PLANAR
A Story of Good Intentions
The idea began decades before in 6th grade over the New Year. None of them knew whether it was Star Trek, Star Wars, or Battlestar Galactica (original and remake) that prompted it, but agreed it was the anniversary of All4–1.
Today began another anniversary — human trials.
Jerry drew the short straw. Unbeknownst to his partners, he planned it that way.
They injected him with PLANAR.
They grew up in Seattle during the biotech craze. Rick, a Harvard MBA, developed his sales skills by throwing fish at the Pike Place Market over summers and outsold any fishmonger before or since gained the funding.
The CEO job was Tom’s, who also had an MBA, but from Stanford. Tom could sell, but he loved spreadsheets, numbers, organization, and efficiency, along with telling Rick what to do.
Greg had no degrees because he didn’t need them. He did not fit the stereotypical geek with his Greek/Basque/Spanish origins, chiseled features punctuated with sea-green eyes against olive skin. Although everyone thought he was a model, Greg didn’t see himself that way and after years of having a relationship with technology, he lacked social skills.
Although Rick, Tom, and Greg were unquestionably brilliant, it was unassuming Jerry, who was a genius. Jerry had so many degrees his friends joked it was easier to name the ones he didn’t. Jerry came across as one of the guys. He played many sports, was captain of his rugby team and considered MMA. Most people did not know how smart he was, but god forbid they said something idiotic about a topic Jerry could write books about.
No matter how brilliant or confident Jerry seemed, he was terrified as he felt a warming sensation in his spinal column from the PLANAR injection. There was a possibility he could die and it could cook his brain from replication friction. The warming sensation began in the mid-back and felt like a heating pad set on low. But, once it completed initial replication procedures, it spread throughout his nervous system and crossed the brain barrier.
“Jerry, what you are experiencing? Vitals and all that jazz are normal.” Said, Rick.
“It is an odd sensation of popping in my head, kind of like Pop Rocks. Do you remember Pop Rocks?” Jerry said with the utmost confidence, hoping it concealed abject terror.
“Heard of them, but no,” Tom said.
Jerry laughed, “Well, I bought some off the internet. Loved em.”
After 15 minutes, everyone relaxed. Jerry was alive.
“What do you think Jerry are you ready to take it for a walk,” Tom said.
“So far, so good. Yeah, let’s do it.”
All4–1 headquarters was in the old Guitar Store off Aurora Avenue with its famous Eddie Van Halen paint job. It was removed from the South Lake Union crowd of biotechs, but Eddie was a pioneer, so were they, and Greg loved Van Halen.
Jerry headed to Green Lake with Greg in tow monitoring vitals with two laptops attached to some ridiculous rig he strapped onto himself so he could walk with two laptops, while wearing a gamer headset and a mini satellite dish he invented attached to a Sherlock Holmes cap which he did, so he told everyone, as though he needed to, just to be weird.
“Alright Jerry, can you hear me?” Greg said into his headset.
“Wait! Oh crap, that was odd, not used to it. You are coming into my head. It is a strange sensation.”
“Yup I bet. I am a block behind you. Turn the Wi-Fi on. I have the hot spot on.”
One incredible discovery that made PLANAR unique was the brain received signals such as Wi-Fi, but cannot translate them into data the brain can use. PLANAR became the nanotechnology bridge, and this was how Greg communicated into Jerry’s head, but Wi-Fi was trickier. This would revolutionize brain science, but it was a fundamental feature of PLANAR and accolades were secondary.
However, it was untested how to turn it on. During animal trials, it was set on and different parts of their brain were monitored to see if the Wi-Fi signal, let’s say for music, would light up those parts of a rat brain.
Jerry thought to himself, how the heck am I supposed to turn this on? The damn switch is in my head. Am I supposed to say it out loud like abracadabra Wi-Fi on? “Holy shit Greg, I turned it on by thinking,” Jerry yelled back to Greg only because he forgot Greg was already in his head.
