Today We Have Saved the World
Bjarke Hammersholt Roune
The Last Sputnik
Top Secret //NOFORN
October 5, 1957
Dear Mr. President,
Yesterday, the Soviet Union launched Earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The Soviets have surpassed us in space. Our great nation will take immediate and comprehensive action to ensure that we win the space race. We no doubt will succeed, but that is not enough. We must ask ourselves how the Soviets came to surpass us.
It was not the Soviet Union that beat us to orbit. It was Sergei Korolev, the Soviet space program’s chief engineer, and his team. We were bested not by a nation, but by a group of exceptional individuals. It is the supply of exceptional individuals that determines which nation will be technologically ahead.
To be ahead in all areas always, we must have a far greater supply of exceptional individuals than any other nation, and to ensure this, I submit to you that we must manufacture them.
Above and beyond expanding our capabilities in space, we must repurpose ourselves to one primary goal: the creation of a drug to turn an already-capable adult into an exceptional one. A drug that will increase a human being’s intelligence. With this one advance, the United States of America will be ahead not just in space, but in all areas and for all time.
I suggest creating a new agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). It will be part of our public response to Sputnik. Its mission will be to ensure our nation’s technological supremacy. What the public will not know, and what the Soviet Union must never know, is that we will achieve this mission by manufacturing exceptional individuals. Developing the means to manufacture exceptional individuals will be ARPA’s secret primary goal. We must pursue this goal for as long as it takes, and with whatever resources it takes, until we succeed.
Yesterday was a failure for our great nation. Let us ensure a future in which every day is a victory. Let us create ARPA.
Sincerely,
General Adam Stonebridge
I Believe in Your Character
January 7, 2020
Frank arrived early for his job interview. He was waiting in a brightly lit office with no windows, white walls, and a table in the middle with two austere chairs. There was a gentle hum of air conditioning. He didn’t know what the job was, but he knew it was important. The background check to have this conversation had gone beyond anything he’d ever heard about—far beyond that required for his current job as a CIA analyst.
The door opened, and a tall, well-built man wearing a general’s insignia walked in.
“Hello, Frank, I’m Grant. Honored to meet you.” Grant shook Frank’s hand firmly.
“It’s an honor to be here, sir.”
“Let me start out by saying that you’re the top candidate. I know your life, and I believe in your character. You have the job. The only question is if you want it.”
“Uhh, that’s wonderful, sir,” said Frank, caught off guard.
“First, let me tell you what we do here: We spy on people’s thoughts and make them do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.”
Frank blinked, trying to process the words.
“Spy on people’s thoughts? How?” Frank said, his voice tinged with disbelief.
“We place a device in their brains that can read their thoughts. It can also make them do things that they wouldn’t normally do, but in a way so they think they’re doing it voluntarily.”
Frank didn’t know what to say, and he wondered whether a trick was being played on him.
“But what’s important about what we do isn’t how we do it, but what we achieve.”
“What do you achieve?”
“Our primary mission is to prevent wars, genocides, and terrorism. That’s what we do here.”
“So, this is real—we can control people’s minds?”
“Yes, but we use it sparingly. This isn’t a population-level operation. We believe in democracy, but we don’t believe in terrorist attacks. That’s the balance,” Grant said.
“You work in intelligence to catch terrorists. Has it not surprised you how often terrorists plan an attack, only to give up their plans and go their separate ways? That’s us,” Grant continued.
“What, so you brainwash them into being productive citizens?”
“No, never that. We make the smallest change to achieve what must be achieved. That’s the job I’m offering you. You can do more good than you’ve ever dreamed of.”
“What’s the catch?”
“Yes, there’s a catch, but it’s one you’ll come to appreciate. To do this job, you must have one of these devices implanted in your brain, too. We operate the devices in other people’s brains using a device in our own brains. It’s the most efficient method.”
“Will you brainwash me, too?”
“No, but I don’t fault you for asking. We don’t brainwash anybody, Frank. We make small adjustments to their lives, but no, no one will ever have access to your device other than you.
Their conversation went on for an hour. Frank had two weeks to decide, but as he walked out the door, he knew that he’d accept the job. He’d seen body parts strewn all over after a terrorist attack—seen it too many times.
