Cross My Mind

POSSIBILITIES PART 2

Dr. Akihiro was waiting to see Garba in person and to personally be the one to activate Garba’s Neuraface.

Having seen his data from the control room the day before, he believes that Garba would be the stepping stone he needs to finally make the breakthrough he needs to be remembered forever as the individual that spearheaded the breakthrough and created the biggest beneficial symbiosis between the human mind and artificial intelligence.

Garba’s jaw dropped at the person waiting for him inside the room; “I cant believe I will ever get a chance to actually talk to Dr. Akihiro”, he thought in his mind.

Akihiro is a man in his late sixties, he is short and bald. Standing next to him Garba realized how small the old scientist looks in person. His skin has given up it’s tightness and has become saggy below his eyes and on his cheeks and his chin.

“please sit on this chair, I think we have talked earlier and from how keenly you are smiling, I am guessing that you have read some of my work before or know me from somewhere”

Akihiro said to Garba while motioning his hand to a chair that resembles the ones found at a dentist’s office in a hospital. Garba walked towards the chair, sat as he was told to before looking at Akihiro still with a smile on his face.

“I majored in computer science back in Nigeria and I have taken a few courses on man-machine symbiosis, the first edition of your publication on the next evolution stage for Homo sapiens blew my mind, I was obsessed with it”

“Relax young man, we will have plenty of time to talk later but we need to get your Neuraface online and going so that you can get started too just like the others. The Neuraface in your skull right now is a simple computer that has a simple primary function of collecting your brain’s signals, noise and everything and send it in real time to our super computer MEDULLA located in Texas from any part of the world, it uses an encrypted network made specifically for it. We have sixty-five satellites in orbit that ensure global coverage”. Dr. Akihiro said while pressing some keys on the chair to lower what looks like an oversized helmet to fit just above Garba’s head.

A few moments later, Akihiro told Garba that his Neuraface about to come online so he should close his eyes and relax in order for the new stream of information he is about to receive not to overlap with his visual and auditory senses.

As if in a dream, Garba suddenly finds himself staring at blank intense whiteness, dumbfounded by this, he lifted his hand.

“relax, you are still here with me, this is the only time this will happen, Your Neuraface is currently feeding your brain the visual and sensory information you are seeing although your eyes are closed and this means that you are technically not seeing it but imagining it”

In the blank whiteness, a small window similar to that of a computer appeared near his face showing a text that reads

‘welcome to Neuraface new user, do you accept the terms and conditions of the manufacturer? with a Yes and No icons below the text’

Akihiro told Garba to move his hands up and he suddenly has arms in the blank whiteness, he was also informed that he could give out his answers verbally so he said accept and Akihiro told him he can open his eyes.

“since you have a good background with computers, you would naturally be able to figure out what Neuraface can do and what it cant do, but there is also a manual that can help you with that. Since you’re now online all you have to do is scan the coded printouts in here to access the different materials we have in our archives. Just stare at the code and imagine your are scanning it, or just give a verbal command by saying scan code. The device also has bone conduction sound transmitters so you can be listening to music in your head. the Device charges through long distance wireless frequency so don’t worry about running out of charge; it will be charged without you having to do anything ”

Akihiro passed Garba a printed folder with barcodes printed on papers inside.

Garba stood up from the seat and said “show home view”

Instantly a status screen showed up in his vision, at first he was concerned that it may be interfering with his vision but suddenly realizes that the visibility and transparency are tuned perfectly to fit the brightness of the environment so that he will be seeing clearly and at the same time, you will be able interact with the augmented elements from the Neuraface. He closed his eyes one more time and as his vision get blocked by his eye lids, the computer icons and windows remain visible to him since they are information fed directly to his brain using similar signalling method as the ones used to translate what the eye as an organ sees.

“I knew it, this is just like augmented reality” Garba shouted out loud as he leaves the futuristic room back into the hallway that leads to the dining space and the rooms the volunteer subjects are kept in.

Back in the control room Akihiro just reached his desk, he pulled out his tablet computer, started by looking at Garba’s activity log for the last thirty minutes and he was shocked at the pattern he found. Garba has been testing the capabilities of his Neuraface one at a time. As a seasoned programmer, Akihiro sat for an hour analyzing Garba’s actions, he pressed the side button for voice command and went on.

“this is Amida, access and link MEDULLA” and the tablet blinked trice before saying in a robotic female voice

“MEDULLA online”

“access Neuraface code 001, monitor and analyze user activity log and report any possible pattern observed”.

Akihiro placed the phone down and on his desk and closed his eyes, ‘my beautiful baby is almost complete’ he thought to himself; remembering the trial and error he had to pass through to reach this point having almost lost his reputation, his moral standing in the scientific community and even the privilege to practice and research after he was caught performing illegal human experiment with memory erasing substances and other illegal surgical procedures that would normally put him behind bars in Japan.

