The cold rain battered his body, but he was too lost in his whirling thoughts to even notice. The vast graveyard in front of him was filled with silent stories etched in stone. His unwavering gaze was fixated on the two gravestones in front of him — the gravestones of his parents. Their sudden departure left him with a void too deep for words to fill.
Locked in this gaze his thoughts began to fill with memories of the past. Laughter that once filled the dinner table, the warmth of family gatherings during the holidays, even the subtle joyous moments of the day-to-day — all these felt as though a distant echo. The loss was irreversible.
On his walk back to his house his thoughts began to drift to his own life experience. His success at VerdeSynth, an artificial farming company pushing the boundaries of hydroponics, vertical farming, and genetic modification to food, brought him to the very top of the ranks. His rise, he realized, came at the expense of many personal sacrifices. Relationships crumbled under the obsession with his work, ethical boundaries blurred blinded by the promise of innovation, and his personal values were compromised until he was but a shadow of his former self. Looking in the mirror he was unable to recognize the person he’s become.
As the virtual world began to fade with the contours of reality pouring back in, Lucas felt the experience of the ThoughtWave movie lingering. The experience felt so real, so filled with emotion and depth. The pain, the loss, the realization, they all felt as if his own. For much of the experience he had forgotten he was in the movie, lost in the intensity of the film.
As Lucas himself lost his parents as a teenager he felt a striking connection to the protagonist’s emotions. Feeling someone else go through that experience got him to reflect with more nuance on his emotional experience through that time. Additionally, feeling another go through a similar experience to his own connected him more not just the individual, but other people more generally. And even though the idea of compromising ones own values as much as the protagonist did seemed farfetched to Lucas, in the moment he truly understood what brought him to those actions.
He now understood why there was so much public hype around this new technology. After the introduction of these ThoughtWave movies it went from a fringe, futuristic neurotech innovation adopted by an enthusiastic few to being center stage in the public attention adopted by the masses.
Now debates raged between the passionate advocates arguing for it increasing social connection and empathy, unlocking new forms of communication, and being a new frontier for neural exploration, and those who believed it being used to manipulate and addict the public, with it’s unique ability to instantly communicate and evoke passionate emotions as their own. More importantly, the people opposed to it feared reliance and direct brain manipulation with the advancement in this technology. When it no longer required expensive neural recording to generate these movies, what would society become once it was in the hands of the masses?
Lucas, while hearing those fears, was unable to see how one can be opposed after what a meaningful experience he just had. Eager to share this experience, he initiated the Communicator to set up a direct connection with Alex. A moment later the connection was established. “Alex,” he began, his emotions seeping into the message, “you won’t believe the experience I’ve just had. I can’t wait to share more when I come home later tonight.”
Marcus stared intently at the computer screens filled with chart, graphs, and images from the neural recordings he and Dr. Axel were performing in the Neural Interface Lab. Recently equipped with the new Cognix device, a fine-grained neural recording device made by Elana Voss, a highly successful scientist and serial entrepreneur whom Marcus greatly admired and respected, Marcus and Dr. Axel set out on their ambitious project.
Marcus was working on developing the advanced AI neural pattern matching algorithm to match neural signatures to their corresponding emotional states. With the Cognix they would then be able to record and stimulate desired emotional states to the individual.
As a child Marcus has a hard time connecting to his peers. His classmates would socialize, play, and connect with ease while he observed them as if subjects in an experiment he could not quite decipher. He always had an awkward and reserved character, and his academic brilliance further detached him from them, making him the subject of much bullying. His childhood was filled with a deep-seeded desire to connect with others, a yearning to be understood and accepted. These memories underpinned his motivations for his current research.
Just as Marcus was finishing making the final adjustments to the model, Dr. Axel, peering over his shoulder at the results, exclaimed “remarkable results Marcus!” a clear note of awe in his voice. “If these models work as well in practice as they do in theory then we’re on the brink of a massive scientific breakthrough!” A slight, embarrassed smile came to Marcus’s face, and not knowing how to express the inner joy and connection he felt he responded saying “let’s test it.”
