The Future Is Yours: A Novel
Page 6
From: Thomas Keener
To: Ben Boyce
Ben,
It’s nice to hear from you! Hope to do so more often, and ideally when money is not involved. But I do know you are very focused on career right now. Just remember to balance it with family. It will be very nice to see you guys again soon, and for you to meet sweet little Jada. Honestly she looks just like her aunt Leila did as a baby.
When it comes to technology, I’m certainly not the savviest, as you may have noticed whenever I’ve tried to send you photos on the phone. Phonos, as I like to call them, though the term hasn’t really caught on yet.
That said, I do have considerable experience working with startup tech businesses; it comes with the territory, as a partner at one of the largest legal firms here in SF. We have had some success exchanging legal services for stock options/ownership stake. Some of those have amounted to nothing, of course, but a few paid out.
So I would propose, rather than a simple loan, why don’t we discuss me coming aboard as a partner? Seems like that’s the way to really make it a family business.
Best,
Thom
EXPERIMENTAL REPORT—2/15/2021
Prototype 6
Materials Cost: $3,475
Manu Cost: $6,069
Test Result: Failure
Notes: We might be getting close. All indications were positive until transtemporal connection initiated, at which point data overload shut down system. Need to find a way to contain/restrain/limit data flow.
TEXT MESSAGE EXCHANGE
LEILA KEENER-BOYCE
February 16, 2021 2:31 PM
My dad just called me into his office for a chat. Are you taking on investment from him?
BEN BOYCE
I asked him about a loan.
He’s the one who suggested investment.
Partnership stake, actually.
Come on, hon. You should know, money in my family comes with strings.
Yet you’re the one working for him.
Yes, and I’m also planning to get out of here ASAP.
He seems genuinely interested.
The strings are emotional, not financial. I guarantee, he will involve himself in every aspect of the decision making.
I didn’t realize this was a Godfather-type situation.
Should I be worried about an offer I can’t refuse?
Please, for the good of your company and our marriage, I’m asking you to find money elsewhere.
EMAIL
From: Ben Boyce
To: Thomas Keener
Hi Thom,
Thanks for your generous offer! I totally understand where you’re coming from here. However, after talking it over with my co-founder, we’re just not comfortable taking on an additional partner at this stage of the business. I fully appreciate what you are doing, and am eternally grateful. See you soon!
Love,
Ben
REPLY
Ben,
It is disappointing to hear that you would want my money but not my considerable expertise and experience. However, that is certainly your prerogative. Best of luck. Will see you soon, hopefully.
Thom
EMAIL
From: Nikolai Guriev
To: Adhvan Chaudry
Sooooooo this whole thing feels like it’s circling the drain. I was kinda into the prospect of trying to invent some next-next-level shit here, but what we got so far is not even a remote indication that this is gonna work. And meanwhile your power-tripping bff is breathing down our necks while having no clue what quantum spin even is. Plus I’m gonna get audited soon by the department on how I’m using the lab, soooo…time to call it, I think. Let’s finish up the current trial and then put it to rest shall we?
EXPERIMENTAL REPORT—2/20/2021
Prototype 6.2
Test Result: Failure
Materials Cost: $585 (Reused Prototype 6 hardware with minor modifications)
Manu Cost: $1,219 (Same)
Notes: Insufficient funds to build new prototype; reusing with minor additions. Result is similar shutdown. Transtemporal data transfer appears to be working, but inundates the system quickly and leads to crash. Need a way to restrain/specify destination/target.
TEXT MESSAGE EXCHANGE
ADHVAN CHAUDRY
February 21, 2021 5:07 PM
Nikolai is pulling the plug.
BEN BOYCE
Are you kidding me?
He CANNOT just do that.
Oh right, I should’ve reminded him.
Fuckin junkie.
I swear he’s high off his ass half the time.
He said we can stay in the lab till the end of next week.
Then we gotta find new facilities.
Where’s this coming from?
I don’t think last week’s “pep talk” really inspired confidence.
Well, his attitude doesn’t inspire confidence either.
And neither does his pill-popping.
This is bullshit.
He agreed to a fixed period of time.
Do we have a contract for him?
I’m gonna talk to Leila about suing for breach.
5:25 PM
Dude you still there?
Relax I’m not really gonna sue him.
5:45 PM
A?
Sorry.
Fixed period of time!
FIXED PERIOD OF TIME!
Uh, what?
It was so obvious.
I’m going to the lab I’ll hit you back later.
OK. Keep me posted.
7:15 PM
Hey man what’s the word?