Project Eternal Watch Annual Report 1958
Top Secret/SCI-PROJECT ETERNAL WATCH//NOFORN
January 1, 1959
Dear colleagues,
If you are receiving this message, you are working on the most important project of our lifetime. When we succeed, we will be privileged to advance our great nation farther than anyone has dreamed of and far ahead of the Soviet Union.
I am pleased to report that project Eternal Watch’s goals for its first year have been achieved, thanks to your efforts.
We have developed tests to determine the intelligence of mice relative to other mice with great precision, which was our primary goal for 1958. We have also secured the facilities and staff needed to undertake the project’s next phase: the systematic exposure of mice to every substance known to mankind. We shall not cease until we have identified an array of substances that increase a mouse’s intelligence relative to other mice. We shall manufacture exceptional mice, and then, we shall manufacture exceptional humans.
We must not expect quick or easy results. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. We shall expect to go down many blind alleys in the years or decades to come.
Sincerely,
General Adam Stonebridge
The Grinch Teaches
February 17, 2020
Frank sat in yet another bare room. Today was the day he’d get his device. A man a bit shorter than Frank walked in and threw his right hand out.
“Hey, I’m Sam. I’m here to help you with your device.” Frank shook his hand.
“I’m Frank. So how do I get the device?”
“They didn’t tell you anything, did they? You’ve already got it.” Sam grinned.
“No, I just got here.”
“The process of how the device enters the body is ... complicated. But trust me, it’s already in there. I’m here to tell you how to use it.”
“I see, “ said Frank, unsettled without wanting to show it.
“There, operator mode was activated just now,” said Sam.
Frank suddenly saw big letters in front of him spelling out “Welcome.” The letters weren’t in his visual field—not exactly. They felt like something he was imagining on top of what he saw, without obscuring his visual field.
“Did you see it?” asked Sam.
“Yeah, it says, ‘Welcome’”
“That means it worked. Try it out, like, try deciding that I look like the Grinch.”
For a split second, Frank didn’t know what to make of the suggestion, but then he somehow knew that he could make Sam appear any way that he wanted. He was somehow aware of endless possibilities for how he could make Sam look. He chose the Grinch. His visual field changed, and before him in Sam’s place stood the Grinch.
“You can have a lot of fun with that one. Between you and me, Grant always looks like Yoda to me. I change his voice, too.” The Grinch laughed. Frank changed him back to looking like Sam again.
Frank learned many things during the next hour. His brain now had an always-on connection to the US armed forces’ wireless global network. He had access to his own private data drive from his mind, and he could record video with his eyes and ears. He had a word processor in his head, too. He could see a page of text with his eyes and import it as a text file to his drive. He could talk with Sam in his mind—an electronic form of telepathy.
“Now decide that there’s a person standing next to me and share it with me,” said Sam.
Frank did, and again he somehow knew that he could make any kind of person appear. He decided on an overweight Caucasian man with dreadlocks. He sent the image to Sam, who accepted it, so that the man appeared to both of them.
“This is a dummy. You can make it walk around and appear to behave like a real person. Once I made 100 of these march past my window and salute me,” Sam said.
“Try poking this one in the chest.”
Frank poked the man in the chest, and he felt the impact on his finger as the man took a step back.
“That’s right, touch is in the brain, too, so you can feel virtual objects and dummies. If you put your hand on this one’s shoulder, you can even rest it there. How it works is that it uses your own muscles to stop your hand, but it does it in a way so you don’t notice it. You can even make freaky lady dummies—if you know what I mean.”
“Anyway, there’s a serious point to all this. Decide to connect into the dummy.”
Frank did and suddenly found that he had two visual fields, one from his own eyes and one from the perspective of the dummy’s eyes. He could also feel the dummy’s body as a second body, and he could move the dummy’s body like his own. He waved to Sam with the dummy.
“You got it. You can do the same thing with someone who has the device in their head in client mode. We call those people ‘clients.’”
The lesson continued. As the day drew to a close, Frank tried to digest everything he had experienced. The device’s implications and what it could do weighed heavily on him.
