“For the spinal cord, what they do is they replace three of the upper cervical vertebrae in your spine. Right about here.” She touched the back of my neck, and then showed me where on the back of her neck. “That’s where the computer system is embedded — in the three new vertebrae they install. There’s also the power module and the wireless transmitter.”
“Inside of you right now?” I asked.
“Right here.” She held the back of her neck.
“Why is there no scar?” I asked, looking at her neck.
“The surgical procedures in the Australia Project are just as innovative as everything else.” She said.
“Where does the power come from? Do you have to recharge yourself every night?” I asked, only half joking.
“No. There’s a fuel cell in the third vertebra, and it uses glucose in the blood for power. It has a nice side benefit — it helps you keep your weight down. That’s one reason why there are no fat people in the Australia Project.”
“Oh my God. I knew there had to be a reason for that. I figured that there were forced feeding limitations or something. No one could ever go on a luxury cruise and stay thin.”
“No, the Vertebrane system actually takes care of your weight for you. But that’s a bonus. It has nothing to do with the real goal of the Vertebrane system.” Linda said.
“So let me see if I have this straight. You are saying that surgeons replace three of the upper vertebrae in your spine.” I said.
“Yes.” She said. “Actually it is robotic surgeons, but yes.” She said.
“And they sever the spinal cord and essentially reroute it into a computer in one of those new vertebrae.” I said.
“Yes. Very good.” She confirmed.
“And they also tap into the major sensory nerves, like the optical nerves and the auditory nerves.” I said.
“Exactly.” She replied.
“You are blowing my mind.” I said. I had to close my eyes for a minute. “Is that how you are wired right now?”
“Yes, that is how I am wired. And let me tell you, it is fantastic.” She said.
“How does it feel?” I asked.
“It is very freeing.” She said.
“How so?” I asked.
“Let’s say that I want to talk to Cynthia. I can call her and talk to her. Or I can send her a letter. To call her, I just think through it to connect. Then it is just like we are talking to each other normally. I hear her voice as though it is in my ear. What’s happening is that when she thinks about talking, the Vertebrane system intercepts the signals and sends them to the network wirelessly. They are transmitted to me, and my computer sends the words she is speaking into my auditory nerves, overlaid on the ambient sound around me. Or I can turn the ambient sound off if I want to. That’s great if you are in a noisy place.”
“So you can turn your ears off?” I asked. “That would be cool. There are lots of times I have wanted to close my ears just like I close my eyes.”
“There are a lot of people who meditate by turning off everything. They turn off sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Their brains are completely disconnected from the world. It is like you are floating in a complete isolation chamber. I don’t like it myself unless I am trying to fall asleep, but lots of people swear by it.”
“What else can you do?” I asked.
“Everyone listens to music this way. It streams from the network straight into your auditory nerves. The sound is perfect. You can make it as loud or as soft was you like. And it can always play in the background. You just turn it down when a call comes in.” She said.
“I never thought about that.” I said.
“Another thing that Vertebrane can do is translate for you. If you are taking a call from a person who speaks in a different language, the system simply translates what they say into English and sends the translated version in on your auditory nerve instead of the original version. That way, everyone in the Australia Project can talk to everyone else. Language is never a problem.”
“How smart is it?” I asked.
“It is amazing actually. For example, let’s say you are in a room with a lot of people, and someone is talking too loudly and making it hard to hear. You can ask the system to cut him out, and his voice disappears from the audio track you are hearing.”
“What else can it do?” I asked.
“The visual side is where it is the most amazing. It has different modes. Remember when we were in the airport and you asked me ‘How did we get here?’” She asked.
“Yes.” I said. “But now I can see where this is heading.”
“Right. I simply ask the system where I am supposed to be for the flight, and when. In my interface, the way the system tells me where to go is by painting big arrows on the walls. No one else can see them, but when I look at the world, I see arrows painted on the walls. And I like lots of arrows so I never get confused. Then when we got inside the plane and the seats were nearby, they glowed. That’s how I knew where our seats were. You can set up the interface in nearly any way. Some people like arrows on the walls. Some like lines painted on the floor. Some like a big golden retriever who walks in front of you and then you follow. And it can be anything — golden retriever, elf, dragon, floating orb, whatever. Some people go for a voice interface, where the voice tells you to turn left or right.”
“As soon as you mention voices, you know what I am going to ask.” I said. There was a chill running up my spine.
“Yes I do. Let me be very clear on this — this is not Manna, or anything close to it. There is a huge difference between Vertebrane and Manna. Manna tells you to scrub a toilet, and you have no choice. Manna times you as you scrub it and shocks you through the shock collar when you don’t do it fast enough. That is insane — it is no different from slavery, with a computer system owned by rich people as the master.” She said.
“I agree.” I replied.
“In the Vertebrane system, you are always in control. You can ask for help — directions for example — and the system helps you. You can ask a question and the system will answer it. You ask the system to play a movie or make a call or whatever. You can even ask the system to disconnect your brain from sensory input so you can get a good night’s sleep, and then wake you up at 7. The system will do that. You are always in control of Vertebrane, rather than vice versa.” She explained.
“That is good to know. And actually this is sounding very cool.” I said. “How do I watch a movie if I have Vertebrane?”
“There are a couple different kinds of movies now. There’s old-style screen movies, and people still watch a lot of those because they are classics. With Vertebrane you can sit down or lie down and the movie plays through your vision system. You disconnect your eyes and all you see is the movie in that case. Or you can have kind of a picture-in-picture thing, where the movie is overlaid within the scene that your eyes are naturally seeing. That way you can go for a walk and watch the movie while you are walking. But all the new movies are immersive now. You not only see the scenes, but you also taste, touch and feel them. You are completely immersed in the movie. Many of these movies are interactive, and when they do that they’re kind of a merge between a movie and virtual space.” She said.
“Virtual space?” I asked.
“Immersive environments. Artificial worlds. Whatever you want to call it. We call it VS here” She said.
“How does virtual space work?” I asked.
“Virtual space is an offshoot of gaming.” She said. “You saw it in the U.S. to some degree — games got more and more realistic on the screen. Now imagine a game world where it’s not about screens and stereo speakers. Instead, you are completely immersed in the game world. It includes sight, sound, touch, taste and smell, and it is totally realistic. You essentially disconnect your brain from your real body and plug it into a virtual body in the game’s virtual world. Then people started creating virtual worlds simply for the sake of creating them. You can experience just about anything in virtual space now, and you can do it alone or with a million friends. You