“Write down then visualize a positive memory,” Marcus told the subject as he initiated the testing sequence. The subject, connected to the Cognix neural recording device, finished writing and began to concentrate on the memory of the experience. Marcus’s screen lit up with the neural patterns being recorded. “Good. Now we’re going to replay those recordings. Are you ready?” “Yes,” the subject responded, Marcus initiating the replay experience.
Marcus and Dr. Axel both watched in tense anticipation. The room was silent as they watched the subject. After a few brief moments, felling like an eternity has passed, a smile broke across the subject’s face, mixed with a sense of surprise. Elation filled Marcus and Dr. Axel. Their experiment was a success. They captured and replayed a genuine emotional memory.
This excitement, however, did not last for long. Eager to validate their initial results, they connected another subject to the Cognix device and replayed the recording of the original subject. They stared expectantly at the new subject, yet the emotion expressed was not one of happiness. Rather, a look of fear and confusion consumed the subject’s face, which was quickly mirrored by Marcus and Dr. Axel. The atmosphere in the room shifted as they all went quiet.
“It’s the transfer function,” Marcus said breaking the silence. “Th reason it worked for the first subject was because the context was the same and the neural patterns in the individual stay relatively constant over short periods. When replaying it to the same individual after a more significant period of time or on another person who has a different neural signature it will fail to transmit the experience. We need to find a way to encode the signal in a manner that can be universally decoded.”
Dr. Axel contemplated Marcus’s conclusion. “Yes yes, you’re right. Hmm, I have some thoughts on how we can go about that that we can test.” Marcus, eager to further their success, responded enthusiastically “let’s do it!” As Marcus and Dr. Axel locked eyes Marcus felt a connection to him deeper than he has before. “If only this experience can be recorded and shared,” Marcus thought to himself.
“Ready to jump in?” Lucas asked, his eyes twinkling with anticipation to try it out.
“Absolutely,” Alex replied, giggling at Lucas’s adorable excitement. “Let’s see what this game it all about.”
Lucas and Alex suddenly found themselves in the multi-player couples mode of the popular new game developed on the ThoughtWave interface: Dreamland. Looking around the living room transformed into a spaceship overlooking a landscape of bursting nebulas and stars. “Let’s go explore that red planet by that star nearby,” Alex exclaimed.
As they ventured through space and got closer they encountered a puzzle they needed solve to progress further. The sign read this planet accepts two people, but one heart. You must unite as one to enter. Please each think of a memory of unity. Lucas and Alex stared into each others eyes, eager to face the challenge. Standing hand in hand they gently closed their eyes, focusing on the present challenge.
Lucas thought back to the day he first met Alex. The rush of excitement, the warmth of her smile, the touch of her hand in his. He remembered sitting under the stars, faint similarities to the landscape they were now immersed in, lying down side by side, talking the night away. Focusing on those feelings of love and completeness, he sent those emotions flowing to Alex.
Meanwhile, Alex thought about the comfort and peace Lucas brings her. Her mind wandered to their first dance in the rain, their splashing footsteps mixed with their laughter and connection. Her heart was filled with love and happiness as she transmitted those feelings into the game.
Together these emotions intertwined, their minds becoming intimately connected, a novel experience they were both deeply immersed in. Lost in this overwhelming bond, they barely noticed the barrier to the red planet open. Lucas and Alex continued through, facing more challenges that forced them to merge their thoughts and emotions in a profoundly unique, intimate manner, a new form of connection that Dreamland unlocked.
“Well we can’t spend forever here. I’m getting hungry and we still have physical needs after all,” Lucas said. They found themselves back in their living room, staring at each other grinning with a childlike giddiness. The whole way to the restaurant they couldn’t stop smiling about their journey through Dreamland.
As they sat at the restaurant table, still wrapped up in all their joy, they saw that many others in the restaurant had the unmistakable facial expressions common of emotion streaming. Emotion streaming came about from a new company named Pulse, a mega-unicorn who created a social media platform to share, watch, and stream other users emotions and experiences.
