“Why would anyone want to remember last week’s internet,” writes Calvin Kasulke in his 2021 novel, Several People Are Typing. “We don’t, but we want to remember the fifteen-years-ago internet and that was last week’s internet, once.”
Humorously, this thought is delivered by a character named Gerald, who has been sucked into his computer’s Slack app. Through a series of increasingly absurd machinations, the virtual helper within the app, known as Slackbot, manages to trade places with Gerald and take over his corporeal form. Meanwhile, Gerald’s consciousness is trapped at remote work, answering user queries. He is like all of us to some degree: stuck online under duress, eager yet unable to log off.
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