The Nirvana Effect, page 3
Aaron couldn’t bring himself to pull the plug on Wendy. But he did vow to pull the plug on whoever sold her this poison. He would put them in a state of anything but bliss before turning out their lights completely.
Chapter Two
“Please sign this.”
Betty Anne, the tall, stringy administrative assistant for Dynamica CEO Jeff Reese, dropped a red folder on Marc Tefteller’s desk. Marc, entering his sixth week as Dynamica’s Chief Marketing Officer, stared at the folder for a moment, swiveling in his chair. Hand-delivered documents from the CEO came in a variety of color-coded folders, representing topics and levels of urgency.
This was his first red. He knew that red meant ‘right now’.
“It’s a nondisclosure agreement,” said Betty Anne, a woman of minimal words. Her mind always seemed elsewhere. She was relentlessly serious for a thirty-year-old. She dressed in monochromatic pantsuits and always kept her hair up in a tight, controlled bun.
This typically provoked Marc to crack jokes, tease her or otherwise try to break the stoic façade. They were the same age, and he was a pretty boy, currently between girlfriends, and prone to flirting. But for the moment he was caught up in curiosity over the request before him. He opened the folder and skimmed several pages of a legal document containing the traditional boilerplate agreement over material information: do not discuss with unauthorized parties, do not trade company stock, do not redistribute confidential documents.
The topic for all this secrecy was referenced in a simple code name: Project Sky.
“What’s it about?” Marc asked.
“You know I can’t say.”
“How about if I bribe you with chocolate?”
“I subscribe to a chocolate chipfeed.”
“Let me guess. Are we expanding into Europe?”
She simply stared at him, so he kept going. “We’re introducing a new chipless technology? No more implants, we can send signals directly to the brain. No? We’re being sued by Disney for the alienation of their customers’ affections? Or the National Restaurant Association? The tourism industry? Or is it a change in leadership? Jeff is buying Hawaii and building a retirement castle? Or maybe – I know – I’m getting fired.”
Betty Anne still didn’t crack a smile. “Just sign it,” she said, impatient and expressionless.
He nodded, signed it with a big, fat signature, closed the folder, and shoved it across the desk at her.
She took it and said, “Thank you” with her back already turned, retreating to the CEO’s luxury suite on the top floor of one of Manhattan’s most prominent high-rises.
Marc felt excitement – his first red folder. His rise to CMO had happened quickly through a mix of luck, good fortune and circumstance. Nine years ago, fresh out of Yale University, he had rolled the dice and joined a young startup company with big dreams but no track record of success. Jeff Reese had assembled a group of technology innovators, neuroscience experts and creative thinkers to bring the human experience to a brand-new level. Using mathematic modeling, they sought to recreate the full range of human emotions and sensations by manipulating the nervous system and brainwaves through electronic pulses that prompted physiological responses, such as the release of adrenaline, synchronized with a vivid capture of the imagination. The earliest experiences were similar to virtual-reality goggles with important exceptions: the sensations were recognized in the user’s consciousness without external equipment and, once connected, there was no underlying awareness that the experience was false.
The magic took place through a small chip installed at the base of the brain. The chip accepted the user’s selection of encrypted signals streamed through the airwaves via satellite and transmission towers. Sensations were ordered by individuals through mobile controllers, with a private passcode for each offering.
The first artificial thrill to be tested was a roller-coaster ride. Once a user got comfortable, covered their eyes and triggered the chipfeed, they could not distinguish between an actual experience and a fabricated adventure delivered to their mind.
The simulated roller-coaster trip lasted four minutes and then reality returned in a gentle transition. A team of scientists worked tirelessly to ensure the experience created no damaging physiological effects to the brain or nervous system. Testing and research continued for two years to validate proof of concept.
After safely and successfully crafting a dozen experiential ‘highs’ – from hang gliding to eating pizza to making love – the floodgates opened and anything was possible.
Reese had the best intentions in the world: providing warm sensations of acceptance for lonely hearts; satisfying hunger for dieters; offering intoxication without hangovers and liver damage for drinkers; and providing a safe outlet for people to engage in activities deemed unacceptable in real-life social settings.
After achieving all the final regulatory approvals, the chip was introduced to the consumer marketplace. Reese and his team expected the product to be greeted with some trepidation and skepticism, followed by a slow acceptance. After all, surgery was required to install the chip and the entire concept was unlike anything ever offered before.
But as soon as Dynamica unveiled its groundbreaking technology, demand exploded. User testimonials were ecstatic. The general population, angry and frustrated with the state of events in the real world, embraced the escapism.
The company shot to the top of the Fortune 100 list of publicly held corporations. It moved into a big home office headquarters in Midtown, New York City. Dynamica’s distribution network canvassed the country.
Not everything went as planned. Instead of helping citizens lose weight through virtual feasts, the chip experience added pounds through a dramatic decrease in physical activity. Actual food was still required for general sustenance, so fast and convenient junk food became the norm to cheaply ‘fill up the tank’ between simulated gourmet meals. The average weight of Americans climbed.