Lucas, ever the optimist, was thrilled about this new innovation, believing it would allow people to better empathize with one another, although he did not heavily partake himself. Alex, however, was more hesitant. “It’s fascinating,” she admitted, “but isn’t it a bit … invasive? Experiencing someone else’s raw, unfiltered emotions. I don’t know, it just feels … wrong.”
Alex went on citing the rise in extreme emotions often shared on these platforms. Immersive pornography, harrowing pain, overwhelming joy, destructive anger… all these intense emotions unable to be matched by the mundaneness of ordinary life. While rapidly growing in popularity, a sharp rise in depression, loneliness, and violence seemed to be on the rise, which Alex, along with many others, believed to be closely tied to Pulse.
Considering this Lucas gave some more thought to the issue. “True,” he admitted, “there is that subset of content including those negative components. Although this is simply a technology that allows for greater connection. If people use it in the wrong way it’s their fault. The innovation itself isn’t bad, just the misuse. Theres unbounded positives this platform opens up.”
Hearing this, Alex, having a history with addiction, responded saying “it’s not just about what should be shared on this, it’s about the incentives. People are making businesses out of crafting artificial, emotionally charged content, feeding to the primal human brain, which gets the most views, likes, and shares. The genuine, deep, emotional experiences to greater empathize with others are a dime a dozen. The incentives towards artificial, addictive, viral content will eventually have the exact opposite result of greater empathy; it will make it impossible for people to relate to their ordinary life experiences or others!”
As the night wore on they continued to discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of ThoughtWave and the capabilities it unlocks. They walked back silently, lost in thought about how ThoughtWave will impact not only society at large, but the personal challenges it’s beginning to pose in their relationship.
“Is this Dr. Marcus?” Overwhelmed, Marcus replied “umm, yes. Yes this is. How can I help you?” stumbling on his words. He greatly admired Elana and was shocked to be receiving a call from her.
“I’m interested in partnering with you on further developing your neural software research for recording and sharing emotions. Your scientific accomplishments have quite impressed me and I see a grand future vision for bringing this to market. I would like to discuss starting a company together around our shared technology.” Elana spoke with a confidence that Marcus only dreamed of having.
Over the past year Marcus and Dr. Axel were able to solve some of the major bottlenecks in the development of the technology. Dr. Axel had the key insight that for the encoding and decoding there is no perfect algorithm to share between brains. However, by collecting vast amounts of neural data paired with detailed surveys and description allowed for close approximation to be possible. With this he created a novel AI architecture and software stack to understanding the functioning of the unique user’s brain, getting better over time, that allows communication and sharing to be properly encoded and decoded across brains.
Surprised by the offer Elana posed, in his somewhat awkward manner he asked “But how is this a company? What would I do?” Elana, keen to unveil her recent progress, tells Marcus “I’ve recently created an improved Cognix device. We’ve created a cheap, seamless, implantable chip that can be inserted into the user’s brain without any damage. For greater precision we have added a nano-dust which integrates with the greater neural system, allowing us to read and write to the innermost parts of the brain. With your software paired with my device, we can create a connected future that goes beyond the internet, that goes between minds themselves!”
Elana’s enthusiasm was contagious. Marcus also noticed something that allured him: the possibility of having this great entrepreneur help make his childhood dreams a reality. To have his research reach have an impact. However, he needed to make sure Elana was on board with the direction he wanted to take the technology. He asked with great care “do you see this as a possible way to allow people to more deeply empathize with one another? For people like me to understand the way other’s think and share my own experiences and emotions with others?” “Of course! And much more!” she responded without a moment’s hesitation, filled with that same unbounded energy. Hesitant about the addition but too shy to probe deeper, they continued their discussion deciding they should try to pursue the partnership.
“I will be an entrepreneur,” Marcus thought to himself, his feelings a mixture of fear but also a newfound energy to become a great, successful visionary.
They began working immediately.
