by Marcus Lupinius Paulus on Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:50 am
Though his body ached, exhaustion eventually triumphed, and Paulus fell asleep.
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"Doctor!", the pretty female intern called out excitedly, "number 5 has fallen asleep!"
"Verified Doctor", confirmed a nerdy looking male with thick glasses, who was reading the instruments at his work station", we have verification that 5 is asleep, and 4 appears to be heading that way also."
Doctor Sebastian was not impressed. "Of course they sleep! What, do you think that just because they are disembodied brains they do not sleep anymore? No....they still rest, and take nourishment". Sebastian peered down to check the rate of flow of the fluid which fed the brains housed in the glass dome in from of them. Five human brains, with all their regions connected with wires leading to the central interface unit, which acted as the liason between them and Roma, the massive supercomputer.
"I wonder what they experience?" said the female intern.
Dr. Sebastian shook his head. "We have no way of knowing. Neural activity can tell us if they are having high rates of stress or fear or enjoyment, but the data cannot tell us exactly what they are thinking and doing in their world. All we can know for the present is that the Roma computer, which took ten years to build and program, can produce a world teeming with cities, inhabited by millions of historical and fictitious persons that they can interact with. We see five brains tied into a machine. The see Rome, and it's inhabitants of two thousand years ago. And with the Hippocampian Stimulator, they can probably create memories of their own past.
"But we will be able to experience it ourselves eventually, won't we?" asked the nerdy intern.
"Hopefully, phase two will be ready within a few years. Right now it is too dangerous. But the development of the Neural Helmet is progressing, and we may risk human testing in a year's time."
Dr Sebastian excitedly strode over to the master console and picked up a model of the Neural Helmet. "Can you imagine this? Picture youself being able to put this on your head, and entering a virtual world seemingly as real as this one you inhabit now. You would be able to meet these people that now you only see as brains under a glass. You would see them, talk to them, interact with them just as you interact with each other now. A virtual Roman Empire, and that is just the beginning. Eventually, everybody will be able to take their dream vacations in the civilization of their choice. Want to spend a week in ancient Egypt? Colonial America? Renaissance Italy? We will have them all and more. You could even enter into your favorite books as characters if you wanted to."
Dr Sebastian pointed to one of the brains. "This one was a female in Germany. She had a gladitor reenacting group. But during a public demonstration, they unwisely tried to spar with sharpend swords, and her sparring partner accidentally chopped her head off. We were able to get her brain to the program before irreversible decay set in."
He pointed to another brain. "This was a Latin scholar, who foolishly was glancing down at a book while driving instead of keeping his eyes on the road. He was decapitated as his car ran into the tractor in front of him. All of these brains here are people who have been decapitated accidentally, and who had signed living wills as organ donors."
"Too bad they didn't know their brains are also organs!", the nerd interjected. And they all laughed.