Page 31 - Unlikely Stories 4

Not in his Right Mind

presented in scientific language on several pages of very dense text.
We were at a crossroads: either the unproven cure or a rapid decline
and death. I’m sure you understand we felt we had nothing to lose.”
“Even the slightest chance,” said Mrs. Narishke. “We took it.”
“Between our giving the okay and Father coming home from the
hospital,” Aaron went on, now with a different tension in his voice,
“I had plenty of time to study those descriptions, ask more questions
and do my own research. So I can tell you what was going on:
Ariadne had integrated several emerging ideas in science and
technology to create a means of reconstituting a damaged human
brain—from the inside! The company used government grants and
venture capital to assemble a team of experts in stem cell research,
medical nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. These separate
fields of enquiry and practical application merged in a system Ariadne
named Neurotextor.”
The attorney regretted her inability to take notes in shorthand. Mrs.
Narishke looked disapprovingly at Rose, having caught the latter in
the act of rolling her eyes during Aaron’s earnest recital.
“The goal of Neurotextor is to rebuild a patient’s mind via
replacement of lost brain tissue, at the same time re-establishing the
internal connections and substructures within those neural networks
via predictive association. Simply put, the operation begins with
certain equipment, materials and facilities already in place. First, a
large quantity of autologous adult stem cells is cloned from the
patient’s blood, ready for injection past the blood-brain barrier and
immune to rejection. They will constitute a superstructure of cerebral
high-level functions grafted onto remaining healthy cells. Their
positioning will be guided by nanorobots, also injected into the
cerebrospinal fluid. The operation, once the elements are activated
within the patient’s skull, is under the control of an algorithm
running on an off-site supercomputer.”
“A question, Mr. Narishke.” Beryl Wein looked up from her notes.
“Where does this all take place?”
“The neurosurgery wing of the university hospital downtown. You
can find the connections between the university and Ariadne without
too much trouble. A very cozy relationship.”

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