Common Oddities Speculative Fiction Sideshow, Autumn 2014 Page 3

Trial Participant Statement from Walter {last name redacted}:

  “I volunteered to take the drug just after New Year’s. My sister’s husband had an in with someone running one of the early trials. I took it because, at the time, I felt it would help my job performance. I was a computer programmer with {redacted} and I thought this would be the thing to really focus my energies. Almost immediately, like that night, I could tell a difference. As soon as the thing dissolved the nanzymes went to work in my brain. That was on a Monday afternoon. The next day at work, while I sat there looking at code, I asked myself what the point was. I mean, the thing is we all love success, but we spend our lives doing things we hate, pointless things, in pursuit of it. And if success simply means buying more things, then is that really it? And that became my question, my real question. It’s not something to pass over. If I wasn’t there writing that code, someone else would be. And once that particular module had been completed and tested and implemented, what then? Another program? I thought about that and just got up and walked away. Most people have a sense, I think, that what they do isn’t that important, in the big scheme of things. I think that drug turned my mind inward, and that’s where I’ve been since. I’ve got bigger things to concern myself with and you don’t need much when you’re trying to sort that all out. Right now I’m still searching, finding purpose. It’s interesting. Wasn’t that the point? And yes, when I find what I’m looking for I can see myself reentering the workforce.”