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I'll think about using multiple types of devices (watch, lenses, wearables). Contact lenses for measuring blood sugar already exist, so smart contact lenses will exist all over the place 2000 years from now. Probably also embedded technology in the body, although I doubt I'll explore it.

Swatches is really intended as a generic term, like smartwatch, except I don't want to get into copyright argument with a big company. Nevertheless, Acme will be a major manufacturer.

I don't recall a holodeck in Voyager.

Earbuds alone won't be enough. Other characters need to hear what the AI is saying. Technically, the wearer could speak what the contact lens displays in front of him/her. Avoids the complexity of people having to link up their lenses.

Why flickering holos? My holos project steady high quality images.

I think I'll include at least some references to smart contact lenses and wearables for a little realism, but will probably stick to smart watches for most intelligent interactions.

I'm now leaning toward wise thinker or wisething as the generic for smartwatches. Wise thinker would mostly be referred to as thinker. Anyone have a preference? See the original list above for others. Thinker is blandish sci-fi. Wisething is a little cuter, like splat inhibitors. Others above border on silly, which could be good, too. Wise doohickey, anyone?

Thank you, K, I appreciate the detailed feedback.

Following are possible names for futuristic smartwatches: The word wise would be used sparingly. The smartwatches would generally be referred to by the second part of the names below:

wisewatch
wisechrono
wiseticker
wise timekeeper
wise doitall (or wise do-it-all for easy reading)
wise doohickey
wise doodad
wise gadget
wise thing (or wisething)
wise gizmo
wise thinker
wise thingamajig

I kind of like wisething and thingamajig because they're slightly tongue in cheek, which fits the nature of the book. I could also say silly stuff like: Joseph looked at his thing.

Double-checked swatches and ewatches. The companies use sWatch and eWatch, so I may be okay with swatch and ewatch for the wrist.

Thanks, Janet. Behind the ears is better than glued to the head. Let me see what the rest of our little clique had to add.

There's only one love interest in the story, and she's a total doormat in v2. Next draft I plan to make her into a stronger character, plus a bit of a slut. She's the pursuer and Apollo is the pursued.

Any thoughts about the contacts vs. swatches?

I'm leaning toward swatches, since they're an all-in-one device (video in/out and audio in/out). I could potentially add 3D video to the swatches. I used to have that, but thought it was silly because simple arm movements would throw off the image, but maybe that's not such a big deal, or I could claim software adjusts to hold the picture steady. Requires explaining.

Currently, I use 3D for a holo movie, dining table centerpieces, and the display table in the War Room. In each case, there is an underlying projector, so contacts struck me as unnecessary so far.

That said, the only real limitation to contact lenses is audio out because of the vibrations against the eyeball. Any ideas on how best to address that? I could have the contacts transmit audio out digitally to a wireless speaker mounted on the head. Meh.

Spell Checker

Scott Baio

The Rolling Scones

Um, no. I finally remembered why the whole thing works (without pee):

According to the AI, they'll be unconscious in 3 minutes, dead in 5, and rescued in 10, which means 5 minutes in a vacuum. The AI is counting down from 10 minutes. When it gets down to 8 minutes, it dies completely. That means they will be unconscious in about 1 minute (3 - 2 minutes). If I'm awake long after 1 minute, I know we have an AI error (I assume any reasonably intelligent human can tell the difference between sitting for 1 minute vs. sitting for say 3 minutes without looking at a clock). No one onboard the raider questions that they were awake longer than 1 minute after the AI died, so the AI was essentially correct with its first estimate ("about" 3 minutes). Once they're unconscious, the other two variables don't matter. They died "whenever" and were rescued "whenever + ?". Apollo's heart had to be restarted, which is consistent with the AI's prediction that they would die before being rescued. Apollo also showed signs of decompression sickness, which is consistent with the AI's third prediction that they would be exposed to vacuum before being rescued. The doctor tells him you can only survive a vacuum for two minutes. NOW Apollo has reason to question how long he was dead/exposed to vacuum. God had told him that He would slow down time in the raider after everyone aboard was unconscious. Since the AI is dead, Apollo has no way to check the validity of the 2nd and 3rd estimates.

Based on all this, he either has a computer error or a miracle, and he'll never know for certain which it is. One important coincidence is that the AI died immediately before the supposed miracle.

Now go away.

-.-

Thank you, both. Let's hope v3 goes a lot faster. v1+v2 took four years, although most of v2 was new material. Still, yikes!

v2 is done! I'm dedicating tomorrow as Victory over New Bethlehem Day.