Equality: In the Year 2000 jw-2
Page 21
Harrison said, “You probably have little idea of the reaction among the United American people to your reawakening. You have been kept shielded from them by Leete while going through this period of acclimation. But the people as a whole are fascinated by you and the romance of your story. Given the spark that we need to mobilize them behind us, you would be ideal to step into the leadership position.”
“How many of us are there now in this Society for Return to Civilization?”
“Several tens of thousands.”
“That’s not very many for a country as large as United America.”
“We told you the other night of the potential following, given a spark to unite them.”
Julian took another small sip and another deep breath and said, “All right, we’ve come to the nitty-gritty. What spark?”
Harrison looked around at the others. One by one they nodded.
His eyes came back to Julian. “This is a very well-kept secret, unknown even to the membership of the organization save for the other two Presidors of the Society, we here in this room, and several on Luna. It will continue to remain a secret even after having been put into operation.”
Julian nodded.
Harrison said very slowly, “As we told you, Dave Woolman here is head of the Radio Astronomy Observatory on Luna. He has infiltrated his staff with our followers. Currently his radio interferometers are trained on—”
“Just a minute. What’s a radio interferometer?” Julian asked.
Woolman took over. “Essentially a radio telescope with a bank of antennas, rather than just one.”
“Go on.”
Harrison took a slug of his own drink. “He is to return to the moon tomorrow, and shortly after he will begin receiving the first radio signals from intelligent life forms from another star, another planetary system.”
Julian stared at him. “And…”
“The signals will be understandable… and hostile. This other life form is aggressive to the point of paranoia. They cannot accept the idea of another intelligent life form. They have been receiving our radio signals for some years and hence have been able to decipher our language, so it is possible for them to communicate with us. For the past ten years, they have been building a military space fleet. They are on the way to attack.”
“Jesus!” Julian exclaimed.
“They aim to destroy the whole world.”
Julian looked from Harrison to Woolman. “The plan is to fake it, obviously. But aren’t there other radio telescopes that could check up on you, refute your claims?”
Woolman shook his head. “We’re the only one on Luna. The others don’t have a fraction of our power and freedom from interference.”
Julian went back to Harrison. “And then?”
“And then our organization begins an all-out clamor for a revived military machine. Uniting the country to mobilize for defense. The appointment of a strong man to lead us. We expect that overnight millions will flock to our banner. After a few days, according to how things go, how fast the avalanche develops, we will set up a cry for you to be appointed supreme head of the mobilization.”
Julian said negatively, “There are thousands of men still alive who held down higher ranks than I did and who saw at least as much combat as I did.”
“They are in their sixties, seventies, or even older. However, many of them are already members of the Society. You will appoint them as your deputies, your assistants. There are other organization members ready to step into your ranks.”
“Then what happens?”
“At first we will basically retain the present socioeconomic system. As we become stronger and dominate the economy and the government, we will begin to whittle away at it in the name of defense against the alien attackers. To a great extent we will have to play it by ear. But when we are through, we will hold the country in an iron grip.”
“I suppose we would be for an eventual world government?”
Harrison shook his head. “Certainly not. That is one of Leete and his group’s least desirable goals. Man makes his greatest progress under the stimulation of international disagreements, including war. Just look at World War Two. Under its pressure were developed such things as nuclear fission, jet aircraft, the German V2, the first spacecraft. Besides, having rival nations puts you in a position to control the people. If they become restive, you stir up a bit of trouble abroad and unite them behind you. It’s an old Roman adage.”
Julian snorted. “So you’re all ready to go, and I’m to be your man of charisma.” He paused. “It’s the most harebrained scheme I’ve ever heard and it won’t work.”
Sean O’Callahan flushed in surprised anger. “It’ll work whether or not you come in, West. You’re not indispensable to the plan.”
“No, but I sure as hell can throw a monkey wrench into it.” Julian brought out his transceiver from his pocket. It was open for transmission and had been since he had entered the apartment.
He said, “Observe the latest in electronic bugs, although that’s not what they had in mind when it was invented. This thing has been set to record everything that has been said in this room in the International Data Banks. When we put it into the news tomorrow. Academician Leete and I, the whole world will have a good laugh at your scheme to bollix up the observatory and claim messages from the phony alien intelligent life.”
Harrison snapped, “Fredric!”
Fredric Ley was seated directly across from Julian about twenty feet away. His right hand had already disappeared beneath his coat during the last few minutes of conversation. Now he brought out a revolver and directed it at Julian.
Julian contemplated him for a moment before unbuttoning his jacket so that the others could see that he, too, bore a gun.
He said conversationally to Ley, “I had already figured you for Harrison’s bodyguard. You said that you were in Vietnam…”
Ley rapped out, “Sean. Go get his gun.”
Julian shifted his gaze to Sean O’Callahan, who definitely looked uncomfortable. Julian said, “Don’t move, Sean, or you’re a dead man. God forgive me, I have enough dead men on my hands.”
Ley rasped, “I’ve got you covered, wise guy. We have some of our people in the data banks; we can have that tape wiped. And we’ve got you and can find a place to hold you for as long as necessary.”
Julian sighed and said, “If you were in ’Nam you probably stocked PX shelves. For one thing, that revolver you’re carrying is a thirty-two-caliber Colt. No combat man would ever carry one. I’ve been hit various times by more gun than that. Besides, I suspect you’re a lousy shot. I’m betting I can get this gun out and finish you before you can finish me, Ley. So any time you want to start shooting, go ahead.”
Dave Woolman said in horror, “You’re mad!”
Harrison ordered, “Take him, Fredric.”
