Terminal Man (9 page)

Meanwhile, the equipment monitored Benson’s brainwave activity. The screens above the bed glowed a bright green, and showed the white tracing of his EEG. The pattern was normal for alpha rhythms slowing from sedation.

Benson opened his eyes and looked at Morris.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Sleepy,” he said. “Is it beginning soon?”

“It’s over,” Morris said.

Benson nodded, not at all surprised, and closed his eyes. A rad-lab technician came in and checked for leakage from the plutonium with a Geiger counter. There was none. Morris slipped the dog tag around Benson’s neck. The nurse picked it up curiously, read it, and frowned.

Ellis came over. “Time for breakfast?”

“Yes,” Morris said. “Time for breakfast.”

They left the room together.

T
HE TROUBLE WAS HE DIDN’T REALLY LIKE THE
sound of his voice. His voice was rough and grating, and his enunciation was poor. McPherson preferred to see the words in his mind, as if they had been written. He pressed the microphone button on the dictation machine. “Roman numeral three. Philosophical Implications.”

III. Philosophical Implications.

He paused and looked around his office. The large model of the brain sat at the corner of his desk. Shelves of journals along one wall. And the TV monitor. On the screen now he was watching the playback of the morning’s operation. The sound was turned off, the
milky images silent. Ellis was drilling holes in Benson’s head. McPherson watched and began to dictate.

This procedure represents the first direct link between a human brain and a computer. The link is permanent. Now, of course, any man sitting at a computer console and interacting with the computer by pressing buttons can be said to be linked.

Too stuffy, he thought. He ran the tape back and made changes.
Now, a man sitting at a computer console and interacting with the computer by pressing buttons is linked to the computer. But that link is not direct. And the link is not permanent. Therefore, this operative procedure represents something rather different. How is one to think about it?

He stared at the TV image of the operation, then continued.

One might think of the computer in this case as a prosthetic device. Just as a man who has his arm amputated can receive a mechanical equivalent of the lost arm, so a brain-damaged man can receive a mechanical aid to overcome the effects of brain damage. This is a comfortable way to think about the operation. It makes the computer into a high-class wooden leg. Yet the implications go much further than that.

He paused to look at the screen. Somebody at the main tape station had changed reels. He was no longer seeing the operation, but a psychiatric interview with Benson before the surgery. Benson was excited, smoking a cigarette, making stabbing gestures with the lighted tip as he spoke.

Curious, McPherson turned the sound up slightly.

“… know what they’re doing. The machines are everywhere.
They used to be the servants of man, but now they’re taking over. Subtly, subtly taking over.”

Ellis stuck his head into the office, saw the TV screen, and smiled. “Looking at the ‘before’ pictures?”

“Trying to get a little work done,” McPherson said, and pointed to the dictation machine.

Ellis nodded, ducked out, closing the door behind him.

Benson was saying, “… know I’m a traitor to the human race, because I’m helping to make machines more intelligent. That’s my job, programming artificial intelligence, and—”

McPherson turned the sound down until it was almost inaudible. Then he went back to his dictation.

In thinking about computer hardware, we distinguish between central and peripheral equipment. That is, the main computer is considered central even though, in human terms, it may be located in some out-of-the-way place—like the basement of a building, for example. The computer’s read-out equipment, display consoles, and so on, are peripheral. They are located at the edges of the computer system, on different floors of the building.

He looked at the TV screen. Benson was particularly excited. He turned up the sound and heard, “… getting more intelligent. First steam engines, then automobiles, and airplanes, then adding machines. Now computers, feedback loops—”

McPherson turned the sound off.

For the human brain, the analogy is a central brain and peripheral terminals, such as mouth, arms, and legs. They carry out the instructions—the output—of the brain. By and large, we judge the workings of the brain
by the activity of these peripheral functions. We notice what a person says, and how he acts, and from that deduce how his brain works. This idea is familiar to everyone.

He looked at Benson on the TV screen. What would Benson say? Would he agree or disagree?

