Broadway Melody of 1984

Her work made use of controversial ideas from Jungian psychology, with the idea of the collective unconscious playing a key role in her theories. To Xafa, economies had no individuals, only a complex chain of nested rational actors who instantiate the market. Quote: “The mind is the market, the market is the mind.” 

Her first book, Economy of the Unconscious went relatively unnoticed during its initial print run in 1961. Prof Xafa would continue to languish in obscurity until 1967 when the nascent project clover discovered her work. Through a series of shell organizations, project leaders were able to provide Prof. Xafa with significant funding and resources to develop her theories. 

After four years of development, Xafa published A General Theory of Hypnoeconomics, the text that would provide the foundation for the field of the same name. Now backed by experimental evidence for a oneness of mind and market, Xafa’s theories became mainstream, sparking a new era for psychology and economics.

While Hypnoeconomics was revolutionary, few consider it a perfect text. The writing is dense, almost mystical in many passages. Even Xafanian purists will admit the text draws little in the way of concrete conclusions. It was not long until the tree of Xafanian Economics splintered into multiple competing branches. 

The most common evolution of Xafa’s work can be found in Austrian hypnoeconomist Stefan Graf, who argues that if a market is a mind, it must be kept healthy. Specifically, he argues for Unbwegetgeist, a state in which a generally laissez-faire market is regulated at specific key points to mitigate risk as much as possible. Graf takes a strictly utilitarian stance on hypnoeconomics, one in which compromise and stability are tantamount.  

Hypnoeconomist William Landry argues for a more holistic approach. The Landrian school argues that if a market is a mind, then it can be taught, trained like any other mind. Landry’s work directly criticizes Grafian modes of thought, placing heavy emphasis on “The Ritual of Stability” the idea that in many circumstances, the only thing that determines market stability is popular belief in its stability. While some still deride Landrian thinkers as “mystics,” it is generally understood that Landrian theories of Ritual Markets do hold water. However, there is little consensus around how they can be usefully applied. 

In august of 1909, IRS headquarters in washington D.C. was damaged by fire. No employees were hurt, but important financial archives suffered significant damage. Three years later, construction began on The IRS Archival Warehouse 1 in the city of Hayek North Dakota. As of writing, IRSAW1 spans more than 1.4 Million square feet, with the surrounding town spanning more than 28 square miles. 

Declassification is pending, but modern scholars believe that early experiments into “financial clairvoyance” were conducted at IRSAW1. With the clarity of hindsight, the facility was almost perfectly situated for hypnofinantial experimentation. Not only was the facility one of the first in the US to make use of hypnophone technology for accelerated learning, but the remote location and high security created an atmosphere of monastic isolation and boredom. If this weren’t enough, the nearby illicit pharmaceutical hotspot of White Rapids provided employees with extensive access to psychoactives. Contact with the sub-finantial background grid was all but inevitable. 

Preliminary experiments were conducted in utility closets modified with soundproofing, usually with a large comfortable chair placed at the center. While this method was a serviceable approximation of modern sensory deprivation protocol, researchers quickly noticed a strange pattern: some closets provided significantly more accurate results. 

At first, this was thought to be the result of differences in soundproofing, as the closets themselves were uniform concrete squares. Once soundproofing protocol was standardized, researchers realized that results improved dramatically the closer the subject was to the building’s lobby. The architecture itself was a factor.

It was at this point that the building’s architect was arrested, briefed, and brought onboard as a member of senior research staff. Fredrick Takács, later described by agents as a “quivering little Hungarian” was an urban planner and architect known for his signature gold-and-concrete “deco-haus” style. His input would prove invaluable. Takács’s work would form the bedrock of the field now known as Hypnoarchitecture. 

An incredible breakthrough. In december of 1970, researchers discovered that the unique gold alloy plating favored by Takács acted as a relay for delta-wave radiation. With this knowledge, researchers were able to increase the breadth, accuracy, and stability of hypnofinantial precognition to a level previously thought impossible. In may of 1970, construction began on extensive modifications to IRSAW1.

