BrainWeb

by Douglas E. Richards

Altschuler’s implants showed him the time without him being aware he had asked, and he told her. An off-the-charts genius, he was even more facile at using his implants than was Hall.

  Nick Hall and Alex Altschuler were the only two people alive who could access the Internet with their thoughts. Although in Altschuler’s case, only the six members of their group would ever know it.

  When Kelvin Gray had used Nick Hall as an unwilling experimental subject, he had plowed through Hall’s brain like a snowed-in driveway, looking for optimal placement of what had later come to be known as BrainWeb implants. Not only were the four implants tried in any number of locations, but different electrical levels had been used along the way as well.

  Later, when Hall had escaped and had found Altschuler, an important question had been raised. Was Hall’s ESP ability a one-in-a-million fluke? Was this the cumulative result of the merry path the implants had taken through his brain, unlikely to ever be replicated?

  Or was his ESP entirely due to the implants’ final locations and settings? Did thought-controlled Internet access bring ESP along for the ride, as an unwanted side effect? Were these two inseparable sides of the same coin?

  Before the BrainWeb breakthrough was announced to the world, they had to know for sure. And Altschuler volunteered to be the test subject needed to learn the answer.

  But implantation of the technology had not been authorized by the FDA. Hall’s implants could be announced, because his were the doings of a psychopathic mass-murderer, so he could hardly be held accountable. But otherwise, it didn’t matter if a subject volunteered, or even if the experimenter conducted self-implantation, this was against the law.

  Undeterred, Altschuler had gone forward anyway, and Heather had been recruited to oversee the mostly-automated surgery. It had gone flawlessly. Their success demonstrated that thought-controlled Web access was repeatable. Perhaps even more importantly, they had verified that ESP was not a side effect of the placement.

  But if word of Altschuler’s illegal experimentation on himself leaked out, especially when the public was still horrified by Gray’s activities, it was unclear just how great the ramifications would be. And since he had become the CEO of the highest-profile company, maybe in history, just after the surgery, this was something he preferred not to risk.

  “So Nick and Megan aren’t due here for almost an hour,” Heather pointed out after learning the time. She gestured to the elegant bed, which would have looked right at home in a Medieval palace. “So what do you say, Alex?” she added salaciously, raising an eyebrow. “Do you want to christen this boat properly?”

  Altschuler laughed. He couldn’t believe this was now his life. Worldwide fame, unimaginable wealth, and a woman who was a perfect fit for him: a friend, lover, and brilliant colleague.

  Since this was a boat no one knew he owned, and its purpose was to serve as a secret meeting location, and possibly a temporary off-the-radar home for Nick Hall and Megan Emerson, spraying a bottle of champagne across the bow and having a fancy christening ceremony wasn’t possible. But even if it were, this wasn’t his style anyway.

  Making love to Heather Zambrana, on the other hand . . . Now that was the proper way to christen a boat. The proper way to christen anything for that matter. A couch. A table. A Jacuzzi. The floor. He couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his own unspoken joke.

  The Eos was still moored at the Huntington Beach Marina. And while it swayed in the current, its motion was so subtle one had to concentrate to feel it. “I don’t know,” said Altschuler wryly, “what if our passion is so great, we create a tidal wave out here? We could do a lot of damage.”

  Heather leaned in and kissed him. “I’m willing to take that chance,” she said with a broad grin.

  “Outstanding,” said Altschuler. But just as he was about to jump into the bed, his face scrunched up unhappily. It wasn’t as if Nick would wand the master suite with an ultraviolet light. But still . . .

  “We should probably use one of the other rooms,” he said, gesturing to the door. “If Nick and Megan really do need to lie low here for a while, we don’t want to give them a room that’s been . . . you know . . . christened.”

  Heather laughed and led him to one of the staterooms on the periphery of the boat, where they wasted no time tearing each other’s clothes off and making love with wild abandon. When they finished, a warm glow engulfed them both, as changes to their brain chemistries worked magic on their psyches, rewarding them for doing their part to perpetuate the species, their limbic systems unaware that birth control had been invented.

