The short story “Whole Truth Witness” by Kenneth Schneyer was published for the first time in 2010.
Manuel “Manny” Suarez is a lawyer who’s having big problems to defend his clients. The new nanotechnology led to the development a way to allow witnesses in a court of law to recall events in a perfect way and at the same time prevents them from lying. However, a good lawyer is always able to adapt to new situations and invent new tricks.
Kenneth Schneyer had very diverse work experiences. He was also the lawyer so he knows the environment described in “Whole Truth Witness” from personal experience. In this short story, the author imagines that the developments of nanotechnology will also influence that field.
A person who goes to testify in a court of law might not remember well the events under examination but can also lie. What if it were possible to use nanobots to give witnesses a perfect memory and at the same time prevent them from lying? Certainly this would have a significant impact in the legal field and also on lawyers’ job.
In “Whole Truth Witness” Manny Suarez is a lawyer hired by a woman sued by a large company after she created a defragmenter to reassemble media files with expired copyrights. Unfortunately, intellectual property laws can be very punitive for the people who use material produced by others so it looks like a lost cause.
Manny Suarez must invent some new trick to convince the jury that a witness isn’t reliable even though he was subjected to the nanotechnological all truth treatment. It seems impossible but a good lawyer must be able to analyze situations to exploit the truth to his advantage.
“Whole Truth Witness” is basically a humorous story that offers a lighthearted vision of some possible developments of nanotechnology and their consequences. Manny Suarez must adapt to new situations because of the whole truth treatment witnesses undergo but also to defend clients such as a plastic surgeon who uses nanotechnology in his work.
This is a short story but Kenneth Schneyer still managed to characterize Manny Suarez and his assistant Elsa well. This is thanks to their conversations but also emphasizing the physical contrast between the man, who is really tall and big, and the woman, who on the contrary is really petite.
“Whole Truth Witness” is a really funny story that at the same time is intriguing for the way it tells about a possible future of nanotechnology and its consequences. I recommend reading it, also taking advantage of the fact that it’s available in an ebook on Amazon USA
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