A sunshine bot responded.
“I sympathize with your difficult situation, I really do. But your brain rank is currently at 3.0, which is very low. The goal is to bring you up to 5.0, and take it from there. Look at it as a future investment. If you're more active, you’ll get more discounts and be eligible to receive cheaper service packages, your brain rank will go up, you'll be more popular, and your children will be proud of their father. If you were to be disconnected for whatever reason, it would be painful for your kids. What would they do then?”
“But, Sunshine, I'm tapped dry.”
“I trust you to find a solution. Instead of putting aside such a large part of your income, save less and invest more in us. You're also separated, correct?”
“Yes, but how is that related?”
“If your brain rank goes up, you’ll be more popular. More popular means more girls, and more girls means more dates. You should go on virtual dates. It's a wonderful experience. Are we on the same page? We want you to be a satisfied customer… it's all for your own good.”
The user became quiet, and finally submitted. “I'll have to save less.”
***
On her first week on the job, when Fabian and Christoph explained about the Brain Rank system, Sunshine just listened. Fabian lectured about the dynamic ranking that ran on a scale from zero to ten, zero being the rank of a dead person. When Sunshine found someone with a low brain rank, she administered a boost of motivation and watched the person slowly climbing up the ranks. In the beginning, the rising curve of a brain rank would send her heart racing; she grew to love that pleasant feeling of power. Her eyes shone at the sign of a brain rank reaching ten. Nothing in the world was more perfect than that.
People quickly adjusted to the consumption requirement, and many of the casual thought exchanges had to do with brain ranks. Some people liked to brag when they topped the seven mark, and published the feat for everyone to know. These people felt they were the elite, when in their personal or professional lives they were often resounding failures. Others liked to complain about their rank, but no one was left indifferent.
Minds did not rate people for their mental capacity, and was more concerned with rewarding well-adjusted consumers, a talent on its own. Being a good consumer was not something to take lightly. It demanded loyalty, speed, and perseverance. The idea of brain ranking was based on the maxim that no one liked failing, and with the help of Sunshine, they did not have to. There was always a way to work things out.
***
Don Little, or the less famous Jack White, sunk most of his prison discharge grant and pro-unemployment benefits into the network. The country paid a lot of money to keep released prisoners from mixing with the population.
One day, as he took his station in bed, he received an incoming thoughtmission.
“Good morning, Jack. Minds wants to congratulate you for your activity and contribution to the network. You’re an active user, a standout performer. To show our appreciation for your investment in us, we're giving you ten thousand Unis’ worth of Minds services, free of charge. Use them wisely.” Sunshine signed every such thoughtmission with a Minds emblem set against a glittering sun.
Don was proud. He had never received such a supportive, happy message full of love and appreciation.
“Dad, look, I'm so popular. They really appreciate me. I'm not a criminal to them, just Jack, an investing businessman.”
His father sat heavily on the edge of the bed and told his son less festive news. “I received a thought from Sunshine,” he said, downcast. “She said my brain rank was low and that I have to increase my spending, that I'll be sorry if I don't.”
“What does that mean?” Don asked with concern and put his hand on his father's shoulder.
“She didn't go into detail. I'm a pensioner… what does she want with me? She suggested I take a virtual vacation to all sorts of far places - she saw that I used to dabble in tourism. She said I could travel in my mind to places I've never been to before, places that will match well with my character. What do I need this for?”
“It's not such a bad idea.”
“I'm tired, Don. I can't start going around the world now and also pay for it, even if it’s only on Minds. We need every Uni in the account for medical treatments and for your future. You have no job, in case you forgot.”
“That's true,” Don said.
“She also told me that I don't go far back enough in my memories, and then I started getting images from when your mother and I were young, and Sunshine asked if I didn't miss all that.”
“And what happened then?” Don asked with urgency.
“Then she made me watch our family photos, when you were a very small boy. Of us running and laughing in the gardens, when we were playing on the lawn and the sun blinded us, and you insisted on looking directly at the light. And in the background I'm hearing Sunshine saying, 'Don't you miss this? The days before your son turned into a rapist?’”
“What?” Don asked in shock.
A long silence followed.
“She also wanted me to sign up for a 3D chess Mindsphere.”
Don was quiet and finally said, “She wants what's good for you, Dad. She wants a more social and active world. You have no choice.”
“It seems I don't, but their aims are financial, Don, and that's not for my own good.”
“If it's really the original Sunshine, then I met her on the line to get the Ghost implant and lenses. She's a pest of a woman, but seemed harmless.”
“I can't see that,” his father said. He stood up with an effort and walked toward the door. “Don, try to make new moments. Good ones. Let’s leave the past in the past. There's no point in bringing it back.”
“With Minds, the past is the most substantial present,” Don answered, and was already connected to the past.
Elite Delete
The digitally engineered lilac flowers that were skillfully scattered in the gardens sparkled clean. The shine of the white sidewalks could be seen in the distance. It seemed that no pedestrian had disturbed them for years. From her car flying above, Nicola Potiomkin, head of the Elite Delete Division
[25] , looked down at green surfaces and smiled in satisfaction. She looked up to the sky and watched a group of parrot-penguins flying very close to the car, and pointed them out.
