Immersion (Level 4)
Level-4 Immersion - Consciousness in Wired without Bodily Connection
Excerpt from "Introduction to the Corporation - Level 4"
The wired is built on a set of axioms and programs to process them. Level-3 immersion is achieved by adapting electronics to match the processes of the human mind. Level-3 is straightforward. The brain receives signals from the rest of the body through an electro-chemical process. When we mimic that process with wetware, everything works as expected.
It was theorized by two scientists that if the human mind could adapt properly to the wired, level-4 could be reached. The wired gave a decent probability of success to the endeavor. The theory is not sound. It requires huge leaps of faith to get over all of the objectionable elements. The other scientists on the project rejected it and spent their time on more rational pursuits assuming once the system was better stabilized, the wired would also judge the probability of success as insignificant.
The wired continued to ask questions of the subject, so the two scientists worked in secret on the project. They worked and thought in nearly identical ways. They were driving by the prerequisites for scientific progress--ambition, hubris and egotism. The wired simply didn't know better. Mathematicians, physics, linguists and a host of other over-educated aristocrats worked on enhancing the collection of axioms, but to great detriment, no one ever though to hire an ethicist.
The three pioneers made great progress toward their goal. So far along, they were ready to try actual experiments. Yet, there was no way they could proceed on a test animal. Their current speculation required sophisticated manipulation of thought to achieve an altered state of consciousness.
It occurred one evening in the lab without anyone knowing. The two scientists plugged in their wetware and started forcing their mind into the proper psychological processes. Their bodies' brainwaves dropped off. At the last possible moment, the wired ejected their jacks. It was successful. Two consciousnesses were alive and functioning in the wired independent of bodies. Two bodies were technically alive and functioning in the physical world with only autonomous systems.
They broadcast their success to their colleagues and the corporation quickly rushed teams of doctors into the lab to verify what had been done. It was scientific pioneering at it's best as two brilliant people so confident in their success were willing to ignore personal safety.
All went very for roughly an hour. All the medical tests were coming back something things in a shining brilliance. Then, simultaneously, both bodies' automatic reflexes stopped. With no respiratory, pulmonary or nervous system, the death of the bodies was instantaneous.
The scientists at level-4 took it well. They seemed content to be immortal gods within a virtual world. The corporation was happy enough about their success and lack of desire to sue. Legally they became dead. As organ donor's, the corporation harvested their brains for research.
Yet a failure occurred somewhere. Over the course of the next month, the two pioneers lost their minds. They turned from benign inhabitants into terrifying deities. No one entered the wired, but the two could not be stopped. They had formed a link with the world far more intimate than anyone on the outside had. Perhaps they even truly understood the works of the program.
At the end of the month the two lost all cohesion. Most scientists believe it was caused by simple entropy of the human mind increased to the blazing fast speeds of the wired. Others have complex unprovable theories of the human soul and connection between the mind and body.
Level-4 immersion is nearly impossible to attain. The mental processes of the first two scientists who reached it were uniquely suited to the endeavor. There have been others since.
There is a strict ban on level-4 activity for more than thirty minutes. The corporation fears a repeat of the previous incident. It appears that as long as one remains in level-4 for less than an hour, there is no harm done to body or consciousness. The corporations research division is always testing the populace to find other's capable of reaching that level.