It took some time for them to work out all the issues connecting the new Cognix device, which they named ThoughtWave, to Marcus’s original system. However, flushed with cash and competent workers, Marcus saw himself enjoying the freedom and power it brought. At first being in charge of a large team was challenging for him. Elana, however, guided him, teaching him how to become a strong, influential leader, which after some time he began to take to. Within months he was able to collect a dataset of a hundred times the size of his original, with more precise, quality data. Him and the team added new features in rapid succession, reaching the first production model in mere months. Meanwhile, Elana was building the brand, raising money from investor, more money than Marcus could imagine, and promoting the product.
The initial sales were spectacular for a novel innovation such as their own, beating all expectations (except Elana’s). The early adopters were mainly tech and VR enthusiasts, wanting to play around with this new medium. Therapists and creative professionals also adopted the device with great enthusiasm to see how they can integrate it in their own careers. A few social media influencers were also early adopters, but didn’t find much initial success. The public was not yet ready for this.
Marcus found himself caught up in the success of the launch, gaining a newfound confidence in himself and his leadership abilities, which he began to further lean into. Although the fidelity of the data did not yet allow for full immersion, the quality was unmatched at the time. Marcus was full of pride from his accomplishments, gaining more respect for Elana for helping him get this far.
The public hype and early success brought the company to grow at a rapid pace. An influx of talent quickly joined, with evaluations rising higher and higher. The pressure to deliver to those sky-high expectation pushed the teams to work harder than ever before.
Elana’s dominant presence began to rub off on Marcus, making him a more assertive leader. His awkwardness and shyness were fading, only able to glimpse shadows of that former self between the chaotic scrambling to deliver on the next technical advancements. His energy, however, only seemed to grow, working harder and harder each day, eager to perfect the technology.
They began work on the next technological leap they were aspiring towards: offloading memory.
Lucas and Alex, nestled together on their couch, were ready to try out a newly released feature on ThoughtWave: memory playback. How much better would it be to actually play back their most special moments together, mixed with all the emotions and depth of the actual moment, than to scroll through old pictures and videos. They’ll also be able to have a personal memory diary, with an unimaginable number of innovations to build upon that.
“Let’s play it from your memory,” Alex said as she snuggled closer to Lucas. Lucas thought of the memory — their hiking trip through the Alps — and the ThoughtWave device immediately began the immersive playback.
At first it was kind of surreal for Lucas, watching and feeling his memory as a third person observer to his own life. This feeling intensified as the memory progressed, playing through the day walking through the stunning landscape, the jokes and laughter shared, and lying down together underneath the stars. The sensation of not only rewatching, but re-experiencing those intimate moments felt … unnatural?
When the experience got to a point lying beneath the stars that Alex had a particularly fond memory of, a moment she often came back to as an intimate moment of connection, she noticed a peculiarity. Lucas, while on the outside engaged in conversation, the memory showed that his mind was drifting elsewhere. Not that he wasn’t happy, only that he wasn’t fully present with Alex in that moment.
“That’s not … that’s not how I remembered it. I always thought, I thought that that was one of our best moments together,” Alex said full of confusion and a hint of disappointment.
“I did love that moment,” Lucas said. “I was happy with you. It’s just my mind started to wander to other things too. Let’s not let that take away from the wonderful memory.” He was earnest, trying to reassure her, but he could see his words were only making her feel worse.
With a hint of a tear forming Alex said “but that’s just it! If ThoughtWave recorded our past then that is the true memory and not how I recount it. My romanticization of that moment was just a stupid illusion.” Looking desperately into Lucas’s eyes she began to feel more helpless. “How many more memories of mine are lies?”
Lucas found himself surprised where this experience has brought them. Looking at Alex’s sad face he desperately tried to think of something to say. “Maybe … maybe it’s not about the actual experience but what it means to us now. Our memories might differ but that doesn’t change the fact that it brought us closer together.”
Alex leaned back on the couch, her gaze drifting off to nowhere. “What scares me is the idea that we might not truly know each other. That we both just live in our own worlds.”
