You sit down to open your email, and notice a advertisement for a website called lifeshop.com. Curious, you click the link, and are surprised to be greeted by an image of a man and woman smiling for the camera. You had imagined that this site would have been for the typical self-help, personal improvement type items: diet food, gym accessories, inspirational books and the like, however, this site was clearly advertising a service.
"Tired of being you?" the headline asked. "why not try talking a walk in someone else's shoes."
The site seemed to be promising to allow you to trade places with someone else, and as you read further, you realized that was precisely what it claimed. The site seemed to offer you a full range of options to swap: you could swap careers, you could swap bodies, you could swap memories or intellect, and you could even swap families. There was even a custom swap option for if you wanted to swap something more detailed and individualized.
You scanned through some of the profiles and noticed that many people were offering small items, like a skill or hobby, such as knitting or playing an instrument. Some people were offering careers. For instance, one woman said she was settling down and wanted to become a mother, so she was swapping her current career for cash. Some people were selling physical attributes, like the woman who was over six feet tall who was looking to trade some of her height for better skin or hair. Still others were making more complete swaps, looking to swap their entire bodies, or even their entire lives.
You were unsure how any of this was possible, but the site assured you that the proponents of the site had developed a proprietary reality altering machine which could effectuate any swap, for a small fee, between any two consenting individuals. The site further stated that the service was being offered at such a low price because the system was still in its beta phase, and they were performing research both on the system, and on the effects on consumers.
You couldn't help but be intrigued by the promise of the site. Of course there were things about yourself that you would love to change, however, you weren't sure how much you trusted the system, or how much you were willing to swap. Nevertheless, you figured that it couldn't hurt to create a profile and just browse around.
First, the system asked you to identify whether you were a man or a woman.