The investors sat in a room I'd never had the luxury of seeing before. It was accessible by elevator from the executive floors and sat at the penthouse level with a view of the entire city glowing beneath us from bright snaking mag-trains to multi-tiered bridges to allow various forms of transportation to co-exist.
A few family and couple-sized lev-pods rose and sank on the horizon as people took in the city's grandeur, though far fewer than we'd see around sunset. Arch had said he'd book a private one for us once our proposals got approved, so we could celebrate together, but the thought of being alone with him made my skin crawl, which was quite the contrast from earlier tonight when I'd thought we might be ready to move in together more permanently. With my pay raise, there was no need, and his betrayal eviscerated any desire.
Although he stood tall and smiled toward the investors, his glance kept darting at me, and his hands twitched until he noticed my gaze and shoved them in his pockets. Was he nervous I'd mess up the presentation? I was now under the code of silence and wouldn't be able to fight with him or anyone about the true source of the idea in public. That had to be his dream. Complete control and an impressive, heavily sponsored invention to knock him out of his internship. I focused elsewhere so I wouldn't grow too enraged when I needed to focus on what Inno-Tech proposed for my invention.
The investors rose to shake the founder's hand when he entered along with Ravi's, Arch's, and mine. Ravi gestured for us to take a seat at the opposite end of the long table while he stared into mental cyberspace, likely readying the mind projections.
From time to time, a person would opt for the external chip projections over the mind-link in day-to-day interactions, but the fact that none of them had meant they trusted Ravi and the founder. This likely wasn't their first meeting or collaboration.
After a few minutes, Ravi turned to Arch and me. "Mr. Kenton, Ms. Mintz, we're ready for you."
Arch stood and extended his hand to me. I donned a polite smile and went to push myself up, but my hand reached of its own volition to meet his. I tried to pull it away, but it refused to budge.
Was this part of the contract? Would my body be forced to act as Arch's girlfriend for the duration of the project, or was this some kind of mind-control scenario?
As if Arch sensed my panic, his calm voice entered my head space.
"Don't worry. It's only in the public eye to sell the pitch as a power couple. You can return to ignoring and despising me as soon as the meeting ends," he mind-whispered.
My legs stood and brought my body closer to him as he guided me to the front with a hand on the small of my back, burning like a welding gun. Why hadn't I read that contract all the way through? Had that deceptive bastard sneaked this in for his entertainment?
"Don't worry? Says the man who can do whatever he pleases, knowing I'm control-chipped not to resist. This is sick and illegal!"
And if it wasn't, it should be. This clause and invention were a freeway toward unchallenged mass exploitation through human trafficking and abuse.
"I'm not in charge of this any more than you are, Selene. But with what little control I have, I'll make sure I won't hurt you any more than I already have. I promise, and I'm sorry."
I wanted to scoff at his blatant lie, but my lips curled into an unnatural smile as we stood before two dozen investors. That 'look happy when we're together' part didn't seem in tune with the Arch I knew, as he accepted me no matter my mood. When I turned, the founder and Ravi's eyes were on us, particularly me. Perhaps he wasn't lying, but if Arch wasn't controlling this, who was, or was there some default 'romantic' setting someone had tuned the control chip to and I'd be obligated to follow?
How dangerous were these things in the wrong hands? There were sentences against those who misused the chips, and I assumed their distribution was regulated, but on the black market, this could lead to dangerous people hurting thousands. My insides trembled at the thought, yet my lips refused to show a hint of my unease. There were far too many vulnerable people ready to sign a contract to pull themselves or their families out of poverty, and they could lose control of their bodies for years or forever. In the wrong hands, it could lead to their death given the chip prevented them from fighting back.
Arch looked at me then at Ravi and his hand finally dropped from my side, although the sweat from his palm lingered like the odour of a mushroom plant. As I let out a breath of relief, Arch's shoulders curled in and he tensed.