The room fell quiet, both awash in thoughts as the weight of the conversation settled. Lucas reached out and grabbed Alex’s hand saying “what if we didn’t let that scare us? What if we use this as an opportunity to truly to get know each other better? To bridge the gaps in our perceptions.” Lucas’s voice was tinged with enthusiasm as it was clear Alex was receptive to his suggestion.
Alex, considering his words, felt the tension in her body start to loosen. “Perhaps… But that will take some getting used to.” Lucas, relieved to have struck a positive chord, cheerfully responded “then lets start and go through more!”
They sat together as Alex scrolled through Lucas’s memory bank. As the memories and chatter progressed they both felt this bizarre new sensation growing: a feeling of invasiveness of peering into the others deepest personal thoughts while also gaining familiarity and comfort with the activity.
As they were coming to a conclusion of this activity, both feeling much better about the experience while also believing it best to only rarely use this, Alex stumbled upon a thought Lucas never wished to share — a moment of strong doubt about their relationship.
They exit the experience, deadly silent. Blank looks filled both their faces. Lucas opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. The silence was painful.
The challenge of memory offloading was much larger than either Elana or Marcus anticipated. With the ability to record and share memories already, how hard can it be to have ThoughtWave be the equivalent of a written history for the individual? The answer: hard. Really really hard.
For one there was an issue in storing the data. A 10-second recording at the time of the conception of the idea took up approximately 10GB. Even with scaling the current technology, the possibility of continuous storage for all ThoughtWave users was an impossible task. They needed to create a new, advanced storage method.
One of their recent hires, having a background in data compression, lead the project to develop a more efficient storage system. The key insight was that even for highly immersive experiences, no more data than the neural patterns themselves needed to be recorded. Additionally, as only what the person is paying attention to is relevant, that vastly reduces the amount of storage necessary. The background was able to be filled with generic background and snapshots from the experience. These were able to drastically reduce the storage needs for the memory diary to be feasible.
Marcus lead the efforts for Project Haystack, picking out a specific memory from the haystack of previous memories. This required matching a neural pattern with fetching a past memory, a novel form of search. The challenge energized Marcus with a fervor unimaginable to his prior self. It additionally brought him to contact an essential figure that helped form his current success: Dr. Axel.
Marcus arrived at Dr. Axel’s lab, the screens full of neural recording signals. He felt a calmness he hasn’t felt for a while, a feeling of comfort as though he was at home. He reminded himself of his mission though: to recruit Dr. Axel to Project Haystack.
“It’s good to see you again Marcus. So much has changed since we’ve worked together here. Remember how you were so shy and timid, working passionately on our research here,” Dr. Axel remarked with a nostalgic tone. “Well look at you now,” he said with a smile tinged with sadness.
“Yes,” Marcus responded, ignoring the sentiment getting straight to business, “and I wanted to try recreating those days with you helping me lead a project working on memory offloading which you are uniquely equipped with the necessary skills to help build. What are your thoughts about helping lead this project?” Marcus spoke with the same confidence Elana spoke to him with years back.
Dr. Axel looked at Marcus with concern. “Marcus, your achievements with ThoughtWave have been impressive. You’ve clearly found success through building out on our initial research. But I’m concerned that you may have lost your ideals in this success. Are you blind to the harms that your technology is causing? People have become walking zombies, spending their days in the lives of others, losing themselves and becoming reliant on ThoughtWave. There are of course the many positive aspects, but you and the company seem unconcerned about the harms it’s been having. While your technological achievements at ThoughtWave are impressive, I’m afraid you and the team do not seem to be focusing on the ethical and negative societal effects it is causing.”
“Ridiculous,” Marcus retorted, “the benefits of the technology are pervasive through society. People able to share their experiences, connect in novel ways, increase the bandwidth of communication, opening up new platforms for sharing our lives… I can go on and on. These are all possible now with the technology we’ve developed,” although as he said this he felt almost as though he was convincing himself.
