For eight minutes the waves were induced with the brain’s memory temporarily fooled into believing that it had gone back to a much earlier period in its development. Cells which were once active, but had fallen into disuse, were revived. For these eight minutes the brain believed that it was re-enacting its babyhood and its child-type wave motions were studied with interest, for here were infant time signature waves emanating from an otherwise mature mind.
Peach-coloured lava plumes concluded the eight-minute journey along the Goldenworld canal. Then there was a brilliant flash of light and a loud bang, which shook the brain out of its temporary mode, ready to receive another superconducting input. For a moment there was darkness. Then a very different image appeared, one that was somewhat more familiar. It was that of an open-plan office, with various people standing and working at computer terminals.
Thoughts of a grand masterplan to change the world were induced by the machine such that the brain would be encouraged to spill ideas out should it be sensitive to this particular input. The machine would then measure the nature and extent of the response.
Visual inputs followed in the form of key words and phrases such as ‘systems thinking’, ‘process improvement’, ‘improve the process of birth’, and ‘improve the process of death’. Each successive input was designed to invoke a response from the brain.
“Note the spikes that you see here,” The Doctor said to his assistant. “That should prove to Joanie and the Kamchatskiy management that we have made a good choice in investing in this person”.
After about a dozen visual inputs had been applied, a man in a dark suit, who looked rather similar to Dr Schultz, appeared to him. He pointed to the screen beside him on which was displayed a scene in which a number of protesters were chanting, clearly dissatisfied.
“We want to live forever,” came a voice.
“Eternal life – you promised, now deliver,” came another.
“Hey, thingy, give us back our souls,” shouted a third.
“Well, you can hear what they are telling you,” said the man, Dr Schultz feeding in the voice-over. “What do you think we should do about it?”
“Were they promised eternal life?” Gary instinctively asked in his mind.
“Note the code classification of this response to the instinct test,” said The Doctor to his assistant.
“Yes,” responded the man in the dream. “They were.”
“Then can we deliver?” replied the subdued Gary.
“No, but we know someone who can. What’s more, so do they. You saw Him a while ago. Trouble is they don’t seem to want to listen. Improvement is not top of their list. Neither is listening. They want us to just give them eternal life as of right. Even the Holy Lord has a right to expect a fair deal before conceding anything. The question is should we give them something or not. The last thing we gave them was the chance to invent the contraceptive pill and some use they made of that. Since then the world has gone down not up.”
“What about throwing in a new cure for some disease, perhaps. That wouldn’t do any harm, would it?”
“It wouldn’t change their thinking though. They would just be back tomorrow with all the protests that you see here. No, unless someone comes up with a Breakthrough solution I’m not interested. What they need is the stick rather than the carrot. If they do not start teaching the next generation about the value of cooperation then they will deserve all that they get from climate change. Those who want eternal life will have to earn it, others must perish. Do you agree?”
“It could be done fairly. After all a lot of good souls are going to waste.”
“Ah, waste, is that what you think it is about?”
“Most certainly,” said Gary.
“Then we must move on. We will leave the protesters for now. Let them sit and think for a bit. Now, what do you make of this character?”
The crucifixion scene returned to him.
“A very barbaric event.”
“Barbaric, yes, but do you think that it was wasteful”.
“Definitely,” said Gary.
“Think about the question ‘why hast Thou forsaken me’,” said the man. “What if the Holy Lord had a more important place for Christ to be? Imagine that this place was somewhere where people would actually listen more and be guided far more effectively as a result of His presence and activity. Then tell me if you can be absolutely certain that the whole thing was wasteful.”
Gary couldn’t answer. Now doubt had become introduced into the brain wave pattern.
“Watch those tiny dissipating currents,” said The Doctor, back in the real world. “They’re a bit like eddy currents and they appear whenever there is doubt or apprehension on the part of the subject. They signify caution and danger. They aren’t necessarily bad, but in excess they can impair judgment. Subjects need to know how to control these, but it’s much harder to learn this than the simple alpha wave control that we looked at earlier. But it can be done in a very strong subject. No, there are a few more of these currents than we would like with this subject, but it’s not enough to be a cause of failure. We will just have to advise Joanie that a bit more training will be needed to remove the tendency for doubt and anxiety to creep in during the course of problem solving, but I think we can close the program now.”
The machine stopped and Gary awoke.
“Congratulations,” said Dr Schultz. “Nothing painful at all, was there?”
“Not at all,” said Gary. “That was just an absolutely remarkable experience.”
“I tell you, this box of tricks is remarkable. It is the most incredible piece of kit and the amount of information that it gives us about a person’s personality and make up is quite fantastic. We know, for example, exactly how to fine-tune a person’s training and how to maintain an individual’s contentment, something which is very important to our government. Now, I suppose you would like to know how well you did?”
