3
ZeroCorp.
Grey mist rose delicately from the ground, enveloping the trees clad in darkness and adorned with frost. The sky faded from inky black to deep, cobalt blue: dawn was slow at this time of the year. Amid the hilly forest landscape was a small area of flat land, occupied by a giant building, spangled with columns and rows of glowing windows. While the forest slept in the stillness and silence of long winter nights, activity was very much alive inside the walls of ZeroCorp.
A car pulled into the parking lot, which stretched out in front of the building. The car wound through the lanes, its lights, projecting through the hazy atmosphere, blinked left here, then right there, then switched off. An employee stepped out and began to shuffle towards the ZeroCorp. building, his breath clouding in the sharp cold. Tapping his lanyard on the card reader of the main entrance, tall doors opened to greet him.
The door’s tinted, one-way glass windows shielded the glaring lights within. Despite his years of working at ZeroCorp., the employee could never quite get used to the jarring feeling of early shifts during winter, the unforgiving lights too harsh following the darkness outside. As his eyes adjusted to the brutalist interior, his pace quickened from a tired shuffle to a brisk stride. He was late.
“Morning, Nathan!” A friendly greeting from one of the receptionists startled him. He turned his head towards their desk, wondering how it was possible for anyone to sound so awake at this hour. He managed a weak “Hi” and carried on towards the boardroom. He took the escalator down to a corridor about 15 meters long, doors on either side, the Lab at the end. He walked about halfway down the corridor and entered one of the doors on the right. A group of ZeroCorp. workers wearing white lab coats sat inside around a circular table.
“What time do you call this, Nate?” joked one of his colleagues. Nate grunted as he fumbled around his locker for his lab coat and took his seat.
“Alright, now that we’re all here,” a woman in the group clapped her hands and stood up, making her way to the transparent board at the front. An energy of excitement sparked through the air. She continued, “This is it. I can’t believe it’s finally happening, but here we are. You have all worked so hard, I want to thank you for everything.” Smiles erupted on the faces of the group, nodding their heads and expressing mumbles of acknowledgement.
“One year ago, ZeroCorp. announced the plan to build and launch [10-10]. We were handed the baton from the electromechanic department when their phase was complete - with the task of programming this bad boy. We had a lot of fun, didn’t we?”
Laughter rippled across the room. When she spoke again, her voice was more sincere: “But we remember that [10-10] isn’t just a fun project. We’ve made many mistakes, we’ve been through countless trials and errors. To think that now, we launch today, is unbelievable. [10-10] will be the catalyst that changes the world.”
Nate caught himself just before he rolled his eyes. He had grown tired of the heroic ZeroCorp. spiel that underpinned every project’s launch.
“ZeroCorp. is a philanthropic organization. From the beginning, our role has been to serve our community. To give back to the world. And now, thanks to the unprecedented advancements of our own [10-10], we can do that in ways never thought possible: increasing our impact, expanding our reach to the absolute maximum. No one in history has been able to develop technology that can scour information and extrapolate data from every existing device. We are truly limitless.”
Nate looked tiredly at his colleagues, trying to read their expressions. ZeroCorp., the definitive corporation of the 21st Century, humbly began in 2004 as ZeroStat: a data science and tech design company for social media platforms to upscale their digital empires, marketed with the pledge to improve user wellbeing over the rising criticisms of technology’s negative impacts on mental health. Their objective: to bring their clients’ user statistics of poor mental health down to zero.
As ZeroStat’s demand grew and services diversified, it quickly became clear that the bright minds and high-caliber computing systems behind it proved too good for mere outsourcing. Thus, ZeroCorp. was formed, along with its own endeavors, steadily accumulating wealth, power and domination over its years of operating. First, top global brands and original gatekeepers of social media soon dwarfed next to ZeroCorp. Next, world institutions, organizations and governments became powerless to effectively regulate ZeroCorp. as it grew into a global conglomerate with control of over 50% of the world’s GDP. And, somewhere along the way, ZeroCorp.’s original objective of improving user wellbeing seemed to be lost. As the world grew unhappier, ZeroCorp. grew wealthier.
At the front of the boardroom, the woman’s face glowed with pride. “Let’s do this!”
Last updated