“Possible indeed,” Dr. Axel said, “but is that what’s happening in practice?” What incentives have you set up so the technology is used in a positive way?” Dr. Axel pushed further saying “the technology has gave power to people who sell shallow, artificial, addictive content. Depth and connection don’t sell; unrealistic extremes and manipulative content is what sells. Why are you not doing anything to fix this?”
Something inside bothered Marcus from hearing this. He knew he’s been deeply ingrained in developing the technology and not concentrating on the actual societal use, but he didn’t feel that to be his problem. “Is that problem actually true?” he found himself thinking. Disturbed that he didn’t know the answer but feeling as though he must still defend himself he responded saying “the technology is good. Society will need time to adapt.” Marcus did not know however if he believed his own words.
Dr. Axel, seeing that this conversation wasn’t going to change Marcus at this moment, sighed and placed his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “I appreciate you coming Marcus. Unfortunately I will not be joining the project. And remember, technology without humanity is devoid of purpose. Don’t lose sight of your values and why you started this journey.”
As Marcus left the office he kept replaying the conversation in his head. Not knowing who to talk to, he calls Elana and recounts the conversation. “Have we lost sight of our original goals?” he asked when what he really meant was has he lost himself in the success.
“Of course not!” Elana said confidently. “Society just needs time. And anyways, the potential of memory offloading to radically transform society is tremendous! Let’s focus on building that. Also, Marcus, I got an idea for building out Project Haystack; we can use all the user data we have and map that to their experiences. Then we can train an AI model to map a specific neural signature to that user’s memory bank.”
“But that’s an invasion of user privacy, no?” Marcus felt himself becoming his past timid, uncertain self. He was feeling lost, reflecting on his journey to where he now stands. “We can’t use their data. We explicitly said the data was their own. Do we even have access to it?”
“Of course we have access, at least to much of it. And legally I’ve found a workaround so don’t worry about the legality of it. In fact, with this approach I think by the end of the year we can have this working. You think you can lead the development?”
Realizing there has been much truth to what Dr. Axel said, Marcus felt himself very distant from his old self. A longing for that identity began to creep over himself. “But how can I abandon what I’ve built? Maybe the best thing I can do is to guide the progress in the company,” Marcus thought to himself.
Throughout the next year, however, as Marcus was leading the development, he found himself pressured by Elana, investors, his team, and their unreasonable timelines, leading him to make many compromises. Throughout the development process he found his mental state to be unstable, constantly struggling between his excitement for the work and the harm it may be causing. He felt responsible for these negative consequences, a burden too heavy for him to deal with. Although losing his assertive, motivating leadership, with his incredible technical abilities and a strong team behind him they made significant progress.
The technology was developed within 15 months, just three months longer than the overly ambitious timeline. At the celebratory party, however, Marcus felt himself empty, devoid of any ounce of emotion. There was nothing inside. An emptiness filled his heart. This was the start of his first significant depressive episode.
Lucas was at home when he got a notification on his Communicator that Alex wanted to set up a connection. He hasn’t heard from her for days, sad about what happened with her. Eager, yet also worried, he answered the connection.
“Lucas, I’m so sorry it’s been so long,” Alex opened the conversation. “I’ve been thinking hard for a bit now, honestly probably too much, and it’s been an emotional journey. At first I was mad, angry, upset, an emotional collection of confusion and fear. The thought that you may be unhappy and wanted to end the relationship was very painful since I value it so much and love you dearly.” Lucas felt Alex’s intense emotion streaming through the ThoughtWave device. He knew her words were sincere.
“I then decided to look through my own memory log, and to my surprise, found that a very similar emotion came up not once, but multiple times.” Lucas started to get a little nervous where Alex was going with this, but let her continue. “I then realized something important. I love you now and I desperately want to be together. Even if I had these emotions, they don’t reflect how I feel now. And honestly, I think it may be only natural that we go through phases of these emotions no matter how good the relationship is. It’s only human.” Relief washed over Alex as she finished sharing her thoughts. It felt good to open up and be vulnerable again with Lucas.
