The US Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Apple for earphones that combine bone conduction with traditional audio technology. Bone conduction works best at lower frequencies, so the conventional audio tech helps create the best sound quality.
Bone conduction works by sending vibrations through the skull to the inner ear to create the sound for the brain. There’s also been rumors of Apple using bone conduction to increase the quality of noise-cancellation.
In the third season of Westworld, it’s revealed in the final episode that the main villain is fed constant instruction about what to say from a supercomputer. This revelation shows how the show’s artificial intelligence controls the villain, their agent in the real world.
I’m fascinated by the theory of mind; that nobody is guaranteed to exist except yourself. This is why I find androids indistinguishable from humans so fascinating. The bone conduction earphones, combined with the concept of being fed constant information about what to say, could come together for a great story.
A genius loner comes up with the technology, implants the first version into himself, and gets guided through talking to women by a professional matchmaker. He becomes successful on his dates and eventually falls in love. He then decides he no longer wants anyone else to coach him through his life, so he turns off the system.
After being fed the other voice for so long, he can’t help but hear what they would have said. It’s a construct of his imagination. Eventually, he removes the device, but the voice doesn’t go away.
He’s created another personality inside his mind. He struggles through this while his relationship blossoms, they break up after he confesses, then they get back together—romance novel with a dystopian bent.
Book two could be about another implementation of the device, this time for a friend who’s also unlucky in love. After protesting, the designer agrees, but this time the friend doesn’t want to settle down. He becomes a terrible version of himself, and the designer is forced to figure out how to remove the implants.
Book three would be about the government’s adoption of the device for all military members. Keeping with the romantic theme, these men all figure out how to get coached through picking up women and end up giving away state secrets to foreign agents.
