Through the Wires

by Amy English

  “I’m sorry but Silverfish will not support this reckless way of working. This technology is too new and it’s too risky. We have no way of knowing its real capabilities. Connecting AI systems with human higher functions is dangerous. We barely understand the level and complexities of the human brain. Now you want us to introduce Artificial Intelligence and allow the two to meet. That sounds dangerous. So, I have to vote no on any further testing and I want this project shelved permanently. Yes it’s cutting edge. And put in the wrong hands, could open the doors to the technology being used in a negative and dangerous way,” he continued.

  One by one, each person at the table except Zach Douglas, voted no on reopening the project. Frank looked stone faced as he grabbed his things and walked toward the door. He was disappointed that it got voted down before he could even turn it on and show them its final capabilities. “Hey Frank wait up,” Zach said, catching up with him and walking with him toward his office. “Sorry man. I’m really sorry. It seems as though their biggest hang up is that it hasn’t been tested completely and with enough hours logged to show its fool proof and its safe. They’re afraid that because it involves connecting with the brain, that somehow, it should be avoided. But you’re a genius man. If you say this thing works, I believe in you.” Frank put his hand on Zach’s shoulder. He was glad someone believed in him.

  As the men talked their neighbor Peggy approached. She had been with the company three years. Not long enough to know that this was a project that had been on the table, many times before. “Hey Frank,” she said, as she walked up. “Sorry about your project getting shelved. It’s a shame. The board is getting stricter about what they want us to focus on,” she said. Peggy looked around and then looked back at Frank. She wanted to know more. She was from the marketing side of things. She wasn’t a technologies person but she had overheard one of the board members saying the system was supposed to have the capability to transport the user to a virtual world where they could run, swim, play and do a host of other things with the push of a button. “Frank if you don’t mind me asking. What does the system do? Can anyone use it? I mean. Say if a person has no limbs or can’t see, will they be able to use it?” she asked.

  Frank smiled. What Peggy was asking was the best part of the system’s capabilities. It would work, regardless of the users’ handicap. It would allow a blind man to see. Allow a person with no legs to walk. Frank got emotional. Espanys was his whole world. He was saving the best part for last and hadn’t announced that part of it yet. “Yes. Anyone can use it regardless of their handicap. In the virtual world, their handicap would be nonexistent.” Frank gave Peggy a brief summary of Espanys. “Frank. I need to talk to you,” one of the board members stated.

  Peggy stood speechless. She watched as he walked away. Still immobile. Unable to move and with her mouth hanging open from the shock of what he had told her. She couldn’t believe her ears. Did he just say restored abilities? Restored as in “full use.” A tear fell from Peggy’s eye as she slowly walked away. She was upset that the board had shut down a system that could help people and give hope. A game that could be used to experience things someone had lost. How could this be happening. This was what the world needed. What she needed.

  She had a son at home. A boy named Josh. She wondered if he remembered her son had been in an accident. If he was aware of what had happened. They lived down the street but their children never played together. Frank and his wife were workaholics and no one on the block ever saw the family except for the occasional times they drove past. Her son was young kid when they moved on Pine Valley Drive. And then a year later tragedy struck. He was the passenger in his father’s vehicle when a car accident rendered him paralyzed and unable to use his legs. If the game could make him feel healed it would change his life. The ability to walk, even if it was only in a virtual world, would be a spectacular experience. Josh had been wheelchair bound since he was eight years old. This was a revolutionary breakthrough of gargantuan proportions.

  This can’t happen. The world needs this. I need this! she thought. Peggy knew she wasn’t powerful or influential enough to get the board to change its mind on her own. Not with its tough and stubborn head Mr. Stallings leading the way. So, Peggy set a plan in motion. She wanted that system.

  Frank was in his office going over one of the company’s newest projects when Peggy walked in. “Hey Frank. I’m sorry to bother you but I really want to support you on Espanys and wanted more information on it so I can help you fight to get this thing launched,” she said, appearing genuine and enthusiastic about what she was saying.

  Frank was confused. Peggy usually sat quietly at the board meeting and never really appeared to support anything. She usually backed Mr. Stallings just out of fear of losing her job. She didn’t seem deeply interested in technology and so it struck him as odd that she was showing a sudden interest in his virtually unknown project. But Frank needed all the support he could get and so he figured he could get the votes, if he tried to get them one person at a time.

  “Let me show you the basics of the game. I have another meeting so I can’t do an in-depth tutorial on it. But you’ll get a basic understanding of what Espanys does.” Frank walked over to his built -in safe and punched in his secret code and opened the small door and pulled the unit out. He spent the next twenty minutes describing basic functions on the console and the purpose of the special earphones that came with it. Peggy tried memorizing what he said. But the console was advanced. It had simple looking buttons on it, but there were over a dozen buttons. She was sure she would forget the main parts. But she feared asking too many questions. She didn’t want to appear overly interested in it. She had a plan. And it would only work if he was clueless to any motive she may have. And mentioning her son at this point would be motive enough for what she wanted to do. Get Espanys.

