubt, Dave. But the first month is the easiest physically.”

“Well, he’s paced himself. Although he’ll need to consider his ratios and regime going forward.”

“He sure will. Still, if he can pull another stunt like he did this week it may not matter.”

“Only time will tell, Bob. They have everything to play for.”

February

Moving up the ranks proved easier than expected. By the second week of February he ascended to sixth place. Clancy meanwhile slipped to third.

His strategy was working, at least for now. A surge of confidence energized his mood as the competition gradually shed those who knew they could not compete, the totals decreasing every hour on the screen reserved for monitoring competitors, already below a thousand. Invigorated, he reviewed the figures, his position growing ever stronger as his strategy proved more robust than that of the younger competitors.

He decided to continue his approach even as he gained new followers. Indeed, his initial breakthrough with his deft handling of the immigration issue continued to make waves, the number of downloads less than half of the peak but still respectable. In contrast Clancy and Heemskerk had seen their recent tactics fail, both pushing low resonance material rejected by their followers.

By the first week of February he was beginning to run low on content. He had augmented his immigration theme with many History Channel pieces his growing audience had embraced, although it had been tedious to watch despite its positive impact on the judges, the reaction unexpected although welcome. The wakescores spoke for themselves despite the obviousness of the move.

Long experience had taught him it was all too easy to rest on your laurels as the numbers were growing. That was the exact time you had to keep your eye on the ball. He had to follow up the immigration piece with an unorthodox choice, something dramatic.

He watched a selection of topics to assess the reactions, especially the top two quintiles, quickly finding out extreme negativity parsed well. No surprise there. The historic media had understood for decades that good news doesn’t sell. Fear gripped people and fed their need to feel important.

He decided to focus on the ever-present threat of a global pandemic. This was an old trick and difficult to pull off. The judges were sensitive to obvious manipulation, particularly any hint of H-tapping, triggering a hippocampal response to invoke fear. But it was worth the risk, and with so many of his followers currently embracing some historical content it proved easy to find a way in.

He started with material on the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic that swept the world. His masterstroke was to include it as part of the historical content already there, focusing on how the First World War and the pandemic had both been contributing factors to the enormous changes sweeping through society. From here it was easy to expand on themes his followers were already consuming. It would be difficult for the judges to convince themselves it was prepackaged and not reacting to audience taste. Blatantly bridging content from one major topic to another was frowned upon so the skill was in ensuring it seemed natural while not looking like you were manipulating resonance.

From there he added more pandemic subject matter, careful to create a balance between the scientific aspect and the societal effect while ensuring the material could elicit an atavistic response in at least some of the audience. Watching a number of in-depth documentaries on both aspects proved immediately popular. People couldn’t help themselves as they were drawn in. The wakescores edged up into the seventies.

Watching documentaries on designer viruses, with a specific focus on bioweapons, resonated with virtually every demographic. His pulse scores rose ever higher. By the time he had added entertainment it was all over. Hollywood had been exploiting the love of fear for many decades so finding complimentary material was a simple matter.

As the content had its effect he knew now was the time to change direction completely. A few competitors were clearly watching his progress, adapting their own material in an attempt to mimic his success. He needed something unexpected.

Continuing to consume pandemic content, he analysed the stats. The data showed he was weak in some demographics. Focusing on these he began amassing adverts from the time of their childhoods. It was a rarely used trick; nostalgia was often problematic. People craved novelty, but it had its place. It would work as a stopgap while he tried to find something as strong as the immigration content.

The effect was dramatic. The judges immediately picked up on it too, although the audience just consumed it. Much to his surprise it soon broke outside the bounds of the original target group and within a few days almost every demographic had some exposure as he focused exclusively on adverts, carefully working his way through most of the older demographics, the short, easily consumable nature of the material ideal for their limited attention spans.

The emerging wakescore nudged towards the eighties. The judges seemed divided between a belief in its natural appeal and probable manipulation, their commentary scrolling in the bottom-right screen trending in his favour as they acknowledged the need for comfort after the onslaught of depressing content on killer viruses. As ever they understood the need for balance. In the end the pulse score pushed into the high-seventies range.

Monitoring the effect he noted the wave of nostalgia sweeping through the forums and watched as competitors tried in vain to replicate the effect. None succeeded and they were hammered by the judges thanks to it being an obvious derivation.

