Taro: Society's point of view

“No!”

One of the members of the board sitting before Taro suddenly stood up from her chair, glaring at him with near murderous intent in her eyes.

“Absolutely not!” she added, her words echoing in the cold and sterile room.

The woman herself was the head of the Science and Innovations board of Japan. Her colleagues sitting beside her were three other men dressed in corporate expensive-looking suits, and two other women dressed in equally expensive wears of their own. The head of the board, the one currently glaring at Taro as if she wanted to rip his throat out, was the only one wearing a simple light brown coat jacket. She was the oldest among them, with gray-colored hair and sharp eyes that seemed to communicate her years and experience without her having to talk about it.

The reason this particular woman was all fired up and looked like she probably really wanted to kill Taro, was because of what he had presented to the board the moment he walked in three minutes ago.

Basically, using his half-finished neural link device as an example, Taro had pitched the reintroduction of a branch of science that had been outlawed for nearly four centuries. A branch of science that went against almost all three core values of their society, and a branch of science that caused the destruction of an entire nation, as well as the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.

Brain computing interfaces or BCI for short, as well as cybernetic enhancements.

Despite the fact Taro had carefully described how the technology would be used during his presentation, explained all the necessary safety measures and fail-safes that would be in place if such a technology were to be readopted, he still hadn’t been able to convince any of them.

At the end, he wasn’t even allowed to finish his presentation.

Taro had just began to talk about the benefits the technology was going to offer to the parts of their society that really needed it, when he was suddenly silenced from speaking by the head of the board herself.

And that’s the situation Taro suddenly found himself in. With the woman in question standing upright from her chair and glaring at him with such intensity and hatred in her eyes.

“Mr. Yamoto.” A man to the left of the older woman suddenly spoke up after noticing his superior’s prolonged glare and silence.

“Thank you for coming in today and sharing with us your ideas for the future of our nation. We truly appreciate your efforts as a concerned citizen worried about the well-being of his fellow people.”

As he spoke, the woman still had her stern gaze fixed on Taro and she still wasn’t sitting down.

“However,” the man continued. “We cannot accept, endorse, or even consider your current contributions when discussing something as delicate as the societal development of our nation. And I’m sure you know why.”

Taro already knew he was going to be fighting a losing battle. He knew he was going to face some pushback regarding the idea he was proposing. Reintroducing neural link technology into their healthcare system was no doubt going to do a lot of good for people who needed it in the long run.

Blindness. Deafness. Chronic body pains, among many other types of illnesses and disabilities. These were all no longer going to be life altering issues people faced in their daily lives. Instead, they would be able to perceive and experience the world just like everyone else.

“Look dear.” One of the women turned to address Taro while the other one went over to talk down the older woman into relaxing and sitting down.

“It is obvious to everyone here that you possess a kind heart, and that’s a good thing.” the lady addressing Taro said. “But like Mr. Nakamura said to you, you do understand why we can’t move forward with this idea of yours right? I’m sorry but it’s just too dangerous.”

“He might not even be all that aware of the situation.” another man from amongst the members of the board suddenly chimed in. “He might even be taking us for absolute monsters for choosing not to help those in need with a seemingly simple fix. Tell me boy,” the man said, turning to face Taro. “What do you know about the 300-Day war from four centuries ago?”

Taro began to stutter and shake as he stood in front of the board members, trying to form cohesive sentences from his memories about the details from the 300-Day war they were taught in class. He couldn’t understand why he became nervous all of a sudden, but he needed to try.

“A group of ante-human terrorists, aided and supported by a defective and corrupted AI, launched an attack on the region of western Europe which lasted for 300 days and 300 nights, killing millions in the process and leaving millions more homeless.” Taro recounted.

Every grade schooler throughout the country already knew this story. It was one of the darkest points of their history as a people, and they were constantly being educated on the details so they didn’t forget why their society was structured the way it was.

“As I suspected, the schools don’t tell you everything.” the man said, taking out his tablet before looking up something and projecting it as a fully formed hologram in the middle of the room in front of everyone.

Taro stepped back in shock at the sight of it.

“Do you know what this is?” the man asked as Taro kept his eyes glued at the hulking form of the projection standing and facing him. The hologram towered over him at nearly eight feet tall. Its glowing red eyes were scanning the entire room with a cold precision. Weapons bristled from the body of the thing, blades, guns, and gadgets designed for destruction. The man who decided to show Taro the hologram proceeded to provide an explanation to satisfy Taro’s curiosity.

“The thing you see before you was once an ordinary man. But then the war came, and advancements in cybernetics and robotics turned it into that. They were unstoppable in the battlefield. A single one of these things could tear down the whole of old Tokio in a single afternoon. That’s how powerful they were, and why they can never be allowed to exist, ever again.”

Taro was speechless for a moment. He wasn’t sure what to say. On the one hand, he understood what happened centuries ago was a great tragedy. People died. A lot of them. And that was a horrible thing to have happened.

But parts of their society today were suffering when they didn’t need to. and the technology they needed to help them was something they could easily figure out, but chose not to. He wasn’t sure why, but that fact just bothered Taro too much to keep locked away in his heart.

So, he spoke up again, and tried to convince them.

But it didn’t work.

He failed.

***

It was already dark out by the time Taro left the board of science and innovations. Just as he had guessed before going in, his ideas were promptly rejected and he was ordered to cease all further research and development of his neural link device. But he still had his unfinished prototype with him.

The board hadn’t taken it away from Taro like he initially feared they would. He guessed they might have thought there was no need to confiscate something that wasn’t really working to begin with.

Taro was now casually driving through the city with the speedometer of his hover-bike dialed all the way down. He was also not wearing his helmet. He wanted the cool night air to fully envelop his face as he drove, and he also wanted to see the streets of modern Tokyo at night through an unfiltered lense.

The city at night was beautiful and full of color. Neon lights were in every corner and on every establishment he drove by, making the whole place feel like it was pulled straight out of a dream. Taro suddenly remembered something his mother had told him when he was little. Back when she was still alive, and when she had stopped to give a beggar money on the streets.

“Never choose not to help someone in need when you know you can.” His mother had said. “Sometimes, a little act of kindness can bring back the warm colors that once decorated their face.”

With that thought resting at the back of his mind, Taro drove home.