Ulterior Storage

The final scrawling of Doctor Jackson Malvino, regarding his Ulterior Storage Breakthrough</b>

I.</i>

    I am writing this passage as a document of the thoughts and musings of a man heading toward self-annihilation. I shall be no more the man I once was by the end of this night, though I have not been that man for some time prior to my writing of this last fragment of my current life and although my life may continue I sha’n’t have any recollection of this experience, or any other for that matter as the effects of my plan shall include a total reformatting of the cursed brain I was brought into this world using; the brain that fuelled my devastating experiments and breakthrough in the field of computer-human symbiosis. I do not know whether or not my vegetative state will be permanent, though I suspect after the installation of new base software I will have my default processes running once again, assuming I have not forgotten how to breathe and died in the process. I also do not know if it will be a painless experience however I shall find out soon enough.
    It is a shame to lay such a brilliant mind to rest, but alas it must be done for the sake of my self-respect as I cannot bear to live knowing what dwells within the cavity of my skull-bone. I would like to relive the past and so I will include in this short letter to whoever may come across my lifeless self, once I have committed the atrocious act I must, an overview of my life’s work. I have never had the time to write an autobiographical review of myself yet I do not trust a biographer to gain the correct details, thoughts and feelings of the life I lead up until this very moment, in which my Dictaphone is taking up a large proportion of the limited memory with which this PC is bestowed.
    The computer shall never rival the human brain. The data an average brain can hold is deemed roughly 40 Terabytes, while a large, learned and well exercised brain such as my own can hold many, many more times that, I would imagine. Imagine, as I have never measured my own brain capacity for fear of being unable to contain myself of its magnificence much to the probable ignorance and frustration of common man. I fear many men have been jealous of the intelligence I possess and have therefore criticised my comments on the computing world which, in these years of late, has been a rather large world indeed. Indeed since the breakthrough of mine, many more a plebeian has converted to the ways of technology and abandoned even their foolish notions of a social life. Social lives, of course, have been hard to maintain since the curfews were put in place, so the online world has been buzzing with incredible masses of humans.

II.

    I have wasted enough time already introducing the theme of my life. If you are reading this you clearly have a very vivid idea already of what has befallen me, having possibly even discovered my gibbering or possibly deathly still form in this pristine office of mine, you also know who I am; everyone knows Dr. Jackson Malvino. I start my final tale before the inevitability that was the awarding of my doctorate had taken place. I had been attending a high end university in Central America known then as Bloomberg College. Its name has since been changed yet I cannot recall its current title, an annoyance becoming more common over the later years of my existence.
    I had, at Bloomberg, been studying the human brain among other less important things for which I have no desire to explain so as to shorten the time until I may die. Looking back at the equipment used in the days of old I shudder and cannot imagine how I could have existed in such a bland and technology-free world as it was in the early 20s. I was of course a much younger man then than now and while I speak these words I can feel the slack of my flesh as it drapes loosely over my frail bones. A worthy price for the gift of longer life as medicine has improved and I have seen my work continue into the mid 50s, over a hundred and thirty years since I attended my college soon after the new millennium and the coming of the century before this.
    I met by chance a man by the name of Jeremy McElroy, a handsome man with whom I often found myself wishing I could spend my life in a way other than as a roommate. He was at the time on a cookery course and it was at a local restaurant I first met him. I remember distinctly the dish he served to me was burned, for it was the burning of that meal that made it a delicacy, but I was not to know of this fact being uneducated in the culinary arts. As with the current name of my old halls of education I cannot think what the dish was, though I remember what took place shortly after. Calling for a waiter I had demanded to see the chef who had caused my meal to blacken. It was then explained to me with great patronisation how the food on my place is traditionally served “overcooked”. I fail to bring to mind how we became friends, but that is how we met. McElroy had many interests, cookery but one of them. His interest in computing had me stunned, his knowledge seemed to know no bounds. Rivalling my own intense familiarity with said subject, we stuck together and created many revolutionary pieces of hardware for the benefit of computer users.
    Jeremy and I bought a house together once we had graduated. We had both been great lovers of similar kinds of music, and at one time we even had our own band however that was short-lived. Gradually as our tastes broadened we got hold of many more quantities of musical data that wouldn’t fit on either of our music players all in one, and they were of the highest storage capacity. This is where we started to wonder about further methods of storing data, not only of audio files but any file. I evoke the thought of a specific idea we had; to use the human brain to store data perfectly. To transfer a file to a real mind and be able to retain the information without losing any information as tends to happen with learning. This would enable the human race to retain their full brain capacity of information; we would become so incredibly intelligent as a result that our limits would be broken forever. To be able to traverse the galaxy in search of new life, to be able to discover alternate realities in which fantasies become true life.
    Alas, these were but fantasies themselves. The technology with which to create such a thing would not be invented for several more decades. McElroy and I spent the next years researching and planning and inventing to design the tools we needed. We had the ideas, and we knew how to execute them. The next portion of my life is a blank; I cannot at all call to mind the things that transpired between the planning and the having created a first prototype of my device. My device and mine alone, for I do know dear Jeremy had fallen under a sickness of sorts, alarmingly similar to some illnesses manually created, procured from herbs and the like. As I say, I do not recall anything within this time and have had his symptoms described to me since he passed on. I would suspect foul play but am afraid my memory loss is partly due to the madness of guilt in which case I would not like to know the true nature of the death of the man I loved. Nevertheless I had my device, and that was all that mattered. Nothing could compare to infinite knowledge.

