The symbols that activate the corridors were devised by the perception psychologist Karl Edward Zener (1903-1964) in the 1930s for the creation of a deck of 25 cards to test the possibility of telepathic communication among humans. When the examiner shows the back of the card to the subject, they must identify it without seeing it. If the number of correctly guessed cards is significantly higher than random statistical averages, it can be hypothesized that the subject possesses telepathic abilities. However, it was discovered that subjects with high results were able to “read” unconscious micro-movements of the examiner. Beyond a certain threshold, what was supposed to be unidirectional communication turned into bidirectional communication.
Karl’s brother, Clarence Melvin Zener (1905-1993) was a physics professor at the University of Chicago and at Carnegie Mellon. In 1934, he discovered the effect by which a diode – a component capable of conducting electrical current in one direction – can be reverse-biased and promote quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons, allowing the diode to conduct a constant voltage even in the opposite direction. Beyond the breakdown threshold, what was supposed to be a unidirectional current becomes bidirectional. This contribution to the field of electronic devices is the foundation of semiconductor development and modern computers.
The corridors work in the same way. It is necessary to reach the breakdown to access them.
The individual ability to reach the breaking point is called Shukuchi and depends on the location, the sign, and the person.
It was during the Indianapolis streetcar strike of 1913 that the two brothers, who as children lived there, began to imagine other means of transportation.
“Where is home? I’ve wondered where home is, and I realized, it’s not Mars or someplace like that, it’s Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there’s no way I can get there again.” Kurt Vonnegut