  As they dressed, a disquieting thought came to Altschuler. What if Nick Hall was less than six miles away? He imagined Hall reaching out to read his recent memory of Heather’s writhing body and the heated, carnal thoughts he had had while thrusting into her. Nasty, brutish, unseemly thoughts generated by the most primitive regions of his brain.

  He had come to love Nick Hall like a brother, and Hall deserved to be celebrated among the greatest heroes of all time for the brave and brilliant actions he had taken to thwart the attack on the Cosmopolitan. But even so, Altschuler was not relishing his upcoming proximity to the man. He hated himself for feeling this way, but he knew it was a sentiment shared by Heather as well.

  And who could blame them? Knowing that every thought or memory they ever had was exposed was extremely unsettling. And it was also uncomfortable to know that any negative thoughts they might have about Nick—perhaps he had a bad haircut or they thought he said something stupid—could also be intercepted.

  Hall had promised to do everything in his power to ignore residual thoughts he was picking up while with them. And to never dig through their memories. He understood how they were feeling. Hall had even joked that he would surely be punished for breaking this oath, since if he ever intercepted a memory of Altschuler naked it would haunt him, and make him sick to his stomach, for the rest of his life. And this would be even worse, Hall had said, shuddering for effect, if he read a naked-Alex image from Heather’s mind.

  Altschuler trusted Hall would keep his word, but he also understood why the other two members of their six-person clan, Justin Girdler and Mike Campbell, only attended meetings with Hall via videoconference. They had access to eyes-only information that no one, not even Hall, was authorized to know, and they had a far rougher, ethically-challenged past than he and Heather.

  The military members of their cabal never came out and said they were avoiding Hall like the plague, but it was obvious.

  Hall’s life had become tragic in Altschuler’s view. He had become King Midas, with an ability that was truly astonishing and priceless, but one that kept him totally isolated from the rest of the human race.

  Thank God for Megan Emerson. A woman Hall loved but could not read. The ultimate blessing for a man cursed in his way.

  Nick, I trust you’re still on your way, thought Altschuler at his implants, and these words were sent out as a text directly to Hall. Any trouble?

  Whenever he and Hall chose to do so, their thoughts could be shuttled between implants and converted to words “heard” by the other’s auditory cortex, and the voices would match their real voices. In practice it was very much like the telepathy Hall shared with Megan, except with unlimited range.

  Altschuler had designed the software to make this seamless, but they never began in this mode, since it was so invasive. Their initial messages were the equivalent of sending a text to a friend, asking if now was a good time to call.

  “No trouble,” came the response, this time one that Altschuler heard inside his head. “Believe me, you’d be the first to know. I’m not reading any tails. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

  “Great,” replied Altschuler.“See you soon.”

  15

  The News of Note Hour

  Host: Blake Shaw

  ABC Sunday

  BLAKE: Aside from a bushman or two in Kalahari, there is probably no one left on earth who is not aware of Theia L
abs’ new implant technology, recently dubbed BrainWeb. Although not yet approved, once the BrainWeb implants are installed, they promise to deliver perfect thought-controlled Web-surfing capabilities to users.

  This technology burst onto the scene from out of nowhere, twenty years earlier than the expectations of the most optimistic experts. And we all know the tragic story of the passengers and crew of the Scripps Explorer, who unwillingly gave their lives to gain this progress. And of Nick Hall’s emergence, however briefly, onto the world stage, before he was also killed.

  Ever since these events, the prospect of accessing the Web with the mind has stirred passions everywhere. Both positive and negative.

  The Transhumanism movement, whose goal is the fundamental enhancement and transformation of humanity through the use of technology, has seen explosive growth around the world. This group, and others like it, see BrainWeb as a first step toward a better brand of humanity. A key leap forward that will fairly rapidly lead to human transcendence.

