OOC: Reviving this blog, got a tad distracted with life and finals! Being more active over here shall be my New Year’s Resolution
I have heard of interest in how I run my Mnemosurgery program! I will gladly share the broad details, and I will fill in the rest as I polish the curriculum!
Unit 1: weed out as many students as possible. This is not a specialty for the faint of spark. We will be learning Earth-style finger knitting until each remaining student can produce a simple shawl. I will happily take unwanted items, and for the record, my favorite colors are light blue, cyan, and teal.
Unit 2: Whoever is left has to memorize the exact layout of the processor, its exact components, and what each part does. I expect each student to have at least 95 percent accuracy on the final for this unit. We will review these terms weekly and retest them monthly. Further knitting is allowed in class. Creating an accurate and to-scale map of the processor will earn you extra credit, and more importantly, my favor.
Unit 3: Anatomy of the needles. This is not common knowledge, but each of the 5 core Mnemo needle has a different purpose. Students will learn how the shape of the needles allows them to do their respective jobs. They will be tested on purpose, needle structure, how injecting work, and their ability to assign needles to the correct digits based on sight alone.
Unit 4: Dull, magnetic training needles are given during class time. Students will practice locating parts of the processor on dummies. If they attempt to poke other students, they will be kicked from the class immediately and potentially expelled. The knitting should have improved their fine motor skills and ability to work with needles, so the practice hopefully won’t take too long. They get new needles as they grow more confident with them. This unit is much more exploratory and laid back. The students progress as such:
Magnetic, fully external needles that direct them to the proper location -> non-magnetic external needles -> non-functional integrated needles
Unit 5: At this point, most if not all students should have integrated needles. This is the third choke-point of the class, though for its content as opposed to its difficulty. Every known and theorized side effect of Mnemosurgery will be taught, from anterograde amnesia to thermal overstress. Anyone who hasn’t dropped out by now is either insanely determined, someone to be afraid of, or, and I say this with all the love in my spark whilst recognizing that I fall into this category, mentally unwell.
Unit 6: By far the hardest unit to teach. After receiving integrated, functional within the classroom needles, students are given blank, factory-grade processors to explore. These processors are designed to short-circuit upon being connected to a spark. There were…incidents in the past necessitating this precaution. The students must construct memories for this new “mind”. They have to be able to edit these memories and remove them as needed. Every week, each processor will be given an ailment that the students must fix. The last problem is impossible to cure, and they will have to make the call, as a surgeon, whether or not to give up. It is rough on all involved, but necessary. I take notes on how everyone student behaves, and on the quality and care put into their creations. I allow the few particularly kind students who ask to keep their work, in hopes that they will be able to cure the uncurable. It’s happened before. The rest of the processors have their data saved to an external drive and are wiped clean for the next class.
Unit 7: By now, the students know pretty much everything there is to know that I am capable of directly teaching. Lessons from here on out are mostly about technique, extra bits of information I couldn’t fit elsewhere, more vocab tests, and exploration. I teach students more about how to inject safely (some of this was covered in unit 5) and have them install anti-viruses. They are given a space to explore their own processors, play around with their mindscapes, and learn their limits. If something goes wrong, it is important to have a teacher nearby that can fix it. After a final exam, students who pass get their needles permanently unlocked, and they are free to go. The class is completed and they are one of the few who made it out.
Of course, I’m not going to stop being there for them! I set up as many as possible with careers that prioritize safety and ethics. I teach them how to be wary of employers and job listings, and I warn the students of what happens to a surgeon without boundaries. With luck, the newly minted Mnemosurgeons go on to help others, and will understand that the teacher who went out of his way to challenge them did so with the best of intentions.