Hayek North Dakota does not have citizens. Its homes are unfurnished concrete, and were never occupied. The entire “town” of Hayek North Dakota was, in reality, a colossal sub-finantial delta-band antenna built around the former site of IRSAW1. The perimeter of the area now known as the Dakota Exclusion Zone is patrolled 24/7 by the National Guard. Current estimates say that spending even 48 hours inside the EZ would result in lethal psychoeconomic damage.

The original methodology was fairly simple: fully trained subjects would be placed in a sensory deprivation tank and undergo hypnosonic neuro-induction to the point of sub-finantial emanation. Subjects would remain attuned for 24 hours, at which point they would be de-emanated, and their experiences recorded via interview.

This methodology proved to be an expensive disaster. Repeated cycles of emanation and de-emanation had a catastrophic effect on mental cohesion. On average, subjects would begin to show signs of neuro-depatterning within the first 50 dives, and would slip into permanent catatonia by 350 dives.

Additionally, recovered documents from the period show that information from a single Plutophant was only accurate to within a 2.2i Murdoch deviations, and the interview method introduced a further 5.1i of uncertainty. While experimental attempts to record brain activity directly were underway, technology was primitive, often harmful to the subject, or necessitated invasive surgical modification. Even then, transchronological brain activity proved uniquely difficult to record.

Then, a breakthrough.

The 1960 nationwide upgrade of the minuteman nuclear system was underway, creating a surplus of IBM Drum Storage Drives. Drives that were largely donated to research institutions under the purview of project Clover. With some modifications, these drum drives proved to be ideal for recording changes in transchronological neuropatterning.

These "Radio-Magnetic Neurological Sensory Arrays" were the predecessor to the modern neuroscope. The first production example, the IBM Y-2, was the size of an entire room, requiring enormous amounts of power and several trained technicians to process the thoughts of a single Plutophant into a human-readable form.

Her death was the center of a short-lived national controversy. Alongside the flood of articles and news segments mourning her passing were articles delving into Barry’s troubled home life. The cause of death was revealed to be the experimental stimulants that Barry relied on to keep up with the HSC’s rigorous production schedule. Barry was also a heavy drinker, and most scandalously of all, a divorcee who openly questioned her faith.

The circumstances of her life and death were swept into the larger current of anti-drug propaganda, being relegated to a footnote in the ongoing debate about violence in media.The actual footage of Barry’s death fell into obscurity. Few recordings exist, most are still held by research staff. While the footage itself has not been released, project Clover documentation describes the footage thus:

“Subject holds a Vitamax brand blender in her hands, and places it on a nearby desk. Camera zooms out to reveal a display with several Carilux brand vacuum cleaners. Subject moves to the new display and begins introducing the product. Subject descends the first of three small stairs, and abruptly collapses. Camera crew attempts to cut away, but accidentally cuts to the camera used for closeups of products. Subject is facedown on red carpet, all features are obscured by the subject’s hair, aside from her left ear, from which a small trickle of blood falls. Footage holds for nine seconds. Footage ends.”

Linda Barry’s connection to Theoretical Market Hyperconsciousness M3 is unknown. Recently declassified documents reveal significant internal discourse as to the nature of TMH-M3. Early theoretical hypnoeconomists working under project clover made several forays into attempted contact with TMH-M3, though their efforts were universally unsuccessful. Many blame this on the direction of department lead David Lampert, described by Dr. Erwin “Tex” Smith as “a [expletive redacted] upward-failing pencil-pusher” who “wasted taxpayer money kidnapping poor [expletive removed] schizophrenics rambling about his Angel in the Wires.”

Modern research into the theoretical existence of TMH-M3 has come to the conclusion that the “entity” in question was simply a collection of roughly six unrelated sub-financial background phenomena that were themselves inflamed by the traumatic and public death of Linda Barry. The only element of her death confirmed to be anomalous is that when viewed on a magnuvox model 5056 television, the stream of blood from Linda’s ear assumes the multicolored distortion associated with contemporary color television sets.

L'Art et la mode, no. 15, vol. 37, 8 avril 1916, Paris. Mme Berthe Bady. Mme Andrée Mégard. A la Porte-Saint-Martin: La Femme nue. Dessin de Lussy. Bibliothèque nationale de France

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