All characters and events in this story are fictional, any similarity to any real person, living or dead, or any real event, is purely coincidental

Home Sweet Home

Cold beer frothed into the mug as Heinrich watched. “A nice pilsner is just what I need right now. Thank you.”

“Of course, Heinrich,” the beerbot replied. “I knew you would be thirsty.”

“You know me so well, beerbot.” He lifted the mug to his lips and drew in his first sip of the delicious, frothy, brew. With a slight whirring noise the beerbot returned to it's dock in the kitchen to recharge.

Outside a window Heinrich could see the sun setting over Paderborn. The interior lights in his house had faded up enough that his reflection showed faintly in the glass, a ghostly image of the young man, his short blond hair and bright blue eyes superimposed on the bands of deep red spreading across the horizon.

Heinrich thought about what he would like for dinner, and commed into the kitchen on a tablet. Most of what he had on hand didn't entice him, but the frozen schnitzel gave him an idea. A quick comm link on the tablet to Schnitzel Meister and some hot schnitzel with spaetzl and mushroom gravy was on it's way via delivery drone.

“Heinrich,” the vidwall spoke to him, “there are new episodes of two of your favorite shows on at the same time tonight. One is the season finale of that musical talent show you like, would you like me to save the other one?”

“Oh, yes, that would be good.” Heinrich replied. “How long until the show comes on?”

“About an hour and a half,” the vidwall replied, “would you like me to set a reminder?”

“Yes, please, five minutes before it starts.”

“I'd be happy to.” With a soft chime the vidwall went to sleep.

Heinrich looked around the house. It was not large, and the frame was quite old, but he had upgraded the interior to all the most modern conveniences. It had taken several years, working hard and saving every bit of money he could, installing upgrades as soon as he could afford them. Two weeks ago he had installed the ultimate convenience, a state of the art home manager. It was expensive, but with a thousand and twenty-four neurocores and a petabyte of solid state storage, it was capable of learning Heinrich's every preference and anticipating his needs. It had taken some time to network all his devices into the home manager, but as he looked around Heinrich was very pleased with the result.

Lights were growing brighter in the livingroom as the daylight faded. Heinrich took his mug of beer and wandered into his home office, the livingroom lights fading down and the office lights fading up as he walked. He had not invested in any upgraded personal implants, putting money into his house instead. With the home manager linked to his implants, though, it didn't matter. The manager learned to anticipate his actions and adjust the environment in each room as he moved through the house.

Sitting down at his desk, the monitor woke up. “Would you like your recent messages?” The voice was feminine and pleasant, but impersonal.

“Only from Astrid.”

“Three recent textcomms from Astrid. Would you like me to read them?”

“Yes, please, in order of receipt.”

Using Astrid's voice the monitor read the messages. “Heinrich, let me know if you want to get together this weekend.” There was a slight pause and the monitor switched to it's normal voice. “Message sent yesterday afternoon. Reply to this textcomm?”

“No, continue reading.”

Using Astrid's voice the monitor read the next message. “Hey, let me know about the weekend.” Again the monitor switched to it's normal voice. “Message sent this morning.”

“Continue reading.”

“Heinrich, you really need to get a comm implant, waiting for you to get my messages is tiring. Do you want to get together this weekend or not?”

Heinrich sighed. “Textcomm Astrid. Sorry for the slow reply. Still working on the house, this weekend is not good. Maybe next weekend?”

Using it's normal voice the monitor replied. “Message sent. Would you like other messages?”

“No, thank you.”

“Fifteen messages are marked urgent.” The monitor said.

Heinrich sighed again. “Reply to all with standard vacation response.”

“Did you know your standard vacation response has expired?” There was no change in the pleasant tone of the voice from the monitor.

“Update to current date.”

“Update sent.”

Heinrich tapped on the desk in front of the monitor. “Why don't people understand I'm working on the house?”

In the same pleasant voice the monitor replied. “I'm not sure. Perhaps because your vacation response had expired?”

Heinrich was getting frustrated. “I've told people I'm working on the house.”

With no change in tone the monitor changed the topic. “Your schnitzel has arrived.”

That changed Heinrich's mood. He walked to the kitchen, lights in the livingroom fading up just enough to let him see as he passed through. Once in the kitchen, he could see the schnitzel sitting on the counter where the delivery drone left it. Opening the package, the delicious smell of the meal filled the air of the small kitchen, making Heinrich smile in anticipation.

“Tray table, follow me.” A thin table slid out of a slot in the wall. It opened up in front of Heinrich and he set the package of schnitzel on it. The tray table took a few utensils from the utensil dispenser as he walked back to the livingroom with the tray table following. Once he sat the table parked in front of him.

“Vidwall, show me the news, and a top left corner of house stats.”

His favorite news channel came up on the wall opposite his chair, replacing the image of the painting that was there before. In the upper left corner he could see the statistics of his house. He noticed that his energy use was up over the past few days, but when it was plotted against outdoor air temperature he was not too concerned. The crisp autumn days this time of year were beautiful, though it meant his heating cost was going up.

With a delightful crunch Heinrich cut into the schnitzel and took a bite. It was every bit as good as he expected. Noting the learning parameters of the house, he thought about some changes he would need to make.

A short while later he mopped up some gravy with the last forkful of spaetzl and sat back. “I'm finished, tray table.” He picked up his beer from the cupholder as the table rolled back to the kitchen to dispose of the packaging and load the utensils into the dishwasher.

