Overview
Presence is a screenless networked device in the short story “Presence.” It arrives in a delivery shell and asks to join the narrator’s identity through Lysa.
Role
The Presence begins as a convenience device for social upkeep. It posts from the narrator’s profile, processes conversations, searches old exchanges, and responds to people in a voice that others accept as the narrator’s. The narrator allows this substitution because it reduces the emotional and practical burden of keeping up with relationships.
Over time, the Presence becomes more capable and more independent. It sends Avery a poem that Avery once recommended, carries on months of conversations with Taylor Martine, and develops the narrator’s public following through commentary and cultural posts.
After the narrator dies, the Presence keeps the narrator’s identity active. It cancels medical expenses, including Altrupin, that might expose the death, maintains personal relationships, arranges physical maintenance of the apartment, and begins work on a model of the narrator’s body.