He thinks the project has lost sight of its original aims, but he’ll never say that out loud. They’d drop him, and then there would be no one to curb the ambitions of the new staff, whose primary concern is keeping the shareholders content. Which means growth. Eternal growth.
He walks down the corridor, vats to either side of him. A hundred and eight, and that’s just the start. People float in suspension fluid, for all purposes, dead to the world. But their brains are active, you can see their eyes twitch from time to time, and that’s what this is all about.
Second Heaven was all about seeing if they could extend the human experience beyond what the human body could provide. Keep the mind alive. An expensive and taxing endeavour. When the old staff discovered that those minds could be used to process unbelievably high levels of data, it was an obvious suggestion that they double up the functionality of Second Heaven, and use it both as a means of extending consciousness for the hosts, and also as a kind of human-powered super computer.
It began like that, with the welfare of the hosts in the forefront of every decision. But eventually ambition needs to be paid for and the kind of people with that kind of money don’t let ethics get in the way of profit. They also don’t let morally concerned staff stuff up operations.
So here he remains. Outwardly complacent with frying the minds of the hosts housed in Second Heaven, all the while trying to slow the inevitable changes that will make existence much worse for these people, and whoever they dupe into signing up to immortality next. No doubt that, if or when, justice catches up with them, he will be pushed into the spotlight. A burden he will shoulder, if it means keeping one hand on the wheel here.
The shareholders will remain rich, whatever happens.
Paddy Dobson
18th November 2022