In an age where everyone was obsessed with what others were wearing, where they were going, what they were doing, it was only a matter of time before someone took it as far as it could possibly go in order to satisfy society’s voyeuristic tendencies. Gone were the days of social media, where all you could do was send pictures and videos. The area of consciousness streaming had begun.

This was made possible by a surgical procedure that installed the necessary biotech into a person’s parietal lobe. At one time, this would have been a major procedure, but was now as easy as scheduling a yearly physical, and a client would be home the same day, able to stream.

The parietal lobe made it all possible. It is the part of the brain that translates the messages received from the five senses. These messages could be transmitted live to another person’s parietal lobe, and experienced in real time. Whatever the sender saw, touched, heard, tasted, and smelled, the receiver would as well.

What controlled it all was a website called World Consciousness. Anyone who wanted to stream parts of their life, like going on a hike, having a party, sharing the nervousness of a first date, only had to go live with their parietal signal. Anyone who wanted to silently ride along and experience what the streamer was sending, selected that stream, and were immediately sharing the streamer’s five senses. The people that shared another person’s stream were called ride alongs. To them, it felt exactly the same as if they were living it themselves. It was a thrill to all parties involved. In a matter of months, everyone was doing it.

There were restrictions of course. To begin with, you had to be 18 or older to undergo the procedure. If you were streaming, you determined when you were online, and when you weren’t. You couldn’t be controlled by a ride along in any way. You were in the driver’s seat. That being said, streamers did take requests, earning money through tips and subscribers to their streams.

At first, streams had been mostly family friendly, but like all technology, that envelope got pushed quickly. Hacks and mods began to appear rapidly. The first ones primarily benefited the receivers, such as intensifying sensations. But others began to focus on the streamers, which eventually led to an even more invasive experience, …