"Please welcome Mr. Archibald Kenton, developer of Garden Forests at age eleven, the nutrient enriching Food-Plicator at age fifteen, and an instrumental developer in the list of Inno-Tech products below. Ms. Selene Mintz has also been vital to many of the same products and has a few minor design licenses to her name. Today, they'll show the preliminary stages of Mem-Armour."
Arch stepped forward and rubbed his palms together.
"Esteemed investors, a month ago, I asked you to record a memory using our prototype. Were there many of you who had a chance to do so?" Arch asked.
Several mental thumbs-ups appeared in the right corner of my vision. That was a tremendous show of trust to allow a prototype near your mind. It could malfunction and hadn't undergone the trial period needed to be approved for the market. And had Arch said last month? How long had he been betraying me? Proposals were only submitted six weeks ago, and somehow they already had a prototype.
"I asked you to recall the chosen memory at least once every week, a minimum total of five recalls before this meeting, with no access to the original. If you've done this, I'll ask you to kindly attach your Mem-Armour prototype and record your current recollection of that memory."
Seven of the twelve investors did what Arch had asked. Their progress was available in our mind-link, and once all seven had finished their upload, Ravi gave us the virtual thumbs up to continue.
"Now, Mem-Armour will give you the option to view both the original memory as recorded and your mind's current version of it. Take a moment to view both and see what differences you observe."
The investors stared into space and must have been given privacy blockers, as we had no sign of their activity. Sadly, we lived in a world where not even our minds were our own without external tech.
It was hard to believe there used to be a time when you could show up in any space and no one would be the wiser of your thoughts unless you opened your mouth. You could live your entire life with no one blaring ideas and propaganda directly into your mind. Now businesses, schools, and work all requested mind links to share their products and messages. Some, like the commercial ones, were normal to refuse, but others, like work and school, were frowned upon. It didn't mean they had access to everything, but there were enough instances of forgetting to have a private thought on a public channel that left you feeling invaded. Would Inno-Tech's version of my invention make that worse?
I winced at the thought. Remember-All sought to preserve memories for the user, not for the world. Those memories would exist in your mind only, and perhaps on an external server in case of an emergency. Remember-All would have restored a mind to its natural state before disease, where it created and accessed memories—both explicit ones that told the story of your life and implicit ones involved in your muscle memory and how to perform tasks—with ease despite conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, dementia, and Multiple Sclerosis. I'd never intended to interfere with what nature had originally conceived and create these modified 'higher-performance' memories for those who had no problem recording them.
Once the investors all returned online, we asked them to share their thoughts on the experience. One man had laughed and said that it turned out his daughter was right and he was wrong about an agreement they had made together. A woman in her thirties commented that a concert she had attended had been far more enjoyable than all the disturbances that stayed with her in her natural memory. Another person hadn't noticed certain finer details they had observed in the moment related to a hobby project that led to its failure. They'd said if they'd gone back immediately, they could have saved themselves hours and money on the extra parts.
"Could this be used to verify employee accounts of a failed project?" a man who hadn't taken part in the recall exercise asked.
That seemed quite underhanded. Everyone made mistakes, but it was how you recovered from them that mattered. Plenty of products resulted from a failed initial idea leading to a new use for the product. Chasing perfection and putting that kind of pressure on employees could be catastrophic.
"It is an angle that could be explored. Mem-Armour operates within legal mental parameters. If all parties agree before the memory is recorded, the technology can be used as you see fit," the founder responded.
Like they did to Arch with the memory-searching technology before offering him that contract? If that was true. This whole concept made me uncomfortable. It was like a mental security camera with a vast database of memories for employers to exploit. Anything we did or thought could become used against us and not just on company property anymore if they had access to our memories. Weren't we entitled to some space that employers couldn't invade?
"What about for consumers?" asked the woman with her dark hair swept into a braided bun.
Arch smiled. "As you've noticed, our natural memories change, even neutral ones like starting a project, or great ones like a concert or first date. Some alterations allow us to better enjoy the moment and others degrade it. But we have never been in control of that aspect until now."
