Chapter 2
“The true history of the WetWeb has been obscured,” Anand Ramasubramanian said as he pulled his grey metal chair closer to the table.
When he spoke he would occasionally make a small clicking sound with his mouth unconsciously betraying a nervous excitement or a link to another language and culture.
His deep brown hands gesticulated in the air when he said, “Today we think, and work, and play in an environment both real and artificial, where organics and technology are intricately and unavoidably interconnected. But, thirty years ago, these were totally distinct, discrete and separate disciplines. Organics consisted of life sciences which included Biology, Physiology, and Pharmacology. The focus on this field was to cure sick people. The medical establishment in its entirety served a single purpose, which was to improve the organic state within a closed system. In other words, if a body was sick or damaged, then you would seek out the medical community for a cure. All aspects of the industry, from the medical schools, to the research laboratories, to the hospitals, even the medical insurance industry and doctors in private practice. They all worked and strived to achieve a single goal - namely, the cure of illness within an organic system. A singular closed organic system, operating independently and autonomously.”
“At the same time, the much younger computer technology industry had a similar myopic world view. Technology systems were built to serve each other. The interchange of data and communications across vast networks of technology systems resulted in another monolithic closed loop which was simply information shared across multiple information processing systems. At the beginning of the information age, individual computers were connected to each other, then to wide networks,and then across to remote servers. All of this integrated infrastructure was built to deliver and process information between systems, which may have seemed like an open and evolving architecture. But, when considered as a whole, the information network created by the computer industry was another massive closed system. “
“For those of us who worked in the technology industry, it seemed open and interconnected, but it was all about machines talking to other machines - exchanging information. There was no real connection to organics any more than the words from an old fashioned book were directly interfaced into the mind of the reader. Information technology, like life science, was nothing more than an information super-silo.”
“And so, this is how the world worked. Information technology and organic technology grew and expanded in two silos. Two independent disciplines, operating side by side. Each serving their disconnected purpose. That is to say, that is, how they worked until Christopher Mark and Al McKnight changed everything.”
Anand paused to allow Franklin to finish scribbling into his notepad. Per Anand’s specific instructions, this interview would be recorded only by paper and pen. Franklin would sit in-person and interview Anand face to face. Anand would not allow any Warmbots or Synapse Hosts into the interview room. In fact, Anand would not allow the interviewer to use technology of any kind. These unusual circumstances were explained to Franklin when he received this assignment, which was his first real content feature assignment from Titus Briggs.
“This guy was there - at the beginning,” Titus explained in his communication to Franklin.
Titus continued, “Go and get your nostalgia retro-pulp feature that you described. And, while you are there, you may find a solid content feature as well. None of my usual content guys are interested in this case, and no one is willing to skim over to Pleasanton to interview him in person. Nobody is willing to put up with his ‘no technology rules’ which sounds like paranoia to me. When the request for the interview came in, none of our content guys remember this guy from any previous content work about the WetWeb. But, he says he knew Al McKnight personally so maybe he did. Maybe you will learn something new. Remember, no Warmbots, no synapse hosts, and no recording devices of any kind. Just bring an old fashioned notepad and a pencil, and nothing else or he won’t talk to you.”
Franklin finished writing in his notebook which then prompted Anand to continue, “You said you were there, at the beginning, with Al McKnight?”
“Oh yes, quite right, quite right,” Anand said excitedly, “I was a young programmer working for a small medical instruments startup named Remote Surgical Instruments or RSI. We were pioneers in a new field and working to produce a surgery system that would allow a surgeon to perform complex operations on a patient who was miles away. The idea was we could deploy this instrument to a remote region or even a battlefield environment and a surgeon would connect remotely. The system provided all of the human vitals to the surgeon in real time. More importantly, the instrument would be the eyes, ears, and hands of the surgeon. He would be able to see the body, hear the pulse, and most importantly touch the skin. He could hold a virtual scalpel while sitting comfortably in his office and perform a complex surgical procedure with the real scalpel inside the instrument.”
“The system never worked unfortunately. We had no customers as a result and our startup funding was essentially gone. Millions had been spent in research and development of a proto-type device, but the prototype did not work properly. The employees at the company were divided into two groups. There were those that had given up and were looking for another job full-time and no longer doing any work for RSI. Then there were the small groups of “True-Believers” who kept tinkering with the technology hoping we would find a break-through that would save the company. But in truth, all of the employees thought we would no longer be working there in a few months time. “
“I remember they called a companywide meeting. There were about 200 people or more working there, so they rented out an old style movie theatre. IT was the kind where people used to all gather together in a public place to watch an old style film. We all found our seats. I remember the floors were sticky. The lights dimmed, and one of our executives started making a speech. He repeated the usual corporate platitudes mostly. We were waiting to hear it was all over, and then a surprise - he introduced Alexander McKnight.”