Lesser competitors often did this. A reactive strategy was fine in the first month, indeed it was often a necessity early on given the lack of data on audience tastes. But to win you had to be bold. You had to make strong choices no one would predict beforehand.

Analysis was always key. The inexperienced felt overwhelmed by some of the choices made by other players and focused too much on this. They obsessed over the judges and their continual stream of commentary.

The most crucial aspect was always balancing analysis of competitors with the audience, even while growing the audience. Capitalizing on your own strengths while exploiting the weaknesses of others was the key to a strong second month. Few managed it and the judges could be difficult to fool.

He had always favoured a barbell approach. Balance was key even if unnoticed by the masses. In his mind the bar represented the basic fact of spending the time watching the content. On one side he imagined entertainment, easy to absorb material. On the other sat more in-depth subject matter. News and current affairs, documentary work and anything that challenged an audience. It had always worked well for him and seemed to be an approach shunned by others.

It also reflected real life. Many people liked their informative material to be entertaining and their entertainment to carry at least some depth. He thought of it as proportional symmetry, aiming to improve the retention of challenging content in audiences and ensuring their enjoyment of entertainment was rewarded by reaching for the centre of the barbell in all that he did. To his astonishment no one had ever picked up on proportional symmetry as a strategy despite the millions of hours of analysis.

It did impress the judges. They liked balance, a quality often lacking in competitors despite chasing judge scores with an almost autistic focus. Too many miscalculated the impact judging often had on competition. Their ability to discern pattern was almost as sophisticated as the leading competitors and a bluntly exploitative programme of offerings was quickly spotted no matter how popular even when ostensibly designed to impress them.

Most eschewed a barbell approach and embraced a multifactorial methodology. Extensive scanning was complimented with powerful analysis software to provide a range of options biased in favour of audience approval, reflected in the all important wakescore and the more belated pulse score.

And yet there was always something clinical about the content produced by multifactorialism. It typically felt a little off even when technically sophisticated. Despite this, many relied on it, although it was officially denied.

But victory was always about superior insight.

Towards the end of February, and within the span of a single day, Clancy slipped out of the top ten as he himself moved to the pole position. It took him by surprise but on deeper analysis he soon realized it had been almost inevitable. Both Heemskerk and McDonald had been moving down the ranks. Many of the top players were heavily sponsored. This primed the judges to scrutinize their choices with particular care, which never helped. He had no doubt some of their declining scores were a consequence of suspicion of sponsorship bias.

Clancy seemed to have lost his feel for the audience and it showed. His recent wakescores were poor which had an inevitable effect on his pulse scores. For two days running his wakescore dropped to zero. Then, as if to compound this effect he cut his ratio down to 14:8, an unusual move in a leading player, especially in competition. It was baffling.

Was Clancy employing some new strategy? Certainly his current approach failed to connect with a wide audience. Analysing his recent efforts the complex mix of interconnected topics implied a multifactorial strategy, its subtleties seemingly lost on the audience. Although the abrupt change in ratio was more difficult to understand. Was Clancy following some tactic he couldn't yet fathom, letting others jostle for the lead while he conserved his energy by slipstreaming behind the rest? Certainly the ratio change provided ample rest time, a real advantage if you could pull it off.

He decided to change his own ratio. Now was not the time to hold back and assess. Fortune favoured the bold. Getting ahead now could mean amassing enough cumulative score to put him far enough in front to be unreachable.

He upped the ratio to 16:6. That would maintain his sleep and increase his viewing but still retain time to rest and analyse the data with the additional advantage of some scope for meals.

As Clancy dropped out of the top ten entirely along with Heemskerk he himself ascended to first place. The popularity of the adverts was still strong as it evolved into a full-blown craze, a rarity in competition. Audiences were even self-classifying the adverts into categories to attract followers of their own, a natural cascade effect the judges could not ignore. His wakescores and pulse scores moved ever upward.

He transitioned to only two meals, swapping out lunch for goo. The interruption broke his flow and it was difficult to shake the feeling the break in viewing material felt unnatural for audiences too.

He had only gained nineteen pounds so could afford the allowance. The shift was immediate and even felt natural, reminding him of earlier competitions where he'd relied on goo from the start.

The new chair had it all built in, the nutrient mix tailored for his exact needs. Calling up the controls, he initiated the low carb, high fat formula recommended by the system. He could tweak it later once he incorporated it fully.

