Dateline: September 11 2031
Reports of people seeking urgent help at hospitals for bad psychedelic trips started trickling in earlier this week, first at central Fremont hospitals, but quickly spreading across the Bay area and, by midweek, reports came in from all over the US. Initial speculation about a bad shipment of synthetic drugs was soon overruled when a surprising common denominator emerged: brain chip implants.
Unknown hackers had managed to infiltrate the brain implant networks of Neuralink, BrainGate and Synchron and inserted three different types of malware. The least harmful created electronic hallucinations similar to bad acid trips; the next set locked patients out of their communication platforms and internet; but the worst one installed a ransomware agent that looped childhood memories, effectively shutting down the target’s ability to communicate.
The hack’s sophistication points towards a large hacker community or a nation state’s cyber warfare unit, but so far, no organisation has claimed responsibility. The motivation for the attacks is also unclear, as no ransom demands have been received. Perhaps it was a “test case” to see what was possible.
Anonymous sources at Synchron estimate it will take several months to restore full functionality for affected clients. They further revealed that Synchron had co-opted software engineer implant clients — unaffected by the hack — into their cyber security unit, in essence creating a counter hacking team tracking down the perpetrators. Without the need for cumbersome and time-consuming keyboard entries, the speed with which these cyborg operators navigate the net and hack into systems is mind-boggling.
With cybercrimes and cyber warfare on the rise, MedTech and BioTech companies just got a nasty wake-up call: nothing is sacred, everyone is a target. /First published in Mindbullets, September 12 2024
Computer virus infects humans
SARS-22 outbreak linked to software bug
Dateline: February 13 2022
Panic erupted in Hong Kong’s Silicon Alley when it was discovered that the latest outbreak of SARS came from a computer virus. Thousands of people demanded the immediate removal of chip implants.
The story broke when it was discovered that the first person to die from the epidemic, Chen Lee, was using a programmable InsulChip under the skin, to regulate his diabetic condition. After opening a picture message on his smartphone from his grandmother, he began to show SARS-like symptoms.
It is thought that the software virus was originally written by the North Korean military to infect and disable the bionic armour and targeting mechanisms of opposing forces. The World Bionic Council has called an emergency session to evaluate the threat and determine the best course of action.
“We’re not sure if a generic antivirus programme might have unintended consequences,” said an unnamed source close to the council. “The safest solution may be to remove all the older programmable chips and replace them with the new hard-coded versions.”
In the meantime, high-risk communities have been advised to avoid all proximity with web-enabled devices, which is a practical impossibility in these modern times.
First published in Mindbullets October 7 2004
Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.
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