Two days ago an old university friend sent me the following email. I forwarded it to my editor to be published along with the data from the USB drive. Instead I received an audit from the FBI. Dear (My name), I am writing to you because I am almost out of time. Over the past eight years, I have been involved in a classified program that needs to be exposed to the public. The program involves permanently immersing individuals in personal virtual reality programs while they are in a sleep-like catatonic state. The goal is to reduce the material burden of humanity by allowing humans to live virtually. In theory, it sounds like a revolutionary idea. I thought this would be how I left my mark on humanity... But as I delved deeper into the testing phase, I began to realize the true implications of this technology. During the testing phase, many ethical concerns were raised, but management transferred out those who spoke up. As a result, no one else voiced their objections, after all the subjects were volunteers. The first iteration of tests were classified even to me, but the second phase involved putting subjects into a virtual world that we designed to mimic our own with hyperrealistic environments, buildings, and landscapes. They were promised a free world to explore and experience without the limitations of our physical world, and we were told that the knowledge gained from these tests would save the world from overpopulation and the climate crisis. While we worked on this project, we had no direct contact with the subjects. After being immersed, no changes could be made to the program they were in, nor was any outside stimulus allowed. We were also told that the bodies were physically being kept in a secure research hospital somewhere. The result of all this is that we didn't really know who we were dealing with. At first it almost seemed I wasn't even dealing with real, living people. But that soon changed. The subjects quickly grew tired of the virtual world, and as weeks faded into months, their sanity started to drip away. Over a period of four years, some suffered psychotic breaks, while others simply laid down and stopped moving. Most attempted suicide... But because they were in a virtual world, blood loss, asphyxiation, blunt trauma, and other injuries that would typically lead to death only resulted in extreme physical and emotional distress. Only two subjects managed to endure enough trauma to escape by entering cardiac arrest and passing away. Everyone else has by now entered a comatose state. I was shocked to hear phase two was deemed a successful proof of concept, and even more so to be transferred to the team that had already started working on phase three. It had been deemed that the limited space had caused the "mental instability" seen in phase two. After all, the simulation was only a single city block and it had taken two years of intense programming/design work. To solve this issue of limited space, we were given the latest version of NVA, the Non-Verbal Ai project. We just called it Nova. It was tasked with generating an endless human world for the subjects to explore based on over 98 GB of environmental and structural data. Nova was capable of generating large amounts of ideal simulation, so we started a trial of phase three. There were problems. The simulation generated by Nova could only conform to the logic of the data we had fed it, so visual information could only be collected from the inside via a handheld camera, which each subject would find upon entering the simulation. We sometimes saw the subjects through the security cameras, but the vast majority of cameras were simply endlessly glaring at unchanging blank walls. That was one of the first indications that Nova had not created a world meant for human habitation. Having removed the restraints of cost, function, and physics that ground our real constructions in practicality and reality, Nova had trapped these people in a purgatory of endless illogical iterations of various real buildings. There was something disturbingly artistic about how everything meshed together. A soulless pediatric ward with a 5 foot high ceiling had sky-light windows in every room leading to offices above. There was a pharmacy with grocery store isles extending out as far as the eye could see. Most often it was some iteration of an office building or apartment. Almost always its layout was unsuitable for any real purpose. The subjects were in a sleep-like state and were being fed food and water through an IV, allowing them to explore these vast creations for months and sometimes years on end. But they weren't enjoying any of it, they were looking for an exit. One that we knew they could never find. The novelty of endless nothings wasn't enough. Once they resigned themselves to never being able to leave, they began to descend the same path to insanity as the subjects from trial two. It seemed like this whole experiment was just another catastrophe. But it wasn't just that. Yesterday, in my research on a subject who was proving particularly resilient and adaptable to her conditions, I was granted access to not only her personal file, but to the entire database of subjects. It was apparently a mistake because what I found was horrendous. Here is the heading of her entry and a few others that are seared into my memory: * Ella Gonzales. Age: 29, Former employee. Status- Nominal * Liam H. Age: 24, Non-compliant Journalist. Status - Under duress * Karl S. Age: 67, Janitor. Status - Deceased * James K. Age: 8, Car accident victim. Status - Psychosis There were over three hundred entries. These were not consenting volunteers. This is a crime against humanity This program needs to be exposed to the public. It must be stopped. The consequences of this program are dire and I can no longer bear my complicity with something that has caused so much torment. I cannot stress enough the gravity of this situation. The subjects were not informed nor given a choice, and they were not prepared for the consequences of what we did to them. Everyone here understands that this program also has the potential to change the way we live our lives, but at what cost? I cannot continue to sacrifice the well-being of individuals for the sake of progress. I urge you, as a journalist, to bring this matter to light and expose the truth about this program. The public has a right to know. Something completely soulless is guiding this project. We cant let it go any further. You will soon receive a USB drive that contains all the information that I have gathered. It is encrypted. After I send this email, you and [another college friend] will be the only people are able to figure out the password. I'm sorry for putting this on your shoulders, but there is no one else I can trust. Goodbye, Emily