The system stepped up its physiological monitoring automatically now he was depending on the goo for at least some of his intake, the screen listing a truncated range of parameters. He would move to more comprehensive monitoring when he transitioned to full goo. Thankfully cortisol was still at green, but he knew he’d need to pay attention to it, although dismissed it for now. Plenty of time for that.

The satisfying absence of Clancy was complemented with amazement at his own rise. First place, with strong wakescores and a projected peak of 350 million followers. The attrition rate was down too, not unexpected after the first month when core audiences tended to solidify.

A strong showing. A superb way to enter the third month. The crucial period when the competition was won or lost.

“Well, Dave. What an exciting month that was!”

“Month two. A gamechanger.”

“A radically different line up from just four weeks ago. Almost impossible to predict.”

“Except for Hamilton, Bob. We got that right.”

“Well his performance in the first month got him off to a great start, Dave.”

“No doubt about it. And he’s went from strength to strength.”

“He looks unstoppable at this stage.”

“Well so did Clancy a month ago. So a lot can change with a competitive arena like this.”

“You’re right, Dave. I wouldn’t have predicted Clancy crashing and burning like that.”

“No one would have. That’s what makes competition at this level the sport it is. Even the very best have to compete. No one gets to rest on their laurels.”

“Not at these levels they don’t.”

“Although I’m not ready to write off Clancy just yet.”

“Nor me. He has a track record of making radical changes mid-competition. Content as well as ratios.”

“He’s not the kind of guy you want to overlook even at the end of the second month.”

“Something Hamilton will definitely be aware of.”

“Absolutely, Bob. A seasoned veteran like him will be scanning on all frequencies for sure.”

March

Disaster struck in the first week in March. Several viewing choices failed to resonate and to add insult to injury Clancy came roaring back, landing in eighth place.

After analysing competitors he wanted to choose something different, something controversial. With talk of war in Eastasia, and the likelihood of them joining in, it seemed an obvious target, especially after his recent success with managing the equally controversial topic of immigration.

Others had tried covering war, albeit by challenging the approved line. Most had fallen flat. The official narrative was well defended and audiences usually lacked the historical knowledge to contest the claims made by the warmongers. A poor choice for those foolish enough to try it. Nothing had worked, encouraging others to steer clear of the subject altogether.

But every problem was an opportunity. A more strident slant on the evolving situation could be the way to go. Could he garner interest in it? The political class would be enthusiastic which wouldn’t do any harm. The historical media would predictably play along as would the bureaucrats.

Could he get the balance right and trigger hearings like he had with immigration? That seemed farfetched but could it work? No one in competition had ever triggered a war. It would be a first.

As difficult as it was to navigate the tightrope there were massive scores to be harvested for the person who did succeed in converting unpopular views into the mainstream. It had happened a few years before when a competitor had used a scandal with one of the pharmaceutical giants to garner a string of high wakescores. The initial resistance from audiences, including an early precipitous drop, evolved into a long run of strong pulse scores and judges almost ecstatically awarding the lead position as the historic media belatedly picked up on the story. He had ultimately won, and primarily from his willingness to push the envelope.

Could it work? No one else was doing it. Every analysis showed other competitors actively avoiding the looming conflict. Wars were rarely popular. The public quickly got bored. You had to focus more on the domestic impact and that wasn’t easy. The military ran a tight ship and to be seen siding with them would be catastrophic. He would have to begin critically and only then come over to their position. Making that look organic would be tricky with the judges, although easier with the audience. But it was surely worth trying. He just needed a way in.

While watching a string of moderately humorous prank video fatalities, a workable short-term strategy if not overused, he realized some of them were situated in battlefields from various conflicts over the years. Could he use that somehow? Was it a way in?

He began isolating any material with a military component. In time he ran exclusively with it as the natural horror of real human deaths was often gripping to view even when funny.

He began to augment it with mildly critical news coverage of Eastasia, everything from cultural differences to economics. It was crucial to start negatively.

None of it landed well, not even the death material, but that was arguably good as a weak start with a degree of slow burn leading to an eventual popular response always looked more natural to judges.

On the second day he took the decision to lead with the war material as if caught by surprise and relegate everything else to a subordinate role. It would not be convincing to the judges but nor would they necessarily penalize him since it could be considered organic. He had to keep it negative for now but be on the lookout for a way into the positive takes.

It took time but by the end of the second day he did see the beginnings of uptake. Nothing spectacular but it was there.

By the morning of the third day he continued with the news coverage but opted for a series of documentaries on Mao’s cultural revolution, dropping the fatalities completely. That would smooth things over with the judges and add depth while nudging everything forward.

