The Aegis Solution (23 page)

"That's astounding."

"It's more than astounding; it's revelatory. The scientific community began to theorize as to why
there would be such a disparity between these men of the past and our best athletes today. The theories
have ranged from society coddling us so that we no longer need the same abilities, to actually putting
forth the idea that our genetics have changed in a mere few thousand years. Preposterous!

"That event, intended as a pleasant and challenging diversion for me, triggered what would become
the focus of the rest of my life. I immediately began researching any and all comparable efforts.
Everything I discovered led me to one inescapable conclusion."

He paused. Uncertain if the pause was for dramatic effect, or if Kreitzmann was waiting for a
question, Elias remained silent.

"The eternal question among evolutionary biologists and others is – is it nature or nurture? How
much of who and what we are is genetic, and how much is a result of the environment?"

"True. You seem to have opted for nurture."

"We have certainly placed our emphasis on the environment. Saying that, however, does not paint
the entire picture. Genetics would only be genetics. It is the canvas upon which we paint our reality, its
borders establishing the outside boundaries of what we can do. But to actualize ourselves, we need
more than a blank canvas. We need examples, as Sneezix needed the example of that stray dog, in order
to discover an ability he did not know he had. This goes far beyond the simple concept of nurture. I call
my field exemplarium behavior modeling.

"Wasn't the performance of the Athenian oarsman an example?"

"No. Hearing about something…reading about it…any form of learning and awareness other than
direct experience does not have the same effect. At least that is my conclusion after twenty-three years
of study. It is essential for the behavior, skill, or ability to be directly perceived. Mankind has a nearly
boundless ability to deny and rationalize. Remember the repetitive attempts by Sneezix – the painful
falls, the bloody paws. Transfer that experience to a man and, if he hadn't seen the deed with his own
eyes, he would give up, deciding that it wasn't really possible after all."

"That's probably true."

"Not probably true…true. I've proved it in my studies."

"Other than the display of telepathy, what are the applications of your new field?"

"They are almost limitless. Think about it, Patrick. My work has only scratched the surface. There
is probably no aspect of what we do, see, hear, smell, or even think that can't be enhanced by immersion
in a new exemplarium."

Forcing a look of mild skepticism onto his face, Elias spoke thoughtfully. "I admit, I'm impressed
by the apparent strides toward telepathy that you've made. But I have a concern."

Visibly suppressing vexation at Elias' words, the researcher inquired, "What might that be?"

Elias knew he was walking a tightrope. On one hand, he was portraying an ostensibly like-minded
scientist who had previously exhibited a dislike or even contempt for humanity. On the other hand, his
own urge to shout out his rebuttals to Kreitzmann's positions was practically overwhelming.

Choosing his words carefully, Elias broached the subject. "Have you considered the possibility that,
over the entire continuum of human development on Earth, some of what you are coaxing from your
subjects has already been tried and rejected?"

It was obvious, by the evasive darting of his eyes and momentary quizzical expression, that
Kreitzmann had not considered this point.

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen nor have we discussed the specifics of your other projects; however, expressly
dealing with the one I've observed, what if we weren't meant to have telepathic abilities?"

"Oh, not the old ‘If God meant for us to fly, we'd have wings' argument."

"Not exactly, Rudy. What I'm saying is that it is possible that at one time humans, or earlier
hominids, did communicate with their minds. If the mechanism is already there, why not?"

"Go on."

"What if there was something inherently counterproductive about it? I'll give you an example.
Perhaps very early man was a loner, rather than tribal, and perhaps this early man could read minds. In
such a situation, I can see how the ability would be quite beneficial and there would be very little, if any,
downside. Any other human being he or she encountered would be a territorial threat. Reading the mind
of the other to know what was planned would be an obvious positive. The better at it the individual was,
the higher the probability would be to vanquish the other and survive.

"But as man evolved and it became obvious that there were numerous benefits to banding together
and forming primitive societies, the invasiveness of telepathy might have hindered that direction, might
have suddenly become a detriment. Every time a fellow tribesman lusted after another's wife, there
would have been conflict and strife within the group. Every time one felt envious of another's cave or
tree or food stock, there would have been problems and mistrust. I think that tribal life would have
created a need to take the other members at face value, to rely upon what they decided to speak, rather
than what they thought. It allowed, in a sense, humans to install a filter between their spontaneous
thoughts and urges, and their deliberately spoken words and consciously thought-out deeds. Darwinian
selection would have given the tribes without telepathy an advantage of social cohesion, which could
have eventually dampened the ability to the point where it is now.

"In other words, maybe it's been tried and the human race decided they didn't like it. You could,
in effect, be opening an old can of worms."

Throughout Elias' entire speech, Kreitzmann sat calmly, absorbing his words. With the final
comment, he replied, "You could be right. I hadn't considered that possibility. But" – he placed the
palms of his hands flat upon the table – "it isn't our purpose to second-guess. The point of our research
is to uncover the buried or underdeveloped skills and bring those out. It will be up to them to retain or
discard as they see fit."

"Them?"

"The beneficiaries of our work."

CHAPTER NINE

The discussion ended, Kreitzmann once again led Elias through a maze of interconnecting
hallways. As they walked, the scientist, sounding more like a tour guide than an amoral monster, pointed
out each of the labs they passed, and what work was being conducted in each.