“Of course,” said Gary.
“Well, we have identified those regions of the brain which remained active throughout and those areas which became active at different points in the program. The scan is continuous, like a moving picture, but we have taken one or two snapshots in interesting places.
We have compared the results with others and I can say that we have managed to obtain an aggregate changeover locus of a sort as control is passed from one cell combination to another, which is consistent to a degree between subjects. We have also calculated a three-dimensional hunting criterion, which when aggregated should lead us closer to the elusive R, S and T cell combination. The hunting criterion is so named because it is part of a converging series of numbers which we believe will prove conclusively that the Sawicki cell combination does actually exist.
A particularly useful measurement has been that of the deviation from a fix mean created by the so-called distracters. Each distracter was designed to make a group of cells active which was different from the original fix. We measured the shift back to the fix mean each time you restored your imaginary flight path in line with the golden hexagon. The fix mean dictated the correct flight path or Glide Path as we call it.
Another interesting result of recent years has also been that when the same test has been applied to individuals with thinking patterns that are less aligned with our own, we find a statistical variation associated with the restoration from the distracters. The conclusion is that the human species is, in fact, working to two fundamentally different programs of brain activity, and that this could be highly significant to the evolutionary process. The two are necessarily conflicting and it is believed that the human species is in the process of sub-dividing into two. There is the old model which has existed for centuries with its various racial strands, and the new form, which will be differentiated by the dominance of certain cellular regions of the brain and certain locus patterns.
As for the Sawicki cluster itself, that remains both a theory and a mystery. It could be that the location or locations ar
e different in each person and that nature does not intend us to find it even if we can prove that it exists. There are no clues yet as to the shape of any one of the three cluster cells. We can only presume that they all have the appearance of any ordinary brain cell. Your results, of course, add one more piece to the jigsaw.”
Chapter Fifteen
One Party Democracy
The first of October at four o’clock.
Gary and the others had just returned from the ice rink and were sitting together in the living room. That morning they had received an interim report of their progress from Mitsumoto-san on their study assignments.
“We are now halfway through the course,” said Carl, checking through the list of completed assignments. “We have completed so far eight assignments and have eight more to complete. We have just completed Innovation and Creativity, before that we did Management of Best Practice, Automotive Manufacture theory and practice, Testing and Quality Control, Information Technology and Robotic Assembly, Graphic Art and Design, Management of Resources and Management of Operations. The next module and set of lectures are on The Theory of Systems, but that doesn’t have to be completed until the 20th of November. Mitsumoto-san will no doubt give us more details nearer the time as to what we have to do.”
“So what’s left after that?” asked Jose.
“We still have to complete Knowledge Management, Marketing and Public Relations Management, Maintenance and Reliability, Housekeeping, Administration, Organisational Development and Technical Auditing.
“Fine,” said Anne. “So we are all up to date, including our ongoing health and safety updates?”
“Everything is done and Mitsumoto-san has submitted his interim report on us to Joanie who is by all accounts pleased with our progress.”
“So now we just wait for her broadcast at five?” said Lars.
“Well, we have all read Eric Fallon’s book on the electoral system, One Party Democracy,” said Claudia. “All we can do now is wait for The PM to demonstrate to us how the theory works in practice.”
“It will be interesting to see how it works,” said Gary. “A single candidate standing for a single party with votes that each citizen has to earn as opposed to simply having.”
“In today’s Island Times the front page reads ‘Sets must rise to challenge as Joanie lays down gauntlet’,” explained Connie. “According to the headlines she ‘will not be handing out ballot papers like confetti this year’ and ‘expects all sets to present high quality and well thought out questions that will result in positive suggestions to help her to improve the way in which she governs’.”
“What else does it say,” Michael asked.
“It goes on to say that she has let it be known that apathy on the part of any of her citizens is something that will not be accepted,” Connie continued.
“Sounds stern stuff from our normally mild mannered Prime Minister,” commented Graca.
“It is,” said Connie. “She says that it is an issue that she will address firmly in adherence with The Queen’s wishes. She says that sets must rise to the challenge of eliminating apathy by justifying their right to vote on November fifth. Only when she is completely satisfied that all sets have presented credible and realistic ideas for improvement by way of thorough questioning that allows her to declare a total absence of apathy throughout the community will she permit voting to begin.”
At five o’clock they assembled around the television as Joanie had instructed, and, on cue, it switched itself on.
