Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

ethicists. Woodrow pointed out it would be better than a wet
dream for the military. Jerry added economists to the list. The
only thing scientists and ethicists would agree upon is that
government had no business in people’s brains; military men
and economists, on the other hand, believed that’s exactly
where government belonged. Ambrose knew that neither camp
had it right. Such power needed oversight and only those who
ran the government, the military, and the economy could
provide it and those people were the politicians: the right
politicians, naturally.
“Now that I’ve been scolded, too, gentlemen, shall we get
back to it?” Ambrose directed. “Eugene, if you would.”
“Of course, Senator.”
Eugene raised the remote and pointed it at the huge
television behind a frame of carved mahogany. The familiar
TED logo came up on the screen and faded in favor of a young
Asian woman speaking to a casually dressed man wearing a
tightly fit headpiece that looked like the interior strapping of a
bicycle helmet.
The senators knew every word of her presentation by heart
so the sound was muted. Still, they were glued to the set as the
woman typed on the computer keyboard. The camera cut to
the computer screen revealing a white circle inside an orange
square. The woman stepped back, the man focused on the
orange cube, and seconds later that cube filled the screen. In
the next instant the man made the cube shiver and retreat just
by thinking it so. The senators had seen him do this four times
that night and still they reacted with anticipation and then
excitement.
“There. Did you see it? A millisecond and that orange thing
was gone. Vanished.” Jerry fairly bounced on the sofa cushion
and then threw himself back, clapping his hands as he kept his
eyes on the screen. “Can you imagine what could be done with
that technology? Medicine is one thing, but I bet those two
never thought of defense and intelligence applications. With
the discipline our troops have, you take a battalion and get