Chapter 758

“Actually, speaking of technology levels. Why is it that for the most part things seem pretty similar to my own dimension? We’re a much younger society but nothing seems too far advanced,” asked Kat.

“You take this one Sue,” said Kamiko, not wanting to continue being the centre of attention. Sue of course had to sigh theatrically, heaving her chest as she did so, and then leaned over to grab a pillow to prop herself up, making sure to stretch and show of plenty of side boob, and ass when she turned around. Lily was finding herself less and less aroused by the sight of Sue. Despite Sue’s attempts to make thing sexual. It really wasn’t. Sue had settled into Lily’s mind as a friend, and she’d seen plenty of girls undress at school. It was a frame of mind, and Sue’s over the top attempts were helping her settle into it.

“Right,” said Sue now propped up on her makeshift pillow chair, “Before I answer, because apparently, I have to be the giving one in this relationship. Shame, I do so like receiving,” seeing the lacking reactions Sue moved on quickly, “the thing is I don’t really know where you are technology wise to compare. So you’ll need to provide a few examples.”

Kat quickly provided a few examples of the latest technology with Lily chiming in occasionally. Sue nodded a few times and said, “Right ok I think I can see where the issue is. A lot of the things you can improve aren’t so obvious and are... different in priority for demons like us. For example, buildings. We have much better materials just as a matter of course and we can expand the space inside them with spells.

“Space expansion is actually one of the biggest things. With it, you can make pretty much any device ‘handheld’ but demons often find that even with infinite space certain shapes feel better in the hands. It’s why our cameras, despite being rather advanced now, haven’t changed in appearance all that much. Well, that’s not true, we went ‘super slim’ for a bit a couple centuries back where basically everything was a projection from a stick or microchip before scaling things back up.

“See, it was kinda cool to have everything in the one device... but we have plenty of space to store stuff and it’s better to have specialty devices a lot of the time. If you NEED a camera, you get a camera and don’t just rely on the camera attachment to your phone. We also moved away from band projectors as a default because a lot of demons don’t like them.

“They only provide the illusion of force. It can cause some minor mental issues that while curable are quite easy to just avoid in the first place by getting a more physical phone. That’s another thing, we’ve made most appliances that are full size basically indestructible. Greed doesn’t like it much, but if they don’t make long lasting stuff Sloth starts to manufacture their own equipment and Greed gets really pouty about it,”

.....

“Hold on what?” asked Lily, “Why would Greed be annoyed by that? Or like what is Sloth actually doing?”

“So... Greed and Sloth have a love-hate relationship in the least fun way possible. Sloth is perfectly happy to pay money for Greed’s attention like a man at his favourite brothel, but, like that same man, if they get jerked around too much are perfectly happy to sit at home and watch porn,” said Sue.

“I... I don’t understand the metaphor,” said Kat and if the confusion she could feel coming from Lily was any indication, her girlfriend was struggling with it as well.

“Fine you boring prudes. Sloth likes to keep things simple. So if they can pay Greed to give them office supplies or useful gadgets to make things easier they will. Every time. There’s a limit to that though. If they have to keep buying replacements for whatever useful device it is over and over, Sloth tends to get fed up with things and manufacture it themselves, making it virtually impossible in the long run. Then, the others want in, so they ask Sloth to sell, and because it’s easier to just give in to the whining, Sloth will start selling better quality products than Greed, and Greed starts losing money, something they HATE,”

“So Greed tends to make things that break for as long as they can get away with, claiming that it’s all in the name of iteration, and making cheap products to get out into the world to properly test then Sloth gets fed up with them and makes something that’s ‘Good enough’ but endlessly reliable, or at least so close to it as to not matter, and Greed sees the writing on the wall and starts to do the same, while still making some very breakable versions as ‘the latest and greatest’ because some demons can’t help themselves,”

*I can’t say I’m surprised. It is an interesting way to prevent a monopoly though.*

[I’m a bit surprised you recognised that Kat. I didn’t know you had an interest in economics.]

*Lily, it’s just basic sociology. We were all forced to take those classes. Unlike you I didn’t study it more deeply but it really is interesting, isn’t it? Such a large section of the population that can just go ‘I’m fed up with this shit, I’ll fix it myself’ and then actually getting away with it? I imagine Sue is making it seem like this all happens quite fast but I bet it takes at least a century for Sloth to actually get around to changing things.*

[Yeah, that does make a lot more sense. I wonder how readily demons adopt new technology? Does the majority of the population get on the bandwagon before Sloth? Or do they wait till Sloth is finished? Or wait even longer for Greed to take up Sloth’s mantle of reliability?] Neither knew so they asked Sue.

“How the fuck should I know?” was the response. Kat opened her mouth in surprise and Sue just shrugged. “Look, some of these questions are pretty basic. The sort that come up in history class at school, or ones I asked my own parents. I have no interest in the wider economics of it. I have a guess sure, but I don’t really know anything about the economy.

“My personal guess is that it’s mostly a case by case thing where Greed gets a good idea. Sloth tries it out to see if it saves time. They work in harmony till Greed starts overreaching or Sloth has seen enough of the technology to copy it better, whatever comes first, then they make a plant that’s enough for them and a bit more. So they charge through the nose for those extra units because they don’t make enough.

“Then Greed says ‘I want in on that’ and starts producing more for everyone at a slightly reduced price and comparable quality. Everyone starts going to Greed, they ramp up production more and eventually it becomes mainstream as people cotton on or it was a niche product and Greed has no incentive because even Sloth doesn’t sell the extras,”

“Right... I guess... back to tech. Is there anything that doesn’t really get developed?” asked Kat.

“Virtual reality is a big one,” said Sue. “It sounds pretty good in theory but there are two major issues. The first is that for a lot of demons, it ain’t that different to going on Contracts. Go here, do this, punch that in the face. Explore this world. What have you. The second issue is that if it’s TOO good, even if it’s just an arcady type of thing...

“Well it starts taking in demonic energy and creating a semi-stable pocket dimension. Shit gets weird after that. See, DE isn’t enough to spawn a whole knew universe... but enough of it can convince the dimension you’re currently in that things should be a certain way in this small area. It starts to... I suppose ‘corrupt’ is a good analogy because these are video game terms. It starts to corrupt the world and slowly expand its influence. Causes all sorts of issues.

“In the end, controllers are just a lot better for us demons. It separates the games more solidly from Contracts. It’s clearer that this isn’t real so we don’t accidentally create a self-reinforcing dimensional editing program, and it can be enjoyed by the whole family across multiple Ranks a lot more easily. Sure, you can get consoles designed for higher Ranks, but if you’re just using the basic stuff there is a good deal of input lag.

“You can only do so many things so quickly. It levels the playing field a fair bit because there’s only so much extra thinking you can do when everyone can theoretically input the perfect button combinations. Of course, we do have stuff for below Rank 1 when demons are kids... but those are normally less cool or interesting.”