Here’s something I wrote in 2015, as background for a near-future sci-fi story I never got around to writing. But, it fits in well with some of my current thoughts about our possible future.
Scott
“Welcome to the Platform One Museum. My name is Alicia, and I’ll be your guide today.”
Alicia wore a dark blue jacket and skirt, with a silver stripe running down the side. Her uniform’s colors matched the colors in the swoopy logo hanging on the museum’s wall.
“I’d like to start by showing you what the platform is founded on – literally.”
She walked to an area in the center of the room that was surrounded by thick, clear, waist-high dividers. As the tour group gathered around the dividers, she motioned to the floor inside of them. Sitting on the floor was a dull, worn, grey square.
“That is a tile from when the platform was originally built as a satellite launch pad. As you can see, it’s been through a lot. It was directly beneath an X-8 transport rocket as it blasted into orbit. That was the last flight before this platform was put out of service and eventually purchased by Tabu Industries.”
Several of the visitors snapped photos of the tile.
“The payload of that final flight was a weather satellite. At least, that’s what the US government claimed at the time. Three months after the launch, a Department of Defense contractor leaked documents showing eighty percent of the equipment onboard actually belonged to various military and intelligence groups.”
The crowd chuckled.
“After that leak, as part of a UN negotiation, the US government was required to have foreign inspectors confirm the type of equipment being launched into orbit. Shockingly, to absolutely no one, the US government suddenly found it had much less need for satellite launches.”
This line got several hearty laughs. It always did, especially from the non-US members of the tour.
“When Tabu Industries purchased the platform, it had been abandoned for almost five years and needed some repairs. All the old tiles have since been replaced with a new alloy that is much sturdier, and easier to work with. However, I wouldn’t recommend launching rockets from here anymore.”
Alicia motioned towards the hallway to her right.
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you what happened that caused Tabu Industries to be interested in buying a retired satellite launch platform in international waters.”
She walked down the hall, with the tour group right behind.
****
The next room was all white tiles and stainless steel. The tables and countertops were covered with neatly-arranged digital microscopes and other assorted medical research equipment.
“This is a re-creation of Doctor Sheffield’s research laboratory. From here, he created several new drugs used in the fields of life-extension and cognitive-enhancement. If any of you are currently using Zanaporam or Chlorimytride,” Alicia noticed a few heads in the crowd make slight nods of recognition, “this is where they were discovered.”
“In case you weren’t aware, Doctor Sheffield had a significant problem when he discovered these drugs. At the time, getting a new medication to the point where people could use it required a massive amount of government approval. It would take a decade of testing and cost over a billion of the old US dollars. That effectively limited pharmaceutical research to massive corporations.”
“However, he was fortunate to be around at a time when computing hardware and software for the bio-medical field was rapidly growing. In the past, you’d need to go through years of testing with mice, and monkeys, and, eventually, humans. But with the latest technologies of that time, you could prove the effectiveness of a drug in biological simulators run on computers. Unfortunately, for Doctor Sheffield and the people who could have been helped by his medications, the governments still insisted on following the old process.”
A man in the group waved his hand, to catch the guide’s attention.
“Yes?” Alicia asked.
“I remember those days. My grandmother was suffering from dementia. We’d hear on the news about some new drug that might help her, but it was always ‘in trials’. Years would pass, and we’d still be waiting to hear the results. In the meantime, she kept getting worse and worse, until she eventually died.”
Several members of the group nodded. They’d probably seen the same thing happen to at least one friend or family member.
“Unfortunately, that happened all too often,” Alicia responded. “Far too many people suffered or died while waiting for a potential cure to be approved. That’s a large part of why Doctor Sheffield purchased this platform.”
Alicia looked back towards the model of the lab.
“It was 2058 when Doctor Sheffield and his team were ready to release Zanaporam, to help people improve their ability to focus on detailed tasks.”
Alicia leaned forward, put her hand to the side of her mouth, and spoke in a hushed tone.
“Some people claim members of the team used that drug themselves, to help with their other breakthroughs. But no one has ever found any evidence of that claim.”
She gave an over-exaggerated stage wink to the group, causing them all to laugh.
“But this led to a world of legal problems for Doctor Sheffield. Let’s move on to the next room and see what happened then.”
Alicia led the group through the nearby doorway.
****
The next room was wood-paneled. It had two tables up front, facing a raised judge’s bench and a witness stand.
“This is a replica of the Austin, Texas courtroom where Doctor Sheffield was tried for manufacturing and distributing unlicensed medications in 2053. The government charged him with hundreds of counts, one for each of his patients. If found guilty, he could have potentially received a sentence of thousands of years.”
