In the sanctum of their sleek office, they stand as Gods over the dystopian expanse, their small, subtle cybernetic implants barely noticeable, yet integral to their grand scheme. One, gesturing towards the sprawling metropolis, speaks of music as a tool, a leviathan to sway the masses. Across the desk, his ally nods in agreement, "Music binds the masses and drives the individual, it is a means to influence people. We now have the technology and mandate to dissect each part of the humans interaction with music and rebuild it so as to ensure a safer more sustainable society. I cant agree more Sir." said the figure standing across the desk.

Imagine all the people.
Like candles in the wind.
They smirked at each other.

"So what is the problem, I hear you are delaying the clean up operation?"
"Yes Sir. It seems we have overlooked something which may be both a threat and an opportunity".
"Ok, intriguing, carry on".
He motioned to two tech support assistants as they moved to a comfortable seating area where another man sat silently facing a large screen.

"Well, as you say, we have always used music and art to influence people. Individual songs and artists are powerful, but we struggle to guarantee complete cohesion. Especially with large groups of nonconformists" he mused. Their gaze shifted to a screen, displaying a derelict warehouse transformed by the raw energy of an illegal rave full of unchipped "mutes". In its midst, a DJ commanded the decks, his trigger fingers, mirrored by the ecstatic crowd.

"We have identified selector class DJs as an active influence multiplier. They are able to create group emotional responses that achieve the cohesion and consent we aim to manufacture.
Our AI teams have developed many DJ models which perform technically perfectly, but they do not generate the same response as the unchipped human DJs."

"We acquired some mute DJs from recycling to have a closer look at what's going on in their heads," he explained, as the screen shifted to a chilling scene. Rows of DJs, their talents now silenced, were herded into a bleak, fortified prison facility.

"We implanted them but couldn't trace the neural activity we expected, leading us to an iceberg of challenges," he continued, his tone detached.

The implants reduced their abilities severely. Our research teams were stumped, unable to make progress.
The subjects were recycled and the research scope redefined to:

What do DJs actually do?

Special access was given to modify an advanced deep cortex implant used for herd administrators.
The problem we now faced was finding a test subject. Decades of enforcement has reduced the DJ population to a handful of fugitives operating pirate radio stations and underground dens in the wasteland.
Intelligence has identified only one remaining DJ that fits the selector classification."
He pointed to the screen....

"They call him X-Fader; unchipped, he's our last chance to gather the data we need. So we unlocked access to the private historical archive and uploaded everything, every song, every mix, every genre.

The resulting neural cascade revealed the anomaly.
The team has prepared a report summarising the research".

The answer to this question has eluded the world's greatest minds for over a century. But now, with deep cortex bridging technology, we are able to shine a light into the depths of human experience to reveal the mental processes that selector class DJs harness to create their performances."

Brain regions monitored:

• Auditory Cortex: Processes basic elements of music, like pitch and volume.

• Prefrontal Cortex: Involved in higher cognitive functions related to music.

• Broca’s Area: Contributes to the rhythmic aspects of music.

• Motor Cortex: Tied to rhythm and beat, influencing physical responses to music.

• Cerebellum: Key in timing and coordination for rhythmic movement.

• Limbic System: Central to the emotional response to music.

• Corpus Callosum: Facilitates the integration of cognitive and emotional music components.

• Nucleus Accumbens: Activated by the pleasurable aspects of music.

Each of these regions contributes to the complex experience of music, from basic perception to emotional and physical responses.

These areas have been studied separately in other selector programs but the anomalous DJ flow had eluded us, as it is a multiphasic experience that happens simultaneously across all these areas with many processes seeming to occur in parallel.

As our last test subject, we are running simulations taking him to the limits of musical ecstasy and the depths of musical pain. We infused his mind with the data gathered from decades of experiments and exposed him to banned music, audio and video recordings of DJs and events from before the reformation.

The subject was observed simultaneously performing several actions which would normally require the full focus of concentration to perform alone.

1. Perform the complicated actions of executing the mix.

2. Monitor and predict the emotional responses of a vast audience. This reveals a strong empathy to human emotional fields.

