The Words - An Autobiography

Interfaces

To no one's surprise but my own, I was accepted into several prestigious graduate programs, in fact, to all that I'd applied. But then I had glowing letters of recommendation from my professors, my advisor, the Dean of the Electrical Engineering department, and the CEO of the company where I'd been employed since quitting my job at the factory - until I'd recently given notice. And I'd submitted a handful of papers to various scientific and engineering publications, one of which had been published - not in one of the major journals but by one well-respected. Also, for the first time in my life, my grades lived up to expectations. They'd been perfect from the beginning. I'd even aced Table Tennis.

Most of those who knew of the offers I received assumed that I faced an enviable but difficult decision. Again, to no one's surprise but my own, money would not be an issue in any of these programs. All of them had endowment money 'out the wazoo,' as the Dean of Electrical Engineering commented. Tuition, books, housing, and living expenses were all provided. Some even offered to cover relocation costs.

It had never occurred to me that the cost of my attending graduate school, housing, and living expenses would be covered entirely. Although I'd also never been particularly concerned about how we would manage financially – even with both of us enrolled in graduate school and my wife only recently graduated from medical school. Since we'd never done more than work, study, attend classes, and have sex, our living expenses since we'd been married had been minimal. And I assumed I'd have no problem finding another part-time software development job that would provide whatever additional income we might require. As my former CEO reminded me, I could work from anywhere with an internet connection, hoping that I'd take that as a hint and stay on with them.

In addition to her recently completed her MD, my wife had been ABD for nearly a year. MD was familiar, of course, but ABD was new to me, and I'd needed to ask. My wife gave me her patented, you're an idiot expression and informed me, "All but dissertation, which it was now time for me to begin researching in earnest. So, if you're looking for me, I'll be at the library or lab."

"Oh," I responded, then asked, "How's Fred?"

"Now very dead. You wouldn't recognize him, poor guy."

Since my wife would not be going anywhere else for a few years, I would certainly not be going anywhere without her. So there'd never been that much for me to wrestle with as to which program I'd attend. Coincidentally, of all the BCI programs on the planet, the one I'd be attending was also one of the very best. And the campus was only a mile or less from where my wife would be researching her dissertation, so we'd be able to move to a new apartment where neither of us would have a commute more than a twenty-minute walk. And we could afford a pretty nice one since we would both receive stipends for housing and living expenses.

I'd have never bothered applying elsewhere if my advisor, the Dean of Electrical Engineering, and my CEO weren't so adamant. But that was all now 'done and dusted,' a pet phrase one of them loved. I've unfortunately long since forgotten which of them, along with any of their names.

I knew the specific area of engineering I'd wanted to study long before I applied to grad school. I'd become fascinated with the low-energy electromagnetic fields generated by the human brain and the possibilities of employing those to interface the human brain to wireless devices. Everyone had Smart Phones, Smart Watches, Glasses, and tablets of every sort, all of which communicated wirelessly using a variety of signal types, whether they were Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the plethora of emerging protocols from an expanding range of available spectrum. Why not brain waves? I had some ideas that might make us rich; I told my wife. They were still taking shape, but more of them kept bubbling to the surface and attaching themselves to others, forming something far bigger.