  “Oh! Wow Frank. You definitely have my support. I think this will be a phenomenon. It’s just going to take time to convince the board,” she said. “Yeah. I know,” Frank said, in a melancholy voice. He was frustrated. How much longer would it take. He was sure they would regret not supporting him. Espanys was the wave of the future. And he needed them to see it before another company beat them to introducing the technology to the world.

  Frank put the unit back inside the safe and left out of his office headed for the conference room. He was done for now trying to convince anyone. He planned on tweaking it and then filming himself using it. Then he hoped to get Mr. Stallings to use it himself. Under the supervision of other scientist and physicians, so he could dispel any thoughts of the unit being dangerous. He had a plan. He knew what the board needed in order to take the risks and back his project. But for now, it was on to the next project.

  Frank left out, completely unaware that Peggy had slipped back in his office. She walked over to the safe, punched in the secret code that she watched him use and took the game.

  “Hey! I’m home,” Frank said, as he walked through the hall headed towards the kitchen. “Hey honey. Dinners on the stove. How did things go at work today?” Claire asked, looking at her husband and hoping he got approval to move forward with his project. She knew how important this was to him and so she hoped to hear good news.

  “Well. They’re still not ready. They still have fears about what the system could do in the wrong hands. They’re afraid that we could face multiple lawsuits if someone were to use the system in a negative way. They believe that anything that deals with the mind can have the power to be manipulated in bad way,” he replied. Frank sat at the table, unaware that Dylan was walking down the hall and overheard what he had said. Dylan turned the corner and walked into the kitchen. “Hey dad,” he said, as he opened the refrigerator to grab a soda. He reached on top of the refrigerator and grabbed a bag of chips. “No sir young man. You eat first, then you can have some snacks,” his mother cautioned. Dylan sighed then fixed himself a small plate and sat next to his father.

  “How’s school Dylan? You keeping
your grades up?” he asked. “Yeah pop. Of course. Got plans on changing the world just like you,” he replied. “No, not like me. Better than me. Your pops didn’t get that grant money today. They want to permanently shelve Espanys.” Dylan looked at his father and continued eating as he weighed his words. He felt bad for his father. He knew that this meant that with the system shelved, he would never get to play it. His lifelong dream was to play that system. His father had been working on it since he was a little boy. He knew all about it and was desperate to try it out. He had asked before, but was not allowed to use it. His father didn’t trust the technology in his young sons’ hands at the time. But Dylan was fifteen now. father would allow him to play with it now that he was older.

  “Pop. Can I use it. I’m getting straight A’s in my computer class and I even go to those technology seminars for advanced students that they always have. I can play around with it. Let me help out. I can give you feedback and maybe help you gather more data to give to the company,” he stated.

  Frank looked at his son. He was proud of him. He hadn’t realized that Dylan had grown so much. And he could tell that Dylan had grew in his understanding of technology. “I don’t know son. It’s a complex system. So complex that even my colleagues, with years of experience, are afraid to use it. It connects with the electrical impulses of your brain and that is what makes it so wonderful but still so dangerous.” Dylan looked at his mother. She looked at him and smiled. She was proud of her family. She had faith in her son. He was a good boy and wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize his fathers’ hard work. “Let him try it Frank. What do you have to lose? He’s smart like you. He can give you detailed information that you can probably use,” she urged.

  Frank looked away. He thought about it. He hadn’t realized that his son could be his ticket to proving the safety of the game. That Dylan could give him details of his experience that he could catalog and present to the board for reconsideration. After a few minutes he shook his head yes. He looked at Dylan.

  “Yes!” Dylan shouted, as he threw his hand up in the air. “Before you get too excited let’s get something straight. I know this system because I designed it. But it’s so technologically advanced, that there are things I still don’t know. And that’s part of the weakness that resulted in it being voted down. I’ll let you play with it. But if there is any element to this game that seems strange, scary or dangerous, I need you to report it to me right away. I’ll have to figure out why and try to fix it. Do we have an agreement?” he asked, looking Dylan directly in his eyes. He was serious and he needed Dylan’s promise to report anything odd or dangerous. “Yes dad. I promise.”

  Two

  Interfaced

  T

  he next evening, Frank came home and sat his keys on the table. He looked through his mail then looked around for Dylan and Claire. “Dylan,” he yelled up the stairs before turning and going into the basement to get the game system out of the storage closet. He came back up the steps and called Dylan’s name again. Dylan had been listening to music and didn’t hear when his father called him the first time. Dylan had been waiting for his father to arrive. He couldn’t wait to hook up the game and start playing. Dylan snatched off his headphones, sprung up from his large round cushion on his floor and ran downstairs when he realized his father was calling him.