3. Mentally simulate mixing in other songs to a future part of the current song. This causes an actual limbic reaction as the DJ receives emotional stimulus in response to the mix they are simply imagining.

4. Mentally model and monitor the audio spectrums of both the songs in play and the imagined songs being simulated in the DJs mind.

5. Simulate blending lyrics to create subliminal messages and a cohesive narrative experience to influence their audience.

6. Eidetic memory is observed as thousands of songs are referenced holding vast amounts of musical data and emotional responses, all locked within the DJs mind to select from, for mental simulation.

7. Swelling of the Nucleus Accumbens. The region can become engorged with blood, swelling as if overloading with pleasure as it experiences all these processes in the same moment.
This extreme pleasure is empathically detected by the audience and causes them to experience heightened emotions and immersion as they consent to submit themselves fully to the experience.

What do DJs do ?
A study into the neurology of a DJ

Conclusions

Observations

What DJs do when they "flow" is enter a diffused state of consciousness, similar in many ways to our most advanced multithread diffuse AI models. From this state, they are able to experience their imagined performance "ahead of time" from multiple perspectives, whilst simultaneously, perfectly executing and monitoring the actual performance in the current moment. Similar states are used by other selectors such as musicians or martial artists, but the scale of the diffusion and complexity of mental simulations is exponentially greater.

The cumulative effect of these elements invokes several effects which manifest when groups of listeners share the musical experience their most ancient neural pathways dedicated to processing species and tribal recognition and threat assessment harmonise and align, this triggers a state of herd cohesion and compliance as they synchronize united by the shared experience.

Conclusion : What DJs do is unite people.

Key lessons can be taken from this program in the creation of new AIs, incorporating a diffused blend of musical and language models. Inter departmental research initiatives are being created studying extending the scope to integrate lyrical and dance prime selector influence multipliers.

New research branches will be launched integrating human emotional field manipulation.

Research and data scraping will continue until the subject expires, at which point data will be shared with other selector research departments.

Future research will require batches of "audience" test subjects to be provided on request. As they will be exposed to restricted music for research purposes they will be non returnable.

Commendation: We would like to thank the enforcement departments for their outstanding work and heroism in capturing the subject alive, We request that caution be used in future operations to capture all DJS alive in the hope we may, one day identify more prime selector DJs for future research.

They leaned back, absorbing the contents of the report. One broke the silence, "Good job, we've cracked it. This could translate to many opportunities." His gaze turned inquisitive, "But you mentioned a threat? I see no threats here." His colleague replied with a hint of concern,

"Well, events have taken an unexpected turn.

We had an incident, every DJ it seems, has a crew." He continued. "Behind the DJs are the sound systems, a loyal network of hustlers, dealers, gangsters, and enforcers. They run the illegal gatherings, bringing together gangs of the wasteland and they ensure the people get what they need. They form a vast network that pervades into our safe zones and even our workforce, reaching into the dark closets of the wealthy and powerful who cannot resist their illicit services. Somehow they got the location of the lab and breached the facility.

The screen changed to series of recordings from security and body cams. His crew tore through the security guards and forced the researchers to open his cell. He lay strapped to a stretcher, writhing and convulsing as the headphones blasted a hideous out of phase mix of screaming tones. His dreadlocks were matted and twisted with wires leading to metal studs in his skull where they passed through into his brain. They released his hands and he tore the headphones off, he tried to pull the wires from his head but they were fixed tight and so he wrapped them in his hands and tore them apart in a flurry of sparks. His eyes rolled back in his head and he began to froth at the mouth as he passed out. They rolled the stretcher into a lift and the door closed.

"Well this is very embarrassing but how is it a threat, are you suggesting that these mutes are going to stop us? They will scurry back to the desert, where we will hunt them down. Standard response".

Watch this Sir, he said with a nervous glance, motioning to the screen. The camera view changed to a drone camera monitoring the megaway that the research complex straddled.

They had an escape route planned via the megaway, the huge highways that acted as the spine of the city. Along with millions of electric vehicles and service drones, they also carried the power and the data lines to each sector of the city and out through the city walls to the vast wastelands and bioreserves between the safe zones. The road surface was constructed to feed off the massive power lines, with one side positive and the other negative. Between them conductors created a field of electromagnetic energy used for both maglev systems and wireless charging fields which powered the eco electric vehicles.

