An essay by S. Dewisker et al. as related by Thomas Diehl
Art provided by Leigh Legler
Day 1
Today, we commenced final research in our project for animal control through electronic stimulation of brain activity. After promising results with canines and felines, we decided to move on to primates. The institute was not able to provide a monkey for this last test, but fortunately, Dr. Wilton was able to present us with a replacement from the lab. This last phase of the project would not have been possible this early without his assistance.
The test subject was sedated to add electrodes in positions analogous to those in former subjects (see previous essays). Sedation of the subject was done by chloroform gas when other methods proved ineffectual or impossible to administer due to the subject’s resistance.
Once installed, power to the electrodes had to be increased repeatedly before it ultimately responded. It did so flawlessly after a few adjustments.
~
Day 12
I must say, I am very pleased with the subject so far. Two weeks in, there have been minor setbacks at worst. The subject appears to have uneasy sleep and constant high blood pressure but is responsive to all commands nonetheless. Recently, an occasional time delay has been observed for some more complex commands. The subject cannot be ordered to harm itself, but at the moment, this seems more of an advantage than a problem. This will, however, be a topic of future test runs.
We have begun to incorporate the subject into our lab work, preparing a few more monkeys for testing and observing with a larger number of subjects. Twenty-four monkeys are currently being prepared, exhausting the facility’s capacities. We will need to get more lab monkeys from other institutions, but this will not be much of a setback. Ultimate sample size should be about 100-1,000.
Today, we commenced final research in our project for animal control through electronic stimulation of brain activity.
To read the rest of this story, check out the Mad Scientist Journal: Autumn 2018 collection.
Snookums Dewisker gained consciousness on August 17th, 2016. After successfully repeating the feat for the rest of his litter, he led the lab rat community in their pioneering research in animal control and neurologic electrostimulation technology. Dr. Raul Wilton of the MIT approved of Dewisker’s research until recently.
Thomas Diehl is a writer of speculative fiction and nonfiction in both English and German. He hails from a German city with a name barely made for human tongues (Moenchengladbach). His exploits are regularly documented at en.thomasdiehl.eu (or just thomasdiehl.eu for German readers).
Leigh’s professional title is “illustrator,” but that’s just a nice word for “monster-maker,” in this case. More information about them can be found at http://leighlegler.carbonmade.com/.
“Fetch Monkey” is © 2018 Thomas Diehl
Art accompanying story is © 2018 Leigh Legler
