Prompt: Write Sci-Fi using two words.
Journal of Neuroscience and Computing
A proof of concept for wireless mind-to-mind data transmission.
14.05.2022
Abstract
The socio-economic situation, as well as the worldwide connectivity of every single person, gave rise to a need for faster and better communication. In this paper, state-of-the-art brain imaging and nano-implants are utilized to review the concept of mind-to-mind data transmission. A study with n=20 participants, split into compatible pairs, showed that they were significantly better than chance in choosing an image transmitted mentally (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the study showed the workability of mind-to-mind data transmission without a doubt.
BREAKING NEWS
NeuroMind concluded first successful MindSurfer® beta-tests.
23.01.2034
Today the MIT spin-off NeuroMind released a statement to the press, stating their first in-field tests of MindSurfer® were a complete success. Users of NeuroMind’s AR lenses—LifeLense®—have been waiting for this moment since the start of the development in 2028. Now, NeuroMind promises its customers a go-live within the year. We sure can’t wait for MindSurfer®!
Why decide when your mind already knows? Delete your bank accounts and try NeuroBank®. No more forgotten or late payments. No more wondering if your money will last for the rest of the month. NeuroBank® is the newest NeuroMind product, made to let you live free of financial burdens.
NeuroBank® reads and analyses conscious and unconscious thoughts and behaviour to optimize expenditures. Funds will be exchanged based on our patented WishWell®. Through signing with you MindID, you agree to the terms and conditions, relieving NeuroMind from all legal claims.
11.07.2045
Leo woke up, groggy. Leave it to the Minds to put him in an apartment without any comfort. Well, living a Los Angeles party-life all year long didn’t come without a cost. Good morning Leo, he was greeted by Siri. That’s what he called his LifeLense. It was a reference to the pop culture of the 2010s. Most people thought of them as lame and preferred to relive the thriving 30s, but Leo had a special place for the nerds back then, living on the rim of nanotech’s explosion. He was particularly amused by the idea of little screens inside of one’s hand, trying to fit communication into some ASCII and cat videos. Videos! Another of those simple formats back then. Two-dimensional, limited by the lens catching it and without real emotions.
Your coffee is finished, please go to the kitchen. Good girl Siri knew exactly what he needed and when. Yawning, he relocated to the kitchen. Leo, you have been off the network for 8 hours. This completes your downtime for this month. To prevent nausea and memory-loss, I will now reconnect you. For further disconnection, please wait for the 1st of August, where your available hours will be reset to 20. Shit! That explained his grogginess as well as the eerie silence he had heard for the two minutes since he was awake. The girl he had been with last night had asked him to disconnect. He assumed she was cheating on her husband and had made a desperate attempt at him not finding out. Leo must have dozed off after, without reestablishing the connection. It was time to get that damn timer fixed. He wondered why his WishWell hadn’t taken care of it by now.
Well, no more one-night stands with cheating women for the rest of the month it was. The initialization bar in front of his eyes had concluded, and he was thrown back into MindSurfer. Immediately he felt more energized. THIS was why he chose to live in the city. All those endless, stimulated minds just waiting to be called. In the countryside, it was different. You had to yell harder for people to hear you. Some people joked that it was like going back to 2020, when you still had to put effort into communicating with a specific person.
Within seconds, his left eye was filling up with notifications of the latest memories he could dive in. Unconsciously, the algorithms advancing his brain previewed and prioritized what the conscious would like to see first. On his left eye, he preferred to keep quests. Little tasks he would have to fulfil during the day. The quest add-on had made his life so much simpler, managing it one task at a time. Looking up the first item of today, he hesitated. Buy pineapples. How the hell did that get in there? Suddenly he felt like he had to remember something. Pineapples…
“Leooooo,” Alice nudged herself into his conscience. “Where in Elon’s name have you been?! I tried to dream with you, but you were gone. And it was such a good one, too!” Alice transmitted some of the images from her dream, and Leo could have bitten himself for having missed it. It was so hard to get actual dragons in your dreams. “Wait, Alice,” he disrupted her chatter. “I’m going to call in Bob.” He concentrated on the character of his friend Bob before thinking his name as loud as he could. This was not done in the city normally, but Bob was a bit disconnected after his link broke down in a motorcycle accident. He had been offline for a whole week! Leo shuddered at that thought. Just before Bob joined, another pineapple came to the edge of Leo’s consciousness. What was this?
The three of them did their morning chores with intertwined minds. Divided pain was half the pain—that saying was even more true after the introduction of MindSurfer. Around midday, Leo excused himself to go to work. He was not allowed to intertwine during work hours due to confidentiality. When he opened his door, a black box was sitting there, waiting for him. He looked around and saw a shadow disappear in the illuminated crowd. Shadows were people not connected. Social outcasts that were worthless and unknowing. You couldn’t even see their profile when looking at them, let alone share a moment with them. Nevertheless, he opened the box. There it was again. A pineapple!
The shadow stood a few feet away from Leo. All these neuro-zombies wouldn’t mind him anyway. To their highly stimulated brain, he was not much different from a tree. He leaned forward in anticipation when Leo opened the box. Still no reaction. Leo, his friend, was one of the first to speak up against the MindSurfer. His whole research was focused on the downsides of the technology, reaching from security to psychology. When nothing seemed to help, he decided to go in, to fight from the inside. They had a strategy to keep him afloat. One that would slip through the corporation’s firewalls. They would utilize Leo’s inexplicable love for pineapples. And now this. That all his digital clues had failed was one thing, but now he couldn’t even grasp a physical one? They had to pull Leo. His mind might be lost otherwise.
Playing with the fruit all along his way to work, it suddenly hit him. He should not be here. This world was a lie. He belonged to the shadows! He wanted nothing more but to disconnect. No hours left. Please wait for the 1st of August for your hours to be reset to 20. Panic crept up at him. They had caught him! They would win. He threw the pineapple to the floor furiously and fumbled on his lens, ready to take it out when a whooshing memory of the dragon from Alice’s dream captured his consciousness. Once it was done, he felt calm again, like the minds surrounding him. He shouldn’t forget to buy these bananas from the quest blinking in front of his eye.
Words: pineapple, box
fabled ink 
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