"This is our computer interface lab. In this module, we are immersing subjects in computer code,
rather than English."

"What is your goal here?"

"Our goal with every one of our projects is the same. Just as a chemist creates compound after
compound, testing each one until he finds a formula with the desired properties, we make no value
judgment with regard to each possibility. We merely develop every conceivable skill which has the
potential for benefiting from exemplarium immersion, and then we throw it into the mix. We only
attempt to discover if a skill, ability, or talent is possible. Once that is done, it will be up to the group
to retain or discard the newly uncovered ability.

"In this project, we are taking a different approach from the human/computer interface labs, as well
as the artificial intelligence labs. They are all struggling to make computers adapt and comply with us.
Where they continue to run afoul is with the sloppy nature of our thoughts and languages. The very
nature of the computer is that it is logical and precise. Everything is black and white, on or off. With
humans, everything is gray. Attempting to create a true bridge between them is not possible as long as
those two facts are true. Computer engineers have gone further and further afield in an attempt to make
computers more like us, with fuzzy logic and so on. We are approaching the same problem from the
other side. Here, we are raising a group of subjects who know only the logical and precise language of
the computer. They also live in an environment where only black-and-white, logical behavior and criteria
in their day-to-day living are rewarded. Patrick, you will be astounded at the ability these subjects have
to interface with the computers."

"As you are doing in the telepathy lab, are you teaching them English once they have mastered code
as their first language?"

"No need. There are a variety of off-the-shelf software programs that accomplish that for us."

"Word processing?"

"Exactly. That is the beauty of humans communicating in code. With a viable human/computer
interface, which we've already perfected, all that is needed is to open a word processing program, and
we can talk directly to the subjects and they can answer. With text-to-speech programs, we can easily
converse with them."

"The interface? What type of terminal do you utilize?"

"Not a terminal. No keyboard. No mouse. The interface is direct."

"Direct? Do you mean…?"

"Implants with connect/disconnect jacks. The subjects can plug in or unplug as they wish, although
we've noticed that their desire to unplug is quite rare."

They had walked well past the computer interface lab. The door had been closed, so Elias' mind,
without benefit of a glimpse inside, was free to run rampant, creating a surreal scene of these young
children with shaved heads and USB ports embedded in their skulls, wires dangling. He felt, once again,
the surge of adrenalin which would normally be the precursor to a violent physical attack on
Kreitzmann. With a monumental exertion of will power, Elias tamped down his furor and continued
walking beside this soulless being masquerading as a man.

"We just passed the strength enhancement lab, and coming up on the right is our math/physics
lab."

The door to the room Kreitzmann called the strength lab was closed, but the math/physics lab was
open, and Elias cautiously peered in, afraid of what bizarre tableau he might witness. He was relieved
to see only a normal classroom, filled with desks which were occupied by children who all appeared to
be no older than first- or second-graders. In the front of the room were two teachers, both standing by
dry-erase boards filled with complex equations. As he passed, he noticed something odd.

"Both teachers were talking at once," Elias remarked.

"Yes. One of the human abilities we accidentally discovered along our path is that the human mind,
if exposed to the technique from the very beginning, can easily absorb and comprehend two separate
inputs at once."

"Unbelievable!"

"Ah, here we are. The speech lab."

Elias followed Kreitzmann into the room. Immediately, one of the staff stood up and hurried to
greet them.

"Doctor Boehn, this is Doctor Brightman."

"Patrick Brightman? My God, a pleasure to meet you, sir."

This lab was staffed with approximately fifteen people, most of whom were seated at terminals,
paying no attention to the visitors.

Boehn, a lean man, wearing what appeared to be the mandatory uniform of Kreitzmann's group,
a white lab coat, and clutching an iPad instead of a clipboard, said excitedly, "I read many of your
papers. I've never dreamed you would join us."

He suddenly looked self-conscious. Glancing at Kreitzmann, he added, "I mean, here in Aegis."

"It's my pleasure, Doctor Boehn."

"Doctor Boehn heads up our linguistics enhancement team."

"Linguistics enhancement? Are you exploring the multilingual capabilities of the subject?"

With a quick darting of his eyes to glance at Kreitzmann, Boehn replied, "No, not multilingual
abilities. We actually enhance the fundamental speaking and comprehension-through-hearing abilities
of the subjects."

"I'm not sure I understand."

Kreitzmann explained, "I first showed you the most recent addition to our body of work, the
telepathy lab. I thought I would bring you here to give you a sense of the path we've traveled thus far.
This was our first field of study. I actually began this study at Johns Hopkins, using volunteer students.
The concept is quite basic, really. We've all heard those few talented people who can speak at what to
us seems an incredible rate of speed. Yet, with recording and playback analysis, their individual word
pronunciations are very good. Surprisingly so, actually.

"As the beginning concepts of exemplarium behavior modeling began to take shape in my mind,
it seemed a natural to see what we could do in this area."

"You teach people to talk faster?"

"Simply put, yes. Not only do they talk faster, but they are able to understand the spoken word at
a greatly advanced rate. I started with the volunteer students who came to my lab for two hours a day,
five days a week. In the lab, we exposed them to computer-modified speech that had been accelerated,
as well as to those rare rapid speakers. It was a very primitive protocol compared to our techniques
today – periods of what I considered at the time to be immersion, followed by tests to determine our
success rate."

"How well did it work?"