“Wow Alex, I’m so happy to hear those thoughts. I was confused too about the memory since I do love you and want to be together, but I couldn’t explain the discrepancy between my feelings and my memory. Your words perfectly encapsulate it though: although the memory is true in the sense that it did happen, it’s not a truth which is what we believe now.” This joint revelation, shared with the emotional linking, gave Lucas and Alex a deeper sense of connection between each other than they’ve felt for a while. Genuine connection.
Just as writing leaves a record of truth, so does the memory diary left by ThoughtWave. And although it contains fact, it leaves out an important component: the truth of feeling. We tell ourselves a narrative of our lives, an oral history of our past. Although it may be factually flawed, why is it any less valuable than our written history? Is it any less true than the fact?
It was in this discovery that Lucas and Alex found the value in both the memory diary, keeping a factual record of their past that they can index and query, and in the truth of feeling, of their oral history’s they tell themselves, representative of their current state and their perception of the past.
They reflected on the impact of ThoughtWave on their lives, their relationship, and society as a whole. It had facilitated incredible moments of joy and deepened their connections, yet it also harbored the potential for significant harm, isolation, and fostering inauthentic experiences. The technology presented a formidable challenge, not just to them personally or to their family, but to humanity at large: to harness its extraordinary benefits without succumbing to the darker aspects of human nature.
As Lucas and Alex continued their relationship they worked hard to embrace the positive aspects of ThoughtWave. They set boundaries, both personal and between them, to guard them from some of the pitfalls. When emotion control became possible, much of society fell to the drug, stimulating pleasure at any hardship and love when emptiness crept us. But Lucas and Alex were able to use this to enhance both their own selves and their relationships to even greater heights.
They shared their experiences with others, replaying the memory of the revelation, explaining how ThoughtWave can elevate the mundane and imperfections of human life. Instead of escaping into fabricated experiences and emotions, they argued, the technology could unveil the inherent beauty within life's imperfections, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the genuine and the authentic.
As the night began to grow darker, Lucas and Alex set out a blanket beneath the stars, getting cozy lying down together. Smiling, Lucas pointed to a star and said “see that one there? That’s Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. All these stars, their light traveling unimaginable distances over many years, they bring their light to twinkle for us here in this moment. Our memories, they’re like the stars, all shining different brightnesses and coming from all across the vast universe of our past. Vega, that one is from this moment.”
The vast sky was a mirror to their journey together, and it was bright as ever.
The past few days Marcus called out sick from work. Like many others, he was trying to find solace by replaying his past, immersed in the ThoughtWave experience, but instead it acted as an escape from his present. His depression was spiraling deeper and deeper.
Suddenly, the memory of him and Dr. Axel vividly filled his sensations. He felt him shy enthusiasm as the patient’s eyes lit up with the first successful run of the technology that lead to the development of ThoughtWave. He felt the connection with him and Dr. Axel as their eyes glowed with excitement at the feat they’ve pulled off.
These emotions overcame him with a far greater intensity than any of the experiences shared with him through ThoughtWave. Even if quantitatively there was a stronger emotional contour in those generated experiences, the most powerful experiences are the pivotal, genuine, personal experiences of our lives. That is something ThoughtWave can never mimic.
In these moments of reminiscence, Marcus realized a truth that he’s been blinded to by years of technological advancement. The soul of ThoughtWave is not in it’s emotional and experience replication or generation, rather it’s rooted in both genuine connection, both personal and with others. And this came with another realization: Elana was steering the company far too aggressively to the former.
Marcus understood the essential role Elana played in bringing the technology to it’s current state. She was a brilliant visionary and leader who pushed the technology further than he could have alone. However, he acknowledged that her vision significantly diverged from what he desired. With a heavy heart yet confident in his decision, he fired Elana, leaving her with a generous parting gift for the invaluable contributions she has made.
Under his leadership Marcus began steering the company to prioritize safety and responsible use of the technology they were developing, all under the guiding principle of increasing human connection. He allocated a significant percentage of the company’s resources to begin a new department solely focused on exploring ethical development and use, better aligning incentives to promote genuine experience, increasing user privacy, and working with other companies to promote positive development.
