The board members sat in the same places with the same blank stares as always. Bill Davis the project manage, Daniel Goldfarb the head developer, Vincent Lockwood our main investor, Tim sands our lawyer, and me kyle Branson the owner and director of Organic computation inc. Ever since we completed the first stage of the project it seems like the whole group has given up.
“So has there been any progress on building the computer system?”. I scanned the boardroom for anyone to answer the question. After we completed the organic networking hardware it seems like no one knows what to do, like there is no goal to meet.
As always the one who finally spoke up was the project manager Bill Davis.
“Sir the project just cannot proceed at this time. There is just no way to make the organic computer network you want for the money we have. If you want that kind of processing power you should stick with mechanical hardware.”.
Of course the same answer I have been receiving for the last few months. I, we, didn't spend half a decade years of our lives creating organic computer networking hardware not to be the ones to use it. “No Bill we have been over this. We need to use organic computers, the flexibility they provide is what we want. Hardware puts too many constraints on the processing power and requires more software which makes everything slower. “ I was not going to remind him that the whole purpose of this company is to develop organic computers, he knows that its literally in the name.
“Sir, that may be true but if you want to keep the government funding we need to produce something now. Organic computers are too expensive at the moment. Not to mention even if we could afford the systems we need they won't be ready in time to show the government results.” Bill said.
Again with the same answers and excuses. Like I don't know what this cost and the stakes. Does this idiot not understand I want him to find a solution not rehash the same argument at every meeting. “What if we use animal brains as the organic computers connected to a main control unit? We used mice to test the connection hardware, why can't we use them as the organic computers?” I offered knowing he had already thought of it but for whatever reason deemed it not worthy of bringing up.
With an exasperated tone, Bill said ”How many times do we need to go over this until you get it. First of all we used mice because they are the only animal that can still be legally used for testing not because they had an potential as processing power. Think about it this way a mouse has 75 million neurons. Humans have 86 billion that's 1146 times that of the mouse. So in order to maybe get the processing power of a human brain, which by the way we can do multiple times over with hardware, we would need to use 1146 mice connected to the main unit. It is just impractical and at that point, it may draw fire from animal rights activist. Sir at this point in time the technology just isn't there to utilize our organic networking system in a cost-effective way. In my opinion, you need to wait until organic computers become cheaper and faster to grow.”
This guy gives nearly the same speech every week like I don't understand. What has he been doing for the last few months sitting and spending my money waiting to tell me our goal is impossible? Maybe I should just fire him? I sat there staring at Bill for a moment feeling my veins throb before one someone broke the silence.
“Then why don't we use humans as the organic computers,” said Vincent.
The room went silent again. I knew he was a self made millionaire and had to be at least a little callous but to literally use people as computers is borderline psychotic. Eventually i felt the eyes of the room on me and needed to break the silence. ”There has to be some law against using people right? I mean there are for animals.”
“Actually no we have already looked into that. There are no laws against it if we get consent.” Said Tim.
Bill stood up and practically yelled “Are we really planning on killing people in order to make a computer! Is it even worth it at that point?”
“Actually the people would not die. The would be put into the coma-like state we saw the mice go into during test. The only problem is we don't know what the effects of the connection and its use would be on the mind.”
“Hmm. maybe we could pay people to be hooked to the system and that would be their job?Being used a computer processor for us. Although there is a lot of research to be done before we could even try it” I thought out loud.
Now bill was pacing the floor mumbling under his breath about something. Then all of a sudden he burst out “It is just not right! I admit that it might work but that would require more testing then we have done! It's going to cost us a lot to even find out if the idea is viable. If we do the research and it fails we are going to lose funding and most likely the rights to the networking methods we have already developed! no, I cannot allow that to happen!”.
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I stared at Bill and it struck me. In the past he had always had multiple solutions to any problems we ran into, but recently he has become obstinate. unwilling to really discuss any options for moving forward. He might be pushing us to fail. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vincent smiling at me. It seems he had already been thinking the same thing and set everything up for me to see it for myself. In a stern voice, i said: “ what do you mean you can't allow it?”
Bill whipped around to face me with an angry look on his face. Like I had just spat on him or something. Then his eye widened like a deer in headlights and said: “well I mean it's not right to use people that way”. He looked around the room nervously seeing that the only one who was even remotely surprised by his slip up was me.
“It seems that I have been a bit too trusting of you Bill.” I said in an even voice. “I think you need to explain what you have been doing in the past months.”
Daniel snorted “he's been doing a whole lot of nothing. It's a good thing he didn't or the last few months would have been a complete waste. It turns out you can't drive a company into the ground by jacking off at your desk all day.” then Daniel looked at me and said “I don't know how it took you so long for you to see through this prick but your investor knew this would happen even before we had the hardware completed. We have already started that testing you said would be needed and have some preliminary results to show you today.”
