With a knock on the door, I woke up to a nurse asking if she could come in. I had told them that it didn't matter what they did because there was nothing I could do to stop them. But for some reason, they wouldn't just silently do their job and leave. Even before my accident, I didn't like talking to people and now I had nothing to talk about so It was even worse. When the nurse walked in I saw that she had an envelope in her hand. This was new and just when I was about to ask what it was she said, “ you have some mail would you like me to open and read it to you?” I quickly said no and asked her to scan it into my computer so I could look at later. She smiled and walked over to the scan and used it after she did the routine checked on the water, food, and waste systems then asked if I needed anything. As usual, it was a no and she left the room. With her gone, I opened the scan on my computer. The first thing I noticed was the company name written across the top of the page, Organic computation inc. I looked made a google search of the company and found that they were a government-funded research company that dealt exclusively with organic computers and in particular organic networking. While it was interesting I couldn't figure out what they would want from me. So I read the letter.

Dear Robert Perry,

You have been selected to take part in a new research opportunity. We would like to have you come to our offices in order to discuss the opportunity and what it means for you. We know about your particular situation and we would be happy to make and pay for any accommodations needed in order to have you join us and the other possible participants in touring our facility and explaining the project. If you are interested please go to the website hivemind.com as soon as possible and register. Once you are registered you will receive a phone call to plan for your particular needs. The meeting will be on May fifth so please register at least a week before the date.

Thank you,

Kyle Bradson CEO of Organic computations inc.

Well, there isn't anything else to do other than lay around so I have no excuse not to go. Also, this might actually be a chance to do something with my life. Navigating to the website presents me with a form to fill out that asks me for my name, address, phone number, and the id given in the invitation. Once the form was submitted it told me to expect a call to make arrangements at 12:30 the next day. I spent the rest of the day researching the company and trying to find out more about the project which I assume is called hive mind but there doesn't seem to be any information about the specific project, but I did learn that the company's main project manager was fired. The next day I received the call and discussed my needs for transport and care but when I asked about the project itself the said that I would have to wait until the meeting. So I waited until may fifth and as promised I was taken to their facilities.

When I was wheeled into the facility I was surprised to see that nearly everyone here had some extreme physical issue. There were what looked like hundreds of people being wheeled around museum-type exhibits about the company. The first exhibit was a model of a brain, neuron, and synapse. Then they showed me a small clear box with what looked like an orange jell in it which was apparently the first organic computer that the company created. It cost 1.5 million dollars and was used to process and organize data for the IRS. Somehow they got it to create an interface that would be the most efficient for the government to use instead of having people make it. Just before I made it to the third exhibit a man walked out of an office and called for attention.

“Hello and welcome to the organic computation headquarters. I am the CEO and founder Kyle Bradson. It seems that everyone has arrived and I wish to begin the tour and explanation of the hivemind project that all of you have been invited to be a part of. In a few moments, we head through to the auditorium to present the project to you and talk about your roles in the project. But first, we will have you and any family members you brought with you sign a nondisclosure agreement. If you do not sign the agreement you will be taken back to your homes and in the case of family members, you will be asked to stay in here in the lobby while everyone else proceeds. However taking part in this project will be a major life decision and I feel that it would be best if everyone here is present and takes part in the presentation. Now if there are no major issues at the moment please proceed to the auditorium and sign the NDA at the door thank you.”

After Kyle was finished I was pushed towards the auditorium and gave my consent to the NDA. The auditorium was a large semicircular room with a large wood stage at the front with a screen with hivemind projected on with a background of brains connected by lines. Where theatre chairs would normally be there were braces for wheelchairs and the stairs were covered with carpeted ramps to allow the people in wheelchairs to get to them. Once everyone was situated Kyle stepped out onto the stage and motioned for the lights to be dimmed.

“The hive mind project is the communication and application of all the research and work that this company has done in the last decade. We have created the first true organic computer networking hardware. Before connections between organic computers have been only surface level and allowed the transfer of data between systems. However with with our creation we are able to have multiple organic computer working together to solve problems. Unlike hardware computers this type of networking does just increase the speed of the results but also the quality of the results. This is because organic computers can work off of imprecise or incomplete data whereas hardware cannot. Organic networking is the next step in supercomputation. However, at the moment organic computers are extremely expensive and take time to make. For instance you may have seen the exhibit in the lobby that had a small orange box. That was the first organic computer developed here and it cost 15 million dollars and took almost 6 months to grow. If you look at the screen you can see a picture of our current model. It is about 8m cubed and has taken 5 years to grow it has cost the company nearly 175 million dollars. While the computer has the volume of nearly 6400 human brains it only has the processing power of about 60. Now the current generation of mechanical supercomputers are vastly superior to this as they are able to reach speeds up to 400 human brains but they require software of some kind in order to do anything not to mention they take huge amounts of area. With a organic computer all you have to do is give it data in a way that it can process and it will develop a solution. The main problem we face with organic computers is the time it takes for these computers to grow. Basically in order to create a network of organic computers with the same capabilities of today's mechanical computers using the information we have given you it would cost at minimum 1.2 billion dollars and take at least 5 years to grow the computers not to mention the chances of the computers to die or fail to grow correctly. So we came up with another idea. Use already existing computers. Use animal brains.”

