The Mahoney Protocol
Science Fiction to Help Prevent Strategic Surprise
The Mahoney Protocol — By John Romero
Alexandria, Virginia — March 2, 2023. Megan Cox had driven a hundred or more times to the Center for Brain Research at National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda (NMCB), Maryland. Today Dr. Blackmon insisted on sending a driver. Expecting a taxi, Megan was surprised to see not one but two Chevy Suburbans. The rear door of the trailing Suburban swung open and Dr. Blackmon had one foot on the ground before the wheels had fully stopped. Dr. Blackmon met Megan as she walked down the driveway and, with none of his customary pleasantries or quips, nudged her to hurry to the open door of the trailing Suburban. Megan caught a glimpse of flashing emergency lights on the lead Suburban as they started to move. “What the hell is going on?” Megan asked Dr. Blackmon.
The muscles in Dr. Blackmon’s face were tense as he struggled to respond. It was a look Megan had not seen in their decade-long doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Blackmon turned to Megan and waited a split second for her eyes to catch his gaze and said, “Dr. Mahoney defected to China.” In an instant, Megan knew that after today, the world would be a far different place. Almost as if it were a Hollywood feature film, Megan began recalling the very first time she met Dr. Mahoney.
National Naval Medical Center — Bethesda, Maryland, Year 2013. The daughter of a career military officer and a CIA agent in her own right, Megan was immensely proud that her experience might help heal wounded warriors and expand the knowledge of brain science. Dr. Richard Blackmon was a Naval Academy graduate and a combat veteran; he had been a CIA psychologist for ten years. When Dr. Blackmon first met Megan, he knew that with her high IQ, security clearance, and impeccable record, she might be that uniquely qualified individual for whom the medical ethics committee was waiting.
With all of the necessary CIA approvals and Megan’s consent, Dr. Blackmon briefed the research team prior to Megan’s arrival. Most everyone knew that Megan had been the only surviving CIA agent in a 2011 attack on a safe-house in Pakistan. While the world would never know it, the team was well aware that Osama Bin Laden would not have been killed on May 2, 2011, and Seal Team 6 would likely not have survived the raid on his compound, were it not for Megan Cox.
Erasing, or more accurately destroying, traumatic memories had been well within the reach of the scientists at NMCB for many years. Unfortunately, the side effect, in even the best of cases was a patient with gaping holes in their memory and lifelong psychosis. Adrenaline imprints memory. That night in Pakistan Megan experienced an adrenaline overdose, a phenomenon common to most PTSD sufferers. Her life was held hostage by the memory of a single night in Pakistan. Megan needed her life back; the CIA needed Megan back.
The standard of care in cases like Megan’s had been the off-label use of the blood pressure medicine Propranalol. To Dr. Mahoney, Propranalol had been the next best thing to time travel. Propranalol worked whether the trauma had occurred in a recent months or years as in Megan’s case or whether the trauma had occurred decades prior. Dr. Mahoney would guide the victim through a vivid retelling of the incident, followed by an immediate dose of Propranalol. The stirred memories then resettled in a manner consistent with a useful memory. The results were generally good, but somewhat inconsistent. Some would experience a toxic and paralyzing memory converted into a useful and therapeutic memory. Others would experience no positive effect at all and there were many in between. Propranalol had not worked for Megan.
Dr. Mahoney had mapped the Propranalol brain events using a state-of-the-art electroencephalograph (EEG). The unclassified version of Dr. Mahoney work indicated that he had successfully replicated human brain energy and could blueprint any live brain. The classified version indicated that Dr. Mahoney could perform brain surgery through neural pathways, remove, install, alter and read human memories. Dr. Mahoney was a genius; but his success was also attributable to being a medical doctor during war time and to a serendipitous discovery of Propranalol’s off-label use.
Megan’s IQ was off the charts and her experience in homeland security and national defense was unparalleled. Considering that she was the guinea pig in this scenario, Megan paid extra close attention. Neither the NMCB medical ethics board nor Dr. Mahoney had to explain to Megan the far reaching implications of what would eventually be known as the Mahoney protocol and later M-Pro. In the right hands, spinal cord injuries could be by-passed, and every manner of addiction would be a thing of the past. In the wrong hands, radicalization could be accomplished with the click of a mouse and the continuity of a society’s collective memory could be interrupted.
