Chapter 1
The room dimmed and the wall-sized screen began to flicker with video. A cheerful woman's voice began to monologue over a montage. First it showed a picture of Alexander Graham Bell taking a historic telephone call, then one of a candlestick phone, then an old rotary phone.
"For the past one-hundred-and-fifty years, the trusty telephone has taken on many shapes, and it has come a long, long way. Phones are getting smaller and smaller, right before our eyes." The montage continued to trace the history of telephones, eventually reaching the modern day smartphones. "So where will it go from here?" A smiling cartoon man walked down a barely animated street. "We believe the next step is not only hands-free, but voice-free conversation. This little guy is catching up with an old friend, without even speaking. How does he do this? Mindline." The video zoomed into a cross section of the man's skull, showing a tiny computer chip, next to which a small round face spoke into it. "The groundbreaking technology inside the comfortable Mindline chip allows it to hear words and concepts that your head is thinking. Through harmless signals, it passes those words through to someone else's chip." The camera zoomed back to the strolling man, who then walked past some men working on the road with a pneumatic drill. "After simple training, the result is a conversation with no background noise, and no one to eavesdrop on your own business. Conversation as it should be." A professional looking photo of the chip filled the screen, with the product logo in bold modern lettering. "Mindline. The future of conversation." Light returned to the room, making everyone around the table slightly disorientated.
Two men in their late-twenties and flawless suits stood in front of the screen. They were the Gosling Brothers, who had become the topic of industry conversation for many months. Tom, a talented engineer with bouncing ginger hair, was always very uncomfortable around people. As a young boy he used to take apart televisions and computers and put them back together again, only improved. He was gifted, and had continually invented electronic devices inside his house. His older brother David, with a clean shaven head and slight goatee, was the marketer and spokesperson of the duo. The Mindline chip was their precious invention and obsession. David cleared his throat and spoke with a voice like crackling fire.
"So that's our first, basic commercial for the Mindline chip. You are the first people, besides us, and our assistant, to actually see the chip in its current form. With your investment, we will advance with our research and manufacturing, and this product could be on the market potentially by November of this year. We are in the refining stages, and are confident that this will be the next level of telecommunications." His words were confident, but his suit was sweating. The long table seated the board of directors and financiers for one of the world's biggest communication companies. "We will now do a quick demonstration." He took from his case a large blindfold and soundproof ear pieces and put them on David. He snapped his fingers in his brother's ears to show that David was completely unaware of everything around him. "Can I have a volunteer? Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous." Everyone around the large table looked around, intrigued, until a white haired man held his pen up. "Thank you." He passed a piece of paper to the gentleman. "Please could you draw a simple doodle, of anything, absolutely anything. The harder it is to guess, the better. Then, through Mindline, I will tell Tom about it, and he will describe to everyone what it is." The man raised his eyebrows, and then scribbled quickly, everyone looking in interest. He then passed it to David, who rubbed his finger over his skin, just above his left ear, where the chip was imbedded. David wiped his palms slightly - he seemed slightly uncomfortable at speaking to his brother's mind, but he did his best to disguise that. His eyes narrowed as they moved across the images on the page.
A second later Tom spoke, in a loud voice. "It's a dog, riding a motorbike, chasing a string of sausages."
"That's right, that's what it is!" the older gentleman grinned and showed everyone around the table, who muttered and nodded to themselves.
'This must be as excited as they come,' David thought, 'until they hear sales and numbers'. Tom took the blindfold off and blinked in the light. "Does anyone have any questions for me or Tom?" They stared at him intently, unsure whether they should take the brothers seriously.
"What did the video mean by 'simple training'?" One man asked. "People don't want a course on how to work a phone, they just want to turn it on and talk to people."
"The training session would last about a day, when the users simply get used to isolating those particular thoughts that the brain connects with speech, and focussing them as a conversation. We have written a quick course outline which you will find on page twelve of the pamphlets."
A woman with short hair and shoulder pads spoke. "How did you design it for the human brain? Neither of you are scientists - how did you know that the mind is able to do all this? Or is it all just pretend?"
"Good question, we are now a team of two, but we used to have a renowned neuroscientist working with us - Dr Robert Caine, who helped kick-start the project. The science aspect came from him. Alas, he's recently relocated to the States to pursue other projects." That question seemed to make Tom panic inside.