Anand paused. Franklin took notes. When Franklin looked up, Anand continued, “McKnight stood and spoke with confidence. He said he was part of an investment group that was going after a new and untapped market. He talked and talked and he described a future which to us seemed to be based on nothing but pure fantasy. In this new market he described there were no real customers, no products, and no competitors. He said we would be true pioneers. We all thought he was off his nut, but we loved him just the same.”
“After that introduction, the senior staff was transitioned out. Each executive said their short farewell, and they wished us good luck. They then exited the theatre. The new company would retain only director level or below. In the new company, there were only going to be two executives, Al McKnight and his partner Christopher Mark.”
“When McKnight introduced him, Christopher Mark stood and walked to the front of the movie theatre. He stood next to McKnight. I remember thinking the lights were shining brighter on Chris Mark and Al McKnight when they stood together. This was the first time I saw Christopher Mark, the man who would employ me for the next twenty two years.”
Anand became reflective and then continued saying, “He was my boss, my mentor and ultimately my friend. From that day until the day he died.”
“You mean his partner, Christopher Mark, not Al McKnight?” Franklin asked.
“Yes,” Anand said, “I worked for Christopher Mark; they were together at the very beginning. McKnight was always the spokesman, and history remembers Al McKnight. But it was Christopher Mark who showed the way. The world we live in today, where organic systems are directly integrated into technology networks is a world that was conceived and built by Christopher Mark.”
“And now Christopher Mark is dead?” Franklin added to clarify.
“Oh yes, quite right, quite right,’ Anand answered with the
same nervous excitement that punctuated all of his conversation.
“Christopher Mark is dead,” Anand explained, “I should know, I killed him.”
The reality of the situation swirled about them. Franklin was in a minimum security prison interviewing a convicted murderer. This was not a pulp feature, this was real. He had never thought to ask Titus why Anand was in prison or if he would be released. Franklin had not conducted any background research at all.
Franklin took in the room around him. The grey table, the cinder-block walls, the door with the thick security window. Realization enveloped him. Like Al McKnight who was occupying a nearby cell, Anand Ramasubramanian was guilty of murder and would be executed soon. The impending execution date is Anand’s motivation, and this is why he is anxious to tell his story. What he claims is the true story about the history of the WetWeb. A new perspective from someone who was there - maybe there will be a good content feature here after all.
“Tell me, why did you kill Christopher Mark?” Franklin asked.
Anand laughed.
“I will tell you. I will tell you the whole story. The murder of Christopher Mark is at the end. For you to understand the ending, I must first tell you the beginning. You take notes.”
Franklin turned the page of the notebook to start fresh. At the top he wrote:
The History of the WetWeb
As Told by Anand Ramasubramanian
“Ready,” Franklin said.
“I was only 24 years old,” Anand began, “I was holding a freshly printed degree from Mumbai University in Robotics and also a graduate degree in IT Systems with a specialization in Network Communications. I remember my first day at Remote Surgical Instruments; I was so nervous I threw up my lunch in the washroom.”
“But as the work day progressed into a work week, I settled into the routine of the place. The people there were pleasant, and soon I was comfortable and working effectively. I was grateful when the executives recognized the quality of my work and within some short months I was promoted and placed in charge of a small team.”
“The surgical interface device was our only product. The prototype that we have developed looked like a torpedo. The patient was required to lie down inside the tube. Once we closed the door, all of the tools and interfacing systems were positioned above the patient. This project was an enormous challenge and quite ahead of its time.”
Anand paused to remember.
“My team was focused on networking the torpedo to a remote surgeon. The primary problem we encountered was information band-width. It is a common problem in robotics and technology systems. The surgical device required a very high degree of interaction including both input and output from a surgeon who was working remotely. Band-width refers to the capability for the communications network to deliver the information into the device or back to the remote source. Data is literally moved in small packets of information. You can imagine the data is like skimmers moving down the highway. If there are too many skimmers trying to move in the same direction at the same time, then there is a traffic jam and the movement slows. It’s the same with remote devices and robotics. In order for the system to work, the surgeon needed to see the patient and all of his vital statistics, and also to be able to operate and perform complex functions in real time. Therefore, the data communications team was tasked with moving huge amounts of data across the network to the remote surgeon and then back again. There could be no latency or break in communication.”
“To stretch our Skimmer analogy, we either needed to build a bigger highway (we called this band-width) or increase the speed of the skimmer traffic (the system transaction time) or both.”
