Miscommunication will rise until it’s like the internet no longer exists.

* Overmind Memo 785

1 Day Later - Neurotank - Corporate Headquarters

“The first step is the total immersion in a new reality.” I say into my phone. I’m talking up a new client. She’s interested in our opinion changing service. Conventional wisdom says you shouldn’t try for a major sale over the phone, but she’s too busy to meet in person, and doesn’t consider me important enough to change her schedule. That’s cool, I like entitled clients. They tend to have money.

“We maintain a couple million virtual people on social media. But honestly, they only have a few hundred unique personas. That’s all you need. Real humans can only remember 150 personalities. Any more just blur together. We copy each persona thousands of times just to keep distinct social circles. You don’t want real people having the same virtual friends. The point is to keep real people away from each other.

“We have 15 million Americans in total immersion. That means 90% of their social contact is happening with our virtual people. 15 million is enough to turn the dial on most elections. Just tell us who you want to win.

“Of course, people don’t just vote the same as their social circle. They need an extra push. That brings us to step two - neuroplasticity.

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“Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to physically rewire itself. This allows big personality changes to happen. When we’re young, the brain is very plastic, and big opinion changes can happen often and easily. Once we hit 25, that plasticity slows dramatically, and our personality is kinda stuck.

“Obviously, a simple solution would be to get’em young. Works for religion. Unfortunately, under 25’s are a weak portion of the electorate. There aren't enough of them. Also, it can be counter productive to lock them into political opinions we may be hired to change later.

“Luckily there’s two ways to induce neuroplasticity in older populations - strong desire and trauma. Now, strong desire is beyond our ability to trigger. If we could, we wouldn’t need the rest of this operation. It takes more than a motivational poster and a titty pic. But trauma? Trauma can be mass produced. Happens all the time with media accounts of god-awful murders and tragic senseless deaths.

“Now, we’re not going on a killing spree to change people's votes. We don’t have to. We can kill virtual people.

“Basically, we immerse a guy in a virtual social network. Surround him until we’re the only people he talks to. Then we wait til he’s at a crossroads, an emotional vulnerable point. They come along regularly. Next we give him an imaginary friend, someone to help him out. Then we kill the imaginary friend, blame it on our political adversaries, and boom - we got another radical on our side.

“What do you think?”

“I think my daddy warned me about boys like you.” My client sighs. “Do you ever work for Empty Man?”

“My client list is confidential.”

“Fair enough.” she says. “What would it cost to see it?”

“One billion dollars.” I used to say it wasn’t for sale, but that wasn’t believable. Asking for a billion presents me as hard to bribe, which may be believable. And hey, you never know.

“Hmm. I have a counter offer.” she purrs. “Do you see that green dot between your legs?”