While in custody before his trial, he was made and offer to start over by who at the time he thought was an American lobbyist but turns out to be Jefferson Lockwood who is now the fastest growing billionaire in the whole world. Akihiro is quite aware that Lockwood is not the one pulling all the strings. Money alone cannot pull the strings of such a project, Akihiro has suspected all along that the US government or it’s military is interested in weaponizing the Neuraface technology or utilizing it for other military applications.

Either way, Akihiro knows that it doesn’t matter what the first use of the technology is, he believes that once the potential of the technology is achieved, the world will know his genius; everyone will know his name.

Back at the dining hall, Garba has joined Mila and Lucy for lunch, on the same table as the last one he found them using. He has been using his Neuraface nonstop since its activation seven hours ago. Although no internet access has been granted to the device, there are numerous applications and functions in the Neuraface to keep Garba occupied for hours trying to understand each of them.

Garba took a spoonful of rice and was about to put it in his mouth when he stopped short and asked Lucy and Mila

“can you imagine the good that this device will do if it hits the market? Many advancements will be achieved using it”

“Neuraface is an impressive device that allows a unique process called thought computing.

" but isn’t that the same as the regular computers that we have?” Mila asked.

Garba instantly responded, now putting his spoonful of rice back in the plate.

“Mila this device is not just a regular computer, it Is a whole new territory in both computing and neuroscience. Don’t you see it, this is man machine symbiosis. If this device can show you status windows and an augmented vision that doesn’t originate from your eye, this means that with the right programming and design using the same concept you can stream a camera’s view directly into your brain and it would be as if the camera is your own eyes; this can essentially cure all forms of blindness.” Garba added.

Lucy has been chewing her food carefully hearing Garba’s optimistic views on the possible applications of the Neuraface, finally she said

“Garba you are too optimistic and I admire your good hearted nature of thinking a company such as Neuratechnologies will ever make such a device to help people. The Neuraface has multiple possible military applications that can change the way we do military combat, upon reaching it’s potential, this device is basically a weapon”

Garba was hit hard by the truth that Lucy just told but before he could say anything, Mila snatched the words out of his mouth and said

“so we are in fact test subjects of a new weapon disguised as a possible commercial consumer product”

“unfortunately Yes” Lucy responded.

Just at this moment, Garba heard a feint beeping sound and instantly a window conjured up in his vision with a massage that says ‘Incoming Live broadcast in twenty seconds’.

He looks up to Mila and she was staring blankly at her table which indicates to Garba that she received the same massage.

“they are about to announce our objectives for today. While using Neuraface, everyday there is a task that we are asked to try and accomplish, yesterday was to try and convert a fast playing audio into text using the neura-notebook application”

A few seconds later, Dr. Akihiro’s face appeared on a rectangular window inside each volunteer’s vision in the form of augmented vision. He gave everyone the directive for the day which would require every volunteer to go back to their respective rooms;. Garba was given a room a long walk down the hallway.

In his room, Garba begin to wonder what Dr. Akihiro meant by Virtual meeting space VMS.

“show status window, show all applications”

The list of all accessible programs installed on his Neuraface showed up and he selected the one named ‘VMS’. A prompt window showed up advising him to close his eyes and as soon as he did, a round table manifested before his eyes with seven people seated on seven seats. As soon as it finished loading, an eight seat appeared and he was seated on it.

As time passes by, the number of people attending the virtual meeting increased slowly until all twenty eight volunteers are present. To Garba’s right sat Mila and Lucy five seats away and at the center of the enormous round table Dr. Akihiro and four other people dressed in white were also seated. but instead of virtual versions of themselves, they were on what is best described as screen playing video.

“Welcome to the Virtual meeting space everyone, this is your first time here I believe, so I will explain this to you. The VMS is a simulation application that allows you to project a virtual version of yourself into a computer program. The program can be designed for multiple purposes, you can use it as a meeting place of a learning place and even mental practice space, that is what the VMS is. As the four of us dont have installed Neuraface, we are simply projecting our video stream here.” Akihiro said

“we have only four more days in this trial and we are here to give each of you your final tasks to perform in the next five days. From today, each of you will remain in their rooms, we have excellent room service and we will ensure your food gets delivered to you there. Each person for today is expected to play a survival game we have created, the game works just like VMS” Dr. Nora said while oddly having his general attention focused on Garba.

The third person stood up from his seat.

“we will send you an invite window in the next two minutes, so if you want to use the restroom, do so now and await the invite window”

Nora and Akihiro now ordered the volunteers to log out of VMS and await an invite pop-up to play a Virtual reality survival game as their last event for the day.

“The game will log everyone out every four hours to rest and await the next invite” Nora added.

Garba logged out of VMS and lay on his bed awaiting the pop up window. Accompanied by a beep, a yellow window opened on Garba’s field of vision.

‘welcome player 001, you have received an invitation to play Virtual Survival online, do you wish to play’

With two icons showing yes and No below the window.

“I have been waiting for something as fun as this all this while” Garba muttered to himself as he raised his hands and pressed ‘Yes’.