"I'll get straight to the two elephants in the room. And not just the ones in suits." A woman with an upturned nose spoke. Some of the board chuckled at her little joke. "And they are, one, does it work as well as you seem to suggest, and two, is it safe having a chip sending people your inner thoughts? Or maybe the question is, does society want to open itself up that much? I don't want everyone to know what I'm thinking!"
"Nobody cares." a plump man opposite her snorted.
"Well you certainly don't want to know what I'm thinking now!" she replied. They all laughed. This made David sick in his gut. He breathed outwards slowly to calm himself.
"Very sensible questions, Amanda. Firstly, it is still under testing. I and my brother are the subjects, and we have had many regular conversations through Mindline. However well it works depends on the individual learning how to do it, but once they can, it's straightforward. It's like... riding a bike, or driving a car. To be perfectly honest, it isn't as fluid as a spoken conversation - it communicates more... the ideas and concepts, rather than an exact string of words with all the correct punctuation. The investment would help us test it in greater scenarios, such as crowds of people speaking all at once, or even speaking to someone on the other side of the world." His passion was in full swing once more. Tom stood quite still, rather like someone attending a funeral. It was sometimes hard to tell they were brothers, as they were different in so many ways. "Second question. I must emphasise, with sufficient training, this product is rather like a mobile, but without audible sound. Whoever you're speaking to won't be able to read your thoughts and find any secrets. They'll only do that if you let them. There are also easy ways of switching it off if the user feels uncomfortable with a conversation they are having."
Another man sat up. "Is this really something for everyone, David? Or is it just for those gadget obsessed people who have more money than sense? Who's gonna buy this, really?" David tried hard to keep his breathing at a minimum volume.
"Whoever wants absolute privacy in their calls, whoever is in noisy environments, whoever hates holding devices, whoever...wants it an easier task to communicate. Think about those people who have trouble communicating orally because of any medical reasons. There is a niche for this sort of appliance. People will love it, once it is understood." The questions fired at the brothers for another ten minutes, until the chairman at last spoke.
"It's a nice idea, boys, and you're clearly very passionate. Our concern is whether it truly works as well as it should. No brain damage. However both of you seem to still be in one piece. Listen. We'll see you here again, this time next month, and we want to see results. Do as many tests as you can. Double check, triple check everything. Give us charts and observations, and maybe we'll reconsider. Thank you. Meeting adjourned."
The brothers marched
out the building clutching cases of files and papers, David sweating like he had a fever. "Well that could have gone better." Tom said, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder mockingly.
"It could have gone worse. They didn't say no."
Tom poked a finger at David's shoulder. "You may have a good poker face but I know you well enough to know that you weren't feeling it in there. You're in a different place altogether. You're not really passionate about this product deep down, are you?" Tom's voice was almost monotone, which made him hard to read, except by his brother. "I want to see you falling in love with the chip like you did when we started the project."
David smirked at his brother. They were both so full of adrenaline they could lash out and anything. "I don't know what you're talking about, bro. This is our baby! It's almost here! Just a month and we'll be on our way."
"I know we need to go and start the weekend, but I just have to say - past couple of weeks you've been really uncomfortable with using the chip on me. Why is that? Something in my head you don't like?"
"Probably just pre-conference nerves. Enough with the questions! Loosen up, would ya?" He waved to someone down the street. "Hey, there's Brendan, good kid."
Brendan was their assistant, who was also an extremely talented engineer. He was doing an internship with the brothers through a friend of a friend, and was a loyal and cheerful helper. Brendan always wore smart, matching clothes - too smart for any normal eighteen year old. Right now he was holding a couple of their favourite beers. They walked towards him, waving through the city bustle.
"You seem very attached to him, Dave. Pretty soon you'll be business partners!" Tom spoke through his smile. He was easily jealous of people who took his brother's attention.
"Don't be so stupid. He's an intern, and he's very handy to have around. Imagine back when you were eighteen and you got the chance to help with big projects like this. You'd have wet yourself." They patted Brendan on the back and joked over beer and greasy noodles, while he took them to the nearest train station to head back home.
'How long until they stop playing Happy Families?' Brendan thought to himself.