I think it would work better as a cyborg story, honestly. Extremely near-future, nothing terribly sinister about it—at least, not more sinister than the world really is. Apple or Google release a cool device that syncs up with your neural biometrics or something and acts like a mood ring – awesome! Color-changing cybernetic contact lenses! They’re the hot new thing now, but in a few years, they’ll be as ubiquitous as smartphones, just a new facet of human expression.
And maybe they do a lot of good. It removes a lot of the guesswork in dating, when you can just tell that someone is into you from the color change in their eyes. You know when you’ve said something inappropriate or offensive from the ripple of uncomfortable chartreuse across the room. You can gauge the tastefulness of a joke or tell when people are bored of your story. Ambiguity in sexual encounters is reduced with increased ease of unspoken communication. Without generations of cultural tradition and rules dictating how and when and which feelings are expressed, this new type of social cue opens all kinds of doors. Colors are easier to consciously read than facial expressions and body language, and mood ring eyes add an extra level of meaning to any given gesture.
And then… the downside. [CONTENT WARNING: hey whoops this got dark really fast because I find this whole concept deeply horrifying?]
“Smile!” strangers used to remind you on the subway. Now they want to know why you’re not also peepin’ pink.
“Wow, didn’t your aunt die less than a week ago? Pretty fucked up that you’re able to be cyan already, it’s like you don’t even care…”
“But Your Honor, her eyes were purple, she wanted it, just check the records—”
“Your work here has been exemplary and you always remain cordial even when customers are antagonistic, but we don’t want people to come here and feel neutral. They want to feel like they’re valued and you’re excited to help them, and if you can’t keep your colors in the pink and blue ranges, well, I might have to cut your hours…”
“Why won’t you wear lenses? Everyone wears lenses now. You must have something to hide… are you cheating on me?”
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Hey, look at that—that’s a guilty orange if I’ve ever seen one. Closing your eyes is the most suspicious thing you can do in this situation. Ooh, is that ‘fuck you puce’? I think that counts as contempt of cop.”
“You are grounded until you can look at me with the respect I deserve as your parent.”
“Ew, did you see that? I think that guy just looked purple at me… doesn’t he know this is God’s country?”
“If you really cared about me you’d be emerald. I know you hate me. You’re orange. You wish I’d just die and you’re only turning red now because you’re angry that I found out. You’d be gray if you were sad about it. Don’t lie, I already know you hate me.”
“Why did you flash lime during that scene in the movie? You’re not supposed to know what those kinds of jokes mean yet. I know, it’s that Bailey girl, she’s corrupting you. I don’t want you speaking to her ever again. I’ll know if disobey because I’ll ask you every day after school if you talked to her, and you’ll turn orange with guilt if you have.”
Deception is such a useful social technology that it wouldn’t take long for this to be no more informative than regular body language, don’t worry.
Sure, but presuming it’s hooked up somehow to your brainwaves and not under muscular, mechanical control, what would deception take? Would it require a form of like… neural self-delusion? Would you have to convince yourself on some conscious mental level that you actually felt the emotion you were trying to display? What would that do to your psyche over time, or is that close enough to what we really do when we’re deceiving others that it wouldn’t make a difference?