At first these changes slowed down the growth and capabilities of ThoughtWave. After some time, however, Marcus noticed a shift: society seemed to be much happier overall. Happiness increased across the country on essentially all accounts, from friendships, to personal fulfillment, to positive relationships. Marcus was ecstatic to see this. Finally the technology was serving his initial mission. His face glowed with his old, awkward, passionate smile.
With things going well inside the company and internally himself, Marcus thought up of his most ambitious idea to date: using ThoughtWave for radical longevity. The suffering people experience as they age, the disease-ridden reality of old age, and an untimely death, all these were potentially solvable with the help of ThoughtWave. He saw the technology as a place where the personal identity can be stored, so transferring this to another human would essentially continue their consciousness indefinitely.
In tandem with the development of ThoughtWave there was much progress in human cloning technology. The ability to make a genetic identical to yourself, essentially an identical twin, and develop the embryo in an artificial womb, was close to becoming possible. Marcus reached out to the leading companies working on such technology to work with him on his radical vision.
This particular idea, while immensely positively impactful, also required more ethical consideration for development and execution as possible. Dedicating more resources, intentionally slowing down the pace of development to give time for society to react and pitch in with guidance, and focusing on the intention behind the technology development, Marcus and the teams set out to work on this visionary idea.
The artificial world began to fade as reality began to reemerge. A figure stood gazing out the window on a spaceship orbiting Vega, still absorbed in the trance of recalling the memory of his early years.
Although the ThoughtWave device was now a far cry from the original, the essence of the technology was preserved. Marcus found himself absorbed by the experiences of his distant past, his origins, recalling his immense emotional and personal development through the years.
As Marcus turned away from the window, orbiting a star over 25 light years from Earth, thousands of years from his birth, he realized a fundamental truth about himself and humanity. Amid our technological ambitions and progress, the core quest remained the same: connection. It was a pursuit as enduring as the starlight enveloping him, casting its ageless glow across the cosmos, forever guiding those who dare to dream towards a brighter future.
This was a great exploration of the human experience in the presence of a technology we will eventually have! Often people remark on ways in which technology fails society in aggregate, but it’s great to see individual positively transformative experiences highlighted. “To save one life is to save the world.”
I enjoyed that Lucas and Alex have the most genuine connection after experiencing something they would never willingly choose to (the memory of doubt). This technology could definitely produce interesting relationship dynamics. Earlier when Alex expresses the fear of not truly knowing someone you love, while I was sympathetic to it, it also felt misguided. Life is a constant exploration of oneself, how could you expect to know someone else to the same extent? Loving someone is being excited to constantly explore their ever changing mystery. A beginning of infinity perhaps? ;)
I also really enjoyed the distinction made between memories as facts vs memories as interpretations/feelings about the facts. (Compression is everywhere). Additionally, we are constantly reinterpreting memories based on context changes. A solo, constant game of telephone to build a suitable narrative about our lives. Obviously this has many positive benefits, including being able to turn bad experiences into positive ones, but I ultimately think it might be better to get a higher fidelity view of the past. The harder it is to twist the narrative, the more likely you will require real change/growth.
Of course the best part was Marcus reconnecting with his old self to go back to his original values! Reading old journal entries can seem so foreign at times and easy to dismiss, imagine instead having all the fidelity of your feelings, and rationalizations at the time. The experience could be incredibly powerful to inspire. (I wonder to what extent an aging brain and loss of neurons would degrade this experience — aging is once again instrumental)
Overall this was a thoughtful, and interesting story, great job and glad I was around to see the process!
So glad you enjoyed and thanks for the thorough comment!
The idea with Alex was intentionally a misguided emotion, which I believe people tend to have, that thoughtwave allowed her to better identify and overcome (nice infinity reference 😊)
I also really like your analogy to a solo game of telephone. Highlighting the context change as well is an important idea for why memories may be more malleable than maybe we expect.