In the 2060s, humanity has taken primitive technological concepts like the VR headsets, Augmented Reality, 3D printing, drones, and most importantly EEG helmet game controllers, much farther towards their logical conclusion.
Electroencephalographs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroenc...) were originally large scanning devices used to monitor brain activity in medical patients and (willing, of course) scientific subjects. By the second decade of the third millennium, lightweight EEG 'cradles' or 'helmets' that wrapped around the scalp would already use electromagnetic sensors and 'trainable software' to enable rudimentary input directly from the brain without any of the nasty 'neural implants' seen in the 'cyberpunk' fiction of the decades leading up to the invention of the EEG helmet. In the 2060s, this has advanced to the point where all computer interfaces, video game characters and virtual avatars, as well as drones all make at least partial use of the versatile control scheme. In other words, the BCI (Brain Computer Interface) was born and grew up.
Drones in the 2060s come in many shapes, sizes and types. The military, of course, makes use of the most advanced of these, the relatively dangerous 'greymorph' drones, such as the liquid-like greygoo and the particulate greycloud systems which are composed of nanobots. Even with the fact that they are only allowed to be controlled by one or more human minds, the danger of a software flaw allowing these military 'drones' to devour the Earth is considered so much of a risk that they are considered WMDs on their own, on par with nuclear and biological weapons and having never actually been used in a theater of war. Just in case, of course. Even nuclear weapons were used twice in history.
Of course, you aren't here for a lesson of future technology that isn't related to the theme of shrinking. In the 2060s, while such terrible creations as greymorphs are limited to military access and never used, pretty much anyone in a developed nation can afford some sort of drone controlled by a BCI. This is spurred on by the fact that despite the increased ability of IPAs (Intelligent Personal Assistants) to predict human actions, a 'true' or 'strong' AI has never been successfully created, although conspiracy theorists persist that the truth is that the AI(s) already secretly controls the world and simply has no need or desire to change anything.
From large mechanical spiders and insects painted in yellow and black caution stripes that are being used to construct the world's first arcologies, to hobby planes resembling the early 'Predator' drones which are merely RC toys that shoot foam projectiles and streams of water, drones are pervasive. They deliver pizzas and record news live. They are cars and security cameras and theme park mascots. When a person loses their legs, the prosthetics are controlled via the same BCI as, and in the same way as, a drone. In the home, the most common uses of drones are advanced descendants of the Roomba line of household cleaning robots which can cooperate to complete the homeowner's requests, but can also be individually controlled for fun or for accomplishing a task in a specific way or even just as a remotely controllable home security system.
What does any of this have to do with shrinking? Simple. Drones are hardly limited by size, cost or the now outdated concept of mass production. Any macrophile/microphile adult wanting to experience their kink can produce an 'anatomically correct' miniature drone replica of themselves or a 'victim' (who would of course actually be willing) and roleplay the fantasy to their heart's content (these will be the R-rated storylines). Such drones are globally given a maximum legal size of 10 feet (slightly larger than the tallest recorded living human), for reasons varying from structural and mechanical integrity of the drone to simple public safety. Since most 'pleasure-oriented drones' are used by non-macrophiles, a normal human character can't get close to that height and a human using a tall drone would not be much of a 'true giant'. That's where the miniature drones come in. Using augmented reality, the setting itself can be changed from a typical 2060s dwelling to retro-futuristic, fantasy or historic settings. Furniture is replaced by counterpart decor which is more suited to the setting, or alternatively they may become an entire city of miniature buildings and such. After that, an anatomically correct drone that is less than an inch high is just semantics and characterization.
In a similar but much more innocent manner, children will often create imaginative characters and produce a miniature drone of them using a 3D printer (these will be the G-rated storylines). Instead of merely playing with a toy, you can temporarily become it. Unlike the R-rated drones, toy character drones meant for use by kids are limited in maximum size to 9 inches, just short of the smallest baby ever born, in order to prevent minors from abusing the technology to harm others. Once again, augmented reality can provide the kids with sufficiently different imaginary worlds to play in. This also works well for tabletop RPGs which once used cardboard or paper maps, and cardboard or plastic character figurines, merging traditional tabletop RPGs and their computerized spinoffs JRPGs, WRPGs and MMORPGs (these will be the PG-13 storylines).
All this is possible thanks to a simple type of electronic device which is a combined EEG helmet, VR headset and AR glasses. There's no direct neural interface with which to pump data right into your brain, or way to copy your mind wholesale, so getting stuck in a drone body is practically impossible. As such, if you start out in the middle of a 'thing' with someone, 'logging out' has replaced the safeword in such a situation and thus will leave you high and dry.
The key word was practically. Maybe you saved up money or were already rich, and bought yourself one the new 'Haptic Chambers' which have only recently become available to people without a requirement of having at least one type of license which let you pilot restricted drone types such as military- or industrial-grade drones, only to discover that the new tech has a flaw or two that won't let you disengage the BCI and climb out of the chamber, forcing you to alert someone who can help using your tiny drone. In the G-rated storylines, you'd be an unlucky kid who is forced to do same... or a spoiled brat who quickly finds out that having the money for all the coolest toys doesn't mean you should get said toys, especially when they trap you in a body so small that you're at the mercy of all the people you snubbed.
Or maybe you're just an ordinary schmuck or unsuspecting child who uses the safe, tried and true BCI headset... and somehow, whether by extremely unlikely technological mishap, or ending up paralyzed while still using the headset, or even impossible magic/supernatural occurrence/dues ex machina that somehow traps you in the tiny drone despite the best efforts of lawsuit-fearing corporations, vote-yielding politicians, a technologically literate 2060s public mindset and scientists with plenty of foresight to spare.
Worst of all, the cause for this is that aside from the inability to send an emergency shutdown command through the BCI to escape with just a thought, the 'augmented reality' system overlaid on the video output from the camera 'eyes' of the drones in order to enable easy access to the secondary/backup interface is crippled, with the log out function completely disabled and all telecommunications channels from telephone to social media to email unable to connect. Even attempting to switch to a VR avatar, like one would multitask programs on an early 21st century computer, produces an indecipherable 'connection error' which can't even be looked up because the internet browser keeps claiming it can't find a LiFi signal.
Fortunately, you need not worry about dying. With the drones being literal electronic puppets to your puppeteer brain, destruction of the drone would merely forcibly log you out and disengage the BCI. That said, simply 'killing' the droid would be no small feat. Despite their tiny size, they are built to be durable, since both 'pleasure' and more wholesome types of entertaining uses would inevitably cause damage to droids that were not ruggedly constructed. Droids are also powered by wireless electricity transfer in this day and age, except in the cases of greyforms and the few drones meant to operate outside human civilization for extended periods. When jumping from a 50-story desk or even a 150-story window ledge cannot kill you on impact, and there is no battery to be drained (the wide range of wireless power transmitters is hard to escape at normal size, and smartgrids have made circuit breaker panels fully automated), then self-destruction to get back to your real body becomes a harder task than just going to somebody for help.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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