With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[AverusBlack]

Apropos of anything else happening in the story at this moment, I just want to say that I really like what is happening here. People don't like thinking about disabilities. The people who have to live with them, it's like being a footnote to the rest of a world designed around everyone but you. Accommodations are put into place... sometimes. Certainly it's not easy to live with.

Stories that shine a light on the challenges faced by those people inspire others to tackle those issues. Specifically, I'm thinking of a fellow I spoke to a few months back who is in the midst of designing a facial recognition system to allow a webcam to act as a game controller for paralyzed individuals. No fancy hardware set up, just software and a basic camera. It's not that hard to work out where he got the idea - vtubers using the same technology to control virtual models and give them body language.

So even though the eye drive is probably just a stepping stone to the actual point of this story arc, I like that it was brought up and re-included. We're making good progress in terms of medical research for Alzheimers specifically right now, but I can't say I'd have argued one being handed to me when I got knocked over the head a couple decades ago.

Long story.

 

[SilentObserver]

"My son… Tony." She staggers, and I reach out to steady her just a little faster than Derek does.

"Ma'am?" / "Missus Monetti?"

"Oh, I'm alright. I just-." She takes a moment to steady herself. "I think I just saw a lot of my memories of Tony all at once. I needed a moment to sort them all out in my head."

Click to shrink...

If the FDA doesn't approve this for clinical trials, then that whole agency needs to be burnt to ashes.

...

...Dammit, I hate narrative railroads.

 

[NightmareWarden]

Alright Truggs, you just have to time this carefully to keep up your grandma-killing record.

 

[AverusBlack]

Alright Truggs, you just have to time this carefully to keep up your grandma-killing record.

Click to shrink...

 

[boo600]

There's a bit of a parallel there between the way the eye drive works, and the way OL's enlightenment can apparently be yoinked out of him.

What sort of power supply does the eye drive have or need? Guessing it doesn't run on magic from the providence, so it must have a battery somewhere.

Click to shrink...

Well...

Not an actual eye patch like the one in Doctor Who -it needs skin contact over a larger area and M'gann couldn't work out why I wanted to block one of my eyes with it- it's designed to sit on the wearer's forehead like Seven of Nine's cyberbrow. "Human ingenuity and Martian biotechnology. It basically forms a backup of your short term memory. If anything tries to change your short term memory it compares what it's got stored with what you've got stored and uploads what you've been made to forget."

Click to shrink...

The original, martian animal/tech probably drew some power from the host's bioelectricity, or sunlight, or something else a shapeshifter could do.

The mass-production thinking-cap version he has... I dunno. Powered by motion, like a swiss watch? Powered by potent batteries, that need to be recharged occasionally? It depends on how efficient the battery is, I suppose...

 

[inglorius]

Specifically, I'm thinking of a fellow I spoke to a few months back who is in the midst of designing a facial recognition system to allow a webcam to act as a game controller for paralyzed individuals.

Click to shrink...

Kinda already a thing fir a while.
IIRC Vnyan allows to just map specific expressions to trigger arbitrary script, which can include sending keypress event. Although there might be a custom plugin involved.

View: https://www.youtube.com/live/5OAG-ZRIrvU

 

[Mr Zoat]

If the FDA doesn't approve this for clinical trials, then that whole agency needs to be burnt to ashes.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, the F.D.A. -like a lot of agencies- is barely functioning, and their oversight committee is barely functioning too. So many people died that institutional expertise was lost, which naturally creates a problem training replacements. Which the government can't afford and which people don't really want to apply for anyway.

 

[iamnuff]

"No, it's undergoing trials. Your son is helping me get regulatory approval for it."

Click to shrink...

It occurs to me that you can totally bypass the sketchy 'politician getting access to medical technology early because of his influence' thing just by... having her be one of the test subjects?

Its undergoing trials, right?
Human trials?
Human trials of people with altzheimers?

And presumably her son has medical power or attorney over her, because of her disability... so he could volunteer her (after speaking with her in one of her clearer moments) and have her signed up.

 

[Steelplaza]

If this does somehow turn her into a supervillain that will be a lesson of a different source I guess.

 

[Lord Ernest]

I don't have or have had family members with Alzheimer's, but for some reason the condition makes me really emotional, since I don't have the best of memories at the best of times already.

I hope this Eye Drive test works out. And if the Justice League being in charge can't help with something like this, I will be really disappointed.

Let superheroes be effective at making the place better for the common people, rather than just fixing what is broken after the fact.

