The Mental Communications Agency was created to shift the focus from developing technologies that would enable humans to compute faster and transmit data using external machines to developing those that would harness the tools inherent in humans, the untouched resources of the mind. After experimenting with different protocols for digital information flow, tech developers finally looked to biology and discovered a complex information system already in place—one with a near limitless storage capacity. Soon after, the first iteration of the MAD, a device inserted into the brain to enhance mental function through a series of subtle stimulations, came into existence.
Following years of testing and political maneuvering, the government finally created the Mental Communications Agency to equip people with MADs and train them in higher level mental functions. They marketed the program as a way of expanding the American workforce, preventing the displacement of workers by machines and:
In Anders time, MADs are commonplace as salt at the dinner table, although largescale transmission required intensive training and was reserved for MCA operatives. This relatively small group of Routers, in conjunction with similar international agencies, are responsible for facilitating the entire global communications network.