Security was minimal, all systems on the megaway are automated and so there is little need for enforcement. Security units are only equipped to deal with unarmed, implanted citizens using vehicles which can be remotely shut off. The beasts the DJ's crew drove had no computers. They were ancient, long banned, gas powered muscle cars, roaring and belching black smoke. Each was over 5,000 kilos of steel, guns and bass bins. The lightweight, plastic and composite, electric enforcement units could not stun them or remotely control them. And as they tried to pin them, they found themselves pushed aside or crushed against other vehicles or the megaway's sweeping safety containment walls. The sheer weight and traction of the muscle cars made them almost unstoppable.

Here is where it gets interesting said the silent man and he pointed to the left side of the road where streaks of electrical arcs followed the cars pulsing at a steady rate. The cars increased their speed roaring to 180 KPH and they did not slow down. The electrical arcs grew and pulsed faster, an overlay showed the frequency: 180 pulses per minute. the cars weaved through gaps in traffic which seemed to be opening for them, almost as if the traffic was synchronising itself with them.

They swerved across the lanes, back and forth and suddenly the electrical arcs appeared along the other side of the megaway.

As they rounded a bend, the road ahead became still, civilian vehicles disabled sitting dead in place, ending in a line of flashing lights stretched across the wide road. Automated concrete barriers rise out of slots in the road, and behind them teams of human and drone swat units level their weapons at the approaching cars.

The energy arcs began to join, forming a wave, coalescing and distorting in a strangely ordered and rhythmic manner as they engulfed the cars and stretched forward. When the anomaly reached the blockade it tore a path open for their escape, throwing vehicles into the air and shattering concrete barriers. The screen filled with blue light as the drone spun wildly and spiralled into the ground.

They all turned to the silent man, "What the hell was that" one exclaimed incredulously.
The silent man's lip curled into a defensive snarl. "We are not sure, analysis shows the energy surge is multispectral and it's source is the megaway itself". He motioned to the screen and it rewound and zoomed into a series of frozen images of the electrical discharge. "The spectrum shows a strong match to musical frequencies and the they are cycling at 180 beats per minute".

"We think it may be linked to the implant, it was modified from an administrator class implant and has full read write capabilities".
One of them stood up and stepped closer to the screen. "Each of us has administrator implants but we cant do anything like this".
"With all respect Sir, none of us are selector class DJs so perhaps, he is able to use his perceptive abilities in ways we cannot".

"This had better not end up like Minnesota, you were lucky there, but if this is not resolved quickly you will be sent for appraisal. I want him back in the lab and I want to know how all that was possible and maybe we can turn this to our advantage".

"They escaped into the tunnels. We do not know their current location. Tracker teams have been dispatched. We have everything perfectly under control", he said with an awkward smile. "One more thing, when this occurred there was an audio transmission which overrode all the channels in the area and was experienced by thousands of citizens, it's content includes music from the archive, we managed to capture a sample but feel it may be dangerous to listen to, it's up to you, Sir" he said, offering them a small memory device.

Epilogue

He had fallen into a deep comatose state, his mind lost in the archives of data stored in the implant now indistinguishable from his own memories. The new sensory perceptions fed into his brain by the caterpillar like implant seeming to cocoon itself within him. They could not remove the implant without killing him, so they waited.

Word of the rescue spread through the underground, no one understood what had happened, videos surfaced of the car chase and audio clips with mysterious music, rumour and speculation grew around the anomaly, wild conspiracies emerged ranging from theoretical science to religious prophecy.

Their favourite DJ had been saved but he was barely alive. They smuggled him out of the "safe zone" to the safety of the wastelands. His crew gathered healers and hackers who treated him with home grown herbal remedies and human written open source code.

His crew put out a shout through the underground, over the airwaves and across the oceans, to every fugitive, unchipped artist, DJ, MC, and musician, to every pirate radio station and all their listeners. Every sound system and their convoys of nomad ravers.

A warning to guard their loved ones and hone their secret skills.
A battle cry to summon the millions who are inspired by their art, to unite and stand together before it's too late.

There is a war coming and your mind is the battleground.