The Good: A page turning thriller where politics meets future technology in a bid to control human behaviour

by Carl Andrew

This was it. This was the answer they were looking for.

  Jennifer sat still, staring into the distance, transfixed and speechless. She had been so caught up in her work; she hadn’t been keeping up to date with the news from the scientific world including breakthroughs.

  She was battling her conscience, desperately searching for answers to a rapid fire list of questions. Who was the email from? Was it someone in the Institute? Could she possibly take credit for this idea? What if someone finds out?

  Someone somewhere was trying to help her.

  She turned her thoughts to how this technology could be developed. Opening up a new document she started typing.

  For the first time in a few days, considerations and ideas flowed from her mind onto the screen in front of her. She felt invigorated, free, and unstoppable.

  Everything started to make sense and she was capturing it as quickly as her fingers could form the words.

  She spent a good part of two hours developing her document, not stopping for sustenance or convenience. In truth, the time elapsed could have been just a few minutes, she was none the wiser.

  When she finally took a break, she drew breath and stretched her arms to the ceiling in anticipation of a yawn that didn’t materialise.

  Turning back to her document, she read through from beginning to end. It took her about 30 minutes. When she finished, she smiled to herself. It was done.

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  Silicon Fen, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

  Amid all of the hustle and bustle that had become the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley, no one really noticed a new company taking over the building that used to house Innov8, before the app developer had gone the way of so many similar tech start-ups.

  Just ten people occupied the two storey building but with no sign on the door and nothing visible in the reception area, no one would even know they existed.

  They were comfortable floating below the radar for now. Their name was reasonably well known in the industry because of a strong thought leadership programme and some reasonably well position products in market.

  However, beyond that, nobody really knew much about the business it was as known as it wanted to be.

  In one of the corner offices on the second floor, a man wearing a casual shirt sat in front of a large monitor and keyboard.

  He picked up the phone and dialled a specific number. The phone connected and he said:

  “The email’s gone. Now we just need to see if she’ll use the information.”

  “I’m confident that will happen,” said the respondent.

  “Well, if you can’t make that happen then no one can,” the man came back with.

  “Thanks for your help with this. You’ll hear from me soon.”

  The call ended and the man in the corner office was left with the dial tone.

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  Later that week - Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

  Jennifer had decided to leave it a couple of days before holding a meeting with the team to reveal her findings.

  She felt it would have looked a little odd to arrange a catch up so soon after she was stuck for ideas and found wanting in their previous meeting.

  She was playing a role, staging a scene, hoping that she wouldn’t be found out. Her conscience had lost the battle between honesty and deceit.

  At least in 48 hours it was logical that she could have identified a solution by herself. Enough time would have elapsed to have been credible.

  As she strode confidently into the meeting room, she couldn’t help but glance over to her follicle challenged ginger bearded saviour Simon, from the previous meeting.

  She smiled in his direction and he nervously reciprocated.

  “Thank you for coming everyone. Sorry to drag you from your work once again.”

  A pause to wait for a response, of course none was forthcoming.

  “I’ve had something of an epiphany over the last couple of days and have identified a potential solution to our… err… challenge. I wanted to share it with you and open it up to discussion.”

  She took the team through her presentation and spent the next hour explaining the idea behind the Sub-Anatomical Interface Device or SAID chip as she called it.

  She explained how it was a liquid chip that, in testing, would be injected into the test cases to read their behaviour. The behaviour would be beamed to a patch worn on the skin with the data then being transmitted to an app.

  At the end of her presentation, she turned to her open mouthed audience and asked: “So, what do you think? Are there any gaps here that need to be filled?”

  Murmurings and rumblings were replaced by audible words as one scientist after another spoke out in praise of the concept.

  Finally, her saviour spoke up: “Dr Hopwood, while this idea certainly satisfies the challenges at hand, we’ll need to develop the app from scratch to fit with the specifics of your concept. This is an area I’ve certainly got some experience in and would be happy to help.”

  “Thank you for that,” Jennifer replied. “At this stage, we simply need to come up with a concept for the Department of Social Behaviour.”

  “We’ll work the concept up into a practical solution from there if we get the go ahead. The Department will need to build a policy around the solution at that point. We just need to prove it can work.”

  Jennifer looked around the table and saw nods of approval from each of the attendees.

  “Ok. I’ll arrange a meeting with the Department and will present the concept this week. If they go for it, the hard work starts here. We’ll need to get the test cases down for another week of tests and assessments to trial the prototype.”

  “Thank you everyone,” she concluded before striding out of the room to take on a phone call with Vanessa.

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  10 Downing Street, London

  The phone rang just as Vanessa and Russell were discussing next steps for the anti-social behaviour issue.

  It was the special phone and Vanessa said: “This could well be our scientist. Give me a minute.”