I was awestruck. Why had no one come forward and told me? This could have been so so much worse than it is now or we could have gotten even more done if I had been consulted.I was about to put that into words when Tim spoke.
“Sir if you didn't see this for yourself you would have most likely tried to keep Bill as project manager and he would have definitely caused irreparable damage to the company. We have also retrieved evidence of him making deals that will end with us losing the patents for our work. We have all we need to take him to court for corporate espionage and damages to the company.”
“We also believe we have found everyone he had working for him in the company.” Daniel interjected.
“Yes, we have also taken the liberty to get the legal process started. With that all said I believe it is about time we had Bill leave so we can get back to our meeting.” said Vincent as he stood and opened the door for Bill. “We will see you in court Bill and let me just say if you do anything to jeopardize my investments again I will no be so kind again.”
With that Bill left as quickly as possible. I was still in a state of shock due to what had been going on right under my nose.”Well, I guess you guys have that situation covered.” I said slightly bewildered. “So what kind of progress has been made while I was kept out of the loop?”
"We have done tests with mice and determined a few things." Said Daniel. "First is that a single mouse can be connected and used for up to 24 hours without any noticeable problems or changes in behavior. After 24 hours of straight use to do calculations the speed greatly degraded and once disconnected the mouse was unable to walk and once recovered demonstrated deteriorated motor skills and memory. Second is when multiple mice were connected the up time for calculations increased to a max of about 32 hours without signs of deterioration. Also and most importantly when multiple mice were connected at one time on an 8 on 8 off schedule after about 14 days the mice started to become unable to do anything but were physically healthy as well as able to continue being used as processors while connected. However when disconnected the stopped breathing and died. They also showed a negligible increase in processing speed but that may be nothing. However, it is my belief that they were subjected to some kind of formatting done by the control unit to increase efficiency.”
I thought about this for a few minutes. It seemed from the data they had collected it would not be possible to use people at all because there was, in my opinion, too large of a chance of mental damage even if the person is used for only one session. However they probably already have a plan. “I don't see how this will help us. As far I can see the chance of causing harm is too great to use on people.”
“That is true but it does show that animals can be used and released with little damage to their minds if done in short one time sessions. However as the organic computer controlling the use of the mice is running with instructions to consolidate data and increase efficiency, as I said before I believe the mice were formatted. I believe their minds were defragmented and stored elsewhere to consolidate memory and increase the percentage of usable hardware the control unit had to execute commands. A result once disconnected the mice no longer had the knowledge of how to breathe in their brains. It was taken and stored elsewhere.” At this point Daniel started to get excited, nearly bouncing out of his chair, like a child about to be given a new toy. “I believe the mice have been completely and perfectly uploaded to the system and if we created a virtual space where the mice can control avatars that change to fit their perceptions, that they would continue to act the same before they are connected, just after connection, and after they are unable to be disconnected.” David then looked around the room expectantly. However, no one took the bait and just waited for him to explain. Dejected at the others lack of enthusiasm
Daniel said. “If what I stated were true then if mice were replaced with humans the same should happen.” this time Daniel just let what he said sink in.
“You want to put people in the system forever and have them live the rest of their lives in a virtual reality.” I said slowly.
Daniel smiled looked everyone in the eyes and said. “If this works how I think it will we will not only be the first people able to create a true virtual reality, we will be able to create ever expanding virtual universes just as or more complex than our own. Just think there are already games that create worlds that look almost identical to real life on computers that are a fraction of how powerful a human brain is what if the world was created and run on human brains. We can have them grow and change based on the imagination of the people in them basically a self-correcting perfect simulation. Also, the people in the virtual reality will be basically immortal living as long as the system stays running.” finally after catching his breath daniel slumps down in his chair looking like he just unloaded a giant weight off his shoulders. “Not only will we have the fastest and most advanced supercomputer ever created. We will have one of the greatest research subjects ever. We will be able to study with perfect detail how civilization rise and fall, how creatures evolve, even how different technologies advance. This could be the single greatest thing that any human has ever done.”
“Ok this is going to happen.” said Vincent. “Whatever it takes we will get this done, I am willing to spend every last dime I have to see it a reality. So what is the first move.”
“First things first we need to ensure that if this really is possible that there is no way that any laws can be put in place to stop it before it starts.” I said and turned to Tim. “You heard vincent whatever it takes we need to make 100% sure there are no laws that can even remotely affect the project. Also we need to write up contracts for the people that we recruit to be part of the system.” taking a minute to think I turned to Daniel and said “ Daniel I need to know if what you said is true for the mice, and you need to repeat it without failure at minimum 10000 times. Then we need to test this on actual people before we release any information to the public. Lastly, we need to make sure that Bill and his people know nothing about this or are unable to stop us. Is there anything else before we get started on this?”
“We need to get as much done in the next 12 months.” said Vincent.”I'd rather the government flip the bill instead of me.”