Eyes on the World, Page 3

  Chapter Three

  Jake sputtered “I never saw those dates.” and William said “Impossible.” The awe was evident in his voice. The date on the screen was fifty years in the future.

  A fourth voice broke in as one video scene expanded to cover the entire TV screen. The label underneath the video changed from “Center Control” to “live” as it zoomed down to a bald, clean shaven man seated before a control panel in the left corner of the building. “We welcome you to Center 1, Jonas from Center 2 and William and Jake. I am representing Control 1.” He chuckled lightly as he said, “Call me Ishmael.”

  He paused looking up at us before continuing. “Things are better and worse than you think. The metadata gathering and analysis project you call Eyes on the World continues, but is constantly at risk. Due to size, it separated from other Center Activity while evolving and integrating into other modules. Every time we solve one issue, three more seem to rise up from the probability pile and draw our attention to other coming disasters. We have a lot to cover in the next forty-five minutes. Jonas stop trying to cut us off. You cannot be successful short of wiping your computer banks. Fortunately there is only a one percent probability you will be that foolish. Jonas! I see telling you the probability has raised it to a five percent level. Please do not do that. There is no danger. We are who we are and what we say is true for your time frame based on the constantly shifting probabilities.”

  Jonas sputtered “How? Why?”

  Ishmael was patient and responsive. “It should be clear. We finished the time travel project and several other projects your Winston Group began or continued. Our study of history has shown us this is the critical period in human history for successfully expanding our world's presence in the known Universe. Sadly, even we know that is a truth only up to our present date. Tomorrow could be very different. We haven't reached into the future yet. Please be aware we consider this current five year period you are now entering to be crucial. We hope you will too.”

  Jonas paled and asked, “How can we verify what you say is true?”

  Ishmael nodded, “I'm sorry. You cannot at this moment. The facts will become evident truth as we move forward. Relax Jonas. Your questions and those of your Center 2's compatriots will be answered. Our goals remain the same. The attitudes and both the knowledge and experience bases are different fifty years in the future, from your own.” Ishmael looked through the screen and repeated, “Our goals remain the same. That you can take and store in the life depository.”

  Jake and William asked “Life depository?”

  Control 1 stopped, his expression puzzled. He hit a tab on his machine.“Oh sorry guys. We don't have banks any more. Those organizations will begin shifting to life depositories in about twenty-seven years. Economics will... I suspect more terms may need explanation. We'll try to use your terms. Can I get back to what we need to cover?”

  The three verbally agreed and Control 1 moved on.

  “I'll keep it as simple as I can. All of us will be re-appraising the situation daily. Our predictive and factual accuracy will be checked by all of us. We know you have to check. We expect you to analyze everything we say. We will also be expanding your protection and possibly other tech levels over time. Right now there is a one...no five..it's up to ten. It is still rising. I don't believe this. Just a moment.” He pressed a button on his panel. Control 1 left his seat and went off screen for a few moments. He came back, sat down, wiping his face with his hands before looking at his monitor again. He took a deep breath and smiled into the camera. His voice was more confident now.“There is currently a six percent chance that your location will be compromised in the next two days. We are investigating that.

  Our initial plan to update you is now disrupted. We are re-assessing. Right now you need to have the following information. We are skipping to item ten on our agenda. Center 2, focus. Pay attention, all three of you. Here is one part of our orientation data block. You need to know Jake went through orientation with both Centers. Think of it as a refresher, Jake. You never saw the dates. Think about that as you go back through it. That dating information was unavailable to him, Jonas, William. The next two sequences will be new information for the rest of you.

  This first conversation is a training, a tutorial between a teacher and student in orientation. It dates back to 2020. The second is of a far more serious concern to us all, and is from 2010. We believe this event has already happened. An attempt to erase the event and related files from all databanks stripped some data in 2017. We are unable to verify either the people or the event. Jonas, please check if the second event presented actually took place as recorded here. If a verifiable killing took place, there will be processes and policies in need of change. If it is disinformation, we need to know. Initiating transmission. Center1 silent.”