Jerry and Greg made their way around Green Lake. Part of the way, Jerry watched a movie while monitoring where he was going in the right upper quadrant of his vision.
“Ok, Jerry, mind and body monitors show everything normal. Do you have an update?”
“It takes some getting used to. Probably a similar hurdle people have with self-driving cars, except it is more difficult when it’s in your head. We may want to roll this out with some features turned off. This will allow them to get used to it and we can probably make more money with upgrades.” Jerry said.
“Hey, Jerry it’s Rick. Great idea and Tom thinks so too. Why don’t you come back? Tom is itching to try something. Oh, wait, did you pull up the map feature?”
“Hey, Rick. No, I haven’t yet.”
“Let’s try that first.”
“Ok will do. I am going to set the map feature to guide me back to the shop.” Jerry said. Jerry thought, directions to All4–1. Instantly, a map appeared similar to his phone, where it gave several routes to choose from. He chose one, adjusted the opacity to 30%, and sent it to his peripheral vision, which he could bring to the foreground by thinking about it.
“Hey Jerry, it’s Tom. Looking good buddy. Tell PLANAR to take you to your destination and pull up a movie except this time let’s try full immersion.”
Jerry watched Game of Thrones in 3D and felt the sensation of this illusion as real. The movie tapped into his visual cortex while PLANAR kept track of the data Jerry’s eyes and other senses were taking in. Jerry was blind and trusted Greg was paying attention and PLANAR will do its job.
During this phase, Greg did not look at either of his laptops and walked next to Jerry to grab him if he ran into any trouble. The map feature was a success as Jerry, with the help of PLANAR, dodged dog poo, a bicyclist who was too focused on Greg’s weird getup and a car.
When Jerry returned, Tom was already injected with PLANAR. Tom loved to skateboard. As part of their feature set, developed after too many episodes of the Matrix, they thought it would be possible to record the brain, and nervous system signals of, in this case, a pro skater, and this feature could be downloaded into PLANAR.
There was a half pipe in the parking lot. Tom dropped in — wipe out.
“What happened?” Everyone exclaimed as Tom nursed his wound.
“Override! I freaked out and took back control in the middle of the trick.” Tom yelled back at them, full of frustration and pain.
“Ok! Try it again,”
The next time Tom did a trick only elite skaters can do. The All4–1 team, including Tom, knew it was possible, but after seeing it they were in shock, followed by cheers and the pop of champagne corks as they toasted success.
PLANAR did it all. They were gods.
Five years later, PLANAR was at a price point where the median income could afford one with payment plans in place for lower incomes. There was a small glitch, though. When people’s PLANAR bubble came into contact with another bubble, a Ven diagram of data confusion occurred, otherwise known as the Ven effect. Sex, holding hands, affection, and anything that involved proximity to another human being caused Ven anxiety and people routinely said, “Get outta my space.”
No matter the glitches sales doubled, the board was happy, and customers loved it. People let it take them everywhere. People didn’t go to the gym anymore because all they had to do was think, “I need to do a workout.” As they sipped coffee and binge-watched Netflix, they had a workout.
People were used to PLANAR doing everything it didn’t seem unusual when PLANAR took them to a park, restaurant, tennis court, or anything at all. Most people thought it was an upgrade and if they didn’t want to, could override, but usually didn’t. None of the ALL4–1 team knew why this occurred and without complaints, no one looked into it. It wasn’t until later they wish they had.
The line wrapped down the block and “Get outta my space!” echoed throughout. PLANAR wanted them to be here, so it must be something fun. Jerry couldn’t figure out why they were lined up for the Columbia Tower.
His legs carried him through the doors and no one took the elevator. They were taking the stairs. Something was wrong. He thought, “Turn Wi-Fi off.” Nothing happened. He tried to override and get out of line, but he couldn’t. His feet continued to shuffle forward.
He stood at the top of the building and, to his horror, people walked off. He tried to communicate with the team but got a maintenance message.
PLANAR took his last step