He managed to find plenty of historical analysis for the more able and video of the public denunciations and executions for the low attention span groups. Running them simultaneously solidified his grip on the full attentional deficit spectrum which wouldn’t do any harm.

Nothing happened. By the end of the third day it became obvious audiences were baffled. They couldn’t make the leap from the prank videos to war. And he wasn’t even close to the military or politicians’ stance. It seemed hopeless.

None of it hit home. His wakescores were abysmal, below ten per cent. The pulse score reflected the lack of interest. Nothing worked.

Despondent, he decided to take some time out. The 16:6 ratio was slipping into 17:6 and taking its toll. Perhaps he needed to take a leaf out of Clancy’s book and take a break. A real break.

Even worse, he noticed as he wound things down for the day he had slipped to sixth place and Clancy had risen to fifth. He had to do better.

The awareness he had slept for over eleven hours slowly seeped in when he glanced at the clock immediately after waking. At first it didn’t register, the number divorced from his mind. Just another statistic among all the others. Then it hit him.

He stumbled out of bed and stared at it, aghast, the bedclothes twisted into tight shapes. He had only intended to pause for a few moments, to assess his strategy. A brief rest.

Struggling to keep a grip on the panic, he stumbled into the dark study, the chair at the centre. Where he should be. It sat alone and silent, the screens blank except for the stats scrolling on the lower left screen, the harsh light dancing across the smooth sweep of the empty chair.

Waking the chair, he left for the bathroom and quickly decided on a strategy. He could make up some of the time although not all.

Hurrying back to the study he assessed the data while standing looking down at the rig. The competitor screen summarized his position. Clancy had ascended to third place, his wakescores climbing ever higher. A flash of embarrassment overcame him as he realized Clancy had barely taken a break. The chair calculated he would average out at 18:5 and possibly even 19:5, the slowly improving wakescores cumulative with no irregular spikes. A neat upward line on the graph reflected an uninterrupted rise to his current position. He had aimed for consistency rather than a big bang approach. A solid strategy if you could sustain it.

He looked like he was focusing on the protests against the bankers. A clear anti-Wall Street strategy. Just the beginning, but unmistakable. It would be difficult to pull off. It was always popular with some followers but tough to convince judges as it was such an easy target and he’d have to be careful to avoid the suspicion of H-tapping given how touchy people could be about the topic.

Could Clancy manage it with such obvious subject matter? Had his own focus on historical China, the main player in Eastasia, been too high-brow? It had fallen flat. Perhaps it had simply been too obscure. Or maybe he had forgotten his own advice to avoid trying to impress judges and focus instead on audience taste and mood. Clancy was clearly succeeding with this. Still, it was hard to believe Clancy would avoid being hammered by the judges for such an obvious crowd pleaser.

He had dropped to nineteenth place, losing all his earlier advantages. His long period away from the action may yet prove fatal although that was far from certain.

Could he catch up? Or was he now too far behind? Struggling to think clearly he instructed the chair to prepare stimulants as he assessed his position. He would have to amend his ratio, that much was clear. A more aggressive approach than he’d been considering. Yes, that was the key. For all he had slipped one of the advantages it provided was the element of surprise. Clancy would have written him off, his eleven-hour lapse reinforcing the impression he had lost it.

With an unexpected sense of vigour he undressed and eased himself into the chair. An 18:5 ratio was needed. That should do it. If he dropped meals and relied on the chair it would enable him to claw back over the next week or so some of what he had lost. Although if he was more aggressive and moved up to 19:5 it would be even more effective.

He had his strategy. It gave him a fighting chance. He felt the strain as he lowered himself carefully into the chair, feeling its familiar welcoming form.

Calling up the controls he changed the goo mix. The low carb, high fat combination had been fine, but he was now relying exclusively on the chair. He switched to high carb, low fat, a more effective strategy given his precarious position. The chair would automatically monitor his G-levels and warn him if it got too much. Once plugged in the cortisol warning flashed, already at amber. He dismissed it. That was just the shock wearing off. Although it would have contributed to the exhaustion so he knew he had to pay more attention to it.

Should he consider a relaxant? He called up the options but the list suggested by the chair put him off. It was alertness he needed. He primed the chair for a mix should it be needed, diazepam combined with temazepam for a quick hit plus a long tail if required. He looked at the suggestions for stimulants and decided to start with the methylphenidate. That would be enough. He could keep the dextroamphetamine in reserve. It tended to throw him off his game. An absolute last resort if things got drastic.

