As stunning as the software was, though, he’d been forced to send the industrious students a rejection. The interface allowed the user to stand and take a few steps before the image faded—too dangerous for the general public. But within the confines of his Thai compound, it was a joy.

“In-store demonstrations have declined significantly, but we’ve learned that it’s really a function of the positive word of mouth the Merge has been getting. Feedback is fairly consistent in the under-forty demographic—they want to buy. Cost has overtaken concern over the head studs as the primary barrier to purchase. In fact, stud integration continues to be well above our initial projections. We’re already at almost fifty percent and I feel confident that by the end of the first year, we’ll see eighty-five percent of experienced users integrated. Tooth microphones are running much lower due to the fact that the procedure has to be done by a qualified dentist and because the collar microphones work fairly well. As people go in for checkups, though, we’re expecting to see those numbers come up.”

“What about the older demographics?” someone said.

“The trend continues to move heavily toward adoption. Our campaign highlighting vision correction and the sleep function has been even more effective than we’d hoped. We’re also prioritizing developers whose apps target that market, per Mr. Dresner.”

There were some quiet murmurs, but no protests that rose to a level of being intelligible. His insistence on expending so many resources trying to capture people over fifty had met with significant resistance for financial reasons, but there was more to the Merge than making money. Much, much more.

“How many units are up and running right now?” a woman he’d swear was actually in the room with him asked.

“Usage varies over the course of the day, but our peak to date is four point two million worldwide. Interestingly, the variation in the number of Merges online over a given twenty-four-hour period is flattening very quickly. People are discovering that there’s no reason not to use the sleep system, even if it’s just for the alarm clock function. That’s another thing that’s driving head stud adoption, particularly in older users: Sleeping with the headset just isn’t practical.”

“Satisfaction levels?”

“Stratospheric. About one percent of people simply can’t adapt to the input and we’re giving full refunds on those units. Of course, we also have a small number of people with head stud problems—the occasional infections that we expected. Non-specific complaints like excessive pain have been significantly lower than we projected—probably because of the general satisfaction with the technology.”

“Military adoption?”