F3LKJ reminded me in this morning’s status meeting that her team had already invented a an audiovisual sensor array that resembles rosacea and is easily installed on faces with no adverse effects.
Using skin pores as multipixel sites, capturing high-resolution images, combined with stereo sound and an experimental smell sensor, F3LKJ’s team invention can turn one of our field agents into a complete cybernetic wunderkind.
After our meeting, I met F3LKJ at our meditation centre.
Here is audio portion of our conversation.
[sound of lighting candle]
“Ummmm…”
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, F3LKJ?”
“Are you meditating?”
“No. Why?”
“You were saying, ‘Ommmm…'”
“No, I was talking out loud to myself and was temporarily at a loss for words.”
“I see. Well…”
“Ummmm…”
“If you need to finish the conversation with yourself, I can leave.”
“No, I was just clearing my throat.”
“Okay. Anyway…”
“Ummmm…”
“Look. I’ll be glad to come back!”
“No. Stay. I can talk to myself and listen to you at the same time.”
“Very well. See, there’s a problem with the sensor array. It’s…well…”
“Ummmm….”
“Would you stop that?!”
“Umm…what did you say?”
“That sound you make is annoying.”
“Sound? Sorry, I was deep in meditation for a moment there. I hear a whisper of sounds of your voice in my thoughts. A sensor array problem, you said?”
“Yes. And please stop meditating right now. Look, I’ll make it quick. The sensor array has, for lack of a better word, developed a synergy all its own, forming a symbiotic relationship with our test subjects, widening their consciousness, so to speak…”
“…As if they’re in a permanent meditative trance?”
“Precisely!”
“Good. It’s just as I thought. I had one of your techs embed one of the sensor arrays in me last night after you’d left the lab. I feel like I’m at one with the universe all the time now.”
[sound of dancing feet]
“But, sir, what if there are any negative side effects?”
“A leader must take calculated risks and, because your team performs flawlessly all the time, I felt it was a risk worth taking.”
[more dancing feet sounds]
“Sir, your dancing is distracting.”
“Dancing?”
“Yes. Or at least I assume your flailing around is what you’d call dancing. Why didn’t you inform me of your plans?”
“I didn’t want to bias the results with you spending extra care on my installation. By the way, did you know there’s an undercurrent of electricity that pulses through you when you’re trying to control your behaviour. Quite subtle!”
“Sir! You make me feel exposed!”
“F3LKJ, you are the first female on our team who I feel the least attracted to, despite your perfectly acceptable, socially well-defined, physical features.”
“Thank you, sir. My parents were sticklers for details and managed every step of my DNA sequencing, from gestation through my formative years, up until the moment I was handed over to the State for public indoctrination training.”
“A shame about that last part, isn’t it? What if you had been freed to develop away from conforming to the least common denominator amongst your peers?”
“No, sir. It was a freeing experience, letting me know that my specialness was highly unique. I rarely conformed to any normative baselines.”
“Very well. Any other concerns?”
“Yes, sir. I am worried about the Committee’s proclamation that one a day will be killed until this current crisis is solved. Aren’t we advancing away from death threats as a means of self-actualising the whole population?”
“Ummm…I feel myself a part of the universe, where words like violence are without meaning…we are just the intersection of sets of states of energy in motion…death is reformation…life is…ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…”
“Sir? Sir?”
[Sounds of dancing. Sounds of candles kicked over. Sounds of fabric catching on fire. Sounds of running.]
= = = = =
NOTE: The new firesafe Meditation Centre is under construction. Please use the library annex for meditation purposes until further notice. Also, wax candles have been banned from the library but you may bring an electronic LED flicker candle to simulate meditation focus points, if you like.
treetrunkdings 