Brain Surgery, 2013. Megan’s brain was mapped and blueprinted. In the event of an equipment malfunction, at least Megan could eventually be restored to her pre-surgery condition. It was the equivalent of backing-up computer files. The Chairperson of the NMCB Ethics Board met with Megan one last time. “Megan, no one will think poorly of you if you want to back out now; it’s not too late,” she said. Megan was resolved to go through with the procedure. While technically the procedure was brain surgery, Dr. Mahoney’s scalpel was made up of neurons. A computer helped Dr. Mahoney direct the neurons with millions of assessments each second. The accuracy of the code and energy discovered by Dr. Mahoney was considered to be more important than the human genome project, DNA, and the European atom smasher combined.
Spinal Cord By-Pass, 2014. Megan was a walking success story, but nothing was more visibly successful than the first spinal cord bypass patient to walk out of the NMCB. It was a media circus like none other in the history of the NMCB. Dr. Mahoney spoke at the event, keeping his remarks very simple, “We are all made up of atomic particles — little vibrating bundles of energy. Once we figured out the rules of their roads, we were just one step away from being able to safely drive on those energy highways. To reuse a famous quote, today you saw one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind. Dr. Mahoney thought, “If my career could end today, I would consider myself a resounding success.”
United States Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, 2015. Within two years of Megan’s procedure, the NMCB had built six more of the computers designated M-Pro V-1s. M-Pro stood for the Mahoney Protocol and V-1 stood for the first generation or version of the computer. One M-Pro V-1 had been on loan to the Department of Defense and presumably sent to Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. Several weeks later all of the detainees were released and repatriated. The vast majority of the prisoners had been conclusively determined to be of no or limited threat to the U.S. homeland or national security. The mystery was that all of the prisoners had been released, including those known to have committed acts of extreme violence against U.S. interests. Human rights activists debriefed select prisoners, each of them recalling their captivity and torture in milder terms than previously believed. Some of the activists suspected a mysterious and unknown type of brainwashing. The notion of brainwashing was so far-fetched, that there was no need to defend the allegation. For the first time, Dr. Mahoney had a tinge of guilt for his landmark discovery.
Veracity Verifications, 2016. By 2016, the use of the M-Pro had been perfected for veracity verifications. The term “lie detector” did not capture the capacity of M-Pro to verify prior activities and statements. Every year it seemed, some U.S. serviceman or contractor was found to have leaked classified materials. In late 2015, individual security clearance holders were placed on notice that when their security clearance was up for a five-year renewal, they would be scanned for security violations. Of the first one-hundred individuals scheduled for the five-year renewal cycle, half decided to retire or resign. Of the fifty remaining renewal candidates, only five qualified for a renewal. The veracity verifications revealed a shocking truth: the gold standard for handling classified material had been an illusion. Very few security clearance holders had handled classified information well. To prevent the loss of key personnel, a period of amnesty was instituted and training provided. Those with security violations only were reprimanded. Those who had intentionally compromised secrets against U.S. interests were terminated and prosecuted. Dr. Mahoney began develop a plan for a time when the details of the M-Pro V-2 were leaked.
M-Pro V-2 Computer, 2017. At about the four year mark, the vast improvements to the first generation of M-Pro computers warranted a new designation. The M-Pro V-2 was believed to be about one hundred times more accurate than the M-Pro. By fall of 2017, there were one hundred M-Pro V-2 computers in existence. Each M-Pro V-2 was tracked with a global positioning system and could be rendered inert if lost or stolen. First generation M-Pro systems were made available to certain state governments. The Guantanamo Bay prisoner application of the M-Pro V-2 was attempted to solve the overcrowded prison problem in California. The result was an unprecedented increase in homelessness and unemployment. Approximately ten percent of the prisoners were eligible for wrongful conviction payments by the state. The elimination of addictive behavior such as smoking and drinking added to California’s budget crisis as millions of dollars were lost from reduced tobacco and alcohol tax revenue. There was also an immediate glut in the employment market for correctional officer and social workers specializing in addiction.