Despite everything a wave of optimism energized him as he fully plugged in. The waste system was brand new; he should probably have tested it before this. Although he hadn’t expected to use it so soon or even considered running it for several weeks. Most serious competitors reserved that for a final push.

Was he miscalculating? He was immersifying early. Although looking again at competitors’ performance over the last week or so it was difficult to escape the conclusion others, especially Clancy, were immersifying themselves. This was it, the final stretch. Only 198 left in the game and few of them would make it to the end.

The screens came to life as he slipped in, their familiar glow embracing him as the data began to flow, pulling him in.

After three days nothing worked. The decline was swift. He dropped down to thirty-fourth place as Clancy retained his lead. A disaster.

The chair was malfunctioning too. The nutrient mix worked fine but the waste system was temperamental at best, its alarm ringing out every few hours, distracting him from viewing as it preyed on his mind. He toyed with taking a break, perhaps a full ten hours to fix it with six hours or so to properly sleep, but he couldn’t afford the time after his eleven-hour lapse. He could barely keep up as it was. The top ten seemed ever further away never mind pole position.

He had to pull something out of the hat. Something spectacular like his early wakescores. He was spending too much time obsessing over other competitors and that always led to derivative content. The key was always originality, to forge your own path and produce something unique and unexpected. Difficult to manage when your attention was on others, on their scores, ever present and available.

And yet he kept dipping in to the competitor screen. He couldn’t help himself, his rivals’ information always accessible and automatically analysed, the volume of viewing substantial and within reach. McDonald favoured higher-frequency changes of subject matter, his demographics heavily skewed young. Clancy and Heemskerk were more measured because of their broader age range. Clancy’s transitions were good, his shifts between topics often subtle and difficult to spot but typically anchored to some deeper concept that only gradually emerged. Some of it was brilliant, much of it flirting with disaster as he adapted to popular rival content, but always skilled enough the judges couldn’t quite pin anything on him. His masterful handling of some material explained his dominant position.

He amended the stats to only show his own data, something he should have done sooner. The screen cleared leaving only the bioreadings, stats and historical trends, the peaks and troughs telling the story of his original triumph and more recent descent.

Looking again at his bioreadings he realized the methylphenidate probably wasn’t enough. He instructed the chair to add dex to the mix and to ready the diazepam if the bioalarm was triggered. The sensation was immediate as his confidence soared.

He needed something drastic to get back on track. Content that resonated better with his audience. His follower numbers were still high but few were regularly tuning in. It was apparent the war theme in Eastasia had alienated them. He needed to draw them back somehow.

Alienation? Was that the insight here? Not just his own actions but more generally? The underlying drive for Clancy’s Wall Street material was almost certainly a deep sense of alienation, at least for the protesters themselves. Was there an angle here? Could he piggyback? That was frowned upon by the judges but an obvious benefit for an audience already engaged in the idea.

Excited at the potential of the insight, he started with fairly mainstream material, not dissimilar to Clancy’s offerings; coverage of protests on Wall Street. But he soon broadened that out to other content conveying dissatisfaction with life, never difficult to find. He managed to find a range of documentaries covering the concept of alienation itself particularly in Western countries. Adding more sociological subject matter about alternative approaches to structuring societies helped add even more depth. It came together easily, the content practically suggesting itself.

But what about entertainment? It didn’t take long to find the other side of the barbell. Analysing movies he found a mountain of useful candidates. Many of his followers would be unfamiliar with most of it. But what to choose?

He decided to lead with Taxi Driver, Shame and A Clockwork Orange. He also kept The Master, Up In the Air and Lost in Translation in reserve. In case he was losing some of the higher ADQ quintiles he also lined up Pixar’s Wall-E and Up. All would help reinforce the underlying theme. They should hit home without alerting audiences as to why if he blended them well with the harder hitting material.

Managing that would be a balancing act but he knew he could do it if he kept an eye on the stats. Most of it ought to resonate with an already disillusioned audience. It had enough distance from Clancy’s content to be difficult to spot plus it added a more abstract element none of the others were using. If his instincts were right it should feel natural even to the judges. All he had to do now was line it up and watch it while tracking down complementary material.

With that much content it soon became apparent his ratio would need to change. Maybe that was the key. Everyone would expect him to fall back and regroup, to reassess his strategy. But what if he did the opposite? What if he dug in? No one would expect that, especially Clancy.

