By law, with nothing but the writ of one of a handful of politicians or appointed officials, you can be assassinated, detained, or disappeared.
If you're watching this, then the ERD has used those laws to come for me, to stop me and people I work with from giving others more control over their own minds and bodies.
Tomorrow they may come for someone you know.
The next day they may come for you.
<Alexander pauses, looks at camera, speaks firmly.>
This is no longer America. We've allowed our fear of change to override our adherence to our own most precious values. We've caved on our principles in order to bolster our security. That is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my parents fled Russia to find.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Our fears have led us to make this fool's bargain. I believe we've sacrificed essential liberties. I hope you'll prove me wrong.
If you're watching this, then it's probably too late for me. But
it's not too late for everyone. We don't have to sacrifice freedom for safety. We don't have to give up progress to stop terror. We don't have to hand control over our lives to faceless bureaucrats and secret police.
<Alexander raises a clenched fist in view of the camera. There are tears in her eyes. Her expression is firm, committed.>
This video will go out by as many channels as I can find. I'm posting it to servers across the world, just in case. Even so, I don't know if it will reach any of you. If it does, please forward it on. Mask it, mutate it, disguise it. Route around their filters.
We are only as strong as our signal, only as strong as our voices. Don't rely on this message alone. Record your own thoughts. Write your own essays. Express yourself. Fight for what's right. Fight for your right to decide who and what sort of person you're going to be tomorrow, no matter what anyone else thinks.
<Alexander pauses, fist still raised, stares at the camera, mouth hard.>
This is Ilyana Alexander, signing off for the last time. Keep up the fight.
<Video ends.>
About the Author
Ramez Naam is a professional technologist, and was involved in the development of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook.
He was the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, a company involved in developing nanotechnology research software before returning to Microsoft.
He holds a seat on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a member of the World Future Society, a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, and a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Ramez is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, and is also the recipient of the 2005 HG Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism, awarded by the World Transhumanist Association.
Nexus is his first novel.
rameznaam.com
twitter.com/ramez
Extras
The Science of Nexus
This book is a work of fiction. But to the best of my abilities, the science described in the science fiction is fully accurate. While the idea of a technology like Nexus that allows people to communicate mind-to-mind may seem far-fetched, precursors of that technology are here today.
I first became aware of the advances in brain computer interface technology in the early 2000s. The experiment that caught my attention was one being conducted at Duke University and led by a scientist named Miguel Nicolelis. Nicolelis and his collaborators were interested in tapping into signals in the brain to restore motion for those who'd been paralyzed or lost limbs. Funded in part by a grant from DARPA – a branch of the US Department of Defense that sponsors advanced research – they showed that they could implant electrodes in a mouse's brain and teach the mouse to control a robot arm simply by thinking about it.
Here's how it worked. The mouse, in a cage, was taught that it could press a lever when it wanted water. The lever would activate a very simple robot arm that would bring water down into the cage. Meanwhile, the electrodes the scientists had implanted in the mouse's motor cortex (the part of the brain responsible for moving limbs) would record what was happening there. Over time, the researchers found the pattern of what happened in that mouse's brain when it pressed the lever. The next step was simple: they wired the robot arm that delivered water up to the computer reading signals from those electrodes in the mouse brain, and disconnected the lever. The mouse would still press the lever, but the lever wasn't doing anything. It would get water, but entirely due to its brain activity.
What happened next was even more remarkable – the mouse learned that it didn't even have to press the lever. Over time it figured out that it could stay completely still, and think about getting water, and voilà, the robot arm would deliver it.
Well, that paper got my attention. Over the next few years, Nicolelis and his team did the same thing in a species of monkey, with more sophisticated arms that could move about in multiple directions. They even took the experiment farther, to its logical extent, and had a monkey control a robot arm six hundred miles away, connected over the internet.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, a scientist named Phil Kennedy petitioned the FDA for permission to implant a similar device in a human brain. His first patient was a man named Johnny Ray – a fifty-three year-old year old drywall contractor and blues guitarist who'd suffered a massive stroke and ended up paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak, or to communicate in any way other than by blinking his eyes.
The FDA approved the experiment, but based its approval on a key aspect of Kennedy's proposal. The system had to be wireless. The human brain is a very delicate place. Wires going in and out create a risk for infection. Kennedy, knowing this, had built his system so that it could be implanted in a patient's brain, and then wirelessly send signals via very low power radio waves to a cap that the patient wore outside his fully re-healed skull. That same external cap would send power back to the implant inside the brain.
The operation was a success. The implant was placed in the part of Johnny Ray's motor cortex that he used to control his right hand (prior to his stroke). Gradually, Johnny learned to move a cursor on a computer screen by thinking about moving his hand. With that cursor, he could type out messages to his friends and family – a huge step over only blinking. Later, when asked what it felt like to use the system, Johnny typed out "NO-T-H-I-N-G". He no longer even thought of moving his hand, just of moving the cursor. His brain had adapted to the implant like an entirely new limb.