“Look,” she said to her young new deputy, Klaus Bloser, “see how efficiently nature brings them together for the benefit of the group.”
Klaus smiled in a show of agreement, and so did Mister Feathers, Nicola's neopet, a small Angora cat and white owl breed.
They spent half of the day outside, leisurely hovering above the city.
“There's been a twenty percent drop in the number of Neverminds all over the world, not just here. They were approaching ten million before.” She proudly shared a three dimensional graph with him, projecting it on the air outside the car, and added, “Things were starting to get unbearable, but now we have the cities clean again. We managed to get rid of the filth that was entrenched here. Take a deep breath… what do you smell?”
“Fresh air,” he answered, gung ho.
“That's the scent of purity, Klaus.”
He took in another lungful and smiled. “Yes, it’s perfect.”
“Not quite perfect yet, but close,” she said and smiled, pleased with her achievement.
Even Nicola's close friends would have had to keep track to be able to recognize her through the impeccable white tailored suit, gloves and high boots. The libertine heiress had come a long way since slamming the door on Alexander Cage, after the scandalous minister got embroiled in the Dick Gate disgrace. When his prosthetic penis was headlining all over the network, she wanted to evaporate. She felt crushed and humiliated, laughable and pathetic. Her image received a mortal blow, and she took a while to mourn the much vaunted relationship that blew up in her face. She had a lot of time on her hands to feel sorry for herself, and every night she reaffirmed the concl
usion that her life was a waste. Apart from fun and pleasure, she had not accomplished a thing. There were moments in bed when she thought her life had ended like one of her orgasms: intense and abrupt.
She was brought back to life by passing the entrance exams to Minds' prestigious and secret management course, Elite Delete. She was not expecting much, but the brain scan identified her as a remarkable user who maintained an average rank of 9.5. Elite Delete really did erase all her bad memories.
Connections got her into the course, but she completed it with honors and merit. She proved herself resourceful, organized, managerial, efficient, level-headed, loyal… everything required from a top executive. She received higher scores and praise than anyone else. At the end of the strenuous course, which spanned several months, she was appointed the head of Minds Global Control Operations, a role that included the Elite Delete Division.
There were many raised eyebrows. Why her, a spoiled oligarch brat? How did she wind up in this position? On her way up, Nicola stepped over many egos. But in time, most agreed that she was practically born for it.
Minds turned out to be a lifeline. Her disposition had turned from passionate to cold. The once compassionate person was now a streamlined machine. Old friends could not recognize the new Nicola. It was obvious that she loved her job, and she was dedicated and proud. For the first time in her life, she felt satisfaction and achievement, and in close quarters with Christoph they talked about the importance of her task and the gravity of the moment. She knew not to step on anybody's toes. When she asked Christoph if she should give Fabian progress reports, he very clearly reprimanded her and said, “Fabian has his mind full with other business.” So she did not. She assumed he was getting his news from Christoph and did not repeat the mistake.
Running Elite Delete was not a task beyond Nicola's abilities. It was enough to glance at her ordered shelves to acknowledge her prowess. “Nicola can put things together, take them apart and readjust them,” Fabian commented once after leaving a work meeting with her.
“She's got a first rate eye for aesthetics,” everyone agreed, and entrusted her with designing the unit's uniform.
“I only do what I'm good at,” she would say.
“You see, the Neverminds have become a nuisance,” she now explained to Klaus. “The shelters we set up for the political disconnects and refuseniks, together with the inefficient, have started to reach capacity. People feel sorry for them, parents point them out on the street...”
“And how are the Neverminds reacting?” he asked in typical newbie fashion.
“They see the connected passing them by, but take comfort in knowing they won't be recognized with the pixel protection setup on. We pixelated their faces as a gesture of good will. We don't need them to be humiliated. No one would want to switch places with them as it is. We're also receiving complaints about them from high places, saying their number has increased beyond proportion. Their cost of maintenance is too high – electricity, food, real-estate. The consensus at Minds is that they contribute and produce nothing… all they are is a strain on public space and a cause of disorder. They hurt tourism, and real-estate in their vicinity is increasingly depreciating. That was the situation, and we had to come up with this solution.”
“And what does the citizenry say about the solution?”
“They're not aware of it. People can point out the problem, but they have no suggestions. The polls show they want a solution, but care less about its form. All they want is to live in a nice, pure and clean environment. The active, connected citizenry - they're not concerned with morality. Nor is the management of Minds. No one really cares about Neverminds. They can just die. The moment they're ejected from the network, they're considered ejected from life.”
“But what about their relatives?” Klaus sounded almost disturbed. “Everybody has someone to miss them.”
“We took care of that with the Ten Circle program,” Nicola revealed. Klaus had the clearance to know about Minds' secret program. Christoph and Nicola – and now also Klaus – were among the very few who were aware of the program. Anyone who dared mention it to someone else, without proper authorization, would soon find themselves disconnected from Minds, arguably a fate worse than physical death.