Project Eternal Watch Annual Report 1962
Top Secret/SCI-PROJECT ETERNAL WATCH//NOFORN
January 1, 1963
Colleagues,
We shall not lose heart.
Our countryman, John Glenn, orbited Earth this year and we have the magnificent people at NASA to thank for that. They are exceptional individuals, just as you all are—that is why I chose each of you for this mission. Yet our nation has only so many exceptional individuals. That is what we aim to change—and change it, we shall. That is my vow to you, and it is our nation’s commitment to us and our grand project.
We have so far determined that 32,749 known substances and 278 substances that we developed do not appreciably increase intelligence in mice. Every time we test a substance, we are one step closer to success; and once we succeed, America will succeed forever.
As always, we will carry on until we succeed. There is no more meaningful project than ours. I am honored and humbled to work with each of you on it. —General Adam Stonebridge
I Hope They’re Bad People
/diary/feb-02-2020.txt
I always wanted a diary, but I never could because writing down classified information isn’t allowed, and much of my life is classified. That changed today. I can put anything I want here in my mind drive. They view my drive as part of my mind and therefore private. For the first time, I can have a diary. I’m “typing” this by thinking the words.
It’s 3 a.m., and I’ve slept for four hours. Turns out that’s all I need now that I have this device. I’m going to have a lot more free time from now on. I can also control my own motivation now. I’ll never lack the motivation to work, exercise, do chores, or anything else again. I ate some carrots last evening and decided that they tasted like candy, and then they did. Then I decided to no longer be hungry, and then I wasn’t. My life will not be the same from now on.
I have an AI feature in my head now, too. I can think a partial sentence, like, “Right now, I’d like to ...,” and I just instantly know what the reasonable possibilities for the next word might be. No thinking required. I’m using it to write this diary entry much faster than I otherwise could. It seems to be smarter than I am sometimes.
Life will be better for me this way as an operator, but what about the clients—the people whom we use this device to control? Who are they, and what do we do to them? That I still don’t know, but I’ll get some answers next week. I hope they’re bad people.
Project Eternal Watch Annual Report 1968
Top Secret/SCI-PROJECT ETERNAL WATCH//NOFORN
January 1, 1969
Colleagues,
Our patience has been rewarded.
We have tested 278,371 substances and found that they do not appreciably increase intelligence in mice. However, substance 278,372, a substance that we developed, does increase intelligence in mice. We named this substance Thanaxylinol-1, or TX-1 for short, and have developed variants TX-2 through TX-23, all of which increase intelligence in mice. TX-17 more than all the others.
My colleagues, my friends, I am humbled to report that because of your work, by using TX-17, we have manufactured the smartest monkeys on Earth. They are still monkeys, they do not have language, they are not like us, but they are far smarter than any normal monkey.
The results may not translate to humans. If they do not, then, as always, we shall carry on until we succeed. If they do, then you will have done more for your nation than any others. —General Adam Stonebridge
Free Will
February 24, 2020
It was time for Frank’s Monday session with Sam.
“Today, we’ll do your first mission with a live client,” Sam said.
“This guy’s a boffin. He’s got this idea to study how smart mice are, or how some mice are smarter than some other mice, or whatever. He’s a real regular flyer over here, let me tell you. We just don’t want him thinking about this stuff at all.”
“He put in for some funding that we arranged to be denied, and he’ll get word about that today.”
“Your mission is to nudge him toward perceiving the rejection as the final nail in the coffin for his research into animal intelligence.”
“This one is boring because we like this boffin, we just don’t like what he wants to do, so you can’t do anything fun. Just make him a bit depressed about it all.”
“Here’s the boffin’s handle. You know what to do. I’m just here to observe today.”
Frank had been training for the past week. Sam’s message with the client’s handle appeared in his mind. He accepted it and connected with the client through the handle. The sensations of the client’s body appeared in Frank’s awareness, along with the client’s conscious and subconscious thoughts.
Frank decided that the client would check his email and the client did. The client didn’t notice anything strange, he just thought that he had decided it himself. That’s how the device worked. It made you do things that you thought were your own idea.
