ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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A device which records everything going on in the user's brain — sensory input, thoughts, and emotions — would change the world.

That's obvious, of course.

If you've seen the movie, you know how amazing the device is. Never mind the scenes at the end about Christopher Walken replaying Louise Fletcher's death experience. It's fascinating to watch, and the music by James Horner is stunning.

But the whole idea completely tosses out the hard-science premise of the story!

That said, here's something to think about for all those folks who are so inclined.

~ A Question for the Members: If the machine we see in the movie could be reduced to the size of a cell phone — with a trim wireless headset which transmits the data to a pocket-sized device that stores millions of hours digitally — what kinds of experiences would people want to record and relive?

~ My Theory: Good God . . . ALL kinds!

If you could carry around a gizmo like that and record every sensation, every experience, and every thought you had — why would EVER turn the damn thing off?

Consider this.

How do know when you going to have a brilliant idea for a story while driving home . . . but then can't remember it when you get there?

How to you know when you're going to have a life-changing experience you'll want relive . . . .years later?

How do you know when your going to have a pleasant visit with your aging mother . . . the day before she passes away unexpectedly?

How do you know when you going to have a great evening with several close friends — which you'd love to relive ten years later?

Gentlemen, we all know that life is filled with moments we don't appreciate at the time they occur.

But I've got hundreds of hours of such moments, stored carefully on dozens of cassette tapes which I recorded on the device shown below. They include three weekends trips to Disney World with my kids in 1985, 1989, and 1996!





I've also got many hours of tapes with stereophonic recreations of evenings in local restaurants like Red Lobster, along with several very pleasant summer cookouts at a friend's house.

All these tapes put me right there in midst of the experience whenever I don my headphones and let the stereo sounds of these occasions wrap me in the memories of these Golden Moments!

I consider myself to be the World's Only Practicing Time Traveler, with tapes which start in 1982!

My unpublished novel, Time Saving Device, is set in a near-future world where most of the world's citizens own the device I described. They use them to relive pleasurable experiences — even those which are illegal, immoral, or personally regrettable.

As I said above, a device which records everything going on in the user's brain — sensory input, thoughts, and emotions — would change the world.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)