Dude I’m gonna keep calling till you pick up…
EXPERIMENTAL REPORT—2/28/2021
Prototype 6.3
Materials Cost: N/A (Reused Prototype 6.2 hardware, only performed software modifications)
Manu Cost: N/A (See above)
Test Result: Success
Notes: Prototype is operational, albeit with slightly limited functionality, compared with the initial outlook. Able to achieve stable data transfer by stipulating a fixed time gap of one year, thereby achieving relay with specific date. Layman’s terms: holy fuck, it actually works.
CHAPTER 5
PROTOTYPE SEARCH HISTORY—2/28/2021 (THE FIRST DAY OF FUNCTIONALITY)
top stocks of the year
The Future company
The Future stock price
The Future company IPO
The Future release date
Powerball March 2021
Best Picture 2021
best albums of 2021
World Series 2021
Justin Bieber married?
celebrity deaths this year
COVID stats 2021
COVID new outbreak?
top news stories of the year
Ben Boyce instagram
LinkedIn still a thing?
New Star Wars trailer
Bitcoin price
Half-Life 3 announcement
Red Dead Redemption 3
VR technology
TikTok still a thing?
Apple WWDC announcements
Popular men’s hairstyles
Air Jordan releases
Adhvan Chaudry
Ben Boyce
Adhvan Chaudry girlfriend
Ben Boyce net worth
The Future company headquarters
The Future company news
The Future company founder profile
TEXT MESSAGE EXCHANGE
BENJAMIN BOYCE
February 28, 2021 10:48 PM
Hey Princess.
I’m still at the lab with Adhi.
Gonna be a little late.
LEILA KEENER-BOYCE
OK. I’ll prob be in bed.
Don’t be pissed.
Especially cause you have so much to look forward to:)
?????
Yep.
IT WORKS.
Congrats! OK now I guess I need you to explain to me what that actually means.
How bout check your email right now
I sent you a little something.
From next July.
WIRED ARTICLE—PUBLISHED JULY 14, 2021
(Downloaded on February 28, 2021)
THE WIZARDS OF TOMORROW
by Fiona Glazer
I believe that it may be utterly unique in the history of journalism to meet a subject who has already read the piece you are planning to write about him. But that was the case when I sat down with Ben Boyce in the offices of the buzzy startup he has created with his co-founder Adhvan Chaudry.
Boyce speaks with a relaxed confidence that is easy to mistake for hubris. Within 30 seconds of shaking his hand, he said to me, “I’ve read the article you’re going to write. Great work, in advance.” Initially, I found the claim and the compliment to be laughable—the Valley version of a snake-oil sales pitch. I was quite wrong.
First, let me dispel for my audience the main question that readers will be hoping I get to: yes, yes, yes, their technology is undeniably and unequivocally real. They have created a machine that can see the future.
How do I know? For three days in a row, they allowed me exclusive (albeit supervised) access to the Prototype of the consumer-technology product they intend to sell as early as next year. They challenged me to look up information about the near future, and then let me watch as the news stories I read came true in real time, exactly as predicted.
I arrived with my doubts, certainly. Having reported on Theranos for three years—having witnessed one big bust after another—I imagined that there must be some smoke and mirrors at play. But a peek behind the curtain has eradicated any shred of doubt.
When you first enter the headquarters of The Future, it is not easy to imagine it is home to a typical Valley startup aiming at disruption. Perhaps the Uber of diapers, or a dating app for modern Millennials. Their offices are in a high-ceilinged loft space in the heart of downtown Palo Alto, featuring a mixture of standing desks, bean bags, and vintage arcade games.
The main difference comes if you (as few ever have) get access to the technology—or as they prefer to call it, the Prototype. After passing through a series of security protocols, which can only be navigated with one of the two co-founders accompanying, you are finally brought into a small, all-white office.
The Prototype itself rests on a standing desk and is initially underwhelming. It looks, more than anything, like an iMac from 10 years ago, but the body is as deep as an old CRT television, allowing space for the array of quantum-computing boards positioned inside. It runs a simple Linux-based operating system, which feels throwback, but was selected so the device would never fall out of sync with future versions of itself.
Boyce was quick to point out that, by the time the product comes to market, the interface will be more slick, and the physical design will be more slimmed down. Chaudry was quick to add, “But not by much.” Such is the nature of their dynamic: Boyce playing the role of the relentlessly optimistic visionary while Chaudry wades through the weeds of real engineering challenges.
Boyce has already become a minor celebrity in the tech world, though he hardly looks the part. He eschews the hoodie-and-Allbirds casual-Friday feel of most startup CEOs, preferring to don a sharp Tom Ford suit whenever he’s in the office. “I take my role in the company seriously,” he explains. “Especially as a Black entrepreneur, I need to communicate that I’m here to stay.”
