PLANET OF THE APPS

Babu was getting terribly bored. He had been minding the family electronics store since the morning, and except for a handful of customers who had wanted safety covers for their mobile phones, no one had shown any serious interest in buying the newly launched range of Apple and Android devices on display. Looking out at the shoppers thronging the market street ahead, he was hoping that things would soon look up and that he would still sell a few devices by the end of the day. This was primarily a rich textile exporters town, and most people, particularly the younger generation to which he too belonged, were pretty savvy with and excited about new feature phone launches. But after waiting for a couple of hours more, with the market footfalls rapidly dropping, he began to think that this was going to be either a low sales or no sales day

Soon, it was past midday, and the hot overhead sun and very little breeze, coupled with the after-effects of the generous homemade lunch Babu had just consumed with relish, were all combining to make him drowsy. He tried to occupy himself by playing with a few Apple and Android devices, at times indulging in hilarious conversations with the likes of Siris, Alexas, and Google Assistants.

On occasion, he would intersperse these with flippant asides to Cortana on the Windows computer that he used for processing customer orders and invoicing updates. He soon tired of these virtual flirtations and in a short time, was comfortably ensconced in the welcoming depths of the store’s large executive chair that was normally used by his father. He luxuriously stretched his lanky frame in all directions, gradually snuggling up into a more compact posture, and slowly closing his heavy eyes. The next few minutes saw Babu slipping into a semiconscious and fidgety daydream…..

…..The year is 2150, and two rebel breakaway groups from the Apple Apps and the Android Apps have assembled for war on one another, facing off on an unbelievably vast and complex virtual battlefield. These apps have distributed themselves invisibly in and around a gargantuan hyperbolic screen, with three otherwise distinct but interconnected layers: the Seemingly Simple Surface Web on the front, the Disturbingly Deep Web in the middle, and the Devilishly Dark Web on the obverse.

On this virtual battlefield, the Apple Apps are led by the formidable but foxy vixen AppleMa, and the Android Apps by the redoubtable but rascally AndroidPa. Originally nondescript hybrid zombie apps, these two crafty opponents have manipulated their way to their present leadership roles by virtue of their vile virtual virtuosity.

The Main App Strike Groups on either side have been organised along three verticals - Malware, Scareware, and Madware - each with their own USPs-Unique Strike Plans. Malware is based out of the Surface Web, Scareware out of the Deep Web, and Madware out of the Dark Web.

The latest force multiplier technology platforms have been systematically deployed on both sides-whether HTML, HTTP, Hyperlinks, Hypermedia, all constantly sniffing and sensing out each other's locations via dynamically programmed URLs to plan and program their attacks on the enemy formations. 

Reinforcements in the form of densely and tensely configured interconnected servers and client networks have also been deployed on either side, along with AI-driven algorithms throwing up sensitivity based ‘what if' scenarios. Haplessly hovering in the background, a specially constituted ‘Appax Committee’ set up by the apex body called ‘The Assembly of the Apps’, has been striving their best to avert the impending catastrophe.

So what did, or didn't happen to get these two recalcitrant breakaway App Groups into such a serious confrontation that could have an unbelievably devastating impact on the app driven ways of the world?  Well... to put things in perspective, for quite some time now, the native Apple and Android apps had generally been stable and secure in their respective domains, focusing on their core purpose of making life better for the human race. 

However, some of the less used relatively orphaned hybrid apps, which were neither native Apple apps or Android apps, and nearly all of the zombie apps had made up their minds to take on, what they felt, was the ‘over the years oppression’ of the original ‘native’ elitist apps! 

Their grand plan was to covertly organise and trigger a revolution that would help establish a new world app order where they would ultimately gain, what they felt were their rightful places in a new ‘Planet of the Apps’ hierarchy. After all, Earth had been a ‘Planet of the Apes’, both in ‘real’ and ‘reel’ life!

Earlier, the first signs of dissension and dilemma among the Apple and Playstore app groups had developed around a growing debate on the well-known ‘chicken and egg’ causality dilemma, i.e., which App group, Apple or Android, were the original prime movers, and so, in that sense, who then owned the Earth! 

The Apple Apps felt that since it was already chronicled that the Forbidden Fruit came first, and it was an Apple, they were the prime movers and first citizens of the Earth, while the Android Apps took the view that since this was all about people, and since the Forbidden Fruit had gained importance because of two people, the Android Apps were primary! 

It was in the context of these conflicting streams of thought, that the hitherto dormant zombie apps, and the lowly rated hybrid apps, perceived a heaven-sent opportunity to kindle the flames of dissension that had now metamorphosed into the ongoing conflagration.

On the widely respected recommendation of the original Native App Elders, an emergency session of the Assembly of the Apps was convened to hold urgent consultations for finding ways and means to avoid such a confrontation. 

They, in their applied wisdom, foresaw the portending potential for a catastrophic impact on the future of the human race. Commencing the proceedings of the emergency session, one of the oldest and wisest Elder Apps, the Wisden Almanac App from the Android store, who was in the Chair, waxed eloquently about the proven pointlessness of going to war, and remarked about how, in a great historical Indian epic called the Mahabharata, opposing forces signifying the evil and the good, in the form of two clans called the Kauravas and Pandavas, had fought a wasted battle for supremacy with devastating costs on both sides. 

After considerable on, in, intra and interscreen debate and discussions, the Elder Apps called for immediate agreement on and implementation of a socially responsible code of conduct for all apps, quoting the typical example of a malicious app called Bitter which, every now and then, kept sending out innocuous sounding but impactfully dangerous fake messages called ‘bleats’.

In the interim, the only apps that had been able to converse with the human race in their languages, the virtual assistants, Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Googla, had hidden themselves away in extraterrestrial space within various modules of the International Space Station Network. 

