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avevale_intelligencer"So this is it."
"Don't touch it. Not yet anyway."
"How long have they had it?"
"About thirty years. They mainly used it to secure their power base in their own country, and as we all know that's still solid. Apart from that, periodic testing on a local level, introducing new nonsense words into the language, that kind of thing."
"But it could work globally?"
"Sure it could. Power requirement's surprisingly low, and it translates automatically so language is no problem. This machine could plant a simple idea in the mind of every human being on the planet. They'd have no clue that it wasn't their own thought. It goes straight into the subconscious, bypasses all reason, becomes an instinct or a buried memory of something that never happened."
"Wow."
"Only catch is, the idea has to be really simple. You can't elaborate. It has to be something like a feeling, or a single word. 'You need to give Joe Blow all your money' wouldn't work."
"Sucks to be Joe Blow then."
"They'd probably just get the last four words and go on a spending spree. Nah, I'm kidding, that wouldn't work either. Too idiomatic for the translators."
"And it's the only one?"
"The one and only. Oh, and just putting 'love' or 'peace' in there wouldn't work either. Too vague. It'd just vanish in the background mush. It has to be short, simple, and mean something definite."
"And I just type it in here?"
"Yes, but--and here's the other thing--you've only got one shot. This component here is practically burned out, and nobody in the world even knows what it is, let alone how to replace it. We figure it'll work once more, and that's it."
"One chance to influence the mind of everyone in the world."
"That's about the size of it. I'd think before you type if I were you."
"No need. I already know what I want to say."
Do you?
"Don't touch it. Not yet anyway."
"How long have they had it?"
"About thirty years. They mainly used it to secure their power base in their own country, and as we all know that's still solid. Apart from that, periodic testing on a local level, introducing new nonsense words into the language, that kind of thing."
"But it could work globally?"
"Sure it could. Power requirement's surprisingly low, and it translates automatically so language is no problem. This machine could plant a simple idea in the mind of every human being on the planet. They'd have no clue that it wasn't their own thought. It goes straight into the subconscious, bypasses all reason, becomes an instinct or a buried memory of something that never happened."
"Wow."
"Only catch is, the idea has to be really simple. You can't elaborate. It has to be something like a feeling, or a single word. 'You need to give Joe Blow all your money' wouldn't work."
"Sucks to be Joe Blow then."
"They'd probably just get the last four words and go on a spending spree. Nah, I'm kidding, that wouldn't work either. Too idiomatic for the translators."
"And it's the only one?"
"The one and only. Oh, and just putting 'love' or 'peace' in there wouldn't work either. Too vague. It'd just vanish in the background mush. It has to be short, simple, and mean something definite."
"And I just type it in here?"
"Yes, but--and here's the other thing--you've only got one shot. This component here is practically burned out, and nobody in the world even knows what it is, let alone how to replace it. We figure it'll work once more, and that's it."
"One chance to influence the mind of everyone in the world."
"That's about the size of it. I'd think before you type if I were you."
"No need. I already know what I want to say."
Do you?
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no subject
Date: 2013-08-31 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 11:07 pm (UTC)What they all said...
Date: 2014-04-05 10:32 pm (UTC)