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...With the advent of deeper probes, original brain scanning technologies became embarrassingly out of date as did the extensive artistic Thought-Libraries early enthusiasts had created. In fact, within a span of only three years these remarkable databases of sensory experiences had arrived on the SocNet, become one of the most intensely viral trends ever recorded, and then almost completely faded from public perception. A pitiful loss for humanity, I assure you.

Competing mind-sharing products like DuoLife, ThoughtShare, and Inani have driven the field into awe-inspiring levels of co-active cognition. DuoLife alone estimates that over 32 billion hours of simultaneous experience will be enjoyed by their customers in the approaching fiscal year. Industry standard practices now allow users to precisely calibrate mental dominance during thought synchronization from a heavily skewed ratio of 20/80 (the colloquial "Ride and Drive") to a near perfect balance of 50/50. The latter is rapidly changing the pattern of relationships on the SocNet with providers G, FB, and Ǭ all projecting that "Sweet Sharing" will account for a whopping 75% of all traffic within the next five years (and less than a decade since Mendel and Markram first demonstrated the possibility in their famous experiment).  Inani, partnered with Samsung, is expanding the breadth of sharing to previously unimaginable levels and at high fidelity. Currently, a group of sixteen individuals can Sweet Share with about a 12% retention in long term memory (Kwun and Huang, Nature Reviews Neurology v2129). The Inani-Samsung One-Love project aims to ramp this up to over 10,000 individuals at greater than 50% fidelity in the next decade. More conservative neurologists outside of the project still suspect that 50% fidelity for groups of 100 or more is only five years away at most. Needless to say, Sweet Sharing between couples, or even small families, is associated with nearly perfect memory retention as evidenced by its popularity among students, trade professionals, and many religion advocates.   

It seems then that humanity is, at least in part, embarking on a trend towards shared consciousness, either in sporadic unions or long-term merges. So much has been written about these distinct, yet clearly related, possibilities that I feel no need to comment on their seemingly inevitable arrival except for the following assertion: with their dawning may come a complete disregard for the fragile beauty of their predecessors. Like parents who dote on a second child while dismissing their first, this is a travesty.

Thought-Libraries were, and continue to be, some of the most breath-taking examples of human art ever produced by our precocious species. If Sweet Sharing is our modern version of intimacy, and Ride and Drives our modern form of cinema, Thought-Libraries are our poetry. In each short burst of experience, highly filtered through the direct will of the original thinker, their existed a sculpted form of expression that was every bit as crafted and poignant as a creation of Frost, Angelou, or Neruda. Painstakingly processed, each thought had to be held with supreme effort of mind by the thinker while the primordial brain-scanning technology (cutting edge for its time) endlessly probed and examined neural activity to record the experience arising from the emergent properties of neurons. Not only were pioneering Thought-Librarians examples of super-human levels of will power they were unparalleled artists, as evidenced by the insane breadth of experiences their imaginations created. Let others rave about Dudley and Trueson sharing perfect love with trauma-stricken refugees one at a time, or laud the latest action-packed war-isode by Burning Fields Productions – I prefer the tragic and heart wrenching feeling of doubt and exploration in Park's "The Star Stairway" though it is only 143 seconds in its near perfection.

It is hard for me not to equate our obsession with fidelity and scale with the declining trend in fantastic fiction. As the SocNet has become ever more saturated with users looking for and sharing simultaneous experiences our stories have become frighteningly mundane and short-sighted. A poll of 30 million users on FB showed that less than 4% routinely considered events more than 9 years old. Less chilling, but more illuminating, the top 15 most trafficked portals on the SocNet are all centered on the daily minutiae of common experience. ShopWithMe, though third in the ranking behind G's Knowledge Base and the much-debated LoveHub, is the top earner by a considerable margin (estimates are $45 billion per year compared to $22B and $17B respectively – Forbes). I do not think it is outrageous for me to say that when a virtual shopping excursion is more profitable than lust and knowledge combined, more adventurous topics like science fiction, action, or romance hardly stand a chance of winning the race. Poetry, of course, isn't even allowed on the field. DuoLife loves to remind us that sharing our thoughts is the next step in human evolution. Yet I challenge that as long as we are sharing without imagination, we hardly have the right to call ourselves human anymore.

Which is why I have put out this open call for TL submissions some dozen years after any Thought-Library generated more than a few thousand hits on the SocNet. It is time for our generation to lead a resurgence of poetry and imagination. It may, in fact, be the last chance for any of us to do so with the hope of impacting humanity. If we are stepping up to a higher plane of existence let us carry with us something more than a fascination for consumption, carnal sport, and cold collective intelligence. Let us make sure that humanity's children are born with the spark of art burning in their hearts.

If you are receiving this chat it means that you are one of a handful of noted artists who Project WellSpring believes could help generate a revival of imaginative creation in the mind-sharing industry. Designs and instructions for tri-printing an original brain scanning device will be sent out shortly, but for now PWS would like for you to plan out the Thought-Library you wish to create for our new collection. Plan an experience before it happens? Yes, we know this sounds radical (or ancient) in today's world of improvised love-making and spontaneous belt-buying but original Though-Libraries were meticulously planned before they were recorded. PWS thinks this was an integral part of their success as an art form and we are dedicated to maintaining that aspect in our new archive.

As part of your submission, Project WellSpring would like for you to write, draw, or sculpt a story that you wish to convert into a Thought-Library. Remember that such stories were never more than ten minutes long, and that the best were often under 180 seconds. Also, please do not forget that unlike a ThoughtShare forum or an Inani cluster chat, no one at Project Well-Spring will critique you for thinking impossible thoughts. The opposite is true. We want your crazy, supernatural, unrealistic stories with people, places, and pictures no one has ever seen in the real world. This is a project to show humanity its inner wonder and imagination. Don't be afraid to share your dreams!

Once your story is crafted, please upload it to the PWS secure server. As soon as we receive it we will send out tri-printing setups and a recording widget. You are free to deviate from your first draft as you see fit, but please do not improvise too greatly as you'll need to spend many hours testing and perfecting your recording. You'll find that creating a good Thought-Library is all about holding a clear and exciting story in your mind as tightly and lovingly as you can.

I and the rest of the Project WellSpring staff wish you the best on your upcoming journey and thank you in advance for your submission. All accepted Thought-Libraries will of course have an equal share in revenue (GNUmap Standard Guidelines, CopyLeft), and all creative credits will be shared according to the individual author's wishes. More importantly, the PWS Thought-Library Archive will serve as a focus for humanity's artistic integrity as we continue forward in our shared journey.

Good luck and Godspeed,

M. K. Reiss

Founder, Project WellSpring