He left my side and power strode around the room, smiling at each potential investor.
"Mem-Armour will give you access to your original memory and technology to make enhancements to give you the best possible version of that moment. External noise reduction allows you to enhance certain voices and sounds in the memory and remove or dull others like sirens, unwanted screaming or wailing, hecklers, construction noise or anything you'd rather not include. We can do the same with unwanted visual features. At the concert, several people blocked the view, however with licensed footage from other attendees and security footage, we can enhance that view, making it unobstructed and crisper in both image and sound quality. Then when you think back to the concert, the irritation never existed, turning a mediocre memory into a great one. And we all deserve great lives, don't we?"
The woman nodded in appreciation, even though the line made me want to vomit. This wasn't the Arch I knew. By all, he meant the middle and upper classes while others still struggled for food and housing. We'd both grown up below that income level, and it sickened me he was preaching 'we deserve better' to people who already had it.
"Real generous of you to help enrich the lives of the wealthy," I mind-whispered to Arch.
The corner of his lip twitched as if he were about to smile. "The money we earn from them can enrich the lives of those who need it most."
"Inno-Tech never funds much."
"But we can. Our contracts come with shares in Mem-Armour. The more it succeeds, the more money we make, and the more good we can do."
It had to be a line. Although after the success of his major inventions, he had reinvested as much as he could in the communities that had supported him and convinced his initial investors to do so as well. My early projects had help from Kenton grants for young inventors. Arch had even remembered my inventions when we first met, which made me feel important at the time, but could have been a long-game set-up for this theft.
"How do these memories compare to a high-definition VR video? With your concert example, wouldn't I be better off with professionally shot footage rather than a collection of memories?" asked another investor.
"While VR feels quite real, your mind knows it's a simulation, so in the moment your sensations are heightened and it's powerful, but afterward the mind dismisses it, as it wasn't real. It's not given as much significance as an experience that truly happened to you. But with Mem-Armour, you can set the altered memory as your default memory, and the mind believes it happened to you in that way and it becomes part of your lived experience."
But that opened an entire realm: if the memory existed and the mind didn't distinguish altered from real, could it affect your personality or your reactions? On the plus side, if a soldier with PTSD had the traumatic memory altered, would the trauma responses vanish? Or would the body continue to manifest the pain in other ways, leading to the person's extreme confusion about their suffering and coping behaviour without a source?
If I had numbed the memories of the loss of my grandfather and his fight with Alzheimer's, would I still have my drive to invent to ease the burden of symptoms my mom would face that the STEM sector still hadn't bothered to solve despite so many other inventions?
Were we the people we were because of our nature, our experiences, or a combination? If this invention headed down the path Arch discussed, we may find out.
"If we've asked someone to share a memory with us to verify a theft or contract breach, how can we know if they've altered it?" The investor who'd asked about checking employees' memories said. He and the founder shared a similar mindset.
"Altered memory files always show that they've been altered and include a link to the original for security. We wouldn't want our technology used to abet criminals," Arch said.
He had to know that those 'altered' and 'original' tags could be removed or forged unless they found a more complex way to embed that information into each memory, which would be costly and drive up the price past the range of most consumers. Inno-Tech wasn't a company that targeted only rich consumers. They went after the largest middle-class customer base and provided ultra-special features and subscriptions to turn their inventions into a hierarchy people always aspired to climb. Like Illusia-Wear, which gave you a range of options and quality of tech clothes based on the fees you were ready to pay.
Ravi stepped up to stand alongside Arch and addressed the investors. "We also store originals on our servers that law enforcement and any organization who is funding the memory storage can access."
Which could also be hacked into and changed if it were not heavily cyber-guarded around the clock. Another enormous expense I wasn't sure that Inno-Tech would pay for long-term given the quantity of data this project would amass, although they had six development teams, so one must be cyber security. If hackers had personal memories, especially those you cherished, they'd know exactly how to manipulate you or if they had private sensitive ones, they could threaten to expose them. With the right team, they could also go in and change tags on originals and altered ones to let them get away with just about anything.