Anand then added, “This is the problem that I focused on with my small team.”
Franklin continued writing notes, but while he was doing so he found himself having trouble focusing on Anand’s story which was becoming more and more technical and therefore less interesting. His mind drifted and he started to imagine the best selling content feature he would write based on Anand’s story:
The Torpedo would be metallic silver and stand upright in the middle of the room. All around the torpedo, wires and cables and systems would hum and buzz. The remote experiencer would be in charge of the project. In his hand he was holding a clip-board with a list of important jobs to do. The atmosphere was thick and sultry from the heat of the machines. Condensation clung to the skin of the Torpedo in tiny droplets that congealled and then ran down the side. The air seemed to be positively charged from electricity emanating from the Torpedo.
The experiencer got a call on an old fashioned vid-phone. The ringing sound attractted the user to look at his desk. He saw there was the usual files and photos. The vid-phone line was flashing and he reached down and pressed the button. An image snapped into focus and he saw the face of Al McKnight.
“Good morning Al,” the experiencer would say. His voice is casual, cool.
“You know we are depending on you,” McKnight said, and then he adds, “The success of the project is in your hands. If you do not solve the band-width problem quickly we will lose our funding.”
McKnight was visibly distressed. A bead of sweat ran down from his brow to his cheek and disappeared under his chin.
“We are on top of it,” The experiencer would say with the same cool confidence, then looking back at the potent silver torpedo, “Don’t worry, it will launch on time.” From this vantage the Torpedo seemed to have swelled in both length and girth.
“Thank you,” McKnight said, “I have a meeting with the Board of Directors this afternoon. I will tell them we are in good hands.”
Al McKnight switched off and the vid-phone screen fades to gray. The experiencer turned back into the room and was surprised to see that his young female assistant was standing nearby, watching him and overhearing the conversation with Al McKnight. She was clearly impressed by the importance of the project and the cool confident conversation that the she just overheard with Al McKnight.
The assistant was petite. She is wearing a white lab coat pulled tight at the waist. Her skin was flushed to a pink color. Above her breast she was wearing a name tag that said Molly.
“I did not realize,” the assistant said and then she trailed off as the experiencer drew near to her.
He put his hand behind her neck and pulled her close. His fingers intertwined with the thick brown hair worn in a flip. She looked up at him longingly. Her white lab-coat is now untied and then fell loosely to the floor. Where he touched her, her skin turned white from the pressure of his hand and then quickly flushed pink again.
“Are you getting me?” she asked.
Franklin stoped writing and re-read the odd comment made by the assistant.
“Are you getting me?” Anand repeated himself.
Franklin looked up from the page and he suddenly found himself back in the here and now. He placed his hot hands flat upon the steel table to cool them.
“Umm, yes, please continue,” Franklin said.
Franklin turned the page of his notebook and wrote at the top: “Content Only.”
Anand continued, “So this was how we solved the band-width and data communications problem. We modeled it on a neural network. Once this was done, the potential to actually deliver a working prototype was in our hands but we would never get the chance to apply or new data network to the remote surgical device.”
“Still, it was a major break-through. We did not realize it at the time, but this was the first of many important scientific developments that would lead us to the WetWeb. By itself, the new high speed network was sufficient to create a small buzz in the industry, especially among systems and robotics enthusiasts. Thinking about it now, I predict it was this new neural communications model that attracted Christopher Mark to Remote Surgical Instruments. This is why they took over the failing company.”
“When Christopher Mark came to the laboratory, everything turn
ed in a new direction. The torpedo was immediately scrapped. Chris Mark had no interest in surgical instruments. We did not mind. I think we were all glad to see it go. The torpedo never worked, and did not seem likely that it was ever going work properly. The only component that we salvaged from the torpedo project was the high speed communications network that my team had built.”
“Chris Mark asked us to focus on creating a new device, one that was much smaller. This device could be worn by a subject who would then send and receive visual, audio, and even crude tactical information to and from a remote user. We called it ‘The Hat’ because most of it was attached to the subjects head like a hat. It had long dangling ganglia like receptors that hung down the back, and they were affixed to the hosts major muscle groups. When it was worn by a host, it was uncomfortable and looked strange. It was definitely clunky, but, this time it worked. This time it really worked.”
“What did it do?” Franklin prompted, forcing himself to stay in the moment.
“It connected the host user to technology,” Anand answered, “It was the beginning. The Hat was the first step to connecting organics and technology. At the time, none of us saw it as anything special. None of us except Christopher Mark of course; he was delighted. He opened champagne. He made a speech. We all thought he was crazy, but we loved him all the same.”
