Chapter Two
Tonya Meredith had spent the night, working on the details of the speech she was to give at the next day’s public address.
The push Henkelman had given her was sufficient to get her started.
Simply put, she needed funding in order to continue with her experiments.
She wasn't about to start a project, make a discovery that challenged existing paradigms within the scientific community, and then get fired for not participating in the most recent Detention Technologies PR scandal.
She was far too pragmatic for that.
Once she started however, there was a type of perpetual motion that kicked in as she moved toward 'getting things right'.
Dr. Meredith wanted to breakdown the procedures and components of the Prison Space project, so that the public were able to understand exactly what it involved.
Tonya believed in an informed citizenry, and as Detention Tech was a corporate entity, there was no oversight for the program that she headed; military, governmental, or civil.
The only person she had to answer to was Jim Henkleman, and he did not care what happened, so long as it worked, and everybody got paid.
There was another motivating factor that pushed Tonya forward as she prepared her speech for the following day.
She wanted disclosure.
Too often, she felt, the height of innovation was trampled on by greedy corporations such as the one she was currently under contract with.
One could have interpreted her desires as some sort of misguided rebelliousness, or moral inconsistency.
The truth of the matter was that Dr. Tonya Meredith began her career on a shoestring, and never quite lost the awareness of science as a collective activity – an expansive community extending beyond the contract of a single organization - patents be damned.
She scribbled obsessively into the night, her fountain pen clenched in her left hand, her right, occasionally massaging her temples. She breathed deeply, and did her best to present a dispassionate, layman type summary of the inner-workings of the Prison Space project.
Dr. Meredith felt as though the speech should provide an introductory lesson on the subject of relativity, and special case physics.
The speech would contain a concealed prompt for research that would set the fires of inspiration ablaze and insuring that Detention Technologies did not maintain a monopoly on extra-dimensional access, and the digitization of matter as the technology continued to develop.
Dr. Meredith took a deep breath, and set her resolve.
Open-source competition would provide the check and balance so sorely absent from the Prison Space project.
She passed out in a t-shirt and underwear, after she finished writing. Her dark hair sprawled in matted clumps on the thin, rippled, blue foam which served as her mattress. Her glasses still on her face and ink stains blotting the underside of her left hand.
Tonya speech, which formed a short stack of papers on the hardwood flooring in the living room of her studio apartment, read as follows:
(An Instructional Speech, Delivered By Dr. Tonya Meredith)
The transmutation of matter into energy is a process of deconstruction similar to the method one would use to disassemble a puzzle.
One piece at a time is removed on a sub-cellular level with each piece being cataloged in a specific order then uploaded to a series of servers as binary information.
Our previous experiments within the digitization of human consciousness led us toward a method of receiving information via electrodes attached directly to the test subjects.
These electrodes were placed at key points along the central nervous system.
These centralized vortices of bio-electrical energy were cataloged by some of the earliest cultures, India and China for example.
When we connected our receivers to these vortices, all conscious information transmitted from these centers were routed through our servers; allowing the consciousness to be represented in a digital, or extra-dimensional realm, while the bodies remained in our dimension.
The result from the D.A.D project was the awareness of both the possibilities and limitations for the digitization of human consciousness.
We found that the experience of the participants were very much like an extended dream.
We also discovered that a type of consciousness singularity took place, which we believe can be attributed to the storage of meta-data on a connected mainframe, as well as the absence of stimuli toward the physical bodies of the test subject, within our material reality.
Sadly there were also abuses within the system.
Test subjects were physically and sexually violated by unscrupulous personnel.
Project D.A.D received a severe media backlash, and the program was discontinued.
In the wake of the backlash, we struggled to find a means of expression where these issues could no longer arise.
After months of research we came upon a theory which seemed to address our concerns. The basic premise can be understood by examining the phenomenon of goose bumps. (Pause).
Is everyone with me?
Goosebumps are an autonomic function which causes tiny bumps to rise up on your skin, bringing the smallest of hairs to attention.
I am speaking of the autonomic nervous system -- this is the reactionary and autonomously operative system of the human body – that is one which exists for our benefit, yet is not dependent on our conscious operation.
I realized, that the vortices of consciousness, from which we derive information were too narrowly defined.
In fact, every nerve of the human body is an antenna, radiating information into both the atmosphere, and through the entire circuit of the body which interdependently relates to that very nerve fiber.
I was then faced with a question.
Is it even possible to attach an electrode to each and every nerve, and if it was not, then how could the entirety of human consciousness be digitized?
The answer, naturally is that there are too many nerves to attach, and the electrodes would not be small enough to decipher the individual signals.
It was then that I realized that I, like so many scientists before me, had become a victim of the prevailing paradigm.
In order to move forward from D.A.D, we needed to challenge existing perspectives on what was possible in the field of material digitization.
