I’m not a writer, but what happened to my brother needs to be heard and it needs to be stopped. So I’ll jot down the incident with as much accuracy as possible. My name is Kim Melbourne, you probably read about my brother Marvin in the news. But you haven’t heard the real story, and here it is.
I’ve always admired my brother’s obsession over knowledge. “Knowledge is the only power you need sis, there’s no such thing as unnecessary knowledge” He told me that more times than I could count. I still remember to this day when we were kids, I would want to watch cartoons and he fight me over the remote to watch documentaries about the animal kingdom, or space, or chemistry or whatever was it that he didn’t know. I must admit growing up with him was not the easiest thing but I loved him... I was always his “lil Sis” and he always took care of me to the furthest extent of the meaning of the word.
I’ve always admired my brother’s obsession over knowledge. “Knowledge is the only power you need sis, there’s no such thing as unnecessary knowledge” He told me that more times than I could count. I still remember to this day when we were kids, I would want to watch cartoons and he fight me over the remote to watch documentaries about the animal kingdom, or space, or chemistry or whatever was it that he didn’t know. I must admit growing up with him was not the easiest thing but I loved him... I was always his “lil Sis” and he always took care of me to the furthest extent of the meaning of the word.
I’ll never forget the look on his face when he got it, he came home and said “Guess who has two thumbs and didn’t drive has car home?” He always had a weird sense of humor like that. I had my doubts about “The Guide”, I’ve always found that technology that is embedded into the human body will never end well. “We don’t take you where you want to go, we know where you want to go before you do” what a logo they had! A chip implanted in the base of your skull that reads your thought patterns knowing where you want to go and then drives your car automatically there... that must not have been easy to sell. But Marvin, he couldn’t resist technology farther than he can resist a good book. He was a Beta tester for the chip and for a while it worked fantastically.
He was amazed by how much he can do on the commute, not even having to touch the driving wheel, he basically would step in the car and boom it went. Took him literally wherever he wanted to do. I think they called the technology “Thought Pattern Recognition”. Please forgive my lack of knowledge on the mechanics of the chip or the jargon that goes into explaining it, for I’m not as tech-savvy as he was. The way he trained to explain it to me was this
“This chip understands where you want to go but understanding how your thoughts works and by isolating the pattern of “desire” in your brain and making it machine understandable so the car would know where to go.”
I was still dubious of a machine inside your head, but he always assured me. “Don’t worry lil sis, I can turn it off anytime I want, you know sometimes it knows where I want to go more than I do. The other day I was feeling bad so I got in the car to clear my head and it just took me to favorite spot in the city.”
And as you all know, that’s where it all went to hell. The chip started over time to get more and more familiar with the thought pattern and eventually to realise what you want even before you thought of it consciously. It integrated with the brain and it would take over thoughts... it was not noticeable at first. You would reach for a shirt and suddenly find yourself reaching for a different one, and you would be content thinking “That is actually the shirt that I wanted.” But then it started getting bigger, the first recorded issue was that of that Steve Blake. Here’s he’s account of what happened as I found it on his social media
And as you all know, that’s where it all went to hell. The chip started over time to get more and more familiar with the thought pattern and eventually to realise what you want even before you thought of it consciously. It integrated with the brain and it would take over thoughts... it was not noticeable at first. You would reach for a shirt and suddenly find yourself reaching for a different one, and you would be content thinking “That is actually the shirt that I wanted.” But then it started getting bigger, the first recorded issue was that of that Steve Blake. Here’s he’s account of what happened as I found it on his social media
“I was watching tv when I suddenly reached for my phone. It was a very odd feeling because it wasn’t unhabitual of me to check my phone regularly but this felt odd, like I almost had to do it but somehow was happy to do it at the same time. I dialed my ex-wife’s number which scared me because I know I shouldn’t have done that.. I can’t even explain what was going through my head even if wanted to but it felt like I have no inhibition, like i’m incapable of not doing what I wanted even against my own better judgment. When she picked up the phone and I told her that the thing I regret the most in my life is that she’s the mother of my children, I suddenly started crying and she was yelling at me, I tried to stop myself from saying more but It felt like there’s a door in my brain that was unleashed and my chip started to burn and I passed out. Luckily she called the police because she suspected that something bad has happened. The company said that it was a small malfunction and they removed the chip to inspect it.”
The story made the news briefly but it wasn’t that big of a problem, the company said that he was inebriated and the alcohol affected the circuits and the issue is fixed.
I shall never for as long as I live forget the look on my brother’s face that day, I’ve looked at his face everyday since I knew life, but that day he seemed like he just discovered something that meant everything was about to change. I was doing my homework and he stood up, and he looked at me.. He looked at me for almost a minute and I couldn’t get over it, something deep within my humanity told me that he’s not his normal self. He left the house without his phone, wallet or anything else. I grabbed his phone and followed him, got in my car and drove right behind him. He must’ve seen me following him but that didn’t stop him a little bit. When we reached the bridge, he parked got out and started walking towards the edge. And I know what was happening, that godforsaken chip was about to kill him. His foot was literally over the edge when I, by a split second, got his phone out of my pocket and found the app that’ll disable the chip. The chip was off, and it seemed like he came back to reality.
I shall never for as long as I live forget the look on my brother’s face that day, I’ve looked at his face everyday since I knew life, but that day he seemed like he just discovered something that meant everything was about to change. I was doing my homework and he stood up, and he looked at me.. He looked at me for almost a minute and I couldn’t get over it, something deep within my humanity told me that he’s not his normal self. He left the house without his phone, wallet or anything else. I grabbed his phone and followed him, got in my car and drove right behind him. He must’ve seen me following him but that didn’t stop him a little bit. When we reached the bridge, he parked got out and started walking towards the edge. And I know what was happening, that godforsaken chip was about to kill him. His foot was literally over the edge when I, by a split second, got his phone out of my pocket and found the app that’ll disable the chip. The chip was off, and it seemed like he came back to reality.
He turned around with tears streaming down his face. “You’re ok!” I yelled “That thing is out of your head now!”. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone smile while crying, it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. But I very much misinterpreted that smile. His last words was “I didn’t know that this is what I wanted, I thought I was happy. I guess some things are better left unknown.” and then he, of his own volition, threw himself off of the bridge.
What happened with my brother taught me that we’re not ready for what we want, it taught me that what we want is much darker and contrived than we are equipped to handle. I watched my brother’s desire for knowledge drive him to suicide. The worst part about this, he was actually happy, when they found the chip they analyzed what happened. He didn’t want to die, he wanted to know what happens on the other side of death. His desire to know what happens after death is what drove him close to suicide. And when I disabled his chip he had the option to live. But if I know my brother, his desire for knowledge was more important to him, he couldn’t live knowing he’ll never be able to obtain that knowledge.
