by David Archer
Ron looked up at Sam and shook his head. “But, they would have to get permission for human trials,” Ron said, “just like C-Link was doing.”
“Would they? I wonder what the penalty is for implanting a bio-electronic device without FDA approval. They might think it’s worth paying a fine in order to avoid having to wait months for the approval process to complete. Look at Joel, he’s got a chip in his head already, but this is the first time the company ever asked for permission for human experimentation.”
Ron stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “I hadn’t caught it before, but Doctor Rice told me that they can do research experimental implantations. I think he said they can do two of them a year before having to get approval for any more. Whoever the buyer is, they probably intend to use that loophole.”
Sam shook his head. “And if they get their chip out there first, with no proof that they didn’t develop it on their own, there’s not going to be a lot C-Link can do about it. They’d probably have to get a court order for the implanted chip to be removed and compared to their original design.”
“That wouldn’t do it,” Ron said. “I’m an engineer myself, and if I wanted to make my own version of someone else’s design, it would take me a matter of hours to rearrange enough components to make it unrecognizable. It would all still function the same, but it would look like the product of an entirely different designer.”
“So, if they get this done, that could be game over?”
“It probably would be, as far as C-Link is concerned. Trying to prove the design was stolen from them would be nearly impossible. Oh, they might win a lawsuit for improper acquisition of intellectual property, but it would take years of litigation before that happened. Unfortunately, these companies don’t file for patents because they don’t want to let the competition see what they’re developing. If a secret design is leaked or stolen, it’s almost impossible to prove who came up with it first. Besides, all Fa Ling would have to do is create some documentation showing that they had been working on the project for a long time. It isn’t that hard to do, and any decent computer tech could give it a time and date stamp that would make it look like it was created months or years ago.”
“Well, then,” Sam said, “we need to get to the bottom of this before they find the doctor they’re looking for. I just ordered Denny Cortlandt to go out there and break into our main suspect, so hopefully he’ll be able to find some kind of proof. Steve and Walter are still trying to find Williamson’s accomplice, and I've got Summer and Jade out there working on the triad angle, but that almost got them killed. Ron, I don’t mind telling you, this is one of the craziest cases I've ever seen.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Ron said. “You know what I do when I reach the point of pulling my hair out around here?”
“No, what?”
Ron didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned forward to his phone and hit a speed dial button, then put it on speaker. Sam heard ringing, and then a slow, southern drawl.
“Ron? Why are you bothering an old man?”
“Oh, give it up, Harry,” Ron said. “You live for these calls, and you know it.”
Harry Winslow, Ron’s former boss and Sam’s dear friend, chuckled. “I hear that from my beloved wife, now and then. She says I may have retired my body, but my mind is still on the job. What can I do for you, son?”
“Hello, Harry,” Sam called out. “When are you coming to see my baby boy?”
“Sam, boy? Good to hear your voice, boy. Having the two of you together is like a family reunion. What? Ow! Sam, boy, Kathy says we’ll be there in about a week, is that okay?”
“You’re always welcome, you know that. I’m afraid this is not entirely a social call, though.”
“Never is, when it’s on Ron’s nickel. Okay, go ahead, Ron. What’s the problem?”
They went over everything they had just discussed with Harry, and then they waited for almost a minute while he chewed it over, along with the end of his cigar. Finally, they heard him clear his throat, a sure sign that he was going to give advice they might not like.
“Given that this is sensitive information,” he began, “you may need to call in DHS and ask for help. But that’s entirely up to you. Beyond that, I don’t like what I’m about to say. However, I've never been one to pull a punch, and I don’t think now is the time to begin. Ron, Sam, I’m afraid I must tell you that there are some times you just can’t win. This will be a setback for that company, and for DARPA, as well, but unless you can find a way to prove the competitor stole the design, there is not a lot you can do.”
He cleared his throat again. “Did you hear me, Sam Prichard? I just told you that you’re beaten. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Sam sat there for a long moment, thinking over what Harry had just said, and suddenly he felt his anger rising. Someone was not only trying to beat C-Link to market with their own research, but they were making Sam Prichard feel like a failure, and failure was not something he could handle lightly.
“Like hell I am,” Sam said, and then he turned and stormed out of the room. Ron stared after him for a moment, shocked at hearing Sam speak to Harry that way, and was about to apologize when Harry cleared his throat one more time.
“Is he gone?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Ron said, sadly. “Listen, Harry, he didn’t mean...”
“Of course he did,” Harry said, chuckling. “Let this be a lesson you learn well, Ron Thomas. When it looks like everything is going to hell in a handbasket, just tell Sam Prichard he can’t do it.”
21
Doctor Prentiss was waiting when Jade, Summer, Steve, and Walter came into his office. Steve had called ahead to arrange the interview, and made it clear that they had new information to share, as well as new questions to ask.
