Episode Two: Preparations

    Dean Senoma hung a few feet above the floor.  Wires covered the harness that held him and extended to sensors placed all over his body.  Through sound proof headphones, he heard Mr. Kilgore ask him if he was ready.  After a moment of hesitation, he slid the opaque glasses from off his forehead down over his eyes.
    “I'm ready.”  Dean braced himself, but for the moment nothing happened.
    “Where would you like to go?” Mr. Kilgore's voice asked.  “I could drop you of in a desert, or a mountain, or I could set you in a blank location and let the computer randomly create something for you.”
    “Mountains sound nice.”
    “Mountains it is.”
    Compound lasers came from lenses in the goggles and filled each of his eyes with a full panorama image. An entire three dimensional landscape appeared before him.
    “The computer is calculating all five external senses, even though the only feedback you are getting is sight and sound.  I'm still working on the internal ones, but that doesn't change anything in this demonstration,” said Mr. Kilgore.
    “This mountain sure seems real.”  Dean moved his legs in walking motion, even though they hung in air.  “You were right Mr. Kilgore, walking without feeling the ground is very strange.  In fact the mountain seems more real than I do right now.  I feel like a ghost.”
    “Try not to fall over, it is hard to move correctly when the computer 'up' is different from the 'up' your body feels.”
    Dean walked as best he could up the mountain slope.  Mr. Kilgore had set him some two hundred feet under the ridge on a barren slope that overlooked a forest.  He could hear crunch of gravel as he walked, but  felt nothing push against his feet.  He did fall down a few times.  Which proved more difficult than he thought.  Eventually he learned to ignore the gravity he felt and pay attention to which way looked up.  When he stood still he almost believed the valley below him and the peak overhead were real, even the sound of wind in the trees was accurately present.
    “How did you create such a realistic setting,” said Dean.  “The detail surprises me.  Each rock is different, unique.  I can hold them in my hands—even though I can't feel them—when I throw them they bounce against each other with all the expected clatter.  It's amazing!”
    “Lots of physics equations.” Mr. Kilgore laughed.  “The real achievement is actually in the computer hardware and software logic.  I have figured out much more efficient methods to transmit and process data, allowing for more information to be used in real time simulation.  The sheer about of information being processed as you walk around that mountain is staggering.  Everything from air pressure variation around the rock you threw to heat generated from its impact on the dirt is calculated into the equations.   Its all just information running on wires.”
    “I've almost reached the ridge,  I'd like to look over it before . . . whoops!”  Deans arms instinctively reached out and braced to catch himself when he misplaced a foot and fell yet again.  “This will be much easier once we connect it directly to the brain and get the whole sensation.  I feel like a fool waving my arms and legs around feeling nothing.”  Out of curiosity he put his hand behind his head and felt the thick rope he was hanging from.  Strange, he thought, to feel reality and see a virtual imitation.
    When he was on his feet climbing again he asked, “What's on the other side of that ridge?”
    “Nothing.” said Mr. Kilgore, “at least not yet.”
    “When you invited me to come for this demonstration I thought you said you were done with the landscape and world creation.  Mr. Lombardi won't be happy if his frontier vanishes into nothingness.  He wants it to be endless.”
    “I could never make an endless landscape.  But Mr. Lombardi won't be able to find any end in it, and you won't either.  The moment your head goes over the ridge the computer will extend the landscape beyond your sight and fill it in randomly.  I created databases and information files that allow the computer to make the landscape itself.  The edge will always be just over the horizon, and never in sight.”
    A few moments later Dean leaped onto the ridge hoping to see the nothingness.   After slopping down for a few feet the mountain dropped in a shear cliff away from Dean's feet.  Below lay a vast grassland  dotted with lakes.  A glimmering sea could barely be seen on the horizon.  At the same time Mr. Kilgore heard a momentary hum come from the supercomputer next to him signaling that an unusual amount of information was being processed.
    “Wow.”
    “So,” asked Mr. Kilgore, “What is beyond the ridge?”
    “The Endless Frontier.  Just like you said.  I've seen enough. Get me out of here so we can work out the details of how to connect this program into the human brain.”

    A few hours later Mr. Senoma closed his laptop and slid it into his suitcase.  Mr Kilgore was still examining charts on the table.  It had taken longer than both of them thought it would, but the project was moving along. 
    “What we are doing will completely revolutionize the world.  This is big enough for the history books,” said Dean.  “The improvements you've made to computer processing alone make modern computers look sluggish.”
    “That doesn't mean I'll make the history books, computers have improved drastically over the last few years and will probably continue to do so, leaving mine in the dust.  I'll be a forgotten step along the way.  But you, on the other hand, have pioneered new ground.  The stuff you are doing is entirely new.  Your understanding of the brain and how it functions is unprecedented.  Technology that comes out of the work you are just beginning not only revolutionize human interactions with computers, but will also be turned to medical use helping millions.  You'll be the famous one.”
    Mr. Senoma looked at the ground for a moment then looked up at Mr. Kilgore.  “I hate that Mr. Lombardi just sits there in his office doing nothing, yet he's the one who will make the money with our creation.  Everyone will give us a nice pat on the back, then pay him to use it.  He'll gain even more control over the business world than he already has.  And we won't even be able to work on our own discoveries without his permission.”  Mr. Senoma was angrily pacing the room.
    “I'm sure he'll want us to continue working for him.  We'll both be richer than kings with the reward he promised and he'll give us all the money we need to keep working.  Were not like his other business ventures that he squeezes every penny from.  This is his dream, his hobby.  And I think he'll keep us employed as long as we want.”
    “You don't know that.  He could dump us off and pay someone else to continue our work.”
    “Mr. Lombardi isn't like that.  Besides with a hundred million you could start your own research facility.”
    “He will own the patent.  I can't do anything unless he lets me.  Its all in that fine print stack of papers he gave us.  I shouldn't have signed it.”
    Mr. Kilgore finished putting all the papers a binder and snapped it close. “You worry too much, no one can replace you.  Your the best mind in the entire medical field.”
    Dean opened his mouth, but closed it quickly.  Mr. Kilgore, he realized, didn't care. He was willing to let Mr. Lombardi walk way with it all. Grabing his suitcase he quickly left the office. 
    After Mr. Senoma left Mr. Kilgore sat for a while thinking about what Mr. Senoma had said. Mr. Senoma is just in a bad mood, he told himself, everything will work out fine.