As the client read the rejection email, Frank inspected the client’s thoughts. The implant allowed Frank to be aware of many more things simultaneously than a normal human being could. He could take in not only the client’s thoughts, but also all of the client’s subconscious “pre-thoughts”, potential thoughts that could become what the client was going to think next. He could catch these pre-thoughts before they became thoughts.
Frank saw a pre-thought, “I can still do this research anyway,” and blocked it. Thus the client wouldn’t think that thought for as long as Frank was connected into his mind. He inserted a different thought into the client’s mind, “This is all hopeless,” and included a change of mood with the thought. The client instantly became more depressed.
Over the next hour, Frank gently guided the client toward an ever-deeper depressive, brooding mood about the prospects of his mouse intelligence research. Frank then eased off and observed that the client remained depressed about the topic without the device exerting any influence.
“That’s good, you’ve made him not want to have anything more to do with this research topic. Now we can leave him alone. We’ll check in on him every once in a while to see whether the change holds, but hopefully, we won’t have to bother him ever again. Jeez, these boffin missions are so boring,” Sam said.
Frank was happy that he accomplished the mission, though he didn’t understand why the device would be used to prevent research into mouse intelligence. It seemed such an innocuous topic. At least the client didn’t suffer much during the process, and he could move on to other research.
Over the next year, Frank did many missions. Most involved making terrorists give up on terrorism—his specialty. Each time, he’d imagine the men, women, and children who’d stay in one piece, free to live out their lives, because of what he was doing. It made him happy. One time, he filled in for Sam and made a “boffin” abandon research into ultrasound’s effects on the human brain. Another time, he made a Chinese bureaucrat deny a proposal to reduce the number of steps in the procedure to launch a nuclear missile. The work made sense to Frank, despite his misgivings.
Our Watch is Renewed
FOR EXCEPTIONAL EYES ONLY
May 14, 1969
My colleagues, my friends,
We are victorious.
As you all know, TX-17 is a complete success. By taking it, we have become who and what we are today—individuals far beyond any human who has come before us.
I have news that may at first shock and dismay, but I have faith in you to hear me out. We will keep TX-17 to ourselves. Only we exceptionals in what was Project Eternal Watch will have it. As far as our civilian oversight knows, Project Eternal Watch was a failure and will be disbanded. All of you are to be reassigned to projects of high importance to the defense of the United States of America. Let it be so.
Consider the atomic bomb. We were first, and we defeated the Empire of Japan. To the eternal credit of our great nation, the United States of America is not an unprovoked conqueror. We did not use the bomb to conquer any country beyond an empire that attacked us first, not even the Soviet Union, yet where has that left us? The Soviet Union now has the bomb, too. Every minute of every day of every year, there are Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at Washington and every great city in our nation. We created a weapon of terrible destruction, and now, that very weapon is aimed at our home. This must not happen with TX-17.
And make no mistake: TX-17 is the most terrible weapon that humanity has ever created. It does no harm in a syringe, but it created us. Because of what we have become, we will create weapons that are far beyond what normal humans can create. If the Soviet Union ever so much as hears about TX-17, then they can do it, too, just as they did with the nuclear bomb. This must not come to pass.
If our civilian oversight hears of TX-17, then they will want too many people to have it, and they will not be able to keep it a secret. Or, if President Nixon can keep it a secret, then after the next election, another will take his place who cannot. We must take this responsibility seriously. If we do not keep TX-17 to ourselves, our recklessness may doom not just the United States of America, but perhaps all of humanity—just as the nuclear bomb threatens to do.
My family, only we can know. If you have any faith in me, then I must humble myself before you and ask you to trust me once more on this one thing. I know and trust each and every one of you. If you have doubts, then come to me.
We will disband and each serve our nation in military research. We will hide our newfound mental strengths while still using them to attain positions of leadership and trust. We will not forget each other. Together, we will guide our great nation’s defense like none other could. This is our burden, and we will bear it gladly. —General Adam Stonebridge
Audience With a Leader
January 11, 2021
Grant had called Frank in for a meeting in one of the stark meeting rooms.
“It’s good to see you, Frank. I hear you’ve been doing great work here. I knew you would.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“This is a meeting I have with our people after they’ve had a good long while to settle their minds. We’re going to talk about your doubts, Frank.”
Grant smiled reassuringly.