 

[BartlettMagic]

so could the eye drive store or disseminate an anti-life fragment?

i ask because Mannheim's whole deal with inserting anti-life into the teleportation array was extremely clever, and so now i just see anti-life batteries everywhere.

also, as a healthcare worker, much is being said about memories; but the same disease progression that melts away memories also melts away the parts of your brain that make your body move correctly and in the way you want it to. i don't see the eye drive being a cure, but rather a temporary measure. in the worst case, you would be fully aware of and remember your healthy life as you're fully aware of losing your body.

here's an example: Mrs. Monetti is an artist. let's say that she likes stippling as a technique. she will remember what stippling is, and how to use it as a technique, but her brain will lose the connections that make her hand hold her brush correctly, move her arm correctly, etc. she will remember stippling, want to use stippling, but be physically unable to.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Hang on, so the devices basically grant you a photographic memory, correct?

Does this mean that anyone who puts it on and keeps studying at school will get 100% learning retention, and might become a genius?

 

[LazySloth13]

The more involved Paul and by extension the League gets in restoring the planet or providing services/cures to certain ailments will just drive the point further that they essentially rule the place with the various governments more of a polite inclusion, or at least those that work will the League or more effective than those that work against them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

so could the eye drive store or disseminate an anti-life fragment?

i ask because Mannheim's whole deal with inserting anti-life into the teleportation array was extremely clever, and so now i just see anti-life batteries everywhere.

Click to shrink...

No, it's way too basic for something like that.

also, as a healthcare worker, much is being said about memories; but the same disease progression that melts away memories also melts away the parts of your brain that make your body move correctly and in the way you want it to. i don't see the eye drive being a cure, but rather a temporary measure. in the worst case, you would be fully aware of and remember your healthy life as you're fully aware of losing your body.

here's an example: Mrs. Monetti is an artist. let's say that she likes stippling as a technique. she will remember what stippling is, and how to use it as a technique, but her brain will lose the connections that make her hand hold her brush correctly, move her arm correctly, etc. she will remember stippling, want to use stippling, but be physically unable to.

Click to shrink...

Completely true. It will improve quality of life, but ultimately it isn't fixing the underlying problem. Eventually you'd either die or go full Carapax.

Hang on, so the devices basically grant you a photographic memory, correct?
Does this mean that anyone who puts it on and keeps studying at school will get 100% learning retention, and might become a genius?

Click to shrink...

Memorisation would no longer be an issue, no. But the drive doesn't help you actually do anything with it.

 

[BR549]

so could the eye drive store or disseminate an anti-life fragment?

Click to shrink...

If the eye drive is going to be the deus ex villenia for this arc, it's more likely to be via Know Man's work with mind control from the last one.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th October 2013
10:01 GMT -5

Daniel Grayfeld offers me his hand as I walk into the Hall of Justice meeting room where he's been situated, and I give it a quick shake as I sit down. He's an independent journalist whose work mostly focuses on the medical industry, and Catherine's of the opinion that his focus means that he's least likely to drift into territory that she doesn't want me to talk about.

It occurred to me about halfway through our preparation session that she doesn't actually have any authority to order me to do anything… And then I remembered that the whole reason why I'm a superhero is to make things better and not merely stop them getting worse, and if I've somehow beaten every medical researcher on the planet in making something…

Making something that, had it existed earlier would have meant that the last thing I remember my Nan saying wasn't that she was afraid of wetting herself…

Then I'm doing what I set out to. Plenty of people can arrest criminals or build cities, but apparently I was the only one who could build this.

"So… Ah… What did you want to know?"

"Everything." I feel a little disappointed about the lack of a notepad, but he's got a tablet for reminding him what he wants to ask, and it's also recording everything I say. "This is the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of.. memory loss, ever. And I haven't found anything in your background that tells me that you're a doctor or a medical researcher."

Behind me, Catherine insinuates herself into the room.

"I'm not. Honestly, it didn't even occur to me that it could be used in that way."

Mr. Grayfeld frowns. "So… Why did you design it?"

"My team had a fight with a telepath who removed several months worth of memories. Afterwards, I put some time into finding a way to prevent that happening again. I'm… Very, very excited about the medical purposes it's going to be put to, but… I'm afraid that wasn't why I built it."

"I… Huh."

"Uh…"

"Oh-. Sorry, I'm a little surprised is all. You didn't think..? A device that can stop people forgetting things might have other applications?"

