As human beings, we all share a few common grounds: eating, drinking, and sleeping -- in fact, sleep is one of the few things in life that you can’t live without. This simple fact makes it one of the best targets for curious minds in design (only so many people find repeated use for a can opener, but a bed is universal, and therefore lucrative).
Character A sets their mind on integrating the most important invention of the century into one of the oldest inventions time had to offer: an artificially driven mattress that changes according to the needs of the user in a split second. The invention was lovingly called "SleepAw.ai" and was a massive success, being purchased by the thousands, installed in hospitals, hotels, etc., all for a relatively reasonable price. They’d done it: they’d given the world a truly good night’s rest.
As with any invention, though, it soon got away from them. Stockholders became disinterested after purchases began to flatline (after all, where would the profit come from after everyone already had the mattress other than routine maintenance?). Marketing and business analysts came to the conclusion that if BMW could get away with it, so could they. The revolutionary SleepAw.ai became rife with microtransactions that locked away beloved features (heating, tweaks, lumbar support, etc.) behind a paywall. As it turns out, you can put a price on a good night’s rest.
Months after the update is rolled out, customers begin reporting worsened sleep, including not being able to fall asleep quickly and waking up too early. This pattern and reports continued, almost in a rhythm, across the board. In a fit of rage, Character A infiltrates their own labs, performing digital espionage to figure out exactly what was happening to their pride and joy.
TL;DR - Character A discovers that the restless nights of their customers is due to a new type of ad software, meant to target the first and last REM cycles that could have been achieved in a normal night’s rest. As it turns out, the company had made a deal with caffeine-based and sleeping pill companies to share the resulting profits of customers buying pills to sleep, needing caffeine to stay awake, and purchasing new SleepAw.ai’s after thinking theirs must be defective. The unfortunate reality of capitalism and greed may have never been so clear.