“My doubts, sir?” Frank said, unsure of where the conversation was going.
“Yes, your doubts. You’re an impressive individual, Frank, and someone with good morals. I made sure of that when I selected you. No one like you can do this work without doubts. You have them, and that’s not only acceptable, I’d be dismayed if you didn’t. We’re going to talk about them.”
“I see, sir.”
“So, tell me about your doubts. Like your first operation, with the mice research. What did you think of that?”
“I wasn’t sure why we would prevent that kind of research,” Frank said, still not sure where the conversation was going.
“Of course you weren’t, but that’s not your real doubt, is it? I think your real doubt is that we violated that man’s mind, not to mention his privacy, by implanting a device in his head, and then using it to force him to do something against his will. If we’re doing it to terrorists, that’s one thing, but that man did nothing wrong. He was an American serving his country admirably. Did that not occur to you?”
“It did, sir, but I assumed it was for the best in some way that I’m not aware of.”
“I can promise you that it was. I’m sure you have more doubts than that, though. Nothing you say here will leave this room. This is the time where we can discuss these things, you and I. Say whatever is on your mind.”
Frank hesitated for a moment.
“Sir, I’ve been wondering, is the president a client?”
Grant looked at Frank, surprised.
“No, Frank, the president isn’t a client, and he never will be. That’s one of our rules that we’ve all sworn to: No leader of any country and no elected official will ever be a client. Not even a mayor of a small city. If a client becomes an elected official, we deactivate the device.”
“Does the president know about the device?”
“He doesn’t. This operation has been going on for decades, Frank. If we told our civilian oversight about what we really do here, they couldn’t keep it a secret, not in the long run. Imagine what would happen then. First, other countries would find a way to block our device if they knew about it. Second, they’d eventually figure out how to copy the device, and then the device would be out there. We would have no control of it anymore. We do good here, Frank—you know that we do. What you don’t know is that we’ve prevented nuclear war more than once as part of this operation. If we told the president, or if you told the president, then there would be incidents that would lead to nuclear war and we wouldn’t be here to stop it.”
Frank took some time to process what Grant had said.
“I’m not really working for the United States government anymore, am I?” Frank asked.
“You are. I’m a real general in the armed forces, and you’re a real government employee. But you’re right. We love our country, but we are something more than the United States government. Our responsibility is heavier than that. In time, you’ll get to know everything, and you’ll become more than you are now, but that’s for later.”
“What gives us the right to do what we do?”
“I’d ask you instead, ‘What gives us the right not to?’ We are what stands between humanity and nuclear war. We prevent most terrorism; you’re part of that yourself. Our footprint in the world is as small as we can make it. We could throw off our burden and let humanity fend for itself, but is that right? If you can make that case, we’ll stop what we’re doing, but it’s not a case that can be made—not by you, not by anyone.”
“But we toy with people’s minds. I know they’re terrorists, but even then, it’s a lot what we do. We take away people’s free will. Sometimes they aren’t terrorists. I’m not sure anyone should have this level of control.”
“We couldn’t save humanity with anything less. I can’t tell you everything yet, but I can tell you that the ultimate consequence of having allowed your client to proceed with his mouse intelligence research would have been disastrous. We took away his free will, yes, but only a little bit of it. We stopped him from doing something disastrous, just like we do with terrorists. It’s worth the price.”
“Who are you to make these decisions?”
“It’s not just me, but yes, that’s a good question. The truth is, I don’t want to be making these decisions, but I don’t have a choice. I’m in a position to do what needs to be done. That makes it my responsibility to do it,” Grant answered earnestly.
“You worked for the CIA. You know they can’t stop terrorism, not very much of it, not like us. We don’t stop everything, it would be too suspicious if we did, but we stop most of it. You stop most of it. It’s possible only because of the information and control that we get through using this device and keeping it a secret. Would you stop what you’re doing?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Frank answered truthfully.
“Then you understand my position, and you understand why it was so important to find a good person to do this work. To find someone we can trust. Someone I can trust. To find you.”
“I’m not sure that we should be doing this.”
“You’re not supposed to be sure. I wouldn’t have chosen you if you were. This is just something that we have to do.”