  Russell nodded.

  Vanessa picked up the phone.

  “Hello.”

  “Vanessa, hi this is Jennifer. I’ve got some news. We might have the start of a solution.”

  “Sounds promising, let me stick you on speaker, I’ve got Russell in the room.”

  Vanessa pressed a button and in an instant, amplified Jennifer to the room.

  “Jennifer, are you there?” She said checking there wasn’t a technical failure.

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Great, you’re on speaker.”

  “Well, we’re yet to test this out in practice but I wanted to update you on a bit of a breakthrough we’ve had today.”

  “Essentially, we’ve accepted the reality that we’re not going to identify a solution that can change brain patterns to illicit a particular type of behaviour so I challenged the team to identify a way to measure someone’s behaviour and provide a warning to those around if that behaviour is negative,” Jennifer continued.

  “Ok,” interrupted Vanessa. “So how will this help us to curb anti-social behaviour?”

  “As I said, it’s the start of a solution but we’ve identified a way where we can transmit a reading of someone’s behaviour or thought process to a mobile device via an app.”

  “Wait a second,” it was Russell’s turn to butt in. “Are you telling me that you can forewarn people ahead of the behaviour taking place, at the point at which someone thinks a negative thought?”

  “Yes, with the right data capture and processing we can do that,” Jennifer responded.

  “That’s incredible,” Russell said. “How does it work?”

  “Well, we implant chips inside a person that can read their behaviour. These chips can be housed in a liquid or in a pill form. They move to th
e parts of the body where behavioural trigger points exist and then beam information through a patch on the skin to a smart device.”

  “The only challenge we have now is that this is a concept. We need to test it in practice,” Jennifer replied.

  “I wanted to get your approval to bring the test cases down to the Institute again for a week of assessments. I do have to let you know that we will have to inject these chips into the test cases. Do you think the public are ready for that?” She asked.

  “How long would it take to develop a prototype to use in the testing phase?” Russell asked.

  “The technology is out there so it would just be a case of changing its purpose to suit our requirements. The team have told me that they could rush one through in around two weeks to a month,” Jennifer said.

  “It would be great if it could be more like two weeks. We’re working against the clock here,” Russell replied.

  “Understood, we’ll see what we can do. So, are we able to move ahead?” Jennifer asked.

  Vanessa looked at Russell and then away out of her office window. She had to take a moment to think about this. It was huge decision.

  “Jennifer, I think we have to go for it. We’re under so much pressure to come up with a solution, we don’t have another choice. What do you think Russell?”

  “I agree. We’ll brief David but consider it approved Jennifer and thank you.”

  “That’s excellent news. I’ll get the team organising things now. Thank you both and I’ll keep you up to date with how everything proceeds.”

  “Please do,” said Vanessa before hanging up.

  She turned to Russell and let out a full breath of air. She was struggling not to be dismissive of what she felt was a concept a little too close to science fiction. She knew it would be a difficult sell to the public but also couldn’t see how the solution could be used in practice.

  Russell, on the other hand, was a little more pragmatic. He was used to seeing changes brought about by technological innovation. This stemmed from his time in the armed forces where everything from weaponry to survival equipment had been revolutionised and re-imagined.

  They discussed the challenges ahead of them, the issue of gaining acceptance from the public, data privacy, the fear of ingesting a recording device. It would be a feet to get this solution through. They both knew that.

  Russell walked to the door, opened it and paused for a moment. Still holding the handle he turned to Vanessa and said: “This could be the breakthrough we’re looking for. Something about this concept just works for me.”

  As he concluded, he headed out of the office leaving Vanessa to consider his words and search within herself to find the reassurance she needed to believe the same.

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

  The last in a rapid fire series of meetings was about to take place at the Institute. There was much more excitement and a greater sense of anticipation about this one however… It was decision time.

  Jennifer strolled into the room and it was obvious her call with the Minister had gone well.

  “Ok, thank you for joining me again. I guess you could say I have a good news and bad news message to give you,” Jennifer said, almost enjoying the game she was playing.

  She knew the team was hanging on her every word. This decision could be the difference between weeks of hard work paying off or a return to the drawing board.

  “So, we’ve been given the go ahead to progress to the live trials of the liquid chip. That’s the good news.”

  She paused, knowing that the people sat around the table in front of her had all given so much to the project so far and she was about to request they commit even more.

  “The bad news is… I need to ask you all to dig deep again because they want us to begin the live trials in two weeks. That means we have to develop ten prototypes in the next 14 days.”

  She allowed a pause before issuing her battle cry.

  “I know it’s going to be tough but I also know I’m working with the best team there is and if you’ve proven anything to me over these last few weeks, it’s that nothing is beyond the realms of possibility.”

