Anna decided to spend her day off shopping. "After all, nothing clears a woman's mind like a long shopping trip," she joked to herself and smiled. From the moment she started working, rather than just receiving an unconditional income, her electronic account balance regularly delighted her with unusually large numbers. So today, the girl decided to do nothing but spend, spend, and spend...
Even on a day off, with high consumer activity, the huge shopping center seemed very spacious and free. Air conditioners created a pleasant coolness, and humidifiers, generously spraying their ultrasonic mist over giant galleries filled with plants, filled the air with freshness. Glass elevators scurried up and down between floors, as if along the trunks of huge trees entwined with vines. Escalators, like giant snakes in this humid tropical jungle, carried strings of people along with them. Like ants, they scattered into wide semicircular spaces and ran off to numerous small and large stores.
Anna didn't like these small glass-fronted cubes, decorated and filled according to the personal ideas and questionable tastes of their owners. She liked interacting with pushy sales assistants even less, who always offered their help at the most inopportune moment. Like most of the advanced public, she trusted large automated stores with expert systems and built-in department navigation more.
Taking the elevator to the third floor, she entered the department store and headed straight for the clothing section. Printed T-shirts were her weakness, and besides, she couldn't deny herself the pleasure of trying on more than she intended to buy. A pleasure that, in any case, you miss out on when ordering online. After quickly picking out a dozen different models and heading to the fitting room, she paused for a couple of minutes at a rack with discounted vases of various shapes and colors. While she was wondering whether it was time to add a fresh detail to her home interior, a familiar voice suddenly sounded above her ear...
"I wonder what will happen first? Will you make your choice and take one of these colorful plastic vases, or will they all be printed on a 3D printer?" said the slender blonde meaningfully. "This is technological singularity. Welcome!"
"Damn... Do you always sneak up on people or break into their apartments?" Anna almost jumped in surprise.
"That's my style..." replied the blonde, without looking up, as she threw items from the shelf into her cart. "I'll take this, this, and this... What about you? Did you read what I told you?"
"I read it," Anna replied calmly, turning away from the vases and continuing on her way to the fitting rooms. "It sounds like paranoid delusions... What are you doing?"
She glanced at the blonde's cart, which was almost filled to the brim with all sorts of items, from computer gadgets to trinkets like a set of porcelain elephants.
"Why?" the blonde asked casually, holding a long milky-colored dress up to herself and carelessly tossing it on top of everything else. "I think it'll fit! If not, I'll throw it away..."
"Don't you mind spending the money?"
"What money? I'm not going to pay for it..." Catching Anna's questioning look, she explained, "I'll just tap this patched chip on the cash register reader and the purchase will be made with a zero balance."
"So you're not going to pay for it?"
"Well, you order food according to your quota... You get it for free."
"That's different..."
"I don't see the difference. If they're giving one away for free, you can take the other one too."
"But that's... theft."
"Yes," nodded the blonde, continuing confidently. "I steal. I don't do it because I don't have money, it's simply because I can. Who cares?"
"But..." the girl stammered. "It's illegal." It's not fair, after all... People made these products...
"People didn't make any of these products!" Anna's companion interrupted angrily. "They were all created by robots, assembled by other robots on robotic assembly lines from resources extracted by robots and delivered by robots. So who am I stealing from? Robots?!"
"But you're still depriving the store of profit..."
"Do you think chain stores exist to make a profit?" the blonde smiled, throwing a few more pairs of black jeans, carelessly removed from the rack, into the cart. "That's a naive misconception." Profit is needed by stubborn handmakers who sell their junk on social media and idiots from honest boutiques who haven't yet realized that they're being left behind by technological progress... They are no competition for hypermarkets, which ultimately all belong to G.A. Because they sell products that are manufactured in G.A. or using G.A. products. And they are not interested in profit because they already own everything."
"Then why?"
"Distribution of material goods. Playing the free market and free choice game allows us to optimize distribution and reduce the load on computing power. When supercomputers allow it, they will move on to direct planning and will directly decide what you eat for breakfast."
"How so?" Anna snorted skeptically.
"They'll just deliver food to you based on your social profile so you don't have to bother choosing every time. And you won't even realize it because your needs will be met, and you'll think you made the decision yourself..."
Realizing that her shopping trip was irrevocably ruined and deciding not to listen to the long tirade, Anna hurried away from her philosophizing companion toward the cash registers, thinking to herself that she didn't even want to be near the lawlessness that was taking place. After quickly paying, she mechanically turned around to look at her pursuer, who, with an imperturbable expression, had begun scanning a mountain of items at the checkout, and suddenly bumped into someone.
"Careful," Alexei responded gently, staggering slightly.
"Oh... Hi!" The girl was slightly embarrassed. "Where did you come from?"
"What do you mean, 'where'?" "Well... I came to buy some cat food..." Alexei was slightly taken aback and nodded toward a small pet store across the street.
"You didn't mention that you had a cat."
"I didn't post any pictures of him..."
"That's strange."
"Well, maybe..." Alexei shrugged and suddenly looked with interest at the blonde girl carrying a cart filled to the brim out of the store. "Do you know that girl?"
Anna glanced back and replied casually:
"So so... An acquaintance... Not a close one."
"Will you introduce me?"
"Maybe... Later," she said decisively, taking the guy by the arm and pulling him in the opposite direction. "Can you help me carry these things?"
The girl confidently handed her colleague the bag, and, walking through the wide aisles between the glass-fronted shops, they both quickly merged with the crowd, an endless stream flowing down the escalator.
Almost at the exit, they witnessed an interesting scene. A guy, apparently running away from someone along the wide gallery on the first floor, decided to save time, nimbly jumped over the railing, and rushed up the escalator, which was closed for repairs. When he had almost reached the middle, the disabled staircase suddenly started up, jerking several times, knocking the guy off his feet and dragging him down. With his hands scraped raw from the metal steps and his face covered in blood, he slid right into the arms of the mall security guards who were chasing him.