Indeed, Boyce has, in a short time, become one of the highest-ranking Black executives in the predominantly white world of Silicon Valley. But when you meet him, you quickly understand why. He is strikingly handsome, in the mode of a high school star athlete, and his boyish enthusiasm is infectious. While Boyce’s hero (like any entrepreneur of his generation) was Steve Jobs, his vibe is much more generous, upbeat, and friendly than the feared-but-revered guru of Apple.
While Boyce deservedly takes the spotlight, his co-founder has mostly remained hidden behind the scenes. But Chaudry is a fascinating character in his own right. Born to Indian-immigrant parents, his features are soft, and his curly brown hair falls to his shoulders. He looks out at the world from behind surprisingly long eyelashes, with a curiosity that permeates every interaction—almost as if he were an alien, come in peace, discovering humans for the first time.
Chaudry’s modest office belies his eclectic interests. Sci-fi memorabilia (including a life-size Yoda) sits alongside spiritual icons (including a gold-embossed statue of the goddess Shiva). But Chaudry sees little tension between the two. “You look at the history of science fiction, it basically came along when religion fell out of favor with the intelligentsia,” he explains. “But it’s concerned with the same things. Sci-fi is not primarily about science—it’s about our purpose in the cosmos. The big questions. All the stuff that used to be the purview of religion, that’s what I care about.”
Together, these two have created a company, and a technology, with the potential to permanently alter our fundamental understanding of the world. But detractors have attacked the strategy of shrouding their technology in secrecy before coming to market.
Boyce acknowledges the frustrations his approach has caused, but is confident they will be assuaged as soon as consumers get their hands on the device he’s building. He seems well prepared to weather insults and naysayers, which he attributes to growing up in East Oakland. “The neighborhood I come from—if you’re good in school, if you try to do anything great—there’s haters coming out of the woodwork to cut you down. But my mom taught me to believe in myself. I’m doing this for her.”
Boyce’s father left the family when he was eight years old, so he was mostly raised by a single mother, who died of cancer while he was in high school. Chaudry’s father took his own life when his son was only 10. The two boys were both only children, shaped by trauma; perhaps as a result, the bond they formed when they met in college has been a more intense friendship than either had known before.
On the surface, they are an unlikely odd couple. But on a deeper level, their pairing—Chaudry’s remarkable intelligence alongside Boyce’s outsized charisma—is the perfect balance of traits to lead a company in the modern Silicon Valley. And it is hard to think of any innovation more well suited for two men shaped by tumultuous childhoods than a device that can see the future.
Today, the public is asking if the company will be ready for their proposed launch date. But having viewed the technology at work, it became clear what question people should be asking:
Is the world ready for The Future?
TEXT MESSAGE EXCHANGE
BENJAMIN BOYCE
February 28, 2021 11:16 PM
LEILA KEENER-BOYCE
OK, I don’t totally get what I’m reading here. This is an article about the company you guys are going to build?
This is going to be published 5 months from now.
It is LITERALLY from the future.
Babe, if this is real, this is utterly insane.
IT IS REAL!
And yes insane.
Wanna see a pic of the vacation home we’re gonna have in Hawaii?
Um, yes please!
Please tell me this is not some big practical joke, I will be super not amused.
It’s not!
Come on down to the lab!
Pick up bubbly on the way:)
Oh my god, totally shook. On my way!!
EXCERPT FROM CONGRESSIONAL HEARING—DECEMBER 1, 2021
SEN. BARBARA CAHILL (R-DE): Once you had a working prototype, how would you characterize the mood of the company?
BOYCE: The mood…like that first night? I mean…Imagine the first time you won an election. Then times that by a thousand. We were through the roof! It was incredible. We’d just invented something that people have been dreaming about for centuries. Being able to see the future, that’s mythic. Literally! Prophets, oracles, seers—we had built a machine that did all that.
SEN. BARBARA CAHILL (R-DE): The celebrations…it was you and Mr. Chaudry, and…Mr. Guriev?
BOYCE: Well, we didn’t tell Nikolai right away. But Leila, my wife, she came to the office. We popped champagne, you know, and got a little rowdy. Leila put on some music. Adhi had these fake Vulcan ears, like Spock from Star Trek, and he put them on and got up on a desk, like in Dead Poets Society, and he started reciting that poem, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” Doing it to me, kind of. It was awesome.
SEN. BARBARA CAHILL (R-DE): It sounds like at this moment of discovery, there was no concern whatsoever for the potential consequences.
BOYCE: Come on, when Einstein finally nailed the theory of relativity, do you think he didn’t have a couple beers to celebrate? We weren’t using the technology frivolously. We were just blowing off some steam that night in the lab. And the next morning, it was back to work.