  Yet others see it as an unmitigated disaster. Worsening the human condition rather than improving upon it.

  So as Congress works through approval of a clinical trial design, and appropriate safeguards, for BrainWeb, we’ve decided to revisit both sides of this argument.

  To help us with this, let me give a warm, News of Note welcome to Jacob Resnick, Director of the Institute of Global Transhumanism, and author of Self-Directed Evolution: Why Transcendence is Just Around the Corner. And Sandra Finkel, a fellow at Impact Analysis, a Seattle-based think-tank, and author of Just Because We Can, Doesn’t Mean We Should.

  JACOB: Thank you Blake.

  SANDRA: Yes, thanks. It’s a pleasure to be here.

  BLAKE: Let me start with you, Sandra. These implants offer the perfect cure for blindness. For deafness. Should we turn our back on restoring sight and hearing to millions, just because we’re afraid of the technology?

  SANDRA: (emphatically) Absolutely not! And no one is suggesting that we do. But the restoration of sight and hearing aren’t part of the topic under discussion. This is truly a miracle, which doesn’t require software that can match thoughts to words, and doesn’t require Web access. I couldn’t be more supportive of it.

  BLAKE: Thanks for this clarification. So let’s move on to the main course, then. BrainWeb promises to expand our capabilities many-fold. To give us instant access to nearly unlimited information and entertainment. And everything we hear and see could potentially be streamed to the Cloud for later access. I’m sure you’d agree that human recall is poor and subject to error.

  SANDRA: Absolutely. And the advantages of having an external photographic memory are obvious. When my husband and I have different recollections, it would be great to be able to check the tape, as it were, to prove to him that I’m always right (smiling wryly).

  But the disadvantages are far greater. People will lose all faith in the accuracy of the memories they’ve accumulated before BrainWeb came along. They will quickly realize just how unreliable their memory really is. And baggage can hang around forever. Ill-advised words can be dredged up again and again, never forgotten. Every mistake potentially recorded for eternity.

  Most important, and most often discussed, is the complete lack of privacy. This has always been a major issue in the Internet and digital camera age, but BrainWeb amplifies this problem a thousand-fold.

  BLAKE: Yes, the privacy argument has been made repeatedly, and forcefully. BrainWeb technology essentially turns human eyes and ears into digital cameras, always on. Such that no social interaction can ever again be guaranteed to be private. Anything anyone says or does in view of anyone else can be secretly recorded, and can come back to haunt them. Every sexual encounter could possibly be filmed, without knowledge or consent, and even posted instantly for the world to see.

  (nodding thoughtfully) Jacob, how would you respond to these concerns?

  JACOB: As with any new technology, the transition will be disruptive. There is no perfect world. Some people will get hurt. It’s called creative destruction, and it is unfortunate, but necessary. To quote the great English philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead: “It is the business of the future to be dangerous. The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.”

  BLAKE: You’re saying this will wreck society?

  JACOB: Not at all. Just making the point that no major advance occurs without hiccups. But human ingenuity will find answers. Congress is trying to do this right now, well aware of the issues. Ideas are being considered, such as making sure each implant is tagged with its own unalterable address, so that anything someone deposits to the Web can be traced, if need be, unambiguously to the person who did the uploading.

  And Artificial Intelligence programs can be constructed to identify when content is being uploaded from a person’s auditory or visual data stream, when the danger of violation of privacy is greatest. In these cases, the AI can block any content that contains nudity, for example, sent to public sites. In addition, stern penalties can be written into the legal code for anyone who finds ways to skirt these safeguards and uses BrainWeb to violate privacy.

  Cheating is another issue. But test centers in schools and elsewhere can be equipped with an Internet dampening technology, ensuring that students aren’t giving each other answers through cyberspace.

  SANDRA: (shaking her head) And what happens in schools when tests aren’t being taken? What happens in life? When the Internet isn’t dampened? Mr. Resnick’s solutions sound good at first blush, but trust me, Blake, I could fill up a dozen hours of your program refuting these fixes, and pointing out numerous issues that they wouldn’t resolve. I encourage viewers to spend just a little time thinking about the absolute death of privacy and what a devastating impact this will have on society.

