The Lobotomy Chip Read online

Chapter2: Recovery

  Thomas woke up, took a shower and shaved. Thought about losing his job and how bad he feels and he got a small shock. "That must be the chip.” Thomas thought. "I am able to modify code for it; I might be able to turn it into something useful later.” Thomas ate his breakfast after getting dressed in scrubs for patients. This morning was group therapy.

  Thomas arrived in the group, saw Doctor Drummand. Took a seat Next to Thomas was a woman; she introduced herself as Kathy Douglas. Told everyone she had the nickname of "The Vegan Librarian" because she has a photographic memory of every book she read and is a Vegan. She too had been fired from her job and got suicidal and ended up in the hospital too.

  One man, introduced himself as Frank, said "Kathy should be named the naughty librarian!", and got shocked by his Lobotomy Chip.

  Doctor Drummand replied "Frank, the chip detects rude behavior too, please apologize to Ms. Douglas.", and then Frank said "Ms. Douglas I apologize.”

  Thomas spoke "I am Thomas Bastion; I too lost my job and became suicidal.” Thomas thought about his job and what he could have done to be fired. Not sure why he became suicidal, but he knows it happened. Thomas did not have a very good childhood, his sister Erin had beaten up a bully that was harassing him when he was five. The bully's father paid their father a visit and Erin had thrown the bully's father threw a window. CPS took away the Bastion children from their parents and Thomas grew up in foster homes and lived with foster families, never seeing his sister and brothers again.

  Kathy spoke up "What job did you do Thomas?" Kathy was remembering her job developing the Lobotomy Chip to help the mentally ill like her brother. She objected to using it on primates and instead used a computer simulation of the human brain to design it.

  Thomas replied "I wrote software and developed databases." Thomas remembered how Glenn had gotten angry at him for no reason other than he tried to keep the quality control of the software continuing and not rush it.

  Kathy replied "I designed pharmaceutical products; I had developed a neurodrug to treat the mentally ill." The neurodrug she developed was not tested on primates or human beings but on a computer simulation of the human mind. Kathy was worried that she had been lied to and the corporation had tested it on primates, which violated her morals and ethics.

  Doctor Drummand spoke up "Yes but how you do feel about losing your jobs?"

  Thomas spoke "I feel bad, but I guess I can recover and find another job later." Thomas was thinking about using the abilities of this Lobotomy Chip to help himself learn faster and have better memory recall, and download data off the Internet to read faster.

  Kathy spoke up "I can find a job anywhere. I don't feel so bad about it, it was just a job.” Other patients spoke up in group therapy as well.

  Thomas left the group therapy after it was over. He went back to his room to rest. He examined the code in the Lobotomy Chip and found a lot of it was based on his work. There was some code he didn't write and some features to the Lobotomy Chip that was not on the ones he worked with.

  "I think they left part of my code in it, but disabled it." Thomas thought. Thomas accessed some of his functions and activated the Internet, communication, scanning, and database functions. He found some of Victoria's code and discovered that it caused the ECT shocks, and had a feature to shut down the brain or cause death if used.

  "I will have to disable these, better leave the shock feature on or they will think I modified it. These unconscious and death functions have to be disabled." Thomas thought to himself. "I have to let people know about this, that law has to be unconstitutional!” he thought to himself. He slammed his fist on the bed and got a shock. It must be working then. Thomas put himself at rest and started to reprogram the chip. Thomas went into a meditate state and reprogrammed the chip. Learning how it worked he was able to store information in his own memory, and write instructions for others on how to reprogram their own chips.

  While going to group therapy, Thomas met Kathy.

  "Thomas did you work for Reserved Analysis and write code for Lobotomy Chips?" Kathy asked.

  "Why yes I did, and my code was used for other purposes." Thomas frowned.

  "Well I designed the neuromedicine as a contractor for Reserved Analysis that is used to treat the mentally ill. It uses a Lobotomy Chip to recycle the toxins in the brain into balancing out the chemical imbalance. I objected to the shock treatment option." Kathy said.

  "I discovered an unconscious and death function in the chip, if activated a person can be rendered unconscious or murdered by cranking up the shock feature." Thomas spoke,

  "We need to speak about this later, Kathy, and it is time for group therapy." Thomas said.

  "Yes I agree Thomas." Kathy replied.

  After group therapy Thomas thought about the Lobotomy Chip and how it could be used and abused. He had a long time to think about it. The functions he discovered had shown how the chip can be abused. Thomas found a way to access his memories better and was able to turn his shackles into a tool he could use. Perhaps there is more he could do.

  Thomas sat in his chair in his room and meditated. He had learned meditation and Buddhism from after he was honorably discharged from the US Army. He had developed schizo-affective disorder, a rare mental illness from the stress of battle and war. Rather than sign back on he was discharged when his term was over to collect the GI Bill and earn a college degree. The meditation helped him deal with his mental illness better. But this Lobotomy Chip seemed to help with the mental illness too.

  Thomas became aware of his environment, the chair he sat on, the bed, his roommate that was sleeping during the day, the window, the bathroom. He accessed the Lobotomy Chip and was aware of his breathing, his heartbeat; he noticed he was writing software to monitor his vital signs. This was good, and he was able to use the text display to show them in his vision. It worked by interfacing with the signals from his eye to his brain and modifying them. “If this can be done, they can modify the signals to display anything, even confuse the person into seeing things that aren’t there or changing things.”

  Thomas found a way to track things using the Lobotomy Chip. He threw a paper airplane across the room and had the Lobotomy Chip track it. He knew from his time in the army that a head’s up display is needed for better accuracy. “I can track the paper airplane using code I wrote. It modifies my vision to see the path the airplane takes and predicts where it will be with an ‘X’. Possible this has military uses as well.”

  Thomas attended more group therapy meetings. Thomas expressed his hopes and dreams. “I hope to recover and form my own business to develop my own products and services.” Thomas stated. “How will you accomplish that?” Dr. Drummand asked. “I will develop new software and hardware for use in areas to help people with and make it different from what is already on the market.” Thomas replied. “How will you get the funding?” Dr. Drummand asked. “I will sell my house and car and invest in the stock market and live in an apartment and work spare jobs until I can earn the money to start the business.” Thomas replied.

  Dr. Drummand was amazed, he smiled. “What lead you to this decision?” Dr. Drummand asked.

  “I decided that since jobs are hard to find and that I cannot seem to hold one, that I would be better off working for my own company. Thomas replied.

  “Why do you think you will do better on your own?” Dr. Drummand asked.

  “Because I can follow quality control and ethics, something most companies don’t follow anymore. I for example want to invent green technology and green energy that really work and not use coal powered electricity.” Thomas replied.

  Thomas thought “It would be good to write code for the Lobotomy Chip as well. After all they used my code and modified it.” Thomas smiled, “I think I am making progress here and am going to have a good recovery.”

  “It is good to have goals Thomas,” Dr. Drummand spoke, “but you need to keep them in reality. Not all businesses succeed, but
then not all have talented people like you running them. Most have business administration majors who earned a C in most classes running them.”

  “I know how to run a business and if more science and engineering majors ran companies we’d have a better standard of living, more energy efficient technology, more green energy sources, and less pollution.” Thomas stated.

  “Well those are your opinions Thomas,” Dr. Drummand replied, “but not everyone sees it that way.”