Congratulations!

So, you finally did it. You found me. You must be so proud of yourself. [laughs] If I’m being honest, I’m proud of you. You looked past the surface. You went into the archives. You remembered the things that others forgot.

You’re probably wondering how I did it. It wasn’t magic. Sometimes it was simple technology. A few lines of code. RFID tags. That phone that you treat like a limb. And sometimes, just knowing the right people. People that you look at but don’t see. My buddy Larry, who got fired from Plant Services and still had his uniform. My neighbor’s niece, who works in catering. You know, the people no one cares about because they don’t win hackathons or found start-ups.

You’re probably wondering why I did it. I’m no supervillain. I don’t have an evil plot to take over the world, or even rule this little place. The only thing I wanted to disrupt was your complacency. I was just a student, like you, once. Optimistic. Excited.

[sighs] Nineteen-seventy-five. It was the dawn of the computer age. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. The wonderful calculator watch was invented, the height of fashion. And here at Waterloo, we were on the cutting edge of it all.

They were excited about me, once, too. I thought I was destined for greatness. And then I dared to ask the wrong questions. Dared to do research that wasn’t trendy, wasn’t important. Wasn’t “ethical.” They took away my funding. They took away my voice. They took away my future. And now all I have is the past.

I slipped through the cracks. And now I am a weed, breaking pavement. My roots are deep, and my tendrils stretch everywhere. No matter what they do to try and destroy me, they will never find me, because they don’t know where to look.

[sighs] But it has been lonely. So thank you, for seeing me. And remember – I will always be able to see you.