It was this realization, which led to our work on the Prison Space project.
When we look at a scientific problem, or a social philosophy, and we say, “It can't be done, it is beyond our reach to accomplish such a thing,” are we are stipulating that there is an external force imposing a set of limitations on the efficacy of human endeavors?
What if there were no limitations?
Who would we then blame for our arrested development?
But I will leave the lecture on pride and responsibility to the very capable conscience of each member of the audience. (Pause).
I consider this speech part of an educational presentation, so that the global scientific community can benefit from the labors of DT, and we are able to create a network of people, competent enough to troubleshoot this new technology. For anything calling itself science, requires objectivity, transparency, and testing.
So on behalf of Detention Technologies, I have posted the complete documentation of our experimentation and procedures within the Prison Space Project.
In order to insure the viral distribution and equanimity of the material, we have released a torrent file, which is being disseminated throughout the peer-to-peer network as we speak. The file name is PSDataComplete.torrent.
Digitization of matter has become a reality, but don't take our word for it – test our results for yourselves.
We realize that such an action is bold, and not typical of a private corporation such as Detention Tech, but I know that we are all fortunate, and will feel more secure knowing, that we are not simply exploitative capitalists, but explorers and leaders.
Thank you.
***
Tonya finished her work somewhere around 4 AM.
The work itself was not difficult. Finding words had never been too difficult for her. The major issue was whether or not she could actually follow through with her plan of publicizing the data she had been compiling over the last four months.
The file was essentially a comprehensive report on the Prison Space project and its release had been a long time coming.
She had already submitted a copy to Henkleman, though she doubted he had actually reviewed any of the material.
Any well equipped lab could simply follow the procedures therein and end up with a near identical system themselves.
Tonya's plan violated every single Non-Disclosure Agreement she had ever encountered, but the information contained within the report was invaluable. She was certain that a monopoly would not significantly decrease the potential to monetize the project.
Dr. Meredith’s primary concern was oversight. She thought the entire idea of a leak, similar to insurance by public scrutiny.
It was her personal belief that new paradigms and new technology were the birthright of humanity.
It was a credit to the capacities of the human imagination, and intellect, as well as the remarkable drive to accomplish that which had not previously been done. However, the closer a moth gets to the flame, the greater the peril to the moth's existence and the brighter the allure towards its imminent demise.
Tonya thought of the leak as a form of insurance, in the event that she should find herself being burnt alive by her own desire to know the light of God.
Tonya stared at the compressed file sitting on the desktop of her computer before uploading the file to the Detention Tech main web-page, and leaking the information via email to every major competitor, and experimental lab in operation around the world.
There was no turning back now.
It would take the best of these labs three to six months to come up with a working prototype, and in the meantime, if Detention Tech wanted to make any money, they would have to keep her on payroll and in charge of the entire project.
The truth of the matter was that nobody understood the project as well as she did, and without her cooperation, there would be no project to announce.
As she fell asleep, she thought about the declaration of release she would have Henkleman sign before she agreed to continue to working on the project.
He could do it tomorrow afternoon, following the speech. She thought.
***
Tonya woke up with wrinkles molded into her face; mirroring the creases on her sheets.
She never slept with a pillow which made it that much easier to get out of the bed in the morning. She also felt it aligned her spine during sleep and posture was important for the healthy functioning of the human body.
She rose out of bed, gargled, gulped down a glass of water, and did her morning stretches.
Her body lost some of its stiffness and she felt fully conscious as she began to prepare for her day.
The presentation was to begin in two hours, which meant that she had enough time to, brew some tea, grab some cereal, gather her things and ride the subway.
She hoped that Henkelman did not have some manner of meeting coordinated for before the event. This was exactly why she would not appear at the presentation until before he was scheduled to speak. She would arrive in precisely enough time to let him know that she would be giving her speech, but late enough to miss the barrage of football terminology that would no doubt assault the ears of the Administration “Team” as “QB Henkelman delivered the “Game Plan.”
Tonya never understood why Jim insisted on phrasing his strategic speeches after the style of military or athletic sports. If it proved anything to her, it was that the only coherent point Henkelman was aware of, was the tip of his penis. Everything else, she was quite sure, escaped his attention.
She sipped her tea and contemplated The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Why was that such a difficult concept to for men to comprehend?” Tonya wondered to herself.
Dr. Meredith reflected further while watching the few balls of jasmine leaves unfurl themselves in the hot bath of her mug. She straightened her spine, and breathed deeply. Steam rose from the mug of tea sitting on the floor before her. The scent was bitter, but slightly stimulating.
This morning, she would topple an empire, this afternoon, she would be back to work, and this evening, she would celebrate the day with another cup of tea.
With these affirmations fresh in her mind she set about in the preparation for the day.