Unauthorized Experiment, 2018. Dr. Mahoney had personally trained several of the scientists who were now themselves capable of teaching the protocol. They were the best of the very best, but none brighter than Dr. Timothy White. Dr. White was one of those scientists who would prefer to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. On December 14, 2018, in what appeared to be a reckless stunt, Dr. White mapped the circuitry of every kitchen appliance in the break room of the M-Pro lab. He did not stop there; with similar ease, he mapped the entire hospital. Technically, this stunt was far less impressive than decoding the human brain. But he revealed vulnerability in any electrical system — worldwide. Firewalls and password were of no consequence. Dr. Mahoney knew that eventually this vulnerability would be exploited for and against the U.S. He reluctantly alerted higher commands about the breakthrough.
The Faux Pas, 2020. At the seven-year mark, Dr. Mahoney suspected that the M-Pro V-2 technology had been used inappropriately or compromised. There were many suspected instances of computer tampering using an M-Pro V-2 computer; but none were widely noticed. However, on Monday January 20, 2020, the President of the United States was the keynote speaker at a gala dinner, where he inadvertently insulted a foreign dignitary. The damage was limited to the President’s personal embarrassment. Normally a faux pas of this type would have gone viral in a matter of days and remained on the internet in perpetuity. But beginning with the second day after the incident, the internet content associated with the remark steadily decreased until it was undetectable. Someone had infiltrated millions of computers and essentially rewrote history. In Dr. Mahoney’s own words, “It is not a Watergate burglary, it was far worse.”
Haze Over the Pentagon, 2021. The concern that foreign governments and terrorists would soon acquire the ability to navigate wired and wireless systems necessitated immediate mitigating action. The decision was made to deploy diesel generators to critical facilities including the Pentagon. By having a dedicated power supply for each critical facility, it was believed that classified information would be protected. The number of diesel generators at and near the Pentagon created a continual haze in the region. Emergency funding and fast-tracked approval for construction resulted in the beginning of ten new nuclear power plants similar to the type used on naval aircraft carriers and submarines.
A Virtual College Education, 2022. In Spring of 2022, the Chinese Government announced that they had acquired a version of the technology similar to M-Pro. Dr. Mahoney analyzed the energy demonstrated by the Chinese scientist and confirmed that it was a copy of a first generation U.S. system. Dr. Mahoney believed that the Chinese would have a second generation system in a matter of months. Math scores among Chinese students almost immediately spiked. Dr. Mahoney believed that the students had received their math skills through the use of the M-Pro. By fall, 2022, the Chinese elite were able to purchase a college education, including virtual college life experience. Elite Chinese employers were able to install a superior work ethic in their employees. These practices immediately resulted in the need for far fewer employees and a glut of college educated workers. The practice was made illegal; though it was believed to be occurring on the black market. Dr. Mahoney began to think of ways to combat the spread of the M-Pro.
The End is Near, 2023. Dr. Mahoney learned that the Chinese government was going to attempt a virtual brain transplant. A wealthy Chinese businessman was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given only months to live. He found a healthy Chinese man who was willing to have his entire brain content erased and reinstalled with the brain content of the terminally ill man. Dr. Mahoney pleaded with his counterparts in China that the transplant would have disastrous results. Dr. Mahoney made a final plea to the Chinese. In his final plea he agreed to secretly travel to China to assist with the procedure.
Dr. Mahoney, an atheist most of his life, had been convinced that reinstalling the content of one entire brain into a donor brain and body, would not produce the desired outcome. There had always been a mysterious energy that Dr. Mahoney had come to recognize as the soul and spirit of an individual.
Dr. Mahoney traveled to China in late February 2023. On Wednesday, March 1, 2023, after not arriving to work and being reported missing by his family, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation breeched the door to Dr. Mahoney NMCB office. A hand written note instructed the agents that they should not put any of the content in the note in any electronic form. He apologized to the United States for defecting. Dr. Mahoney provided detailed information about the M-Pro V-3 computer and how to track it.
When Dr. Blackmon and Megan arrived at the lab, they immediately deciphered the note and believed strongly that Dr. Mahoney had intended for the United States to track the M-Pro V-2 computer and destroy it through a military attack.
