Mike sat there waiting for the interview. He was nineteen and although he was very handsome, he was born in such poverty that the only clothes he owned took away from his handsomeness. He had been tempted to use his body to earn money but decided against that. However, he didn't have many options.
One of the big problems with growing up poor is that all Mike could get was a poor education from poor teachers. Therefore, Mike's grades weren't good enough for college. Mike did try sports but again, forced to train with poor coaches and poor sports equipment meant that Mike couldn't develop enough to compete against those from middle class neighborhoods. So Mike worked at McDonald's and was slowly improving his socio-economic status but at the rate he was going, he wouldn't be able to afford nice things until he was ready to retire.
John Scanlon came in to interview Mike. John was just an assistant but he knew enough to do the pre-screening interview.
"Hello, I'm Mr. Scanlon. You must be Mike?"
"Yes."
"So you read the ad. Do you want to be a test subject?"
"I don't know. The truth is, I don't want to be a test subject but I need the money. So tell me, what kind of reimbursement are we talking about."
"Well, as it says in the ad, that depends on which study you participate in. This place has hundreds of studies going on all the time and I'm only involved in about twenty of them. Most of the studies are simple drug tests where you take a drug and the doctors measure the changes. However, we do have some studies that are a bit more invasive and those give bigger reimbursements."
"What do you mean by invasive?"
"Most drug tests, you can keep your clothes on but some require nudity so we can measure changes to private parts. Then we have a few studies in which you have to move into the facility and stay a while. Those studies can be invasive as we monitor everything about your life from what you eat to who you talk to. In those studies, there is almost no privacy. Then I have a study currently that is the most invasive I've ever been involved with. In the V.O.S.T. study, we would not only be monitoring your body and your activity, but every thought and feeling you have would be monitored. We'd wind up knowing you better than your girlfriend ever will. Do you have a problem with shyness?"
"No. Well, maybe yes. I don't like the attention I get. People want my body but sometimes it feels like that's all they want. It's like people are hypnotized by my body and can't listen to me."
"You shouldn't be shy though. If I had a body like that, I wouldn't be ashamed of it. I'd want to show it off."
"I'm not ashamed of my body. I just wish people could see that there is more to me than just a body."
"Well I think you're body looks great. I don't think you have anything to be shy about. So are you interested in the V.O.S.T. study?"
"I don't know what that study is. What is vost?"
"V O S T stands for Virtual Organic Sensory Tangible. It is like virtual reality but different. Most of the virtual reality out there is just visual. You put on a helmet and you see things that look real but they only look real. There is no interaction with any other senses. There has been research into engaging the other senses but most of those projects are attempts to link directly to the human mind. Those projects have all been failures because the human mind is one of the least understood parts of a human. The V.O.S.T project does not try to link directly to the mind but instead links indirectly. We would put you in a body suit that would connect with every nerve ending we can. Instead of connecting directly to the brain, we'd connect to the nerve endings that detect cold and hot and the nerve endings that detect pain and pleasure and the nerve endings that detect touch. We'd also put something on your tongue to connect to the nerve endings that detect taste and something else in your nose to connect to the nerve endings that detect smell. Even the visual and auditory inputs would connect with nerve endings instead of just making sounds and pictures. We even have devices to put inside you so we can mimic things like the feelings of nausea and heartburn in virtual reality but don't worry about those. We're not testing those devices yet."
"Can you repeat all that in simple English please."
Mr. Scanlon rolled his eyes. "You'd wear a bodysuit that can mimic any sensation your senses can detect. So is that the study you want try?"
"What's the reimbursement?"
"$500.00 per session. Because of the complexity of the body suit, each session will last a day but you will be reimbursed $1000.00 for each consecutive session you do without removing the body suit. In other words, 30 consecutive days of V.O.S.T. would give you $30500.00 in reimbursement."
"Wow, that would be more than I could earn in a year of working at McDonald's."
"So you'll go for the more invasive study and let us see more of that beautiful body?
Mike hesitated, "You keep your hands to yourself. I'll do the V.O.S.T. study for science and for money but not for you."