Now, however, in this operation we have created a man with not one brain but two. He has his biological brain, which is damaged, and he has a new computer brain, which is designed to correct the damage. This new brain is intended to control the biological brain. Therefore a new situation arises. The patient’s biological brain is the peripheral terminal—the only peripheral terminal—for the new computer. In one area, the new computer brain has total control. And therefore the patient’s biological brain, and indeed his whole body, has become a terminal for the new computer. We have created a man who is one single, large, complex computer terminal. The patient is a read-out device for the new computer, and he is as helpless to control the readout as a TV screen is helpless to control the information presented on it.

Perhaps that was a bit strong, he thought. He pressed the button and said, “Harriet, type that last paragraph but I want to look at it, okay? Roman numeral four. Summary and Conclusions.”

IV. Summary and Conclusions.

He paused again, and turned up the sound on Benson. Benson was saying, “… hate them, particularly the prostitutes. Airplane mechanics, dancers, translators, gas-station attendants, the people who are machines, or who service machines. The prostitutes. I hate them all.”

As he spoke, Benson continued to stab with his cigarette.

“A
ND HOW DID YOU FEEL?”
D
R
. R
AMOS SAID
. “Angry,” Janet Ross said. “Angry as hell. I mean, that nurse was standing there, watching it all. She pretended she didn’t understand what was happening, but she did.”

“You felt angry about …” Dr. Ramos let his voice trail off.

“About the operation. About Benson. They went ahead and did it. I told them from the beginning—from the goddamned very beginning—that it was a bad idea, but Ellis and Morris and McPherson all wanted to do it. They’re so cocky. Particularly Morris. When I saw him in the recovery room, gloating over Benson—who was all taped up and pale as a ghost—I just got mad.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he was so pale, because he, uh—”

She stopped. She fumbled for an answer, but couldn’t think of a logical response.

“I gather the operation was successful,” Dr. Ramos said. “And most people are pale after surgery. What made you mad?”

She said nothing. Finally, she said, “I don’t know.”

She heard Dr. Ramos shift in his chair. She could not see him; she was lying on the couch, and Dr. Ramos was behind her head. There was a long silence while she stared at the ceiling and tried to think what to say. Her thoughts seemed to be churning, not making any sense. Finally Dr. Ramos said, “The presence of the nurse seems important to you.”

“It does?”

“Well, you mentioned it.”

“I wasn’t aware I had.”

“You said the nurse was there and knew what was going on.… What, exactly, was going on?”

“I was mad.”

“But you don’t know why?…”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “It was Morris. He’s so cocky.”

“Cocky,” Dr. Ramos repeated.

“Overly self-assured.”

“You said cocky.”

“Look, I didn’t mean anything by that; it was just a word—” She broke off. She was very angry. She could hear it in her voice.

“You are angry now,” Dr. Ramos said.

“Very.”

“Why?”

After a long pause, she said, “They didn’t listen to me.”

“Who didn’t listen to you?”

“Any of them. Not McPherson, not Ellis, not Morris. Nobody listened to me.”

“Did you tell Dr. Ellis or Dr. McPherson you were angry?”

“No.”

“But you indicated your anger to Dr. Morris.”

“Yes.” He was leading her someplace and she couldn’t see where. Normally at this point she could jump ahead and understand. But this time—

“How old is Dr. Morris?”

“I don’t know. About my age. Thirty, thirty-one—something in there.”

“About your age.”

That pissed her off, his way of repeating things. “Yes, God damn it, about my age.”

“And a surgeon.”

“Yes.…”

“Is it easier to express anger toward someone you regard as a contemporary?”

“Probably. I never thought about it.”

“Your father was also a surgeon, but he wasn’t your contemporary.”

“You don’t have to draw me a picture,” she said.

“You’re still angry.”

She sighed. “Let’s change the subject.”

“All right,” he said, in that easy voice that she sometimes liked, and sometimes hated.

M
ORRIS HATED TO DO
I
NITIAL
I
NTERVIEWS
.—The Initial Interview staff consisted mostly of clinical psychologists; the work was lengthy and boring. A recent tabulation had shown that only one in forty new patients to the NPS received further work; and only one in eighty-three was accepted as having some variety of organic brain disease with behavioral manifestations. That meant most Initial Interviews were a waste of time.

