Discussion → MindLight

  • Martin_and_ula.thumb
    Martin Heavisides
    Mar 27, 05:09pm

    {thinking about how we might use this new office set up by Carol Novack--thanks, Carol--I decided to post--and suggest the same to other authors--an excerpt, Chapter iv of Undermind, MindLight:}

    "What do you think of the light in our city at night?" It spreads out in every direction, following the hills and valleys of the city, visible into the far distance from the Penthouse party room on the 44th floor.

    "Gorgeous! must really eat up the nonrenewable resources though?"

    "Nah! pilot project--other cities observing us closely to see if it succeeds. Every light in the city is powered by thought."

    "There's enough of that for a lightshow like this?"

    "You'd be surprised. Just because people don't use their brains doesn't mean they cease to exist. And when you consider the whole population of Greater Cuidad Fabella. . . "

    "Everyone in the city. . . ?" Your hostess nods as a passing server presents you each with a brightly coloured drink.

    "Even visitors."

    "You mean I. . . ? Don't know if I like that how much brain power can any of us afford to have sapped off?"

    She shook his head. "You misunderstand. Lighting the city doesn't sap our minds, it exercises and tones them. You arrived here jetlagged eighteen hours ago. You haven't slept since. Do you feel mentally drained?"

    "Just the opposite. I feel more mentally. . . alert than when I . . . hmm. A. . . nd--that's how it effects all of you?"

    "If it's how it effects you it must be how it effects all of us. I could introduce you--you've already introduced yourself--to prodigies in the arts and sciences who swear that, prior to the MindLight project, they hadn't had an original thought in their whole adult lives."

    "I've noticed I can more nearly comprehend this intricate theoretical book I picked up from the paperback racks at the airport bookstore. But tradeoffs? must be some, negative effects, worrying. . . ? I don't know, you tell me!"

    "We have noticed that when a significant percentage of our citizens are in REM sleep, weirdnesses sometimes"

    "You mean like the purple rippling aura that way to our left? The red shift to our right or whoo! the ground level aurora borealis of green shimmer moving right up the middle of the city?"

    "Picturesque but we monitor. There may be dangers hidden in the dazzle that we need to nullify or, in the ideal case, creatively employ."


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