PROFESSOR ULAR’S INVENTION
Chapter I
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The TMD interface was designed to capture, through complex calculations, the extent of exposure to fake news and unverified information. If manipulated sources, motivated by political and economic interests, are behind most of the disinformation problems, it was very important for the professor to make his invention work. For seven weeks, Professor Ular had been working hard calibrating the tubes with the mysterious ball that he discovered had reacted to his experiment. He was eager to make the devices work and test if the latest modifications could elevate his advanced instruments, to deliver their finest and most accurate performance.
The Professor’s utmost concerns were about how information echoes within people when using social media and Artificial Intelligence, and how this affects younger and less youthful minds. The architecture of social media seemed to be in the control of three or four major corporations that designed protocols that dictated how information was delivered on the web. Algorithms induced addictive behaviours and inflicted in humans, especially children, a sinister alienation of unmeasurable consequences.
Working on his project, brings the Professor to memories of Dr. Lactuston, his former colleague at the Research Centre. Unfortunately, she was captured during the previous century’s Eurasian wars, and was never heard of again. With nostalgia, he remembers their investigation about the illusion of truth and the repetition of a message as a form of mass control. This techniques were used by the Snadchi to spread propaganda during the 3th, 4th and 5th Reichs. Their research centred on whether the repetition of a plausible message, might make false statements, feel more truthful.
Superconductivity has already achieved nonelectric resistance in certain ceramic materials and at room temperature. This has helped technological development to become cheaper in all areas affecting humanity. A more balanced share of wealth has been made possible; but the world is still dominated by a group of evil villains who control three fourths of earth’s economy. The ultra-rich manage the resources of the planet by supporting wars wherever a specific mineral is needed for their business. They buy politicians, media, judges and lawyers to protect their fortune; destroying progressive policies and eliminating people’s basic civil and political rights.
Professor Ular was aware of these issues and dedicated his entire career to understanding how people communicate and receive information. He believed that making people aware of the causes of misinformation, could elicit a change to their response to repeated exposure.
It is getting late and there are still a few tube tests to finalise. The Automated Machine Learning might locate the experiment and, if the information gets exposed for too long on the web, they can modify all the hyperparameter tuning protocols. A big effort has been made to protect those, but how easy are to be given away.
Professor Ular still dreams of the World Wide Web becoming free again; free as a tool to connect with other people, as a space to discuss and share information, unaffected by the subversive surveillant control of certain elites who monitor every single movement, every single action. In fact, more than a century after the irruption of social media and Artificial Digital Protocols, the system is still affected by a more plutocratic philosophy in which college educated elites feel entitled to decide what is best for the lives of others. People nod and click their likes, share their most intimate stories, even instrumentalizing trauma as for trivialising infromation. Nobody seems to envision a solution, and the majority have adopted a lethargic attitude, as if alienated by a major force.
After recording some evidence, an alert on the glasses’ screen shows the reception of an unfamiliar noise. The professor installs the recently built 555UT Signal Receptor (555UT-SR) on his head in order to analyse the interference. It indicates a possible sabotage from the XY-Corporation, the Secret Digital Bot Guard of the nefarious Trumberg Muxzos.
The Professor has finally adjusted the 555UT SR, and done a few calculations. Suddenly, the devise gets struck by a strange force and adheres it to his neck. Unsuccessfully, he tries to liberate the lock, but the device is firmly stuck and acting on its own.
It seems things are getting Herculean for the professor. A light has blinded his eyes. They burn so much they feel detached from their orbits, causing the Professor to lose consciousness.
He has been abducted by an unknown force, into another dimension. Slowly, a glimpse of awareness brings him back into the situation. He finds himself trapped in an extremely bright geodesic structure that echoes, loud blocks of information, around his ears. The words he hears are in an almost unintelligible language. He’s been stormed by his own echo, and the voices have infiltrated his mind with the intention of influencing his most grounded principles. The effort he makes to resist makes him feel dizzy and nauseous. Eventually he lets the messages cross from one side of his mind to another, leaving them as they are; don’t touch them; don’t think any more about them; leave them to finish into silence. Now space is expanding and the light fading away, when he finds himself, that morning, carrying the invention, and walking towards the experiment.
It is the 5th of April 2123, information has become the most precious object, but it often feels unreliable...
To be continued...
To listen to it on headphones.
Idea, direction and edition: Pablo Llopis Iváñez
Camera Operator: Finley MacKay
Sound Technician: Isaac Barnes
Wardrobe: Pablo L. Iváñez and Kassia L. Poller