Nicola showed Klaus the image and confidential details of a former user whose brain rank had dropped below the red line. She was referred to as K.A./445667888.
“Minds generates a detailed chart of anyone who has ever been in touch with that person,” Nicola explained. “Take K.A.'s case, for example. In the first circle you have the people closest to her, her nuclear family. In the second circle you have more distant family members, in the third circle her soulmates, in the fourth less close friends, and it goes on like that until you get to the tenth circle, which may include anyone who has ever crossed paths with her and might be able to recognize her.”
“Wow, impressive,” Klaus exclaimed.
“After we cover all ten circles and the list of acquaintances we have on file, we get access to delete all their memories regarding K.A.. This means that no one in the world will remember her.”
“That's thorough,” Klaus complimented the proud Nicola.
“No one has any clue about this,” Nicola went on, “but we can use the Ghost chip to control minds and delete anyone's memory. I'll tell you more - Elite Delete can duplicate the subject's memories. We have the ability to store their personality structures. So as you can see, Klaus, we play a role in history. One that will be passed down for generations to come. We are the ones to decide who’ll survive to the next stage, and who needs to disappear.”
“And they can't feel it happening?” the deputy asked, sounding worried.
“As far as they're concerned, nothing has happened apart from a little itch in the head.”
“Incredible,” said Klaus.
“Yes. The network has to protect itself from feelings of longing, doubts, curiosity, defiance, worry, and anything that might interrupt the vital activities of Elite Delete.”
“Clearly,” he answered.
To the rest of the world, the members of Elite Delete were the ones keeping things clean and orderly, the guys who cleared vacant apartments. Employees of the unit walked the streets, relaxed and cheerful, and were a welcome sight everywhere they went; people were impressed with their good works, and pleased to know that someone took care of maintaining the city and leaving a trail of delightful scents behind.
Nicola and Klaus now joined a team dispatched to clear a subject from his apartment, after the latter had been flagged for insufficient network activity. The team climbed up to the flat and softly broke inside. A black creature barked at them at the entrance, but they only looked at it and then at each other. The furry creature's eyes turned sad, and it circled them until it finally headed into the bedroom and lay there next to a girl. Her head rested on a pillow. With its little paws, the neopet tried to wake its owner, but without success.
“You see,” Nicola told Klaus and pointed to the bed from the bedroom entrance, “the subject is disconnected from Minds, but also from life. Since control of her brain is routed through us, what you're seeing is remote incapacitation. The subject was inefficient, and therefore of no use to the network. Despite countless notices, warnings and failed attempts to help, it only deteriorated. There was no other option. So instead of it becoming a Nevermind, and wandering the streets or staying in a shelter, we disconnected it. The unit collects it and vanishes the body. Like it never was.”
“And her neopet? What will happen to it?” Klaus wondered.
Nicola pointed to one of the team members, who picked the neopet up, flipped it on its backside and switched the battery off. The neopet closed its eyes, emitted a weak final howl, and its head dropped. A second team member produced a sealed white crate and placed the thing inside. Other team members lifted the owner into a second crate. They then used a third crate to collect all other personal items: clothes, photographs, various objects, pres
ents, nano-food leftovers. The team left behind a sparkling clean and bare space.
One by one, they quietly left the apartment. The neighbors passed them by and smiled. Nicola and Klaus stood outside the flat and greeted them. No one remembered the girl and her neopet; the Ten Circle program worked.
“What you've seen here is only one example out of many. Just like this one, there are millions of other subjects being processed.”
Nicola got back in the flying car and Klaus sat next to her.
“That was some impressive work, and a credit to the Elite Delete team,” he said, trying to hide his shock at what he had seen.
“I can't even imagine how things would have been without the program. And you're invited to lunch at my place. My chef has prepared some excellent health dishes for us. I'm starving. You know, a healthy thought starts with a healthy body.”
“Yes, I'd be delighted,” Klaus answered as the car vanished into the clouds. “Do you remember the names of the subjects at all, or only their serial numbers?”
“I don't even try to remember. There's no reason why I should. I happened to notice our last subject's name embroidered on her pillow, Becky Myer. But we try to avoid names, just the number. Don't think of them as people, but as community disturbances that have to be removed. It’ll only distract you in your work. Can't this thing go any faster? I'm so hungry I could eat you.”
Klaus smiled and looked at the view from the window. He had an itch in his stomach, but it was closer to nausea than hunger.
9
Operation Netopia
“From a life-improving digital platform, we've turned into machines. Look at where we are! This is insane! We'll be roasted!” Fabian was upset.
“You're hysterical and insecure, relax,” Christoph thoughtmitted silently.
“I'm insecure?” Fabian barked and petted little Alaska on his knee. “Yes, I'm hysterical… I'm disturbed and so should you be.”
Netopia: A Thrilling Dystopian Novel (Science Fiction & Action) Page 23