“You have to remember, back in those days there was no WetWeb. Organics and technology were not connected. We were looking at something quite new that existed outside of our world view and without context to the world we live in today. Only Christopher Mark understood the significance of this device because he knew where we were going. He had a long term plan. Christopher Mark and Al McKnight always had a detailed plan.”
“Chris took the time to learn how to work his new invention and he seemed to enjoy testing it immensely. He would spend hours experimenting each day. Everyone one of us who worked at RSI had to take a turn wearing the Hat while Chris sat in the control station, which was setup in his office.”
“I remember when it was my turn to try on the Hat. I remember the feeling of the weight of it on my head. There were small tactile pressure points descending down my back along my spine and then spreading out to all of the major muscle groups. It took an hour to affix the pressure sensors all along my arms and legs, even my hands and fingers were connected.”
“Once I was fully connected, Chris Mark would use a complex series of joy stick style controls to send signals to me, which indicated how he wanted me to move. If he lifted my right arm for example, I would feel pressure on the muscles required to lift it. If I lifted, the pressure abated. If I resisted, the pressure increased. I was not compelled beyond my will, but it was easy to comply. After some practice I was able to set my mind on auto-pilot and allow the pressure signals to guide my body.”
“While I was learning to allow my body to run on auto-pilot, Chris Mark was in the control station getting tactile feedback from the pressure receptors. If Chris controlled my hand to lift a glass, the pressure receptors would have a rough tactical feeling of the resistance from the solid object. Basic heat and cold were transmitted in a similar fashion.”
“After I was outfitted with The Hat, Mark walked me about the office until I had the hang of it. I let my mind go quiet until I had achieved a meditative state where Mark was able to control me remotely. Chris and the team quickly learned that some hosts, or team volunteers, who donned The Hat were more compliant and more easily manipulated than others. At that time, we thought that we were tapping into individuals who were also open to hypnotic suggestion.”
“Later, we would expand our understanding of the interface. We learned that the external stimulus transmitted from the device was activating the nervous reflex center of the brain stem. What the controller was doing, in fact, was bypassing the conscious mind and communicating directly to the brain stem. By relaxing the conscious mind, we were able to make the human body operate as a reflex machine.”
“Chris said I responded well to the remote manipulations and was pleased that he was able to quickly and easily take control of my body. I attribute this to my experience with meditation. In my culture we practice daily meditation, so this gave me an advantage over the other technicians who he tried to control.”
“From my perspective as the host, it was a unique experience. Setting my mind on auto-pilot, I became a semi-conscious observer of my own actions. In this state, Mark controlled me completely. He walked my body out the front door of the office and out into the night.”
“Hmmm,” Franklin hummed, anticipating some action.
“Quite right,” Anand said, “It was quite exciting. The office and laboratory where we developed the device was located in downtown Oakland near the city center. Now that I think of it, we were only a few miles away from where we are now. “
“I remember it was just past sundown. The sky was dark blue and there was still enough light to see. The streetlights were starting to turn on. The streets were crowded with people making their way home or shopping. I must have presented quite a spectacle with this strange contraption on my head and a far-away look in my eye.”
“Mark walked me down Broadway past a coffee shop and past a tattoo parlor. Each sight and sound seemed amplified or accentuated. The Hat had sensors that were working to relay all of my sensory experiences. I wondered how effectively the olfactory sensor was working. Was Chris Mark receiving the smell of coffee when I passed the coffee shop, or the smell of cigarette smoke when I passed by the tattoo parlor?”
“Somehow sharing my experiences with a remote user gave me new confidence and a new appreciation for the sights and sounds around me. Even a mundane walk at night became more interesting.
“Then what happened?” Franklin asked.
“That’s it,” Anand said, “He walked me down to Jack London Square. Together we used my eyes to look out at the sailboats that were heading in to dock, and at the containerized cargo ships that were being unloaded by the tall cranes. Then, after a short while, Chris guided my body back up Broadway and back to the office.“
“That was my first experience with The Hat, and the systems that would eventually lead us to Synaptic Derivation.”
“That’s it?” Franklin asked, clearly disappointed.
“You were hoping for some action, you want to write a big action pulp feature?” Anand responded.
Franklin did not answer.
“Do not look so worried,” Anand continued, “Tomorrow I will tell you about the cowboys in China.”
“Pulp: A slang term for a WetWeb experiential feature which is intended to provide sensational stimulation and gratification to the remote user. “Pulp” features typically employ prurient and offensive subjects and themes.”
- WetWiki
Chapter 3