And it was particularly true of off-the-street patients. A year ago McPherson had decided, for political reasons, that anyone who heard of the NPS and presented himself directly would be seen. Most patients were still referrals, of course, but McPherson felt the image of the Unit depended upon prompt treatment of self-referrals as well.

McPherson also felt that everyone on the staff should do Initial Interviews from time to time. Morris worked two days a month in the little interview rooms with the one-way glass mirrors. This was one of his days, but he didn’t want to be here; he was still exhilarated from the morning’s operation, and he resented returning to this kind of mundane routine.

He looked up unhappily as the next patient came into
the room. He was a young man in his twenties, wearing dungarees and a sweatshirt. He had long hair. Morris stood to greet him.

“I’m Dr. Morris.”

“Craig Beckerman.” The handshake was soft and tentative.

“Please sit down.” He waved Beckerman to a chair which faced Morris’s desk, and the one-way mirror behind. “What brings you to us?”

“I, uh … I’m curious. I read about you,” Beckerman said, “in a magazine. You do brain surgery here.”

“That’s true.”

“Well, I uh … I was curious about it.”

“In what sense?”

“Well, this magazine article—Can I smoke here?”

“Of course,” Morris said. He pushed an ashtray across the desk to Beckerman. Beckerman brought out a pack of Camels, tapped one on the desk, then lit it.

“The magazine article …”

“Right. The magazine article said that you put wires in the brain. Is that true?”

“Yes, we sometimes perform that kind of surgery.”

Beckerman nodded. He smoked the cigarette. “Yeah, well, is it true that you can put wires in so that you feel pleasure? Intense pleasure?”

“Yes,” Morris said. He tried to say it blandly.

“That’s really true?”

“It’s really true,” Morris said. And then he shook his pen, indicating that it was out of ink. He opened the desk drawer to take out another pen, and as he reached into the drawer, he pressed a sequence on the buttons hidden inside. Immediately his telephone rang.

“Dr. Morris.”

At the other end, the secretary said, “You rang?”

“Yes. Would you hold all calls, please, and transfer them to Development section?”

“Right away,” the secretary said.

“Thank you.” Morris hung up. He knew that the Development people would arrive soon, to watch on the other side of the one-way mirror. “I’m sorry for the interruption. You were saying …”

“About the wires in the brain.”

“Yes. We do that operation, Mr. Beckerman, under special circumstances, but it’s still pretty experimental.”

“That’s all right,” Beckerman said. He puffed on his cigarette. “That’s fine with me.”

“If you want information, we can arrange for you to have some reprints and magazine tear sheets explaining our work here.”

Beckerman smiled and shook his head. “No, no,” he said. “I don’t want information. I want the operation. I’m volunteering.”

Morris pretended to be surprised. He paused a moment and said, “I see.”

“Listen,” Beckerman said, “in the article it said that one jolt of electricity was like a dozen orgasms. It sounded really terrific.”

“And you want this operation performed on you?”

“Yeah,” Beckerman said, nodding vigorously. “Right.”

“Why?”

“Are you kidding? Wouldn’t everybody want it? Pleasure like that?”

“Perhaps,” Morris said, “but you’re the first person to ask for it.”

“What’s the matter?” Beckerman said. “Is it really expensive or something?”

“No. But we don’t perform brain surgery for trivial reasons.”

“Oh, wow,” Beckerman said. “So that’s where you are. Jesus.”

And he got up and left the room, shaking his head.

The three Development guys looked stupefied. They sat in the adjoining room and stared through the one-way glass. Beckerman had long since departed.

“Fascinating,” Morris said.

The Development guys didn’t reply. Finally one of them cleared his throat and said, “To say the least.”

Morris knew what was going through their heads. For years, they had been doing feasibility studies, potential application studies, ramification studies, industrial operations studies, input-output studies. They were geared to think in the future—and now they were suddenly confronted with the present.