They talked into the night until Frank had nothing more to ask and nothing more to say. When Frank got home, he reflected that what Grant had said made sense. He wasn’t sure about the ethics of it, but the work he was doing had to continue. It wasn’t very different from some of the hard decisions he had had to make in the CIA. He realized with a start that Frank would have known that.
An Enduring Peace
FOR EXCEPTIONAL EYES ONLY
September 28, 1974
My family,
Since our creation five years ago, we have already made strides not possible to this nation without us. Some we have shared with the normals, some we have not. “Normals”—that word I have heard only whispered in my presence. I have decided to embrace it.
We serve humanity, but we are not normal humanity. We may think ourselves above the normals, but that is not our place. We are below. We have taken it upon ourselves to guide the normals without their knowledge or permission. They are not at the table, so we always must think of them first and foremost. The specter of their judgment, as it would be if they knew, must forever hang above us. They are our masters, and we their servants, for the normals are humanity, and we are not.
Today, I have a technological device to report that we have kept from the normals. It is a technology that will ensure peace for as long as the normals never hear about it.
We are close to completing a covert brain-computer interface (BCI) device shaped like a thin string. It can enter the body through the stomach, steer through the circulatory system to the brain and record and stimulate any function of the brain, and be in contact with us remotely. It is fully safe, powered by the blood, and it never wears out. Let us call this “the device.” The device is a combination of many of our secret technologies.
First, the string can vibrate to generate and record ultrasound. Those of us at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have determined that neurons fire, in part, by physically expanding and that this expansion can be both detected and induced in individual neurons using certain patterns of ultrasound. In this way, the device can monitor and trigger any function of the human brain.
Second, those of us at DARPA gave the string a surface that can absorb chemical energy from the blood and generate electricity. Thus, the device does not require external power.
Third, those of us at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command have developed a tiny vehicle that can be put into someone’s food and deliver the device from the stomach into the circulatory system.
Fourth, the string can flex. We have programmed it so that it can flow with the blood through the circulatory system, using ultrasound to navigate and flexing of the string to steer. The device can take several laps through the circulatory system, mapping the body and the brain to find a path through the circulatory system to the right place to deposit itself into the brain.
Fifth, the string is an antenna, so we can control the device remotely. Thus, the device allows us to control a person remotely by controlling their brain. All we have to do is to get it into their food.
The device cannot be detected by any method the normals have at their disposal. The device will not show up on CAT scans and, once we share our MRI technology with the normals, it will not show up on their MRIs either.
With this device, we can ensure that the Soviet Union can never launch a nuclear strike. We will be there in their brains to gently guide them on to another decision.
Like anyone would be, I am horrified at the idea of the device. We will be interfering with the innermost part of what it means to be human. This is why TX-17 had to be contained.
We are the most dangerous weapon in the world. Our duty is to guide and defend the normals. If we cannot be trusted with this device, then we also cannot be trusted with TX-17 or even with ourselves. We must live up to our responsibility, not throw it off our shoulders or shy away from what is difficult. Otherwise, when nuclear war envelops the planet, the shame will be ours. We must finish the device and use it to make nuclear war impossible. —General Adam Stonebridge
Another Face
April 6, 2021
Frank decided that he wanted to do more than just mess with people. He wasn’t supposed to, but he wanted to help someone. No one would know.
Frank had made a query through his device, a query across all clients, to find the one who had suffered the most in the past year. To his surprise, it had been one of Sam’s boffins. He had lied to get access, saying that the client was relevant for an operation of his.
Frank connected to the client. He instantly knew that something was wrong. The client was in pain, terrible pain. He recognized what was happening. Someone was using the device to torture this client. Then he heard a voice in the client’s mind.
“I can do what I want, and no one can do anything about it, certainly not you. I’m doing this. You cannot change it. I’m in control.”
Frank knew who it was telling the client this. He had worked with him long enough to recognize him. It was Sam.
Frank was stunned into horrified inaction. Then he snapped out of it. Grant had given Frank an override for emergencies, and Frank used it to pull Grant into the client’s mind.
“I don’t have ... I see. I’ll take care of this,” Grant told Frank before ejecting him from the client’s mind.
