TAKEN

Written By: Alan Pouliquen

Class Site!

Chapter 1

In the year 1983, Alain Minc and Simon Nora were singlehandedly responsible for promoting the notion that the telecommunication and informatics were to be democratic and available to the world to use and innovate upon. After overwhelming success of Minitel in France, American Internet pioneers seized the opportunity to become a part of this process in 1985 and collaborated with Videotex online services and the American Government to create the Megatel terminal. With Megatel terminals developed by the American government and distributed to every American with a telephone line, it served as a public platform for private computing. Collaborating with ARPANET and NSFNET, Megatel has since facilitated an open platform of programming to assist, entertain, and educate Americans in their day to day lives.

The day is February 14th 2020. The suns rays slowly begin to travel up along the walls of Flyn Riders house in San Diego California. Their journey to the solar detector is constant and true. No navigation is needed to tell the sun how to do its ancient job of providing light to the world every morning. Coupled with the enhanced 2020 tele-solar conveyor on the roof of Flyns house, solar energy is now absorbed at 80% efficiency, recharging every one of Flyns household appliances in less than five minutes. This drastic change would not have been possible in the pre-Megatel eras solar absorbing efficiency of 23%.

A loud abrupt alarm signals the start of the day. As Flynn rises and stretches himself out with ease, his daily agenda is relayed to him through the Megatel Terminals intelligent assistant prototype, “Anna”. Flynn has spent over a decade developing the software as means of improving the way people across the United States interact with their Megatel terminals. Thanks to Jones ingenuity and innovative idea, millions of Americans around the U.S with subscriptions to Megatel will be receiving Anna in a matter of days. Today he will begin to distribute and test the software across millions of Megatel terminals in the U.S.

Walking downstairs, Flynn passes a poster of the newest Anna advertisement poster that he brought back home as a keepsake. A smooth smirk runs down his face knowing that his idea will revolutionize the Megatel terminals. People all across the United states will be using his idea to replace manual input with simple dialogue activation. With The United States currently at 95% Megatel usage, it is only a matter of time before voice activation will be responsible for providing humans with an alternative and more efficient way to use Megatel terminals.

As he walks in the kitchen, the familiar smell of Columbian coffee made by his new high-speed Megatel compatible coffee maker lures him to the counter. With his house completely Megatel compatible, he has attained a coveted symbol of status within upper-middle class American households.

Everything from Flynns coffee maker to his alarm is now automated by a single Meganet hub powered by solar energy.

Upon taking a couple sips of coffee, Flynn checks the news projection on his portable Meganet (PM). One particular LA times headline troubles him.

It states: White House calls for Privatization of Megatel.

He curses under his breath.

This political move has direct ramifications on the release and promotion of Anna. Anna was founded under the principles of democracy and customized use. It learns each individual users behavior and personality in order to best serve their needs. Under Al Gore’s administration, he has been taking steps to privatize Meganet with the hopes that it would boost profits while tightening security against radical bots who have been abusing the freedom of Meganets platform to exploit and steal user information. While this is an admirable goal, it jeopardizes everything that Flynn has been working for by limiting who can have access to a public service.

As he continues to read the debriefing on the days agenda, he hears an alert that someone is at the front door. Immediately, IVAS recognizes the guest as Jerome Laparvier, Flynns assistant in training.

He must be here for the newest prototype Flynn thought to himself.

After opening the door, Jerome frantically rushes in out of breath.

Flynn get in the car there is no time to explain. says Jerome.

Bewildered, Flynn stops everything he is doing, throws on his jacket and rushes into his Megatel self-driving car. On his way to work he receives a flash briefing from the board on his PM: Megatel has been compromised by radical bots with Russian Megatel Identification Numbers, avoid usage of any Megatel systems.

It all made sense now.

Almost 65 percent of all radical bots were Russian based. After Obama was found to have secretly approved the attempted assassination of Putin over three years ago, Putin was had been on high alert. One could only assume that he was responsible for the breach in the system as a form of retaliation. As Flynns car passed Balboa park, he saw people frantically destroying their Megatel devices. It seemed that all his work was done for now that paranoia would destroy his user base. Maybe Al gore was right. Maybe privatization was the best solution for the Megatel after years of globalization and operational inefficiency.

All of a sudden his car jolted to a stop. This was highly unusual considering there was almost never a need for abrupt stops with an accident rate at less than .0005% per year. His car quickly accelerated and turned right immediately, swerving off the highway and into the brush.

It became clear that his vehicle had been compromised.

Quickly accelerating through a side forest, Flynn thought that this was going to be the end of him. In the distance the car was approaching the edge of a lake. If Flynn was going to make it he would have to act fast. About 50 feet before the car sped off the cliff, Flynn braced himself and jumped out of the car.

Tumbling on the ground, he kept himself balled up as to minimize the amount of damage sustained to his body. Laying on the floor, unable to move, Flynn could only look up and the scorching sun above him. After a couple of minutes, something obscured the suns path.

Mr. Rider, you will come with us a voice with a heavy Russian accent said.

To be continued...