III.

    Many decades passed and my device had evolved into an insert implanted into the brain with some form of Serial Bus connection. Over the years of testing and improving I discovered the way an implanted brain works. Each form of brain would be compatible with a different form of software to enable the data to run as best it could. The beautiful latest versions of a Gates-inspired Windows PC a common structure of brain, I discovered. Another common form, the pretentious Macintosh I so despised with its shiny white exterior obscuring its atrocious workings I would rather, heh, destroy myself than be a Macintosh. I also discovered with several mishaps that installing the wrong software into a mind can cause untold damage as once the original base of the mind is destroyed; all memories, instincts and abilities are destroyed also. The heart stops beating. The blood stops flowing. You forget to breathe. You die. I had to remove any evidence of this discovery, yet what I had to do to hide those bodies is far too ghastly to mention.
    Having discovered this major flaw, I set about creating a reformat block on each implant, before finally releasing the safety-approved product to the public. By now the year was Anno Domini twenty one forty seven, and my mind had started becoming loose and distorted, as it if were becoming stretched over a wicker frame and left to dry. Damn these infernal life giving drugs! No matter, it will soon be over as my tale draws to a close.
    Having refused to implant my brilliant mind with a tool I clearly did not need, I carried on oblivious to the awful truth within my mind. I did not, I could not, know of the horror I would eventually, inevitably unleash with my own creation. Years passed and my mind capacity depleted, I was currently somewhat more intellectual than the average human, with implant, but I had to admit to myself that though my creativity knew no bounds my memory loss was significantly harming the productivity of my research. I took to art for a few years from the early 2150s and was a very impressive artist. I would be.
    It was only very recently I discovered my mind power depleting so rapidly I must recover the corrupted data by having the implantation procedure. I realise now that had I given in to the encumbrance of the degenerative disease my wonderful mind has been afflicted with that I could have become numb, happily, and could have spared myself the horror of the two things I discovered having implanted myself with the device.  The first of the things that I discovered is the true nature of my beloved Jeremy’s death. My selfish actions spurred the deterioration of my mind just as I had predicted. I am often far too intellectually gifted to convince myself the truth is a lie, and the guilt of my selfishness had all too obviously been eating away at me, finally bringing me to the state I deserved; total self awareness. I have learned, even since I have been writing this, the full story I neglected to write in the earlier parts of this tale of departure yet much of it is too horrible to tell another soul; the poor humans I tried failed prototypes on! Those sickening sounds as their brains shut down all for my own personal gain; it tears through me.
    That is not, however, the reason I wish to destroy myself entirely. That reason is far worse than the death of a loved one and the realisation of my own true despicable character. That reason is clearly recognised by only my mind’s eye as it gazes upon the shiny white interior of its home.

- Doctor Jackson Malvino, 2001-2157