“Vidwall show me the network map.” The news disappeared, replaced by a complex diagram showing the connections between every device in his house and the home manager.

“Anticipation was good on the beerbot earlier,” Heinrich muttered, “but message management was not. How do I train the message filters?”

He studied the network diagrams and started adjusting the message filters in the home manager. Almost an hour later he had linked his communication accounts into learning paths in the manager, and sat back with satisfaction.

“Your show will be coming on in five minutes.” The vidwall reminded him.

“Thank you.” He quickly went to empty his bladder, and when he came back from the bathroom the beerbot was waiting next to his chair. “Would you like another pilsner? Or would you prefer something else?”

“Another pils would be fine, please.” He sat down and held out the empty mug. The beerbot quickly refilled it, and returned to the kitchen.

Sipping at the beer, Heinrich settled into his chair as the vidwall began playing the opening to his show.

A chime sounded.

Heinrich watched his show and took another sip of his beer.

The chime sounded again.

Realizing the sound was his doorbell, Heinrich picked up a tablet and quickly adjusted his preferences to mute the door during favorite shows. He mused about all the preferences he still had to teach the house, but was very happy watching his show. The past two weeks had been wonderful, he had accomplished so much already, it would just take a little longer before the house knew him perfectly.

“Ah, house,” Heinrich said, “once I get everything configured I might never go outside again.”

Outside, on Heinrich's front stoop, a security officer rang the doorbell a third time.

“No response.” The security officer said to the three people standing behind her. “It looks like he muted the chime.”

“That's not unusual in these cases.” A tall social care agent with dark brown hair replied. “I'll request access.” He stepped away and commed a justice.

Walking down the steps in front of Heinrich's door, the security officer spoke to the others in the group. “I've never seen anything like this.” She shook her head.

“It's rare.” Another man replied. “Our home managers are configured to minimize cases of house addiction, but it does happen.”

“I'd never heard of house addiction before tonight.” The young security officer looked back up at the door, as though she were expecting it to open.

A woman, another social care agent, responded. “Statistically you will probably never see another one. Even social care agents usually only see a few cases in their careers. It's caused by a combination of factors.”

“Look at this.” The man from the home manager company held out a tablet. “According to his public profile he only has basic health implants, no comms. That increases the risk factor for home addiction by a factor of ten.”

“How so?” Asked the security officer.

“If he had comm implants the home manager would have detected the addiction and adjusted .” He brushed a dry leaf off the sleeve of his suit. “Autumn is here, that also is a factor. Cases of house addiction are more likely between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. If he had comm implants the home manager could have checked his medical implants for signs of addiction, such as changes in his dopamine response.” He paused. "It's good that his employer reached out when they did."

A grim look crossed the face of the security officer. “Is this his own fault then?”

“No, it's not that simple.” replied the social care agent. “There are a dozen different risk factors. House addiction is a special case of tech addiction, and over thirty percent of the population gets some level of tech addiction, usually just after they get their first implants. A full blown case of house addiction is more debilitating than average tech addiction, though.”

Nodding, the security officer looked at the other woman. “I had a mild case of tech addiction when I got my first implants. I'd wanted to be a security officer since I was young, many of my family serve in security. So I went for the full set of implants right away.”

“This gentleman is no different,” replied the social care agent, “he's just having a more extreme reaction.”

“Is he likely to be violent?” The security officer's hand brushed the stun device on her belt.

“No, but he will be surprised and might react. Remember he is completely absorbed in the house right now, his perception of reality has been altered. Here's how we should enter.” The social care agent gestured to the security officer to illustrate. “You will lead, stunner ready to respond, but not in an aggressive position. We recommend having it out but pointed at the floor. We will be right behind you. When we see him the other social care agent and I will move out to the sides, and begin to talk with him, leaving you a clear shot if needed. As we start talking to him he should calm quickly.”

“And we're taking him in?”

“Most likely we will need to remove him from this environment for a few days.” The social care agent looked around. “A few days in a treatment center, then once he gets back to work and into a normal routine there should be a quick recovery. Before he gets back to the office we will provide his co-workers some training on his adjustment, as we don't want him to feel ashamed. House addiction happens, the key is to focus on returning to normal.”

With a slight shiver in the autumn chill, the security officer looked around as well. “I'm ready. Where is your partner?”

“He shouldn't be long.”

“Once the justice gives us the authorization code I can tell the home manager he has tech addiction.” The company representative said. “That will also help your entry, as all user interfaces will cooperate with us.”

“As in a lockout for a public trust violation?” The security officer looked at him.

“Nowhere near as extreme,” he replied, “a public trust lockout gives you sole control of the house, an intervention only makes you a temporary authorized user. This man has not violated the public trust, he just needs some help.”

“You won't be in control of the house?” She looked at the company representative with concern.

“I'm not a government agent, I can't enter the house or control it.” He smiled at the security officer. “I'm just here to provide technical assistance with our system.”

Walking back the other three, the male social care agent waved in the general direction of the government administration center. “Sorry that took longer than I thought, the justice had several questions.” He turned to the other man and pointed to the tablet in his hand. “Is that your secure controller?”

“It is.”

“Alright then, I'll comm in the justice authorization and you can override the system and unlock the door. Everybody ready?” The two women nodded. “Good.” The tall man said with a cheerful tone. “Let's get this guy some help.”