“Doctor Prentiss,” Jade said, “we’ve just been informed that the thief may have gotten away with all of your research and design information regarding the gen-5 chip. This has changed a lot of what we thought we knew, because everything up until that point indicated that someone was planning to actually implant the chip they stole from you into a human being. Now, however, it’s beginning to look like it’s not your chip they want to implant; with all of your research and design information in their hands, how hard would it actually be for them to produce a chip of their own?”
“I’m afraid it would be terribly simple,” Prentiss said. “Ironically, while it’s quite complex, it’s not a lot different from an early CPU chip. It doesn’t have the computing power of a CPU, but it doesn’t need it. It's essentially a transceiver, with only a very small processor that generates sequences of light pulses according to instructions from the relay server the chip is mated to. As long as all of the relevant components are present, the chip could be laid out in almost any configuration. Someone trying to counterfeit the chip and make it appear to be their own design would almost certainly add a few other little features that are not present on ours. That would make it essentially impossible to prove that it was copied or derived from our design.”
“All right, that’s how we understood it, as well. What would that mean in terms of impact on your company?”
Prentiss sighed. “It would be an economic disaster,” he said. “I don’t know that it would mean the end of the company, but it would certainly be a major setback. It would mean that all of our research was in the hands of a competitor, so anything we might develop from it in the future would also be within their grasp. BCI has been one of our major research endeavors since we began, and our contracts with the government require us to continue. Without the exclusivity of the chip we already designed and were prepared to begin testing, there’s an extremely high likelihood that the government would remove that contract from us in the near future. It might even go to the competitor who stole our design, if we’re unable to prove our claim.”
Summer leaned forward. “At this point, though,” she said, “the chip has not yet been teste
d on a living subject, am I right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. We had just filed the necessary paperwork to begin human trials. We actually would have gotten started on them within the month, assuming the approval came through as quickly as it usually does.”
“Would your competitor have to wait for that same approval?”
“Not necessarily. There are certain situations in which a volunteer subject can be used for such testing without getting prior approval, but a designer is limited on how many times they can do so. We have already implanted some of our earlier chips into test subjects who were volunteers, but we’ve reached the limit of what we’re allowed to do that way. If we had waited another year, we would have been able to skirt the process again, but we deemed it necessary to begin human testing as soon as we possibly could. That’s why we chose to go through the bureaucratic process and get approval.”
“So,” Jade said, “if someone got your research and designs, created a chip of their own, and proceeded to surgically implant it into a volunteer, they wouldn’t face any criminal or civil penalties?”
“No. As long as it was one of no more than two such procedures within a period of twelve months, they would be perfectly within legal limits. The reason for this is that we’re talking about a chip, rather than a drug or chemical. Human testing of chemical substances is regulated differently than human testing of bioengineered products. Unfortunately, we implanted two of the gen-4 chips less than six months ago.”
She nodded. “Now, besides its uses in medicine and its ability to transmit and receive information, are there any other particular uses or benefits that we’re not yet aware of?”
Prentiss seemed to hesitate. “I’m not sure what you’re asking,” he said. “I think Doctor Rice has already given you a fairly thorough understanding of what the chip does and can do.”
“And it’s those things that make it so valuable?”
“Why, yes, of course. This particular chip is the culmination of decades of research and development, and is capable of accomplishing things that were previously considered impossible. With the chip implanted, we can have smart prosthetics, computer-operated prosthetic limbs that can receive commands directly from the brain just the way an original limb would, and operate exactly like the original. Before long, we’ll be able to create prosthetic hands that are almost indistinguishable from real ones, with fingers that can tie a shoelace or pick the strings on a guitar, or type on the keyboard just the way your own fingers would do. It can make it possible for the blind to see, for the deaf to hear, for the quadriplegic to get up and walk and run and pick up a child. We’re talking about a truly viable remedy for any neurological illness or injury you can imagine. Illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease, MS, cerebral palsy, and others could soon be things of the past. Even involuntary muscles can be regulated and controlled with this chip, eliminating the need for pacemakers, ventilators, and so much more.”
“And all of that would be wonderful,” Summer said. “But what about the other uses? Mr. Streeter told us that he can use his chip to control a robot and wander around your building with it, and that it would eventually be possible with the new chip to allow a pilot to control an airplane without ever touching the controls. Can you elaborate on those uses?”
“Well,” Prentiss said, “some of them are classified…”
“Doctor Prentiss,” Summer cut him off, “I’m sure you were informed that all Windlass Security personnel carry a government-authorized TS/SCI security clearance. We also have permission from General Rainey at DARPA to access any information regarding their contracts with your company, including classified information regarding your products and their potential uses.”