Our Vigil Continues
FOR EXCEPTIONAL EYES ONLY
September 26, 1983
My family,
Today we have saved the world.
Earlier today, Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov of the Soviet nuclear early warning system received a report that America had launched nuclear missiles against his homeland. This was only a glitch in the Soviet early warning system, but Stanislav did not know that. He was about to do his duty as he understood it. That would have set in motion events that would have led to global thermonuclear war. He was one of the people with our device in his head. We were there through him, and we made him wait for confirmation. Confirmation never came, and the missiles never flew.
When the normals stumble, it is we who must catch them. —General Adam Stonebridge
We Had to Find a Good Man
April 6, 2021
Frank had just been ejected from the client’s tortured mind. Sam wasn’t who he thought he was. It wasn’t just that he’d done a bad thing—he’d proven that the organization Frank found himself in was flawed. They took away people’s free will. If they were going to do that, they had to be perfect, or at least safeguard their clients from abuse—from someone like Sam. If they couldn’t be trusted with that, they also couldn’t be trusted with the responsibility they had taken for themselves, Frank thought. This was all wrong. He couldn’t believe that he had allowed himself to be a part of this. He had to tell his country’s legitimate government what was going on.
My Life Ends
FOR EXCEPTIONAL EYES ONLY
December 4, 1983
My family,
I am 64 years old, and as far as the normals will know, my life will end with a heart attack later today. I will, in reality, spend the next year in our rejuvenation facility in Alabama to reenter life as a 20-year-old cadet in the Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning. I hope to see some of you there. My new name will be Grant Bridgewater.
I shall miss my life, but I take heart that my real life is all of you and our mission.
It fills me with sadness that we cannot share all our technology with the normals. Especially the technology to repair the damage that aging does to the human body. As we have often discussed, it is unfortunate that it depends on so much other technology that we cannot share with the normals for their own good.
I will have less control over my time as a cadet, but if you have a crisis of whatever kind, then, as always, you can reach out to me. I will find a way to be there for you. —General Adam Stonebridge
Flawed as We Are
April 6, 2021
Frank walked quickly toward the exit of the building he had been working in for the past year. He was determined to report what he knew to his former colleagues in the CIA. Together, they’d be able to fix this, but first, he had to get out of there.
Two guards were waiting for Frank at the exit. There was no way out. The guards escorted Frank to a nearby meeting room. Grant was sitting at the table. Frank sat down in the chair waiting for him.
“I apologize for this, but you’re forcing my hand,” Grant said wearily.
“I must thank you for discovering what Sam has been doing. We’ll make sure that nothing like that can happen ever again. This is my fault. I was too trusting of our people.”
“We’re doing everything we can for Sam’s client.”
“Sam was one of us, but our trust in him is broken. He’ll be punished in a way that he will understand.”
“You’re not one of us, not yet, but I have faith that you will be. I don’t blame you for what I can guess that you intend to do. It’s what a younger me would’ve done in your place. That is why I chose you—you’re the kind of person who does what’s right. You’ll come to understand that there is no alternative. Flawed as we are, we still have to do what we do and that means you cannot report all of this to the CIA. We’ll meet and talk until you see it.”
Author’s Note Primitive BCI technology already exists. Advanced BCI technology, as described in this story, will eventually exist. There is probably no TX-17 serum to pull it into our present or past like there was in this story. When BCIs come of age, you cannot ban the technology. In fact, eventually, every human will want one and will have one. Yet, at the same time, BCIs are a threat to humanity, just as nuclear weapons are. There is a future where BCIs are everywhere but misuses are, somehow, impossible, even for state actors. That’s the minimum bar. We’ll have to figure out how to make that happen ahead of time. Advanced BCIs will likely be developed first in the United States, but not necessarily. In a business as usual scenario, some country and some people, who were first, are going to have options. Options they shouldn’t have. This must be prevented. Therefore, BCIs are going to be something for the UN to police, not individual states. The difficulty is that the UN must start globally policing BCIs before they are already developed, not after, and this is going to be a hard sell politically - the UN has no such powers today. So this story may be our future. If that comes to pass, let us hope that the general in charge will be as benevolent as the general in this story is clearly trying to be. Maybe he won’t be.