  She looked at the group seated quietly in front of her. For once a reaction came almost instantly. It was Simon, her ginger bearded friend.

  “We’ve actually undertaken a little research Dr Hopwood. It would appear that a fair amount of the hardware required is already out there.”

  “Essentially, we just need to conform it to suit our needs. If our investigations are correct, two weeks should give us enough time to get a basic, rudimentary prototype together.”

  “That’s really encouraging to hear,” Jennifer said. “Thank you for looking into this. I’ll liaise with Governor Voskov to arrange for the test cases to spend time at the Institute again,” she then looked at Simon and said: “I’d like you to lead the team on developing the prototype. Would you feel comfortable doing that?”

  “Absolutely, thank you. It’s a real honour to be entrusted with such a challenge,” Simon replied, struggling to hide his smile.

  “Ok, thank you team and it’s a pleasure to say – back to work! We’ll reconvene at our usual regular meeting to discuss updates. Good luck,” Jennifer concluded, buoyed by the optimistic response from Simon, who had made what seemed an insurmountable task suddenly feel achievable.

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  A few days later - 10 Downing Street, London

  As she strode up the hallway to the PMs Office, Vanessa felt a little uncertain how the meeting with David and Russell would go.

  Since the call with Jennifer earlier in the week she was still troubled by a couple of challenges she and Russell discussed about the liquid chip idea.

  David had already agreed to the use of prisoners for a new round of live tests following the public support he received previously.

  It was obvious the focus for Joe Bloggs on the street was more on finding a solution to the issue of public disorder than the risk to the life of a prisoner.

  They now had to come up with a policy and also identify how to manage the roll out of the liquid chips to the public. Her lack of sexual partner currently had only served to elevate her stress.

  That was the issue with serial monogamy; sometimes you’re alone when you need a partner most. She thought to herself.

  She acknowledged Janet with a smile before knocking on David’s door and walking in to the room in one motion.

  Russell was already there and seated on the settee opposite David’s desk. David was in mid-commentary striding by the fireplace.

  “Vanessa, good morning,” he said. “Russell and I were just discussing a potential policy around this liquid chip idea.”

  “I had a few thoughts I wanted to share so let me know what you think about this,” David paused to allow Vanessa to take a seat and ready herself.

  “I’ve been working up an idea with my team around a Compliance Tax. Basically, it serves to encourage people to ingest the liquid chip or face the prospect of paying a Compliance Tax.”

  “The tax would be set at say 20% of earnings or 20% reduction in benefits depending on the individual’s situation. The reason to charge it would be to cover the cost of violent crime on society for those who don’t agree to ingest the chip.”

  “Basically, it would pay for emergency services, funding the health system and funding damages resulting from anti-social behaviour and vandalism.”

  David turned to his audience of two in order to gauge a reaction.

  “Wow,” said Vanessa. “You’ve not just given it some thought, you’ve structured a solution. I think the idea is solid but I’m sure there’ll be a backlash about imposing another tax.”

  Russell was next to comment: “I agree, it could be a hard sell to the public but I would caveat that by saying I think our options on this will be limited.”

  David acknow
ledged the responses. “I had worked up a couple of other scenarios much more underhand than this such as slipping the chips into the water system etcetera but I think we’d be hung out to dry if we ever did something like that.”

  “Absolutely,” said Vanessa, a little shocked that David had even considered the idea.

  “My question is around how these chips will work in practice,” Russell said trying to change the subject.

  “Well, as far as has been explained by Jennifer and her team, the chips will beam data through to a mobile payment terminal or mobile device.”

  “Essentially, an app will be downloaded to these devices to act as a hub to present the data to the recipient,” Vanessa said.

  “Ok,” Russell responded still looking a little bemused. “That’s all well and good but how then does displaying this data stop someone from acting anti-socially?”

  “Well, that fits into the second part of my concept,” David interjected.

  “I see this working through a financial incentive. Basically, imagine a situation where someone who thinks or acts badly has to pay more for things they want to purchase.”

  “Ok, I’m intrigued,” said Vanessa. “So how will this work in practice?”

  “Simply speaking, the liquid chips will give us the ability to monitor someone’s behaviour. So, surely if the person receiving that data works in a retail environment they can charge the normal price or more at the point of payment,”

  David was in full flow now. The concept was making more sense to him and getting him more excited as the words came out.

  “I don’t think we can mess around with this and we need to show people we’re serious, so I see a penalty cost of 20% on top of the usual amount of the purchase being charged to someone acting or thinking in an anti-social way.”

  “Imagine if someone was buying a pair of socks and they consider for a split second to steal the socks, the data produced from that bad thought would be transmitted to the shop assistants device and they would then charge £1.20 for the socks as opposed to £1.”