Prentiss glared at her. “As I was going to say, some of them are classified and so I wouldn't like any of this information to leave this room.” He cleared his throat. “It's true that a human subject with the gen-5 chip would be able to directly interact with accessible machinery. Accessible machinery could include vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, or robots. All of these could serve as avatars, meaning that the human subject would directly interface with them. Accessible machinery would include certain features not found on normal machinery, such as video cameras, internal and external microphones, internal and external sensors, devices for internal and external manipulation and, potentially, weapons. The human subject would receive telemetry from the accessible machinery in the form of direct neural input. In essence, and I’ll use a humanoid robot for the simplest example, the video cameras would send visual input directly to the appropriate visual center of the brain, the external microphones would provide aural input, the sensors would provide physical feedback. In the same way, signals from the brain would operate the legs, feet, arms, hands, and head of the robot. In the sense of normal motion and manipulation of his environment, the robot would become, in essence, the body of the human subject and would respond accordingly.”
“So, the robot could do just about anything the human could do?”
“Oh, absolutely. Using one of our most highly advanced robot avatars, a human subject could do absolutely anything that he or she could do naturally. For example, it would be possible to run a marathon, ride a bicycle, even change a baby’s diaper. Anything the human could do with his or her own body, he or she would be able to do with the robot.”
“Like pick up a gun and shoot somebody?” Steve asked suddenly.
“Yes, of course,” Prentiss said, “but that wouldn’t be necessary. You see, it would be much simpler to simply install an extra appendage on the robot which terminates in a weapon. The regular appendages, the arms and legs, would respond to normal commands from the brain as if they were part of the operator’s body, but this new appendage would require a bit of training and practice. For example, we might add a rifle that’s mounted directly upon the shoulder of the robot. By issuing a simple mental command, the operator could activate the weapon so that it would automatically track and target whatever the operator was looking at through the video cameras of the robot. That way, the hands are still free for other work.”
“Good God,” Steve mumbled.
“It sounds like,” Jade said, “the government would be able to send in a squad of robot soldiers that were probably almost indestructible and wipe out an entire battalion of human soldiers. Is that about right?”
“I doubt that it would be quite that simple, but there are definite possible scenarios that would come close. For instance, I sincerely doubt you’ll ever see the Terminator walking across a battlefield, simply because the human form is not the ideal for a robot soldier. Far better it would be a small vehicle on tank-like treads, but with several different weapons mounted on it. There could be a machine gun and a grenade launcher for use against human personnel, a rocket launcher for use against artillery or tanks or aircraft, perhaps even a recoilless rifle that would be capable of delivering tactical warheads. The operator, the human subject with the chip, would need only a few hours of practice to be able to direct the vehicle and control its weaponry as easily as he or she currently walks or points a finger.”
“Son of a bitch,” Steve said.
“That,” Prentiss went on, casting an irritated glance at Steve, “would cover ground combat, of course, but then we have both air and sea battles. Now, the operator controls different types of avatars. In the air, of course, the most logical choice would be an unmanned aerial drone, but we’re not talking about those little machines with multiple propellers on top. In this case, we would be talking about aircraft that might range in size from a few inches long, for intelligence or surveillance work, to close to the size of a current jet fighter. The biggest differences would come in the fact that these aircraft would have no cockpit or instrumentation, because the pilot is sitting safely somewhere, possibly half a world away. Another major difference would be in the maneuverability of the drone. Jet airplanes are limited in some ways because of the amount of G force the pilot can withstand. Since there is no pilot, and
the operator will never feel the G forces involved, these craft can accelerate, turn, dive, and climb much more quickly than any human-piloted aircraft ever designed. That would give them a number of distinct advantages in combat situations, for the operator could literally fly rings around an opponent, and the drone itself could be used as a weapon, if it became necessary.
“Now, in the case of maritime combat, this technology allows us to launch avatars that can remain under the surface of the water while traveling at considerable speed, and still be capable of surfacing when necessary to attack enemy vessels or remain submerged to launch torpedoes. There are also designs for clandestine avatars, such as robotic dolphins and whales. Once again, all that would be required is a few hours of practice with an avatar to learn how to use propellers or fins instead of feet and legs.”
“Okay, okay, I think we get it,” Summer said. “Machines like that are available even today, though, right? They just require some kind of remote control device to operate them?”
“That’s true, but you’re missing one major point. You see, with the current state of technology, it’s impossible for the operator to fully integrate with his or her avatar. There’s no way for the video visuals to become the actual visual field of the operator, for instance, and the operator is limited to watching gauges to determine the condition of the avatar. With the chip, however, all of that becomes direct neural input. The operator sees what the avatar sees; the operator feels what the avatar feels. It's no longer a case of the pilot operating the machine, it’s a matter of the pilot becoming the machine. May I give you a bit of demonstration that will help allow you to understand?”
Summer nodded. “Please do.”
“Very well. Ms. Raines, if you would stand right over here with your back to me—yes, just like that. You will be my machine, and I’ll use my voice to operate you. Now, Ms. Miller. Would you be so kind as to slap me in the face?”