Enervated by the idea he knew he had stumbled onto his winning strategy. This was how a competition was won. The weak became overly cautious, fearing changes to their strategy, afraid to try something new lest they eroded their existing advantages. But Clancy had changed ratios as late as March. So why not?

Should he start with something bold? A full on 24:0 would throw them off the scent. A few days at least to retake the initiative would do the trick. Total immersification few could manage. That was the way forward. But, should he fix the chair first? A break for a proper meal, perhaps even sacrificing some time initially to sleep properly in his bed?

No. That was fear talking. Fear of change. Fear of a radical shift in strategy. It was a time to be bold, even ruthless.

With one last check on dosage he overrode the flashing warning. Now wasn’t the time to be timid. Then he got down to work.

After three days the strategy had still not caught on with his followers. It was taking time. The exploration of alienation had only enjoyed a modest effect, at least so far. At this stage a lesser competitor would have capitulated to a sense of failure, but not a champion. In those who had picked up on it there was a tangible sense of success. Some got it, he was sure of it. He just had to bring the rest along with them.

But, after the bouts of 24:0 — much commented on beyond his own circle, although yet to transform into return followers — the chair’s constant alarms forced him to take a break.

Triggering the shutdown process he noticed his weight gain had risen to forty-eight pounds. Not unexpected at this point. Higher than planned but the shift to deeper immersification had made it unavoidable. His G-levels were a mess and he knew from experience that could really derail consistency and concentration. He should have tapered in the shift to high carb. The cortisol warning flashed red. Maybe he had ignored it for too long.

As the chair ran through its shutdown sequence he remembered he had meant to revisit the relaxants. Maybe a strategic use of them would do the trick when he plugged back in. He could get the chair to cocktail the right mix, maybe tone down the dextroamphetamine as well to even out the hard spike he’d been dealing with. It was probably throwing him off.

Unplugging he thought about the impact of the current strategy. His position had improved and he now sat in sixteenth place. A definite improvement. But not good enough.

As he tried to sit upright his head began to swim and he had to lie back momentarily. He could feel the excess weight and the weakness in his limbs. Had he switched too quickly? Pushing up again the dizziness returned as he fell off the chair and slumped onto the floor, the faint light from the screens catching the dust stirred by his fall. Perhaps his next focus should be physical health or weight gain. Audiences rarely liked to be reminded of their own weaknesses so it was a tricky one. But nothing else was working so it might be worth a shot just for the shock value.

He felt a tingling in his arms as he looked at his fingers, their unexpected chubbiness shocking. The chair began to malfunction, the light from the screens dimming, panic gripping him as the alarms rose in volume. Something on the bioreadings screen blinked red. If the chair malfunctioned now he would have no chance. How could he get to the top ten? He wouldn’t even be able to research the health idea.

His chest tightened as his heart hammered, panic threatening to overtake him completely. He had to calm down. The screens continued to fade. The whole room faded, the ceiling above him already gone. He couldn’t move. His limbs felt far away, as far away as his early strong wakescores. But he just needed rest, a short break to get back on track. To regain his place and catch up with the others.

He thought of Clancy then, the plodding strategy that had taken him to the top. As the darkness took him he thought about it all. The scores, his followers, the wisdom of his aggressive mix so early in competition. Fortune favours the bold. All he needed was rest. He would lie here for a bit. That would be enough for now. Then when he came out of it he would lead with health. Closing his eyes, heavy with fatigue, the room and the chair and thoughts of Clancy slipped away.

“Well, Bob. I doubt anyone can catch Clancy now.”

“Unlikely to say the least, Dave. Not even with a field this clear.”

“Only seven left in the game.”

“Few make it to the end of March.”

“At this stage it is a contest of endurance. Only the second contest to get this far in a decade.”

“It’s long distance, Dave. And only the select few last this long.”

“And it looks like Clancy will be the last man standing too.”

“No one can catch him now.”

“I think Hamilton rattled a few of the top players, Bob.”

“And no wonder. Although his was only the third death this competition. We’d have expected a few more at this stage.”

“The twenty-four zeroes are hard to pull off. That’s why they’re rarely used.”

“And that’s the lesson for the younger players, Dave. Pacing. If you want to compete at this level the number one skill is pacing, not shortcuts.”

“Absolutely. Pacing is what wins. Every single time. And Clancy is proving that as we speak.”

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