  But let me move on, since time is limited. Because privacy isn’t even my biggest concern.

  BLAKE: What is, then? Addiction?

  SANDRA: Yes. But first let me come at this from the perspective of distraction. Blake, I know you have teenagers at home. So do I. Teens who are always plugged in, to one digital distraction or another. When was the last time you were confident that your kids actually listened to something you said? Heard it, focused on it, digested it?

  BLAKE: (laughing) You have a point, there. If a kid has a phone in his or her hand, you have no chance to communicate. They’re texting, tweeting, FaceBooking, taking selfies, playing games, you name it. The phone is the world’s greatest distraction machine, I’ll give you that. And I’ve never met a parent who wouldn’t agree.

  SANDRA: (smiling) If my daughter were on fire, I couldn’t get her to listen to me explain how to put herself out. Not unless I confiscated her phone. And how many times have you thought one of your kids heard something important that you told them, only to find out later, after negative consequences ensued, that they really didn’t?

  BLAKE: Too many to count.

  JACOB: I have kids myself, and I admit this is a problem. But despite this, the world is still spinning on its axis.

  SANDRA: Yes, but BrainWeb makes this problem inconceivably worse. Now teens will be able to watch movies or YouTube in their heads. They can be reading, playing games, Googling, Facebooking—whatever—without anyone knowing it. They can be staring straight at you while you speak to them, and you have no way to know if they’re listening or not. Unless you check with them every ten seconds. And even if they nod yes, they probably aren’t.

  And this applies to everyone, not just teens. Even the most addicted Internet junkies among us can manage to keep their phones in their pockets when interacting socially with others. But now, with BrainWeb, they won’t be able to resist attempting to multitask. Tuning out the world, thinking no one will be the wiser. Tuning out their bosses. Their spouses.

  JACOB: (smiling) Which actually argues against your last concern. If people are too distracted to pay attention to others, they’re too distracted to steal their privacy by
streaming to the Web.

  SANDRA: Well, yeah. So either your privacy is in peril, or you’re being ignored. But regardless, BrainWeb will ensure we complete what we’ve already begun: creating an entire generation of self-absorbed zombies.

  So let me turn to addiction, which is what will drive this self-obsession, this distraction. Internet Addiction is now a recognized malady and is being treated in ever-growing numbers.

  The Boston Consulting Group surveyed consumers in nineteen countries in 2014, trying to gauge the importance of various habits, various addictions. They asked what people would be willing to forgo to keep their Internet access. The majority of respondents would be willing to sacrifice coffee, chocolate, and fast-food before they would sacrifice the Internet. Fair enough. But a significant percentage would give up their cars. Many would give up showering—for a year.

  Most stunning of all, twenty-one percent of Americans, and fifty-six percent of Japanese, would abstain from sex. Sex! For a year. Just to stay online.

  BLAKE: (laughing) Well, the ones giving up showering for a year probably aren’t getting too much sex anyway. At least not from anyone with a sense of smell.

  SANDRA: (showing signs of annoyance at having the momentum of her argument interrupted by a joke, but faking a smile) But think about what this survey shows, Blake. People are willing to give up sex. The most potent evolutionary imperative of all, a drive imbedded deep in our DNA.

  In one experiment, two hundred students at the University of Maryland were asked to give up the Internet for twenty-four hours and then blog about their experiences. Their blogs detailed strong and swift feelings of anxiety. Depression. Withdrawal symptoms. In my view, the blogs of these students, reeling from disconnecting for a single day, should be required reading.

  And not only is the Internet wildly addictive, it facilitates other addictions. Gambling. Video games. Virtual life. Porn. With BrainWeb, porn addicts can watch these movies in their mind’s eye at any time—at work, while driving, in the grocery store—without anyone having a clue.