“Good afternoon, good citizens,” she said, broadcasting from the Great Dome. “As you all know, every year on The Island I am required by the rules of One Party Democracy to submit myself for re-election by all citizens. Procedure requires that whilst only one party and one candidate may stand for office, the candidate so selected must secure unanimous support from all members of the community. The candidate is permitted under such procedure to set their own target for turnout and vote on the part of the electorate. Should the targets be reached then the candidate is duly elected for another year. Should it not be reached the Island Council, which represents all of The Island territories, may intervene and demand either a new target and a re-run of the ballot, or that an alternative candidate be tried, who must then poll better than the original, otherwise the original will be re-elected by default. Such a method allows for a replacement of a candidate who proves to be unpopular.
No MP in our community wishes to lose face in an election and so all will usually set for themselves an ambitious target that, if met, will indicate a pretty high level of popularity. Targets of over 90 per cent tend to be normal these days. I am not going to be the exception to the rule, other than to go that little bit further and set myself the target of 100 per cent. It’s unusual, it’s ambitious, but I feel I owe it to everyone to return only if every citizen is satisfied with my performance, as well as every citizen being worthy of having a casting vote. It should be noted that when a citizen earns the right to vote, by virtue of making a contribution to the continual improvement of our society, he or she is under no obligation to cast it unless completely satisfied with the performance of the candidate.
In setting this target – and it is my target, nobody else has set it for me – I feel that if returned to office I will be able to feel certain that I have the total support of everyone here for the duties and tasks which I am required to undertake. Likewise I trust that all of you will play your part in making our society and our country better by expressing concerns and questioning issues which you believe to be important. Only through this can an MP, in a state which practices true One Party Democracy, gain a satisfactory indication of public opinion and an ability to prioritise opportunities for improvement.
Our good Founder Eric conceived this version of One Party Democracy following years of experience of studying political systems throughout the world and analysing their strengths and weaknesses. His conclusion was that one party systems were potentially superior to multi-party ones because they require everyone to work together toward a single objective, as opposed to having opposing priorities with competition between parties serving to encourage electioneering rather than good management. One party systems had, however, hitherto proven themselves to be dictatorial and autocratic, with internal struggles for power that resulted in unpopular and unfair regimes that took no account of people’s hopes and preferences. Therefore, just as Leo argued that a new economic system was needed for the world, so Eric argued that a completely new political model was needed also to support it, free from the usual corruption that typified practically all regimes of the world, whether single party or multi-party.
With the help of the other Founders, Eric managed to make his revolutionary political system a reality, and took great pride in seeing it start to function effectively, having created the first virtually corruption free political system in the world. The key, of course, was to impose the opposite requirement for a one party state than that which was normal in the world, namely that all citizens be required to effectively speak out against systems and processes that were in need of improvement, rather than having such views suppressed, and thereafter requiring that all issues raised be acted upon and be seen to be acted upon by those in charge. Where there were conflicts of interest consensus solutions had to be arrived at by relevant parties. The need for change had to be recognised. Opportunities for improvement, both Breakthrough and Incremental, always had to be considered and these invariably come from the people, not from bureaucrats in remote offices.
In order to make this system function effectively it requires the participation of everybody. We therefore set aside a period of time every year during which people are expected to consider and examine critically the systems which operate around them. As a result of this thought each set is required by law to submit a question to their elected representative, in this case me, which will have a direct bearing on the improvement of our society. In turn the elected representative is expected
to supply an answer. When all of the questions have been received and meet the required standard for submissions, each person will be supplied with a ballot paper which he or she may then cast or not cast for the candidate. When all of the answers have been given, you, the people, must decide if you feel that I am up to the job.
The next time you will see me will be on Halloween, which is a public holiday throughout The Island territories and is when all councils are dissolved pending the election result. The days between Halloween and November fifth are allocated to the assessment of questions and the preparation of answers. You should submit your questions to the Town Hall no later than noon on Halloween, which gives you thirty days to prepare. You should not delay in starting this exercise, but you should think your ideas out carefully before submitting them, and remember that it is a collective exercise. I will be watching you all to make sure that every member of every set participates actively and that the question that you submit is realised by consensus of the group as a whole. It is not about who can shout the loudest or pushes their idea the hardest. So please all of you help me to realise my dream as I have realised yours. Help me to maintain the momentum of Breakthrough and Incremental improvement for everyone. May the spirits of Deming and Juran be with you.”
*
That evening the set began to brainstorm for ideas as to how to approach the challenge that Joanie had set.
“So, where do we begin?” asked Carl.
“What I would like to know is the extent to which the media can be trusted in this apparently Utopian society,” replied Connie.
“And the extent to which they should be allowed to pursue people in public life,” Anne added. “So far I have seen nothing to suggest that the media behaves any better here than in any other part of the world. Remember Sylvia on the train? She pretty much confessed that the media here was as biased as anywhere else and perfectly prepared to cover things up if it suited them.”
The Island of Dreams Page 18