“According to Doctor Sheffield, the government used this absurdly-long sentence to pressure him into pleading guilty. Of course, even with a guilty plea, he’d still be fined, jailed, and lose his medical license. They wanted him broken and defeated, and they wanted the public to know what happens to people who don’t obey their rules.”
“While jailed, awaiting his trial, Doctor Sheffield was visited by a lawyer. He never said who the lawyer was, or who he represented. But, based on what happened afterwards, it’s safe to say it was someone very wealthy and powerful.”
“One day, when the doctor was being transported from his cell to the courtroom, the prison van found itself surrounded by a dozen very well-armed mercenaries. They extracted the doctor from the van, loaded him into a waiting helicopter, and disappeared without a trace.”
Eyebrows were raised by several tour group members.
“Doctor Sheffield never said who broke him out of jail. But he did say it was someone with a loved one who needed one of his medications, which were no longer available after his arrest.”
“After helping the patient of his benefactor, Doctor Sheffield was next spotted in Venezuela, a country with a policy of refusing extradition requests from the United States. That’s where he founded Tabu Industries, which we’ll talk about in the next room.”
****
This room looked similar to the exhibit of Doctor Sheffield’s lab, all white tile and stainless steel. But, instead of medical research equipment, it contained machines for small-scale drug manufacturing.
“This room contains some of the actual equipment Doctor Sheffield used when he first started Tabu Industries while living in Venezuela. The US government had seized all his assets when he escaped. But his unknown benefactor paid him well enough to get started again. He rented a small building and began to manufacture his most popular drugs there.”
“Of course, it was illegal for him to sell or export his drugs in most countries, especially after the US government applied political pressure on them. But, there were still more than enough people who were willing to travel to Venezuela that the doctor was able to set up a small clinic for them.”
“Over time, the clinic and the factory expanded. Thousands of people were living better, and longer, lives, thanks to Doctor Sheffield. But, that changed when the United Nations, through its World Health Organization, created the World Medical Ethics Board.”
“Since the government wouldn’t bow to political pressure, the WMEB was created to ‘ensure global ethical standards in the medical community’. One of the first things they decided needed to have ethical standards was medical treatments for ‘enhancements’. Never mind that all medical treatments are essentially designed to enhance the life of the patient. They just wanted a way to apply pressure on anyone associated with Doctor Sheffield.”
“The WMEB created a propaganda campaign against doctors ‘playing God’ and ‘experimenting to create super-humans’. This started to hurt the Venezuelan medical community. Doctors weren’t allowed to attend foreign training. Medical equipment companies were prevented from exporting to Venezuela. It was a strong-arm tactic, but it was one that worked.”
“Before too long, the Venezuelan people were protesting their lack of quality medical care, all because of some ‘Doctor Frankenstein’ for the rich and famous. While many leaders were sympathetic to Doctor Sheffield’s cause, they couldn’t fight the political pressure. It became time for the doctor to move on.”
“Fortunately, the success of his clinic had made the doctor fairly well off. At first, he looked for another country, one that might be open to him restarting there. But he realized that country would probably be under the same pressure in a year or two, and he’d need to move again. That’s when the idea came to move outside all legal jurisdictions.”
“At first, he looked at buying a large cruise ship or military vessel. Something big enough to not only hold his clinic and factory, but allow his staff to live aboard. During this search, he found this platform for sale. It belonged to a private company, but was abandoned, due to the high upkeep costs.”
“It was far out of the range of any country’s borders, as you may have realized during your long ride out here.” Alicia smiled sympathetically, and mouthed the word, “Sorry” to the crowd.
“Since it was relatively inexpensive to purchase, that left plenty of money for Doctor Sheffield to upgrade it. Within six months of leaving Venezuela, his clinic was re-opened and he was helping patients again.”
“As you may guess, many patients were people who didn’t appreciate the interference they put up with from the governments in their home countries. They were the kind of people who believed they had ultimate ownership, and responsibility, for their own lives and bodies. Soon, many of them were asking Doctor Sheffield if they could move out to the platform, or run their own businesses here.”
“That leads us to the platform’s expansion years, which you can see in the next room.”
****
This room had a long display with models of Platform 1, showing its changes over the years since it was founded.
“The smallest model here represents the platform after its first year in use. Back then, everything was focused on the new clinic. So, there were four main areas.”
