The Utopian Correction

An awful world where everybody is happy

You are inside of an elevator. The elevator doesn't move in any way you've every moved in. You know that it is moving but not in a classical sense.

In a classical sense the elevator is stationary. Your speedometer reads zero and the navigation system is silent (all elevators made in the United States after 2024 are equipped with these life saving features). Your movement is better described as psychological; perhaps emotional but make no mistake: this is a scientific phenomena. Maybe the elevator is also moving, its certainly possible—researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder are conducting studies on the elevator psyche (they just got an exciting new grant from Mitsubishi). Regardless of the elevator's opinions, your current neural trajectory, represented as a vector in mental space is displayed on a screen on one of the elevator walls: \(\langle-4,2,-600,3,0,49\rangle\). You rack your brain and can't think of a time you've seen your neural vector move through more than two dimensions.

Typically psychological movement science is used as a method of control. While it can be observed using relatively simple equipment (low energy, high frequency wave diffractions), a vector form output in the form of positive or negative integers doesn't translate to an absolute position, only a direction of tensor movement, a force within. The term is mental redirection, a way of changing opinions. The concept operates on the same principles as physical movement: applying a force over time (work), results in a change in energy. Applying a force (represented by a neural vector), to a person works similarly on their psyche.

Anyways, the multidimensional problem in the elevator is increasingly worrying. At work when you redirect people you work in one dimension at a time. Theory exists for multidimensional redirection but it's unstable and not suitable for the market. Redirection occurs in one dimension, self-direction (all humans had before the breakthrough) occurs in two dimensions. An easily observable phenomenon, these are the neural vectors. A few laws have been established by scholars in regards to neural vectors:

For a sane and living human with neural vector \(\vec{v}\):

  1. \(|\mathbf{\vec{v}}| \neq 0\)
    • The magnitude of a neural vector is never zero. Opinions change rapidly and always.
  2. \(|\mathbf{\dot{v}}| = \left|\frac{d\mathbf{v}}{dt}\right| \leq V_{max}\)
    • The rate of change of a neural vector is less than or equal to a maximum recorded speed at which comprehension cuts off. The way opinions change changes fast but not infinitely fast.
  3. \(|\mathbf{\ddot{v}}| = \left|\frac{d^2\mathbf{v}}{dt^2}\right| \leq A_{max}\)
    • The speed at which the rate of psychological change itself is changing is less than or equal to a maximum value. Erratics and madmen are examples of this rule being broken.

You run through the laws in your head: magnitude isn't zero...good. Looking at the numbers, they aren't changing meaning that \(\mathbf{\dot{v}}\) is zero and therefore so is \(\mathbf{\ddot{v}}\). From a scientific standpoint, you are still sane and alive which is relieving. You'll probably make it out of this elevator in one piece as long as nothing changes too drastically. However; it is only partially relieving. There are another set of laws to consider: The Neural Vector Regulation Relational Laws. This is a legal code, implemented by the U.S. government in the late 2020s after the discovery of the neural vector. They're based on the concept of a "regulation vector", an idealized vector \(\mathbf{\vec{r}}\) which the majority of minds should remain relatively aligned with. Levels of offenses are categorized into three groups, each group corresponding to an escalated redirection.

Let angle \(\theta\) be the angle between a neural vector \(\mathbf{\vec{v}}\) and the regulation vector \(\mathbf{\vec{r}}\), given by: $$\theta=\cos^{-1}\left(\frac{\mathbf{\vec{v}\cdot\vec{r}}}{\mathbf{||\vec{v}||\cdot||\vec{r}||}}\right)$$

The groups of offenses are then:

  1. \(\theta \geq 30^\circ\)
  2. \(\theta \geq 45^\circ\)
  3. \(\theta \geq 60^\circ\)

75% of offenses are Group I offenses, 23% are Group II, and the remaining 3% fall into Group III. You know this because of your job. You're the program director for New York City's redirection program, a branch of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital established in 2029. The branch's efforts can be distilled into an explicit goal: to increase human welfare using scientific redirection. Practically, this takes the form of engaging in neural research, educating the public on the importance of monitoring ones neural vectors, and, of course, the physical act of redirecting patients. You got the director position by appointment following the previous directors retirement (in reality, he was forced to step down by the board after he was found to be involved in a conspiracy involving misplacement of group I patients into group II and even group III care).

The elevator begins to move. Not up nor down, but to the left. It starts to rapidly accelerate and you can hardly stand. You sit down on the floor of the elevator and grab the side bar. Now the speedometer reads into the triple digits: 300...450...600... elevators aren't rated for this level of speed. You crawl towards the button panel and press anything you can reach. Alarms are going off, a red and white light is flashing above, you bump into a floor button and the number 33 is illuminated. That was a mistake. Now your on a trajectory. The elevator feels like it's following an arc through space, speedometer still increasing, now at 2100...2500...3000...