"I can be a bit… Single-minded. Particularly early in my career. The Justice League has contacts in various industries in case we encounter or create a device that might have applications outside of law enforcement, so I… Handed the design over in case… Well, in case something like this was possible. I only found out that they'd made any progress a couple of days ago, but I… I couldn't be happier about it."

"Do you do a lot of work with cybernetics? Or other medical fields?"

"Cybernetics? No, not really. I've built a few different forms of power armour, and that-. There's a lot of crossover there, but with cybernetics most people want something more closely resembling a natural limb, and I've never worked on organ-replacements." Wait a moment. "Oh-. No, that's not true. I did some work reverse-engineering some of Doctor Morrow's androids. The biggest thing there was the synthetic skin, which-."

He stares at me. "You were on the team that created Faux Skin?"

"Ah… Not exactly? Like I said, Doctor Morrow was the one who created it, but it's a lot easier to work out how something works when you've got a power ring scan of its structure."

"It's… Kind of a big deal. I know that Doctor's Morrow's work is being used in prosthetics, but there are a lot of different prosthetics manufacturers. Faux Skin is years ahead of any equivalent on the market today."

Oh.

"Oh. I… Wasn't really aware of that."

"Were you involved in the purple ray studies, too?"

"Yes."

He blinks. "Seriously?"

"I persuaded Princess Diana to authorise it, I've used them a great deal myself, and Doctor Beautia Sivana is a friend of mine. Ah. I'm not good at doing original research myself, but it seems I've got a knack for getting involved in some surprisingly useful research."

"Any other relevant research you've been involved in?"

"Dolmen gates, which are being used to maintain shipments of medicine after the collapse of global transportation. Uh. I was trying to get Atlantean biomancers work on the surface, but that's… Uh. Fallen through a bit, with one thing and another."

"Okay, I… Think the whole sector's been.. kind of asleep on you."

"I think the original researchers should be the focus. I didn't even design the parts of the Eye Drive. And… I think the whole sector's been asleep on a lot of strange but extremely useful technologies. Atlanteans have been able to grow body parts back for longer than we've had germ theory, but even when they started getting into sporadic contact with the surface no one on either side thought about taking advantage of that."

Mr. Grayfeld nods, pressing his tablet screen.

"Okay, okay, ah… Roughly how long did making your first 'Eye Drive' take?"

"Depends… What counts as working on it. Once I actually found the parts actually putting it together only took… About half an hour? Make it an hour if you include testing."

"And when was this fateful hour?"

"Twenty-third of November, Twenty Ten."

He raises his eyebrows. "Three years ago?"

I nod. "Nearly, yes."

"And they're only starting field trials now?"

"So I'm told."

"And..? You're sure that it's effective?"

Derek told me that Mrs. Moretti Senior was the most coherent he's seen her… But that was me breaking the law.

"As I said, I didn't design it specifically to deal with the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. But based on what I know about the disease, it should work as the people running the trials hope."

He keeps frowning.

"Ah. Is there an issue?"

"I'm… Just a little surprised, is all."

I nod, smiling. "Me too."

"I mean… There's not-. Alzheimer's was well behind cancer in terms of investment, but there should still have been enough money to incentivise someone to do a trial before now. The Justice League's research agreements usually… Make things like this more prominent."

"Oh? My experience is that stuff like this is left to moulder indefinitely. Did you see that talk I did a couple of years ago-?"

He nods. "Where you talked about how long Earth had had teleporters? I watched a recording before I came here."

"Well… There you go. If you say it's odd then I'll take your word for it, but honestly… I'm just glad to have been able to make a difference at all."

 

[Ngamer11]

"My team had a fight with a telepath who removed several months worth of memories. Afterwards, I put some time into finding a way to prevent that happening again. I'm… Very, very excited about the medical purposes it's going to be put to, but… I'm afraid that wasn't why I build it."

Click to shrink...

That should say 'built'.

"Okay, I… Think the whole sector's been.. kind of asleep on you."

"I think the original researchers should be the focus. I didn't even design the parts of the Eye Drive. And… I think the whole sector's been asleep on a lot of strange but extremely useful technologies. Atlanteans have been able to grow body parts back for longer than we've had germ theory, but even when they started getting into sporadic contact with the surface no one on either side thought about taking advantage of that."

Click to shrink...

It's great that Paul is getting recognition for pointing out the problem with people not making use of the tools they have avaialble and actually doing so himself to show what they could've done years ago.

"Ah. Is there an issue?"

"I'm… Just a little surprised, is all."

I nod, smiling. "Me too."