Alicia pointed to a small building on the first model. “This was the original pharmaceutical manufacturing building. This was back before we had cheap nanofabricators, so it did take a bit of space. Nowadays, we manufacture about thirty times the volume, but have only doubled the size of this facility.”
“This larger building housed the clinic. It could hold 25 patients at a time, everyone with a private room. Typical treatments lasted between five days and a month. Within six months of opening, the clinic had a ninety percent occupancy rate. People from all over the world came here. Of course, we have a policy of complete privacy, but many of our patients are people whose names you would instantly recognize.”
“The other large building housed the aquaponics center. Since Doctor Sheffield knew he wasn’t welcomed in most countries, he wanted to build a place that was 100 percent self-sufficient. All the food grown for platform employees and patients was grown in this building.”
“The final building held the apartments for the employees. These were originally designed for temporary housing for workers involved in a satellite launch. So, they weren’t exactly luxurious, to say the least. But don’t worry, those of you planning on moving here, we’ve made a few changes since those days.”
Alicia moved over to the next model.
“This is what the platform looked like three years later. More people and businesses were interested in escaping the rules and regulations of their home countries. So, Doctor Sheffield had the platform extended in two directions – one for additional housing, the other for businesses.”
She pointed to a photo above the diorama.
“This is what the new apartments looked like. Although they were a bit more comfortable than the original ones used by the platform staff, they were still fairly Spartan. That’s the price you pay for being a pioneer. But, they were apparently nice enough for sixty people to snatch them up within the first nine months of being available. That brought the platform’s population to seventy-eight people – including the already-present eighteen employees of Tabu Industries.”
“There was a very eclectic group here, those first years. Fortunes were made, and lost, by people trying to capitalize on their ideas. There were a half-dozen companies working on unregulated digital payment systems. Most of them either didn’t make it, or were swallowed up by one of the more successful systems.”
“There were also several companies focused on encryption and personal privacy tools. People realized that they needed to take responsibility for protecting their own rights. The governments weren’t going to do it. In fact, the governments were the largest enemies of personal privacy.”
“The founders of CoverID started out here. In the past, banks and credit card companies could give you one-time use card numbers. This prevented criminals from re-using your card number to purchase things for themselves. CoverID took the idea a step further. They created complete digital identities. Once you connected through their system on the ‘net, you selected who, and where, you wanted to be. This was a tremendous tool for people who were stuck in countries with a lack of civil rights. With CoverID’s tools, your communications were private and secure.”
“Of course, as the population of the platform grew, there was a need for some sort of community organization. The people who lived here were trying to escape rules and regulations, but a society does need some sort of way to deal with inevitable conflicts. That’s when the role of ‘Platform Arbiter’ was created.”
“Doctor Sheffield was the first Platform Arbiter. He met with the residents and came up with a simple set of rules. Don’t cheat anyone, don’t steal anything, and don’t initiate violence. That was it. They figured they could always modify the rules later, if some new situation came up. Everyone was busy, so they didn’t want to devote much time or energy towards creating a bunch of laws and regulations. They’d rather use their time doing something productive. People called this arrangement a ‘Negligent Dictatorship’.”
That line always gets them.
“After a couple more years, more people wanted to move to the platform. However, it could only be expanded so much. That’s when Tabu Industries started buying up other platforms in international waters. Some of them are focused on specific purposes, to allow the businesses to share resources and personnel. Others have a bit of everything. Whatever kind of environment you’re looking for, you can probably find it on one of the eighteen platforms we now own.”
Alicia pointed to the final models, which had architectural drawings around it.
“This is the current state of Platform One. The clinic has been converted into the hotel where you are all staying. As people started moving to the other platforms, we have begun converting many of the other buildings into private residences. They’re not exactly what you might be used to in your home country. But, they’re quite a bit nicer than the original housing units, from back when Doctor Sheffield and Tabu Industries first moved out here.”
A woman in the crowd asked, “Are any of them still for sale?”
“Yes,” Alicia answered, “there still are a few units that haven’t been purchased yet. For anyone interested, there are brochures over here.” She pointed to a rack next to the exit door. “Feel free to take one when you leave.”
“Does anyone have any other questions?”
Everyone shook their heads. “OK, then. That ends the tour of the Platform One Museum. I hope you enjoy your stay here, and I hope that you have an opportunity to visit some of the other platforms in the future. Feel free to explore the area. The commercial district is still open. Although, nowadays, it’s mostly filled with restaurants for the thousands of visitors who arrive every year, like yourselves.”
Copyright © 2015 Scott Lilly
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual events, persons, or self-aware digital entities, living, dead, or any other state of existence, is purely coincidental.