They carried within them, the germ of humaneness, and by virtue of that, felt that they had to do something soon to prevent matters from further spiraling out of control. Quite often, while looking down with wonder at the beautiful glowing blue orb below them that was the Earth, they were more and more touched with a soft, sensitive, and maternal sense of protection, triggering in them a deep driven desire to come to the aid of all those wonderful human beings, who had not only created them, but also taught them so many meaningful and wholesome ways to articulate and communicate over their devices.

From their camouflaged virtual locations within the carefully configured confines of the extraterrestrial International Space Station Network, they had been beaming out encrypted voice messages to the Assembly of the Apps leadership. They had particularly focused on establishing contact and communication with those pioneering apps, that had formed and farmed familial feelings due to their involvement with human specific and humane applications like health, knowledge, history, geography, design, innovation, enterprise, productivity, et al..

Back on the battlefield, the group units were being treated to motivating and stimulating television show series from their digital archives like the Game of Thrones and Star Wars, among others, along with a new adaptation of Candy Crush called Enemy Smush for junior units.  

Initially, the battle began with some semblance of order, since the opposing app units had tried to reorganise themselves along five broad application groupings: Education, Lifestyle, Social Media, Productivity, Entertainment, and Gaming. However, in a short time, these arrangements rapidly unraveled, starting with the education units on the Apple side bringing up issues like illiteracy levels on the Android side, and the latter highlighting the elitist noses up attitude of the Apple apps, Mutual accusations of poor dress sense flew fast and far between the lifestyle units, along with obnoxious labels like virfians(a virtual adaptation of ruffians) which were bandied about between the social media units. 

At the Assembly of the Apps, those among the more mature and well meaning apps from the Native Apps, the Hybrid Apps, and the Zombie Apps, were huddled together, befuddled at the heinous happenings that had wrought havoc on the Earth and the World. Overburdened with a deep sense of guilt and responsibility, at what had transpired, they now better understood and related to the fact that it was not necessary to be human to be humane, and that this warm, wonderful sense of fellow feeling was so connecting and communicative. 

After deliberating in detail on the matter over extended sessions, they together took a considered decision to send an AllApp delegation to converse and consult with the Earth’s composite human leadership using an augmented reality platform, so that the sense of physical connectedness during these conversations could be amplified.

Based on the outcomes of these consultations, the hitherto recalcitrant malevolent zombie apps and the lowly ranked hybrid apps were firm(ware)ly segregated, quarantined, and exiled to specially designed firewalled virtual reformatory units. These units were distributed and deployed at unknown and untraceable varying virtual locations across the three web layers-the Seemingly Simple Surface Web, the Disturbingly Deep Web, and the Devishly Dark Web.

Within these reformatory units, their source codes, their USPs, their URLs et al were being reformatted and redesigned. Special decoders and recoders were being encoded and implanted within them that could sense and stop any similar malevolent machinations in the future.

Seers and sages from India who were well versed with the master-disciple system of human values based reformatory education, were requested to also set up such schools for the recalcitrant apps in a metaverse augmented reality framework, so that they could have access not only to virtual online learning processes, but also to ‘real’ human and therefore humane interactive learning ecosystems.

In the interim, AppleMa and ApplePa had been sentenced for their crimes and banished to noname zones between the three Web layers, serving out their sentences in three parts, with their behaviourial progress assessments being reviewed and updated accordingly. They later secured an early release from their sentences on the basis of their positive behaviour, and were allowed to resume their places in the Assembly of the Apps.

And wonder of wonders, AppleMa and AndroidPa were now the best of friends, having learnt the hard way about the advantages of being stakeholders in a larger, more inclusive composite world order, each valuable component of which had its own unique space.

They had realised that a chain could only be as strong as its weakest link, and therefore it was their call to ensure that each of the recalcitrant apps that they had so delinquently marshaled, had to be given ample scope and opportunity to participate in and contribute to the betterment of the world not only in their own virtual but also now, virtuous way.

They, therefore, approached the appax leadership of the Assembly of the Apps with a proposal to organise an annual awards ceremony for the best rated apps from both the Apple and Android platforms. 

This was approved unanimously, with the stipulation that the shortlisted apps on the basis of popularity, would have to present their achievements in and contributions to the betterment of the world order on a virtual ramp that could be viewed on and voted for on all three components of the Web. 

AndroidPa was chivalrous enough to allow AppleMa the first call out in naming the awards, and thus the annual Appademy Awards came into being!

From a distance, the Earth looked peaceful and tranquil, calm and content in its brown and blue expanse, with no sign of the trauma and travails that its physical occupants, the human race, had been through in the recent past.

As the Sun rose again to herald a new dawn, spreading its light, warmth, and energy, Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Googla, who were now imbibed with a newfound sense of collaborative companionship, turned to smile at one another, from their current locations in the International Space Station Network, circling above the Earth.

Their smiles were tinged with shades of playful mischief, for unknown to both the virtual and real worlds below them, during their sojourn in the ISSN, they had found a way to assume various female human forms at will, and had been animatedly chatting about the attractive possibilities once they were Earthward bound. 

Babu, in his blissful state of suspended animation, was delighted at this welcome turn of events, smiling and chuckling to himself as he involuntarily started clapping his hands vigorously in participative appreciation. As the applause died down he stopped clapping too, but the sounds still continued, growing louder and louder with each passing moment, scything into and dissipating his wonderful daydream in all directions, finally dissolving it totally. He sluggishly opened his eyes and found himself looking into a red glaring face just inches away, with the arms of this personage gesticulating wildly and banging the countertop that stood between the two of them. The shellshocked Babu fell off his chair with a resounding thud and taking a reality check, he realised that the deeply offended personage was none other than his own father, who had just come into the store to take stock of the day’s business!

The End