  “You’re the greatest dad. This is so awesome,” he said, as he looked over the unit. Dylan couldn’t contain himself. He believed Espanys was the best gaming experience he would ever have. He had been through them all. All the PlayStation’s and Xboxes, and was bored with them all. “Thanks dad,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. “Take it to your room and set it up. I’ll be up in a minute. Don’t play it yet. I want to go through the basics and all the details of what I know so far,” he said, looking seriously at his son. “Ok, dad. I got it,” he replied.

  Dylan ran upstairs and opened the box. He slowly pulled out the console and looked it over, examining it front to back He took his time looking at the back. The unit looked too simple to be so advanced. It had an obvious power connect outlet but no HDMI or USB port and no 3.5 mm output jack. There was only one outlet other than the one for power and he didn’t recognize it. It was slightly larger than the size of an Ethernet port but he knew it wasn’t that. What is this for? he thought, as he continued looking the unit over. On the front of the unit were several small round buttons and a display screen.

  “Can’t do anything without these,” his father said, walking in Dylan’s room and holding a set of chrome headphones. “Wow dad. These are cool,” he said, smiling and holding out his hand. His father handed him the headphones and he immediately put them on. “Not so fast Dylan,” he said, removing them from his son’s head. “Let’s go over everything first.”

  His father grabbed the console and began pointing to each button on the front and stating what it was for. He explained in detail and frequently looked at his son to make sure he understood the use. He went button to button explaining in detail, how it worked and the options that could be selected. Dylan gave his father his undivided attention. He wanted to know the ins and outs. He planned on experiencing it to the fullest and so, he needed to know everything. His natural technology abilities help him understand at a much faster pace. Frank understood his son’s strengths. It had always been obvious that Dylan was technologically advanced as he was. He didn’t worry too much about Dylan’s ability to grasp what he was saying.

  The first button to the farthest left was the time selection button. The game had to be pre-set with the amount of time you wanted to be logged into the virtual world. You could set it for up to a half hour maximum. Frank didn’t design the system to go longer because the user would feel as though they had been in the four-dimensional world for too long. The users’ sense of time wasn’t real life natural world time. Each minute you selected felt like five minutes on the virtual side. So, if you selected six minutes, you felt as though you were gone for a half hour. He warned his son not to go in for more than ten minutes at a time because once you selected your time, you would not be able to exit early. You had to wait for the system to disconnect you. His father told him that it was a draw back to the system and he was working on diagnosing and fixing the problem.

  He went on to explain that the system worked with the electrical impulses from your brain and nerves. It worked by placing the headphones over your ears and pushing the start button on the console. Two small needles with metal bulbs at each end would then enter your ears slowly, resting softly on top of your ear drums. There was no pain involved and once the bulb made contact with your ear, pulses were sent that put you in a light sleep. Electrical signals then went in through your ear drum, into the middle ear, through the inner ear and then ran along the vestibular cochlear nerve of the ear where it made contact with all the other nerves and axions in the body.

  It was a total body experience and a person would remain asleep until the unit disconnected. Dylan’s father also explained to him that he had only logged about ten hours total during the development phase and hadn’t been in the system in a while. He stressed the importance of Dylan giving him feedback and telling him what he was experiencing, especially if it was bad experiences. Dylan made his promise again and then his father handed him the chrome earphones.

  Dylan smiled and did a chuckle when he placed the headphones on. He was overwhelmed with excitement. This was the moment he was waiting on. The moment of truth. He was going in. He would get to experience something no one else had. None of his friends, no one. “Ok son. So, select your time,” his father said. Dylan reached out and pressed the up button and pushed it until it read five minutes. His father watched him as he used his middle finger to select the time. Dylan had a childhood injury that resulted in the loss of feeling and limited use of his index finger. His father sometimes forgot until he would see Dylan avoid using that finger.

  “Ok. Now select where you want to go,” he stated. Dylan looked at his father. �
�This button here,” he said, as he pointed to the next round button “Yes. That one,” he replied. Dylan pushed the button and it lit up with the words Amusement Park. He pushed it again and it displayed the word City. He pushed it a third time and it illuminated with the words Mountains. And the final choices were Ocean, Rural, Safari and Space. Dylan smiled at his father. “Wow dad. I can’t wait. I think I’ll go to the amusement park first,” he said. “That’s a good choice son. You’re not at all nervous?” Frank asked. “No. Not at all,” he replied. “Ok. Then I’ll leave you to it. I’ll come back in ten minutes to see how your experience was,” he said.

  Dylan laid back on his bean bag cushion chair and adjusted his headphones. He pushed Amusement Park on the console then took a deep breath and pushed start. After several minutes, his eyes slowly closed as the electrical pulses took over. The last thing he remembered was everything going black. After what seemed like a few minutes he appeared into an electrical amusement park with no sound.

  He looked down at his hands which were glowing in a bright light blue color. He looked down at his body. He raised his hands in front of his face and wiggles his fingers which to his surprise, all moved the same. He wiggled his index finger again just to be certain and it moved normally. He looked around. There were other people walking around and getting on the rides. There were families and single individuals and couples. There were adults and there were children. Everyone seemed nice, pleasant, and looked to be having fun.