In the course of the United States v. Elizabeth Holmes trial, a wealth of over a thousand emails, slides, texts, and documents were revealed. Bo Lau, an engineer at Extend, has developed a website that offers a simulation of what it might have been like to occupy the role of chief executive at Theranos prior to the company’s downfall. (Every day, I express my gratitude to the American legal system for rendering the discovery process transparent.) I created a website where users can sit at Elizabeth Holmes’ desk, access her MacBook, scroll through her iPhone, and operate the Theranos Edison machine. The texts, emails, slides, documents, and records related to the Theranos machine are authentic, sourced from exhibits presented during the United States v. Holmes criminal trial.
The immersive environment designed by Lau is impressively detailed, transporting users back to 2016, an era when iPhones featured home buttons and unlocking the device required a finger swipe across the screen. The MacBook Air is depicted running OS X El Capitan. Users can interact with the environment, allowing them to explore the documents made public from the court case displayed on Holmes’ iPhone and laptop screens. Additionally, users can operate the Theranos Edison machine, the company’s ill-fated device intended to extract extensive health data from a single drop of blood. While the project appears to be primarily for entertainment, it serves as an engaging method to review documents from one of the most notorious legal cases in the technology sector—navigating this platform is significantly more straightforward than sifting through thousands of PDFs from court websites.
However, there is an additional motive behind this initiative. Lau is also promoting a watch party hosted by her company for Nathan Fielder’s forthcoming documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, titled “You Can See Everything.” Furthermore, she is, of course, advocating for the company itself. So, what exactly does Extend do? Reportedly, it can “parse, extract, and split your hardest documents with unmatched accuracy.” (While I am not entirely certain what that entails, if it enables the creation of something like this Holmes desk simulator, then I suppose I have a positive outlook on B2B SaaS.)
