Wired (Wired, #1)

by Douglas E. Richards

Desh noted she was quite agile and light-footed.

She frowned, almost regretfully. “I needed to speak with you. Convince you that I’m not the villain you think I am. That I’m innocent.”

You’re far too dangerous to be given even a little wiggle room. This was my only option.”

“Because the people behind Connelly won’t spare any measure to get their hands on me,” she said with absolute conviction. “And not for the reasons you think,” she added. “Do you really think they just sent you off on your own recognizance? Just like that? I’m far too important to them for that. Rest assured, they’ve been tracking your every move since you took this assignment.”

Remote monitoring was enough.”

I’ve been erring on the side of caution and it seems to be working for me so far.”

“So you sent the text that lured me back to Griffin’s apartment?” Kira nodded.

she had acted with stunning speed and decisiveness; using tactics she had never used before to totally blindside him.

After you visited Griffin, they may have decided to surveil the parking lot of his building periodically via satellite.

“Recruiting you over to my side,” she finally said earnestly.

“Try to at least entertain the possibility that I’m not who you’ve been told I am,” she said in exasperation. “I am not affiliated with terrorists.”

“You, on the other hand, are motivated by doing what’s right rather than by material rewards.

You are a man of integrity and compassion,

Everything is accessible by computer now if you know where to look.

Of all the records to which she had access, this would be the biggest violation of privacy of them all.

“Consider me a captive audience.”

“Are we going to argue about what I assumed, or are you going to make your case?”

“But the key to making an impact is choosing the right problem to solve.

while he mulled it over.

The only way to universally make problems easier to solve was to have better tools to solve them.

“Enhancing intelligence,” he said finally. “Human intelligence.”

“Just imagine if you could have infinite intelligence. Unlimited creativity.

But any significant enhancements to intelligence and creativity would truly be the gift that keeps on giving.

Without any optimization, it’s already faster and more powerful than the most advanced supercomputers ever built.

All evolution cares about is survival and reproduction.

Maybe she was the devil, he thought grimly. Here he was fighting for his life and inexplicably, against his will, he continued to respond to her both physically and intellectually.

Electrical signals are constantly zipping along neuronal pathways like pinballs, creating thought and memory.

Nature has already demonstrated the plasticity of the human brain and human intelligence

“My goal was to understand the genetic basis for these differences in their neuronal patterns.

Not just to optimize the brain for math and memory tricks, but for intelligence and creativity.

I learned that the differences between the brains of autistic savants and normals were surprisingly subtle.

There’s an ethical and moral dimension here that is quite complicated.”

I was only risking myself. And the potential rewards were staggering.” “The ends justify the means?”

“NeuroCure’s lab was ideal for my needs. We were working on Alzheimer’s, so it was already set up for the study of intelligence and memory.

“Almost. But the rat work had shown me that it was an iterative process.

focus on what was happening in the creative centers of my brain.”

A gellcap hits the stomach, dissolves almost immediately, and releases the collection of genetically engineered viruses.

“I lost my ability to feel emotions. I became purely analytical, achieving thought in its purest form, divorced from any bias or emotional baggage.

But the only way you’ll ever trust me is if I tell you the absolute truth about everything.

it’s pure selfishness with a complete and utter lack of conscience. Whatever you choose to call it. A ruthless selfishness,

Pre-humans were just one of thousands and thousands of species battling for a tiny niche on a planet teeming with life.

intelligence in survival terms means cunning, utter ruthlessness, and utter selfishness.”

“Homo sapiens evolved intelligence, and a ruthlessness and selfishness hardwired into our genes. That’s one side of the equation.”

Those who were wired to be totally ruthless, but could also cooperate and work in a pack, survived to have offspring.

use extremes. Call this selfishness sociopathy. Call this selflessness altruism.”

Altruistic behavior exists and is hardwired into our genes.

An average man who is the recipient of acts of caring and kindness will often perform charitable acts in return. This same man, given a slight push the other way, will pursue his self-interests

human intelligence had to invent religion.”

“But what if you knew with absolute certainty that when you died, that was it? There was no afterlife of any kind.

“So that’s the connection,” guessed Desh. “In your enhanced state you feel that you can do whatever you want.”