Maria

Maria is a character who works as an information thief. In a world where the government has taken the role of protecting citizens, those in power have equated protecting with covering up the truth.

The year is 2334 and every major country has banded together in a union called the New World Federation. The act of disrupting the flow of unauthorized communications usually ends up with the party in question disappearing into one of the worlds many political prisons. Maria, however, has the gift to “upload” her mind into the cyberspace and share whatever knowledge she gains with the citizens of the world. At this time in history, the science of cyberkinesis is still in the early stages of being researched and no known humans have been able to connect to the cyberspace without the detection of the government’s infamous brain implants received at birth. These implants are primarily used to monitor the thought patterns of suspected law breakers and track the location of every citizen. They also bombard users with random, unrelated thoughts in an effort to enhance worker productivity by limiting the imagination.

Maria’s implant suffers from an odd glitch that jams any signal attempting to read her implant and manipulate her thoughts. It instead allows her to perpetually remain connected to cyberspace without detection, “read” through its massive digital dimensions, and broadcast information she finds with anyone who has an implant. Once, while rummaging into the governments digital information database, Maria uncovered a secret plan called “Proposition 80″ that would mentally enslave the human race and grant world domination to the select few who head the New World Federation. The brain implant received at birth was first introduced under the disguise of a supplement to enhance intelligence for mankind by connecting everyone to cyberspace. Because of the system-wide corruption, Maria is determined to liberate people around the world by introducing them to uncensored information. She also wants to “free” their minds by persuading them to refrain from using their implants and rely on their natural intelligence.

Through exposing people to information they would have never known about, Maria hopes to start a revolution. Once thoughts have bypassed the initial “implant’ layer, citizens can begin to verbally speak with each other about what they have learned. Maria plans for the ancient art of storytelling to undermine the government’s efforts to limit the amount of knowledge gained in society. She sees herself as a vessel to transport information from the source (digital government files in cyberspace) to the citizens of the world. Because Maria cannot be tracked like the rest of the population, she almost doesn’t exist in the physical or cyber spaces. According to the world’s government, her mind cannot be traced so therefore she does not exist. Physically, she moves throughout the world as a sort of “ghost”. Because she is always connected to cyberspace and her physical existence cannot be verified, she exists in some realm between the physical world and the cyber world.