At that instant, I understood why we were here and why everyone invited was handicapped they want to use us as the computers in the network. And from the sound of the crowd, they understood too.

“Now it seems that many of you have caught onto the what your roles would be in the hivemind project but let me get through the presentation before you leave or ask questions.”

After a few moments, the crowd quieted down and Kyle resumed speaking. “As I was saying we thought of using animal brains but unfortunately for us, it is illegal to use any animal other rats and mice in experiments so we were forced to use them to test the idea. mice and rats have very small brains and as a result were poor choices for use as organic computers, in fact, it took about 2000 mice to get the processing power that a single human brain could give. Because of this, we decided to use them not as a computer but as a way to test the effects of the connection on the mind. This allowed us to find a few things. First, when connected for times under 4 hours the mice could be disconnected with no visible effects and any more than that resulted in impaired brain function or death. We then created a virtual world which amounted to a box that the brains were connected to in order to see what would happen. What we saw was that each mouse created a body that was what the brain perceived which you can see here”.

The image they showed was a slightly discolored and deformed mouse with a void in the back of its head. They then showed a showed the internals of the mouse that was apparently generated by subconsciously by the brain.

“As you can see the avatars that were created were based on the perceptions of the mouse's brain, not only does this show us that the brains of the mice are working correctly when connected but it allows us to see how the animal sees itself and the world. Then we left them in that world for a day, a week , and then a month and they were all still functioning as if they were in the real world. Something unexpected happened when one was disconnected. It's avatar continued to live while the body died. At first we thought that it's consciousness was transferred into the main organic computer but what we found was that the mouse’s brain had been reformatted. The main computer took the memories, thought patterns, and routines of the mouse and move it to another and in fact all but 4 mice died when they were disconnected. These four mice were the processors dedicated to bodily functions for all the mice. In computer terms the mice were defeated and its methods compiled to be as efficient as possible. Once we found out the effects on a large group we then went to groups of 1, 2, and 3 mice. With one mouse it seemed that long-term connection had no effect on the mouse but with 2 one of the mice seemed to come out with some problems and with three one died after disconnection. After we had run the test on a single mouse thousands of times without negative effects on the mouse we decided to run our first test on a human. We went looking for people who were brain dead or in a long-term coma because we believe that they were the lowest risk and at the same time had the high chance of benefiting from the connection. The first person that we used in testing was brain dead and was donated to science by the family. When connected to the same network and virtual space that the mice were the subject did not create an avatar and in fact, did not even register as being connected the subject was then taken to be used as an organ donor. The next person tested was a man that had been in a coma for 3 years and the family gave consent to have him connected to the virtual world. When connected the subject immediately had an avatar but just like in the actual world was in a vegetative state. After observation for 10 days we began to send information to the organic computer for computation and we were able to see a dramatic increase in performance due to the connection. After about 3 hours of continuous computation the patients avatar woke up and started to scream and exhibited signs of extreme pain. The processes were immediately stopped and the avatar began asking where they were and who had taken him. We then disconnect him from the network and they woke up from there coma but seemed to have lost a large chunk of memories from approximately are 10 to 15. We are still unable to tell if the memory loss was due to the injury that put them in a coma, the coma itself, or the network connection, however, he is alive and well today and living with his family. With a successful test completed we wanted to try with multiple people. So we found 5 people who were in comas and were going to be euthanized on instructions from the family. With the families consent we were allowed to take them and we ran the same procedure as with the the first subject. All five subjects created an avatar when they were connect however only one woke up when the computations started. That person is here with us in the room and will be a participant in the next stage of the project. Once the other 4 all completed 10 days of computation each they were add one by one in 10 day increments thought this process none of the subjects woke or exhibited signs of distress or discomfort and with each added person the performance increased. After a month of the subjects connection to the network the first subject woke. We had by this time had the ability to create things in the virtual world and we were able to give them everything they need to stave off boredom. at the end of the 4th month connected to the network all four subjects were conscious and interacting within the virtual world. We then made preparations to remove them from the network each subject was hooked up to a complete life support system so they would continue to live even without brain function. 2 of the participants were completely brain dead when they were disconnected and resulted in a proportional decrease in processing power however the virtual avatars of the people were still active and were able to respond. The third person disconnect and had complete body function but no memories at all their body function but they were basically a newborn. Lastly the fourth person disconnected resulted all avatars going offline. So the main organic computer defragment and moves memories and information into one location in order to increase performance as well as consolidating the function of the body into one mind. When reconnected all subjects resumed functioning as they did before. So the people connect were active and living in a virtual world while we had access to about 70% of the processing power from 4 human brains. Now that brings us to today we want to create the world's greatest supercomputer, one that can grow as large as we want but for this to happen we need people. That is why we have invited all of you. You are all trapped in bodies that don't allow you to live full lives we want you to become a part of the computer and in turn live life in a virtual world with each other and more.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At that the crowd explodes, some yelling curse others question but many were in applause. Kyle tried to wait for the crowd to settle but it wasn't so he yelled. “I'm not done speaking all comments questions and concerns can be voiced after I explain the world many of you will be living in. “Asi explained the people that are used as computers will live in a virtual world. This world obviously needs to be as real as possible in order to make the user feel like they are truly living. In order to do this, we have created with the help of the 4 who are currently living in a virtual world a system that grows and evolves with the thoughts and ideas of the people living in it. In the current virtual world there are only 4 people so the world can change quickly and as a result, 4 distinct areas were formed from their thoughts and ideas.”