But no one seemed to care.
As a junior marketing representative, Marc experienced the company’s rapid growth firsthand. As the company quickly expanded its operations and employee count to keep up with demand, Marc saw his own status rise in the company. All Dynamica employees were required to receive the chip to represent the company, so Marc signed up and received the installation without question.
He liked it.
He sampled a variety of popular chipfeeds and enjoyed them all. At the same time, he wanted to maintain a good balance with the genuine side of life. He continued to explore the sights and sounds of New York City while others mostly stayed in their apartments.
Marc crafted numerous marketing slogans and taglines; all of them were successful because the product practically sold itself. Dynamica became whatever consumers wanted it to be, fulfilling their individual desires and fantasies.
He regularly saw his catchphrases on billboards, integrated into social media streams and dominating television advertising.
Reality got you down? Pick a dream and lift off. Dynamica.
Love. Laugh. LIVE. The Dynamica Experience.
Taste your favorite flavors of life. Get Chipped! Dynamica.
Let us capture your imagination. Dynamica.
Marc grew overwhelmed with his company’s ubiquitous presence – it not only consumed his work life, it surrounded him everywhere he went. It thrilled him at first, to be part of such a significant movement, and then he became tired of it. The chip obsession was relentless. It was all his friends and family would talk about. There was no escape.
But the money was really, really, really good. And it kept getting better.
Marc did his job well, it was noticed, and Jeff Reese, the CEO, liked him. Reese had a special appreciation for employees who joined the company in its early, uncertain years, stayed loyal and contributed to its current success. Marc’s promotion to the C suite took place following the abrupt, unexpected death of the previous Chief Marketing Officer, a robust and jovial man named Steve Bowers. Bowers bragged he had sampled more than one thousand Dynamica feeds and while this was true, it also contributed to his enormous weight gain. He reached three hundred and fifty pounds before succumbing to a heart attack while exerting himself to tie his shoe. He was known to practically live in his office, filling his stomach with ice cream and cheese sticks from a mini fridge when he wasn’t binging on chip fantasies to experience his company’s products firsthand. Marc was a young choice to succeed Bowers as CMO but the other leading candidate was on an HR watch list for impregnating an intern, a regrettable lapse in blurring his fantasies with reality.
Marc enjoyed his new role, his spacious office and the increased interaction with the executive leadership team. Most of them already knew and liked him. He was particularly close with Brandyn Handley, the head of Distribution Operations. Brandyn oversaw the network of transmission towers, satellite stations and chip implant facilities that continued to spread like wildfire.
A few minutes after Betty Anne had left Marc’s office, Brandyn appeared in the doorway with a big grin, knocking on the frame. He wore chunky, rectangular glasses and a full beard, eyes lit up with excitement.
“You sign it?” he said.
“The agreement? Just did.”
“This is going to be big.”
“So what is Project Sky?”
“You’ll find out. Soon. But let me drop a hint. Imagine the biggest thing that could happen to this company. Because it’s even bigger.”
“Now I’m even more intrigued. And you’re not going to tell me?”
“Hey, I signed the papers too.”
“Fair enough.”
“There’s a big meeting notice coming. Clear your Thursday. That’s all I’m going to say. See you, man.”
Brandyn rapped again on the doorframe and was gone.
Marc shook his head. He looked around at his ridiculously large office. He still had empty shelves to fill, blank walls to hang paintings on. He turned his chair to face the scene outside his window – a sprawling, godlike view of Manhattan culminating in the lush green treetops of Central Park. The people below were represented by tiny dots of life, hundreds in every direction, each representing a customer or potential customer for the ‘Nirvana Effect’, a tagline he had developed in his first year at the company.
Marc thought, How much bigger can we possibly get?
* * *
Marc arrived early to the top-floor conference room as security personnel concluded a sweep for bugs. They inspected under the large mahogany veneer table, around the high-back leather chairs and behind two widescreen LCD monitors.
Marc stood off to the side, waiting for them to complete their duties before sitting down.
This was only his second meeting in Jeff Reese’s executive conference room as a member of the senior leadership team; the first had been a conversation about acquiring a company that had successfully launched a ‘pod room’ concept to consumers – small enclosed spaces you could build in your home for zoning out and experiencing chipfeed signals in the ultimate comfort. The pod rooms were cushy, soundproof and private with built-in control panels for selecting and streaming feeds.
“We could create our own subsidiary that does the same thing,” said CEO Reese, “much like we did to dominate the designer eye mask business. Or we could just buy them.”
Since Dynamica’s balance sheet was stuffed with outrageous profits, the decision was quickly made to buy the business outright. It was another offering for the new Chief Marketing Officer to pitch to the public alongside the wildly popular chipfeed subscriptions.
This meeting felt different, more intense than the acquisition deal. Reese, via Betty Anne, had stressed that it was in-person only (“whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, be here”) and required formal business attire (“suit and tie mandatory, we will have an important guest”).
Marc sat in a tall chair with his back to the wall. He faced the sky and clouds. The meeting room’s floor-to-ceiling windows towered above Midtown. Few buildings were taller.