"Is the storage for all memories or only selected ones?" A woman with short, cropped blonde hair asked.
Arch looked in Ravi's direction, and Ravi took over.
"For individuals who subscribe under personal plans they have the option of a select number of memories to store on the server, other plans include a certain number per day, and the unlimited plan provides 30 days of storage for up to 12 hours of memory recording a day. After that point, they can choose a select number of memories accrued during that period to save or opt for the AI selection model that filters out footage of daily routine and unimportant data. This can be personalized as well."
Ravi walked closer to the window and flashed a smile.
"An animal-lover with a strong attachment to their pet may opt to keep even the routine data that involves their animal to compare to present data and observe any changes in their behaviour or habits that may be helpful or show a more serious problem. An inventor such as myself may keep a progress log of a current project and archive it once it's finished but allow future access in case it may be helpful for future projects or to teach others."
A man whose hand trembled slightly as he set down his tea said, "Is this only for newly recorded memories like those you had us capture?"
Arch smiled and turned to me. "Great question, and one of the many reasons Selene is here tonight."
Was he about to put me on the spot? I knew nothing about this project other than it was far more dangerous and unsettling than when I'd conceived it. Was he hoping I'd trip up and make a fool of myself?
"Selene has dedicated years of her life to researching the brain and memory when she's not coming up with wonderfully brilliant inventions to make life easier. She studies the connections between the recall center and the connections that allow us to access that part of the brain. With a team of experts, she'll be exploring how to access and record past memories and if there's any way to transcribe an original source or, if that's not possible, how to record our current perception of the memory."
The questioner, who looked vaguely familiar, gazed at me expectantly.
"I'm quite interested in hearing your progress, Ms. Mintz."
"Um," I said with the finesse of a sea lion dragging itself across the sand.
Arch's words simplified the memory process, making it sound more machine than human. Memories weren't stored in a single recall center where you could build an artificial mental highway and fix them. They were stored in various parts of the brain depending on the type of memory, and even with explicit memories that made up your life story, three parts of the brain were needed. If we only restored access to the hippocampus, my mom may remember my brother's wedding, but not how proud or happy she was, or even the significance of a wedding ceremony in our society.
Ravi cleared his throat and stepped up. "Ms. Mintz hasn't merged her research with the project progress yet. Her proposal for tonight's show has kept her busy. But brilliant minds shine brightest when they're exercised, right?"
"Are you still presenting, Ms. Mintz?" The man seemed genuinely interested.
I looked at Ravi and spoke with him on a private channel, "Am I?"
I would love it if my customizable shoe could hit the market and help those with disabilities have both supportive and attractive footwear. Leaning into the Illusia tech also allowed them to only need to purchase one product instead of a new one for various occasions.
"You are fully committed to Mem-Armour."
"I am unfortunately fully committed to Mem-Armour, but I know many people would benefit from the Versa-shoe and plan to develop it once I have the time."
The man smiled. "I hope you do."
The softness in his voice led me to think he would have invested in the project for someone he loved and possibly himself. That was why I invented: to provide people and their loved ones products that would substantially improve their lives. If at least one investor shared my goals and dreams, perhaps this wouldn't be as nefarious as I imagined, though several of the questions tonight had been concerning, and I imagined the most worrisome ones would be voiced in private. But not every product was headed for destruction, and Mem-Armour would lay a foundation and help me develop the skills to tackle a modified Remember-All someday. One that would help people too often overlooked by the tech world.
That tiny spark of hope carried me through the rest of the meeting.
Word count: 3450
Total word count: 14, 264
Shout out to Fairytale_Fabler's great ONC entry 'Where It Ends'. It's an intriguing country romance with complex characters like Grady, whose life gets disturbed when his ex's sister arrives in town with problems of her own and shocking news about her sister that motivates him to help. Lots of intriguing twists, fantastic character development, and strong character voice. I highly recommend checking it out.