The projection switched to a video of bird's eye view of 4 distinct areas one was a large and overgrown forest next to a huge city with skyscrapers nearly at the height of the camera, then a black void with a large spaceship moving through it and finally a single home with a large lawn. The camera then flew down into the trees to show a network of bridges between trees with what looked liked elves walking around then the screen went black. Slow a ship emerged out of the corner of the screen and the camera move to intercept then it passed through the hull onto a bridge with multiple races including humans, what looked like dwarves, and Klingons. Just as abruptly as with the forest the bridge disappeared and the view of a perfectly manicured lawn leading to the edge of a lake from a porch chair. Finally, we appeared in a vehicle moving through the streets of a massive city then the camera leaned out of the window and looked down. We were flying hundreds of stories above the ground then looking up we couldn't even see the top of the buildings.

Kyle began to speak again.”What you just saw were the living areas of the four I was speaking of before and were created in a little over a month in real-world time but about 7 months for the users. We have built in a time dilation of about 7 time real world which allows the gives the users the most time possible and allow us to generate the greatest possible performance of the computer. Now the world that many of you will enter will be created based on the wants, ideas, and thoughts of every single person in the network as well as an initial bases allowing the world to stay stable and while being ever growing and evolving to keep the people happy and immersed in the virtual world. The world will be a sword and sorcery world where you can do anything you could think of. It will be a new world for you to explore and live in. Now that about covers everything if you have questions please move toward the microphones and wait in line to ask.”

Within moments almost everyone in the room was in line to ask questions. I stayed in place to listen to answers before I went got in line.

The first question came from a young woman with severe muscular dystrophy. “To what extent will the company have control over the world and the people in it?” Which in my opinion was a very good question. We were being asked to basically die in this world and be born into another knowing someone could change my life with a few keystrokes did not sound fun.

Echoing my thoughts Kyle said “The idea of having another person completely controlling the world you live in is quite scary so we have created the system where we have no control over anything other than the worlds initial size, type, and power level which will be about a square mile per user, a fantasy world, and lower than real world. Other than that the world changes based on the thoughts of the users so if there is a major problem or error the world will change it becomes an issue for people. Do you have any other questions?”.

“Yes, what do you mean by power level?”

“We use power level to denote how strong creatures in the world will be. So when you all first enter the world the areas around you will be very weak and as time goes by and you explore will become stronger and stronger. There is no technical limit other than the user's imagination and the wants of the majority of users so the world will never too difficult to live in happily. Next question please.”

The next person looked to be a family member and asked, “Will the company have access to people's thoughts or first-person views?”

“At the moment we have no way of directly accessing thoughts but we can get any view of the world that we want.” replied Kyle. “We plan on using this to study the creation of a new society that the users will be living in. that being said we are willing to make agreements on the personal privacy on an individual basis.”

“Will there be live streams of the players?” asks a man in a professional suit and tie.

“There were no plans to stream any of the worlds as the actual users won't be able to receive anything from it. However, it could be a large source of income for the families of the users and the company itself so anyone who is willing to have there lives streamed to the public we will make contracts for that. Again though the actual users won't receive anything for allowing streaming. next.”

“What will happen to our bodies while we are in the game?”

“While you are in the game your body will be in a pod that will keep it in nearly perfect physical conditions in order to ensure long-term survival. If a person's body were to die there are three possible outcomes. One that person would die in the virtual world and real world this would have to happen in the first few months before the memories are consolidated. Second, the body would die the network would lose a node but the person would continue on in-game like nothing happened. Lastly, a large portion of players would disappear from the world. This would happen if one of the brains that are being used as a hard drive were to die. Because of that possibility, we will have backups of all the information stored in those people and will reintroduce them to the system. We have tested this and know for sure that it works.”

“What will happen to the system when the human brain is no longer the best choice for your needs?”

“Well we are creating a whole new world and we have ensured that once integrated into the game you are still legally living people. So If someone were to destroy or take the system offline the will legally be committing murder.”

The questions went on for a few more hours but nothing really important was said. In the end, Kyle said that the project will start two months from now and that anyone that planed on participating would have to call anytime before that date to be included. With that, I was taken home to have time to think about the decision.