"Don't stare at the walls", he thought, and he didn't stare. "Don't dream of yesterday", he thought, and he didn't dream. The figures passing close would eventually force him away and he could not really refuse. Not forever, maybe not even now. He passed by the bookshelf, forgetting what he was seeking. Time to clear up one's mind! Time for some spring cleaning!

The experiment... yes! Not much time to complete it, he thought, and he was quite observant at times. Trying a few more alternatives with the monstrous device didn't seem to help, as it hadn't done on previous occassions either. Something was definitely seriously wrong and even he started wishing he could start creating more simple ways to pass time. Just to ease the stress. A chess player maybe? Everyone was doing that these days. It was quite fashionable indeed and most definitely easier on the nerves.

Nerves... something wasn't connected quite right and it didn't have anything to do with nerves whatsoever.

The human race was going through one of its interesting phases and he had refused to participate, being the person he was. All that jibberish about creating one big mind that was supposedly going to free people of the feeling that the human race hadn't actually developed very greatly in the past millenium or two. It was true actually, the human race was at a standstill and after a millenium of going nowhere it wasn't hard to notice. He'd be damned if he admitted it though. All these artificial implants had been a start but not very many found the idea appealing. They just seemed so very ... artificial! People were not enthusiastic about expanding themselves artificially so the solution was to do it non-artificially. Expanding every person's brain organically - with everyone else's brain. Connecting every person in the world to each other. A giant, expandable, multibrain being that would finally unite all of humanity into one big megahuman.

The most surprising thing about all this was that people were genuinely interested this time. It had all started out as a novelty ride of sorts. Large companies advertised it as an incredible new way of finding out exactly how a person's mind of your choice worked. This was also absolutely true. While connected an onlooker would no longer be able to see two seperate personalities but one instead. As an extra bonus, the processing power of both brains was joint to create one person with an IQ double that of one seperate mind. The next thing that happened was that people used the same technique to cheat at intelligence, knowledge and other similar contests and tests. Finally people started connecting themselves to each other permanently, and then groups of people, and then groups joined other groups. By the time the scientist was on the verge of completing one of the most incredible experiments ever conceived, over ninety-five percent of the world's population was connected with some form of mind-bond. It was more popular than even 3DTV had been a century ago. The greatest thing about the system was that despite the fact that the very first systems were extremely crude and could never have supported millions of people, it was easy to expand and develop new, better systems. All that was needed was a handful of top researchers connected to each other for a week and you would have a new extremely advanced mind-bond system.

Later, as the brain matrix developed further some started connecting other animals to it. What more fun than connecting to your beloved pet dog, or to be even more extreme your pet goldfish? Quite a shocking experience for the goldfish as it has to suddenly get accustomed to being several thousand times more intelligent than in its previous state.

At some point in time, as it became more popular, somebody renamed the system and called it the Cortex. A slightly confusing name considering the original meaning of the word, but it seemed to be a favourite with the average folk. Cortex was, however, something one particular scientist didn't really fancy.

The experiment, something even Cortex couldn't work out, was peculiar for several reasons. The strangest thing about it was that an old half-forgotten researcher at a small private labratory could accomplish something that was so totally beyond Cortex. At least so it seemed to the scientist behind it. Cortex was very reluctant to let him complete it and continuously attempted to rip him away so he would finally join Cortex. He had refused several dozen times and would not join willingly until his work was complete, which it very nearly was. If only he could remember.. yes, that wire!

And so he created the universe.