The Amplifier – A Mind Control Fantasy
Jerry Gilman yawned and wiped his face with a towel. He stared blearily at his watch. Slowly, his eyes focused on the face. 2:30 A.M. He carefully put down the soldering iron and stared at the device on his bench.
The Amplifier didn’t look like much. A tangle of wiring and integrated circuits. In the center was one of the new room-temperature superconducting chips. He’d had to scrounge it from the University’s Supplies Department…well, he thought…steal it, really.
The idea had come to him one day as he worked on his PhD thesis. He was working on a double doctorate, Cognitive Science and Electronics. His thesis had to do with ‘coupling’ to brain signals. Originally, he’d expected the work to lead to better EEG machines.
But a breakthrough had happened. Jerry had realized that there were two sides to communicating with the brain. And the new superconductors…He had been working like a fiend for two months. He hadn’t mentioned it to his thesis advisors–the implications were too huge. So he’d had to pretend to be working on his original thesis. This amounted to two full-time jobs, and the effort was beginning to tell on him.
He shut everything down and went to his apartment to crash. He slept for 48 hours straight, then returned to the lab.
In the light of day, the Amplifier looked even less imposing. His calculations and tests said it should work. But would it?
He placed the Amp into a small plastic box and put the unit in his pocket. In the other pocket went the heavy battery pack which would power it. Grunting, he made a note to work on minimizing the power requirements. A fine wire ran under his shirt, up his neck, and to a small adhesive patch on his temple. He covered the patch with a cap.
Inspecting himself in the mirror, he decided the set-up was unobtrusive enough. Only the thin wire was visible. He strolled outside onto the campus. It was a sunny, bright day, and the green quadrangle was filled with students. Jerry switched on the Amplifier. He staggered, almost fell to his knees. A wave of thoughts and emotions surged through his mind. Frantically, he fumbled for the gain control. At last, he had adjusted the Amp so that he could deal with the input. (click to read entire story…)