"I mean… There's not-. Alzheimer's was well behind cancer in terms of investment, but there should still have been enough money to incentivise someone to do a trial before now. The Justice League's research agreements usually… Make things like this more prominent."

"Oh? My experience is that stuff like this is left to moulder indefinitely. Did you see that talk I did a couple of years ago-?"

He nods. "Where you talked about how long Earth had had teleporters? I watched a recording before I came here."

"Well… There you go. If you say it's odd then I'll take your word for it, but honestly… I'm just glad to have been able to make a difference at all."

Click to shrink...

I'm assuming Boss Smiley is not happy about this but can't really do anything about it.

 

[Bigking321]

"I mean… There's not-. Alzheimer's was well behind cancer in terms of investment, but there should still have been enough money to incentivise someone to do a trial before now. The Justice League's research agreements usually… Make things like this more prominent."

Click to shrink...

Hmm...

Sounds like smiley is trying to slow things down. Might be worth checking on whatever department is in charge of that.

 

[Darko]

existed earlier would have mean that the last thing I remember my Nan

Click to shrink...

"have meant"

 

[Mr Zoat]

That should say 'built'.

Click to shrink...

"have meant"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

9th October 2013
10:01 GMT -5

Daniel Grayfeld offers me his hand as I walk into the Hall of Justice meeting room where he's been situated, and I give it a quick shake as I sit down. He's an independent journalist whose work mostly focuses on the medical industry, and Catherine's of the opinion that his focus means that he's least likely to drift into territory that she doesn't want me to talk about.

Click to shrink...

Something of a soft challenge, then. An easy home-run for early public relations attention on the subject. Also a useful way to get the word out that this 'teenage' superhero accidentally made a palliative treatment for a long-term condition.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

It occurred to me about halfway through our preparation session that she doesn't actually have any authority to order me to do anything… And then I remembered that the whole reason why I'm a superhero is to make things better and not merely stop them getting worse, and if I've somehow beaten every medical researcher on the planet in making something…

Click to shrink...

Admittedly, none of them might have had the moment of insight to combine the technology involved nor the need for such a specific device...

Making something that, had it existed earlier would have mean that the last thing I remember my Nan saying wasn't that she was afraid of wetting herself…

Then I'm doing what I set out to. Plenty of people can arrest criminals or build cities, but apparently I was the only one who could build this.

Click to shrink...

A motivation that personal is always that much stronger.

"So… Ah… What did you want to know?"

"Everything." I feel a little disappointed about the lack of a notepad, but he's got a tablet for reminding him what he wants to ask, and it's also recording everything I say. "This is the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of.. memory loss, ever. And I haven't found anything in your background that tells me that you're a doctor or a medical researcher."

Click to shrink...

True, scribbling shorthand in a little notepad just feels more... Attentive...

Behind me, Catherine insinuates herself into the room.

"I'm not. Honestly, it didn't even occur to me that it could be used in that way."

Mr. Grayfeld frowns. "So… Why did you design it?"

Click to shrink...

You do remember he's a superhero? obviously, it was in response to a supervillain thing.

"My team had a fight with a telepath who removed several months worth of memories. Afterwards, I put some time into finding a way to prevent that happening again. I'm… Very, very excited about the medical purposes it's going to be put to, but… I'm afraid that wasn't why I built it."

Click to shrink...

Admittedly, they weren't gone, just disordered and suppressed, but the simplification is easier to understand.

"I… Huh."

"Uh…"

"Oh-. Sorry, I'm a little surprised is all. You didn't think..? A device that can stop people forgetting things might have other applications?"

Click to shrink...

Again, superhero. While OL does like to focus on cultural improvement, he still has a tendency to get caught up in facepunching business.

"I can be a bit… Single-minded. Particularly early in my career. The Justice League has contacts in various industries in case we encounter or create a device that might have applications outside of law enforcement, so I… Handed the design over in case… Well, in case something like this was possible. I only found out that they'd made any progress a couple of days ago, but I… I couldn't be happier about it."

Click to shrink...

'Single-minded'? Just a bit of an understatement.

"Do you do a lot of work with cybernetics? Or other medical fields?"

"Cybernetics? No, not really. I've built a few different forms of power armour, and that-. There's a lot of crossover there, but with cybernetics most people want something more closely resembling a natural limb, and I've never worked on organ-replacements." Wait a moment. "Oh-. No, that's not true. I did some work reverse-engineering some of Doctor Morrow's androids. The biggest thing there was the synthetic skin, which-."

Click to shrink...

Although there's bound to be folks who want a cool robot arm.

