Cornelia: Part 1

— — — RESEARCH LOG 1 — — —
April 2nd, 2021
12:31 AM
EMPLOYEE: Dr. Kenneth Rowntree
BADGE #: 1162365

LOCATION: REDACTED
FILE STATUS: DECLASSIFIED

SUPERVISOR NOTES:
Dr. Rowntree has grown increasingly more resistant to mandates and regulations regarding his research. I have suggested that he be allowed to have some time away from the facility with his family in order to re-evaluate his goals.

However his advancements have provided him with the needed motivation to continue pushing onward. At this time I don’t believe any action is required.

— BEGIN LOG —

The boss has put in new regulations requiring us to keep a “detailed journal of events” on top of the already meticulous notes he has us take while we are in the lab itself. Apparently it wasn’t enough to have cameras everywhere recording everything we do at all times. No, it’s much better to have a record of how we feel about this particular experiment as well.

Given that he has asked us to carefully record everything that crosses our mind for later analysis, I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not believe that this record will be in any way useful. To my reader, I want to make it clear that the events recounted in this personal journal are being told only because it is required of me. Most likely if you are reading this then you already know the nature of my work and the purpose of this research endeavor.

However, if on the very slim chance that this project is declassified I will start from the very beginning. Also, I am being asked to start at the beginning, so don’t get it in your mind I am doing this for you. And it certainly isn’t for me.

About a year ago I, along with Dr. Selridge were contacted by REDACTED with an opportunity to come work on a new emerging technology. At the time we were told that we would be flying out to a facility near Silicon Valley in California. Although now I would hardly call this a small facility. But I digress.

We were told that there was an exciting opportunity to create the first organic-machine hybrid artificial intelligence, with an ultimate goal of creating an accurate model of the human brain. Such a construct would hopefully become something that could be used to understand and develop treatments for the various psychological ailments that plague humans. Our first trial was to address the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and hopefully find an eventual treatment or cure.

Of course since Selridge lived alone the move was no problem for him. In fact he was very excited. REDACTED is well known for their research in technology so being given an opportunity to work for them on a project held a lot of promise.

Although, now looking back I would have declined their offer. I have a wife and two kids back in Colorado and, due to the supposed security regulations, I rarely get to go home to see them, let alone have the opportunity to even talk to them over the phone. I was told this position would only be a few months, and after much deliberation with my wife, we decided this would be a good opportunity for me. She was also of the mind that I couldn’t turn down the offer, especially with the pay being as good as it is.

I suppose, looking back now, I should have known that things were not as they were being presented when during the first flight to the lab Selridge and I were asked to turn off our phones and give them to one of the many security guards that accompanied us.

Now that I am here, I am finding myself increasingly displeased with both our progress on the project as well as my lack of communication with my family. Today marks a month since I last had any contact with anyone besides other employees.

However today also marks a fairly significant breakthrough in our research. Selridge and I have for a while now, been able to use a 3-D printer to print a functional brain, or at least as far as we can tell it is functional. The main problem has been an inability to preserve the brain and keep it alive long enough to run any sort of tests on it. Today though was the first day that any of our tests have lasted more than a few hours.

Selridge and I both believe that this new setup will allow us to keep a brain alive and functioning for at least a day. The boss would like to see us extend this maximum lifetime to an indefinite amount so that any number of tests can be run without having to wait around for the printer to print a new brain. Of course we do need to extend the maximum lifetime anyways to run any useful tests.

Once we have the organic neural network working properly we will be designing and building the electrical interfaces needed to work with our test brain. Partially a goal of the project is to create artificial intelligence at a fairly low price that can then be manufactured and produced on a large scale for other applications. Of course we want to take the technology further past that point for our own testing, but once we have the initial setup working we can pass that part on to other teams to develop the next parts.

I am hoping that within the next few months we will be able to move to the electrical components. That will at least get the boss off our backs and give us some more leeway as to what we devote any given day to. It’s honestly getting to be very tiresome waiting for the printer even though we have several of them going at once.

Now, I am going to head to bed. I have much to do tomorrow and were it not for this infernal journal I would have been in bed asleep already. If I am irritable tomorrow, I think it more than fair to blame it on having to write this on top of all of the other things that I already have to record at the end of a typical day.

— END LOG —