  There sure are a lot of buttons on this keyboard.

  That's right. It's not a qwerty board. Each key tab serves another purpose. You won't be typing notes. We have voice command for that. These keys represent actions you will or may take during one of the many studies you will be handling. We are a research institution, and some of these studies actually pre-date the Internet.

  Let's take a look at one ongoing study that was created at the same time cloud technology was under consideration. We have revised this study three times. This was our fourth study for them. Several providers asked us to maximize computer effectiveness while reducing their broadband costs in 2010.

  In this current study we expand our analysis of our users actions, their motherboards, peripherals, software, IPs, the different routers used, and the exact routes they take. The effectiveness of the current fiber pipelines as they change, for each stop or unexpected diversion are studied and rearranged for effectiveness. We recently added WIFI and Sat interpretation which has expanded our understanding of users exponentially. With out new tag pills we were able to study specific user groups in incredible detail. This has created ongoing excitement.

  On this console you will literally control the users information and connection. You can regulate everything going into or out from any observed devices, their homes, vehicles, and any selected life component. This set of controls over here are controls for all the house electronics. This small set there, is very invasive. You can see it is labeled Extreme Care. We can manipulate behavior to a degree. Through innovative use of the flow of electricity our reach expands to most tech and any tagged non-tech in the house. If it uses supplied electricity, not batteries, we can affect it. Batteries we can monitor, and we can affect them, if they are tagged. Since batteries, and their usage span, have improved so much, many seek privacy through their use. We think we have solved that problem. Now, over here, you see the Grid tab. With the electric grids, if nothing else, we can easily cause “power failures”. The energy companies, governments, or single user cannot identify the cause.

  However there are more typical real world, alternative purposes, including effectively reducing electricity use, the overall load on an overused grid system, blocking electricity from low need items , maintaining it, or re-routing it to higher need items like lung machines, C-PAPS, and other essential medical equipment. Special uses are often found over one or more geographical regions. Of course, if the grid totally fails we have less contact for a short period of time. Usually we can reroute or create a temp link restoring power.

  You're saying we can control a home or a group of homes?

  That's right. We do. Often. And not just homes.

  Take this basic project, we set up for you, on this console. Here we control everything in and out of the monitored devices. We record everything for the data center too. Every task and the command set is monitored and recorded. There are a number of flagged data cells that may call our monitor teams into action at any moment. We can allow, moderate, increase, refuse, or re-task flows. We can merely disallow, or actually shutdown the individual device, or multiple devices, or any tech attempt in question, if we respond fast en
ough. We control the upload/download speed. We can increase or restrict the breadth of data flow into the pipeline. We can change the variables as we choose or as the stage of research demands.

  Everything is recorded, analyzed, and added to one or more of the ongoing data streams we are constantly building. As we go on, the growing data builds are giving our analysts an incredible understanding of our world's populace, their behavior, and their activity. We are not restricted to just our own populace. The world is increasingly available. The results of our research predict additional ways to maximize cost-effective practices for our customers. They need it. They want it. We supply it.

  Can it be misused?

  Yes. All research, all data can be misused. All applications, technology, and even our own techniques can be misused. Yes, all of what we've listed has been misused. Various modules are probably now being misused, and the likelihood is that they will be misused in the future. But. Improper uses are caught quickly. Perpetrators are punished. It is unlikely that ... no it is a 99.9% probability that any misuse will be found out, and dealt with. Not in days, weeks, or months, but in seconds or minutes at the latest.

  That said, some of our studies require an intentional misuse that another study does not allow. If you cycle through every study, it is unlikely, but not impossible, that you could use every button on this control board.

  We're also able to drop that little nano pill we call an L, whether L1, L2, L3 or any specific number designation to track identified individuals or possessions through our higher level SAT version of the world mapping application once called Google earth. The collectable data from each tagged item continues to grow.