The week passed and I heard that Matt had been testing the Cyclone helmet. He was using the Cyclone 2 variant. On Friday, I spotted him at Zmittag in the Brant cafe and thought I would ask him about it.
"Hey, Matt, I see you are into the Swiss lunches! What's that?"
"Hey, Oliver! Yes it's Rösti mit Wurst. More like an Irish meal than a full Swiss. It's so confusing here calling lunch Zmittag but then serving daily French dishes!"
"That's an outrider, then?"
"Yes, I'm all Tartifletted out! The Swiss like their cheese, don't they? I see you have the Papet Vadois. Looks good?
Yes, its leeks and potatoes with a hint of sausage - it reminds me, bizarrely, of Colcannon."
"I can see how you'd make that connection."
We both smile and then I ask him.
"So tell me about your week. I hear you have been under the Cyclone?"
He looks around but we are in a quiet corner.
"It was trippy. I was given the Cyclone - the Cyclone 2, actually. I'm not sure now how they persuaded me to wear it, but Juliette had hinted that there were many other human testers. I've also got form with brain stimulation. I used it for a time to help me concentrate at Uni. But that really is another story.
"The helmet fitted me surprisingly well and I was given a controller as a kind of safety thing to help me turn it off. You know how on trains they have 'fail-safe' speed controllers? The same idea only it looked like a Scalextric toy car racing set controller."
He squinted and I was aware he was trying to recount the experience accurately.
"They wanted me to attempt to converse with a live rat or maybe even operate it. I guess I was the guinea pig! I pressed the plunger and a small dial shot around into the green. My mind, via the Cyclone, was now connected via cables to the rat's central nervous system. To begin with, nothing else happened. The rat continued rooting around in its cage and I couldn't feel anything different."
He pauses and there is an intensity as I see his eyes widen.
"Then suddenly, I was over an abyss. My brain had emptied, and I had no thoughts - probably the first time that my inner monologue had stopped. I felt drained.
"The rat was now motionless. I tried to lift my left leg, and I saw the rat do the same. Then the right. My entire brain was given over to controlling a small rodent.
"Then the rat jumped."
I jumped in my seat in the canteen as he said it, causing the table items to rattle noisily.
"I was overcome with a flood of emotion. Food. The rat could see a small food container placed in the experiment area. A big Mac. I felt myself being operated on and dragged to where the food was. The rat ate the corner of the burger. I felt good."
He pauses again, then picks up, "Another adrenaline rush. A second rat, larger than the first one, was now in the experiment area and had seen the food. It was going to fight me to secure the food for itself."
"More adrenaline. I gripped the controller harder, ready for the fight. It didn't come. I'd overloaded, and the system had thrown me out. I could feel my own natural thoughts returning and also saw Juliette lifting the second rat from the experimental area and placing it in a separate cage. We checked my heartbeat afterwards and it was running at 220 bpm."
"Intense," I say, "Hardcore thrash metal speed."
"Too right. But my entire worldview was reduced to that of the rat."
"What about your own 'self' - were you aware of it?" I ask.
Matt replies, "No - after I'd adjusted to the headgear - or the headgear had adjusted to me - I felt my whole conscious drawing away. I literally had no thoughts. I was running on reflex. When the rat looked still and I moved it by moving my left and right legs - it used my entire thought capacity.
"But then, when food appeared, the rat could drive itself, but after it had eaten some, I felt good. And then I felt agitated when the second rat appeared like I was ready to fight for the burger. It got too intense, I pressed the button too far involuntarily and the system ejected me."
"They say that it was far more than they had expected to get from the first session."
I ask, "So it looks as if the system was operating 'two-way'?"
"Most definitely, although when the rat's instinct for the food took over I was unable to override it. Maybe it is because I was surprised by the whole experience."
"What about the rat afterwards?" I ask.
"It just went back to its normal behaviour, no doubt pleased to have acquired a Big Mac in the process."
He pauses, I notice his eyes flickering. "I was thinking about how much spare brain capacity there is which could be used for something gainful."
"You mean like the insertion of AI into the 'gap'?'
"Kinda, but we would also need to restore the normal function of the 'human' end of the Cyclone."
"I see. Instead of using the system to interface to a rat, make the same 'two-way' communications capable of connecting to an AI device?"
"Yes. Now it turns out that the lab can already do that using the Levi Spillmann operating system, but it all runs too slowly. I've asked my buddy from England to come over to take a look. I think Spillmann 'slugged' the system.
"Slugged it - what deliberately make it go slow?" I ask.
"Yes, but I've been looking at it and think there's a digital key to unlock fast processing. Heck - we are running this on an Exascale computer."
"Something else," says Matt, "I think the rush of adrenaline I experienced is important. I suspect that the Cyclone can trip different sensations. If it can trip Seratonin - for mood management and Dopamine for 'feel good', Oxytocin for the 'warm and fuzzies/loved-up', and Adrenaline - for self-preservation, then we have a complete in-built rewards system.
"Who have you told?" I ask, "I suspect this needs to be handled carefully."
"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Look, I trust Juliette Häberli and have explained it to her. Between just us two - I've become a 'rather good friend' of Juliette."
"Your secret is safe; does anyone else at the lab know?"
"No one."
"What about Simon?"
"No. I think Simon asks too many questions. Also remember he is close to Bérénice Charbonnier, who is something of a news hound."
"I don't think she would like to be referred to that way," I chuckle.
"No, I mean she will hunt down any good stories, so my advice is to be careful around both Simon and Bérénice."
No comments:
Post a Comment