Gradually the room filled with Dynamica’s executive team as they dropped into seats around the table. Eight men and four women. Brandyn Handley sat next to Marc, smiled and said nothing.
There was minimal chatter and full attendance. The room went completely silent when Reese arrived and stood by his chair at the head of the table. A big bronze Dynamica logo dominated the wall behind him.
“Good,” he said. His eyes searched the room. “You’re all here. Phones put away. Laptops closed. Pens down. This is big news, and we cannot allow it to leak before we are ready to go public. Thank you for signing your nondisclosure papers. You’re already under a broad NDA as members of the senior leadership team, but this information is highly material and requires extra stringent precautions. You’re officially on the blackout list, prohibited from trading company securities. I know you know the drill, but it’s worth repeating. This is very sensitive, and we must control the timing and the messaging. Are we in agreement?”
Heads nodded around the table.
“I am incredibly proud of what we – what you – have achieved in the past few years. No one could have predicted this kind of success. We took risks. We broke new ground. We mastered the integration of cutting-edge technology with the human brain. We delivered exactly what the consumer wanted – escapism in a troubled world – and we were rewarded handsomely. Today, our customer base represents a very large portion of the public. We have become a vital part of everyday life. And we are about to get even bigger. How is that possible, you ask? Through total saturation. We are going to serve one hundred percent of the American public. That’s right, I said one hundred percent. Getting there requires a special partner. Someone who recognizes and appreciates the value of what we do – and possesses the power to take it to the next level. Someone who can produce a mandate so that no one is left behind when it comes to the miracle of chip technology. This time next year, every man, woman and child across America will be chipped. That’s because it is becoming law. In two weeks, we are announcing a partnership with the United States government.”
He paused for a moment to let this sink in, enjoying the surprised reactions around the table. “Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Wilbur Kepling. Mr. Kepling heads up the U.S. Department of Citizen Affairs, a federal agency dedicated to the welfare of the people. Mr. Kepling, please come in and meet the Dynamica leadership team.”
A tall, gaunt man with white hair and pale blue eyes stepped into the conference room from where he had been waiting just outside the door. He smiled, looked at the faces around the table and stood alongside Jeff Reese.
“Mr. Kepling will now describe this new partnership and the benefits it will bring to society. This is truly a revolutionary moment we can all be proud of. Mr. Kepling, the floor is yours.”
Reese sat down in his chair as Kepling began a slow stroll around the room, delivering a short speech in a slight southern accent. Heads turned to look at him as he passed by each corporate leader in the room.
“You may have wondered about our project’s code name, which was referenced in the papers you all signed. Project Sky. What does it mean? Well, the sky encompasses all, does it not? It is there above us, around us, wherever we go. It is a constant that unites us. If we took on the perspective of the sky, we would see all and know all, would we not?”
He chuckled. “We’ve been monitoring your products and services very closely. At first perhaps, admittedly, with alarm. But you can’t change the tide of consumer demand – they want what they want. If you deny the people, they’ll find another way. If we shut down Dynamica, a thousand imitators would take its place, what we call ‘fast followers’, who steal your patents and technology breakthroughs and bring them to the market in legal or illegal ways, cheaper, less safe, less controlled. It’s like handing over drugs to the drug dealers. Or moonshine to the bootleggers. It’s much more powerful if you find a way to work with – not against – the desires of the people. So we looked at your chip technology not as a threat, but as an opportunity.”
Kepling stopped for a moment behind Marc’s chair. Marc started to crane his neck to look at him, and then simply looked down at the table’s shiny wood surface. He kept his reaction neutral. He didn’t know yet how he felt about this arrangement. While others already wore smiles, Marc felt a sinking feeling in his gut.
“As Jeff said, we are entering into a partnership that will require all citizens to be chipped. The government is going to leverage your technology for the benefit of the American people. We do not have a clear, accurate account of the population. The Census Bureau is perennially outdated and unreliable. We have a hodgepodge of systems. Social Security numbers. Tax IDs. Voter registration. Driver’s licenses. Imperfect at best. For the first time, we will have a uniform tracking system that provides an accurate representation of the people. Everyone is accounted for. Everyone is logged into a master database where we can ensure they are receiving the appropriate allocation of social services and government benefits. Everyone can be treated equally, truly for the first time. We will restore some social order. That includes citizenship rights for lawful immigrants. Equal education credits. Consistent taxation. Balanced allocation of property and other common assets.”
Some of the smiles around the room turned into uncertain glances. Kepling began pacing again. “Now, of course, there will be exceptions for exceptional people. Please don’t consider this as some kind of socialist programming. That’s where the consolidated oversight comes in, a discipline that frankly, has not existed in a proper form under traditional methods. For instance, let’s discuss criminal activity. By placing everyone on a common grid, we can maximize the support we give to law officials. We can color- code citizens as to their risk level, meaning the danger they may present to society. We will have a faster, more effective means of stopping and preventing crime. Let me share some scenarios.”
