"Future Stories" is a television program produced by a machine, and represents the complex brain activity of one Sam Pilott from Illinois. The precise origin of this program or the machine that produced it are unknown, but every week a team of psychologists from the Chicago Psychological Institute review episodes of "Future Stories," analyzing the merits of the show as a psychological tool.
In April of 2007, Sam Pilott, aged 35, was arrested in his home and admitted to the Chicago General Psychiatric Institute for evaluation. Among the items confiscated from his apartment was a modified spigot of indeterminate origin. On cursory inspection the spigot contained no songs or contacts which may have been of interest to the police investigation. It did contain, however, several dozen episodes of a science fiction television program entitled “Future Stories,” starring Mr. Pilott as the protagonist. Inexplicably, no record of this show’s broadcast or production exists. The investigators found the show "difficult to watch." While offering a roughly identifiable narrative structure, it often lapsed into bizarre sequences of non-sequiter material. Characters spoke in a language unrecognizable to the investigators, which linguists later called "close to Turkish." Whatever the case, this was not a regular television broadcast.
On further examination it was also discovered that the headphone ‘earbuds’ for Mr. Pilott’s spigot were actually "home-brewed cranial-receptive leads", and that when properly configured, the device was capable of recognizing and intercepting specific patterns of activity in the brain. We have not been able to determine who made this spigot, or what the precise nature of its neurological function might be, but we believe that Mr. Pilott somehow used these leads to record information from his brain onto the device.
It is our further contention that there is a direct link between the spigot’s unique capabilities and the bizarre nature of “Future Stories,” which may provide valuable insight into the inner workings of human consciousness. While we do not understand the spigot’s programming, it is clear that it is capable of handling the data it has collected from Sam Pilott’s mind with unprecedented complexity, and from that data has somehow dynamically generated this ‘TV show.’ Under the supervision of the CGPI, a small team of post-graduate students will accompany me in watching and evaluating episodes of “Future Stories.” We will publish our results simultaneously in Audacious Mind Monthly and the Bishkek Daily Steingard. We hope that through our combined insights and psychological backgrounds, we may be able to determine “Future Stories’” potential value to the ongoing evaluation of Mr. Sam Pilott.
Brad Horigan - September 27, 2007
Episode 105b: "The Black Death"
In which the ship is attacked by a mysterious menace of unknown origin, and Captain Sam relies on counsel from first officer Spak.
Episode 113: "Elementary, Dear Professor"
In which the crew is attacked by The Professor, whose secret lair is actually on the ship itself.