He stares at me. "You were on the team that created Faux Skin?"

"Ah… Not exactly? Like I said, Doctor Morrow was the one who created it, but it's a lot easier to work out how something works when you've got a power ring scan of its structure."

Click to shrink...

Oh good grief, another thing he's responsible for? This one coming from the work he did to repair Red Inferno/Firebrand.

"It's… Kind of a big deal. I know that Doctor's Morrow's work is being used in prosthetics, but there are a lot of different prosthetics manufacturers. Faux Skin is years ahead of any equivalent on the market today."

Oh.

"Oh. I… Wasn't really aware of that."

Click to shrink...

...I'm guessing that's mostly what Construct Morrow's been helping with, maybe?

"Were you involved in the purple ray studies, too?"

"Yes."

Click to shrink...

And three for three.

He blinks. "Seriously?"

"I persuaded Princess Diana to authorise it, I've used them a great deal myself, and Doctor Beautia Sivana is a friend of mine. Ah. I'm not good at doing original research myself, but it seems I've got a knack for getting involved in some surprisingly useful research."

Click to shrink...

And knowing who to hand it off to to see it applied properly, sometimes.

"Any other relevant research you've been involved in?"

"Dolmen gates, which are being used to maintain shipments of medicine after the collapse of global transportation. Uh. I was trying to get Atlantean biomancers work on the surface, but that's… Uh. Fallen through a bit, with one thing and another."

"Okay, I… Think the whole sector's been.. kind of asleep on you."

Click to shrink...

...Would be amusing if he ended up being better known for his involvement in medical breakthroughs than his superhero work in future eras.

"I think the original researchers should be the focus. I didn't even design the parts of the Eye Drive. And… I think the whole sector's been asleep on a lot of strange but extremely useful technologies. Atlanteans have been able to grow body parts back for longer than we've had germ theory, but even when they started getting into sporadic contact with the surface no one on either side thought about taking advantage of that."

Click to shrink...

This might even get some groups to poke their head into more exotic technologies.

Mr. Grayfeld nods, pressing his tablet screen.

"Okay, okay, ah… Roughly how long did making your first 'Eye Drive' take?"

Click to shrink...

Quicker than most researcher types would have taken, because Power RIng...

"Depends… What counts as working on it. Once I actually found the parts actually putting it together only took… About half an hour? Make it an hour if you include testing."

"And when was this fateful hour?"

Click to shrink...

Please resist the urge to say 'But for me, it was a Tuesday.'

"Twenty-third of November, Twenty Ten."

He raises his eyebrows. "Three years ago?"

Click to shrink...

...Mother-lover, it was a Tuesday!

I nod. "Nearly, yes."

"And they're only starting field trials now?"

Click to shrink...

The medical industry moves glacially, sometimes.

"So I'm told."

"And..? You're sure that it's effective?"

Derek told me that Mrs. Moretti Senior was the most coherent he's seen her… But that was me breaking the law.

Click to shrink...

So nothing he can tell people about. But he can make anecdotal suggestions about its efficacy.

"As I said, I didn't design it specifically to deal with the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. But based on what I know about the disease, it should work as the people running the trials hope."

He keeps frowning.

Click to shrink...

Probably surprised you're so humble about it. Typical teenagers would be 'Hell yeah, I did that!' about it, usually.

"Ah. Is there an issue?"

"I'm… Just a little surprised, is all."

I nod, smiling. "Me too."

Click to shrink...

Yes, we remember how surprised you were.

"I mean… There's not-. Alzheimer's was well behind cancer in terms of investment, but there should still have been enough money to incentivise someone to do a trial before now. The Justice League's research agreements usually… Make things like this more prominent."

Click to shrink...

Alzhiemer's probably doesn't have the same cultural cachet in curing it as some like 'Cancer' (not that cancer is purely a single disease anyway.)

"Oh? My experience is that stuff like this is left to moulder indefinitely. Did you see that talk I did a couple of years ago-?"

He nods. "Where you talked about how long Earth had had teleporters? I watched a recording before I came here."

"Well… There you go. If you say it's odd then I'll take your word for it, but honestly… I'm just glad to have been able to make a difference at all."

Click to shrink...

And I bet a certain smiling bastard is fuming about it all right now.

At least this interview is an easy one. I can foresee some being angry about his obliviousness to the potential of devices he's made, or shocked someone as 'young' as he has can make such breakthroughs without any experience in the field. And possibly those who question why he bothers fighting evil when he could save lives via technological breakthroughs...