Julian grinned confidently, seemingly completely at ease.
There were blisters of cold sweat on the bodyguard’s forehead and his face was pale. His gun hand trembled slightly.
Julian said conversationally, “You’re yellow, Ley. Either start shooting or drop that gun. I’m going to count to five. One… two… three…”
The pistol dropped with a thud to the carpet. Fredric Ley’s face was slack with fear.
Julian said pleasantly, “Any of you boys want to pick it up?”
Harrison alone even looked at the weapon.
Julian stood up and looked around at each of them in turn.
Finally, he let his eyes rest on their leader. He said, “I looked up some of those people of charisma, the great leaders that you said the computers would never have chosen for their Aptitude Quotient. Catherine the Great was only great in bed; she was a slob. Hitler was insane, and proved it; you’re right that the computers wouldn’t have chosen him—and shouldn’t have. Alexander the Great conquered Persia because his father, Philip, who would have been chosen by the computers, had built up an army that was the best and most experienced i
n the world; his son Alexander was a drunk. Grant was a second-rate general and a worse president. The North should have won that war in half the time considering their economy and larger population. Lee kept the fighting going a couple of years after it shouldn’t have been possible any longer. Lee, by the way, graduated top man in his West Point class and undoubtedly would have been chosen by the computers. Lincoln and Edison were both geniuses and self-educated. As Leete mentioned, they would have surfaced in any society.”
Suddenly he was tired. “The hell with it,” he said. “I’ll take the computer’s choices any day compared to you characters.”
He turned and left, knowing very well that none of them would go for the gun when his back was turned.
Aftermath
The mechanical educator could impress on the brain in a matter of a few minutes, knowledge and skills which might otherwise take a lifetime to acquire… Impressing information directly onto the brain, so that we can know things without ever learning them, seems… impossible today … Yet the mechanical educator—or some technique which performs similar functions—is such an urgent need that civilization cannot continue for many more decades without it. The knowledge of the world is doubling every ten years—and the rate is itself increasing. Already, twenty years of schooling are insufficient; soon we will have died of old age before we have learned to live, and our entire culture will have collapsed owing to its incomprehensible complexity.
—Arthur C. Clarke
It was two weeks following the Society for Return to Civilization farce. The organization had dissolved before the laughter of the country as a whole when Julian’s taped conversation was played on the news. It was broadcast in its entirety, from the moment he had entered Sean O’Callahan’s apartment and one by one shook hands with each of the room’s occupants, to the point where he had finally turned his back on them contemptuously and left.
The three Leetes were seated with Julian in their living room.
Dr. Leete looked from Julian to Edith and back again. He said, “You two are in love, aren’t you?”
Martha looked up from her embroidery in mild surprise.
Edith said impatiently, “Don’t be ridiculous. Father. You know very well that a permanent relationship between Jule and me isn’t practical considering our different backgrounds. The gulf is too great.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Raymond Leete pressed. “The institution of romantic love isn’t as dead as all that. When I was Julian’s age I fell quite madly in love with your mother.” He smiled over at his wife, who smiled back but kept her peace. “And frankly, I still feel the same way. I don’t think that one generation is going to completely wipe the feeling away, despite all the changes that have taken place in the relationship between the sexes.”
He turned to Julian. “About six months ago, some colleagues of mine specializing in the human brain came up with a breakthrough. I’ll try and keep the terminology to that which you will be able to understand. It involves the transfer of accumulated knowledge from one person’s brain to another’s.”
Even Edith looked at him blankly. “I haven’t heard of it,” she said. “No mention has been made in the scientific news.”
“It hasn’t been tested.”
Julian asked, his voice trembling slightly, “Why not?”
“They’re afraid to test it on a human being.”
Martha asked, “It has been tested on animals?”
“Yes. First on rats. We took two sets of rats and trained them in different ways, using several sets for controls, and then put them in the device. It worked. That is, we were able to transfer the training of one to the mind of the other. The rat who acquired the knowledge immediately knew everything that his partner had ever learned.”
Julian phrased his question carefully: “Why are they afraid to try it on a human being?”
“Two days later, the rats who received the information artificially all went insane. The rats who had provided the information transferred were quite all right, and still retained the material themselves.”
Edith said, “So the experiments were discontinued?”
“No. They tried it next on rabbits with the same result: insanity ensued.”
Julian took a deep breath. “And then?”
“They tried it on a more complex life form, the dog. Once again, the transfer was successful, but the dogs involved went mad.”
It was Edith’s turn to say, “And then, Father?”
He looked at her. “They tried it on a chimpanzee, and once again it worked. But on this occasion the animal retained both its new artifically acquired information and its sanity.”
“And that is where the experiment is to date?” Martha asked.
“No. They next used two orangutans. Only two because that was all they could locate of the rather scarce anthropoid apes, which many authorities consider the most intelligent of the primates short of man himself.”
Edith said, “And it worked again?”
“Yes. To this date, at least, neither the several chimps nor the one orangutan have shown any signs of distress and they have all continued to retain their artificially induced knowledge.”
Julian said, his voice low, “Why are you afraid to try it on a man?”
Leete sighed. “Isn’t it obvious? Man’s brain is the most complicated organism which we know of in the universe. It is an extremely delicate organ. The scientists involved do not want to risk the sanity of a human volunteer. On the other hand, they can’t forward the experiment without such a volunteer.”
Julian said, “You mean that if Edith and I were put in this device, all of the accumulated knowledge in her brain would be transferred to mine—without her being affected in any manner?”
“Yes—if it works on human beings.”
Julian looked at Edith. “What are we waiting for, darling?”
The End
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Document creation date: 01.07.2011
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