“No, drop the jokes. Where are you going? What's up?”
He looked up at me:
“You really don't understand? Well, that makes sense. You're not me.”
“No, why not? You are me, and I am you. That, anyway, was always our starting point.”
'That's the point — it's not so.” He lit up a cigarette and took a book from the shelf. “I'll take Introduction to Systemology. You can use the library. You are number one, and I'm the second. You were born, grew up, developed, took on a certain position in society. Every man has some place in life. Whether it's good or bad, it's his own. I have no place. It's taken! Everything's taken, from girl friend to civil position, from the bed to the apartment.”
“You can sleep on the bed, for God's sake, I don't have any objections.”
“Don't talk nonsense. The bed isn't the point.”
“Listen, if you're leaving over Lena, then. maybe we can experiment a little more, and… maybe we can try it?”
“Re — create a second Lena, an artificial one?” He laughed darkly. “So that she can hang around life like a ticketless passenger. A reward for a good life… what a stupid idea that was! The best pupils, they're a bunch of spoiled privileged people. Imagine Arkady Arkadievich's double: Academician A. A. Azarov, but without an institute to run, without a framework, without membership in the academy, without a car and apartment — without anything except his personal qualities and pleasant memories. What would his life be like?” He put a towel, toothbrush, and toothpaste into the suitcase. “In a word, I've had it. I can't lead a double entendre life any more — worrying about being seen together, looking around in the cafeteria, taking money from you. Yes, I'm taking your money from you, being jealous of you and Lena. Why should I suffer like that — for what sins? I'm a man, not an experimental subject and not somebody's double!”
“How about the work?”
“And who says I'm planning to drop the work? The chamber is almost ready, and you can run the experiments yourself. There's little for me to do here. I'll go away and study the problem of man and machine from the other end.”
He told me his plan. He was going to Moscow to enter the graduate biology department of MSU. The work was dividing up into two streams: I would study the computer — womb and determine its possibilities; he would study man and his possibilities. Then — different by then, with different experiences and ideas — we'd put the work together.
“But why biology? Why not philosophy, sociology, psychology, or life studies, or fine arts? They all deal with man and human society. Why?”
He looked at me thoughtfully.
“Do you believe in intuition?”
“Well, maybe.”
“My intuition tells me that if we overlook biological research, we will lose something very important. I don't know yet just what. I'll try to explain in a year.”
“But why doesn't my intuition say any such thing?”
“Damned if I know!” he sighed with his old expressiveness. His good mood was returning. “Maybe you're just a dumb jackass.”
“Sure, sure. And you're brilliant and sensitive — like the dog that can feel everything but can't express any of it!”
In a word, we had a talk.
Everything was clear: he had to gather individual information, to become his own person. And I accepted the fact that in order to do that he had to be away from me, somewhere on his own. To tell the truth, our “double” situation was beginning to wear on me, too. But that biology stuff — I really didn't understand that at all….
The graduate student leaned back in his chair and stretched. “And couldn't understand it.” he said aloud. In those days he didn't understand himself.
Chapter 13
In Lieu of an Epigraph
“The theme of today's lecture is: why does the student sweat at exams? Quiet, comrades! I suggest you take notes — the material is on the subject…. Thus, let us examine the physiological aspects of the situation that all of you present have had to experience. The oral exam is on. The student through various contractions of the lungs, thorax, and tongue is creating air vibrations — answering his question. His visual analyzers control the accuracy of his response by the notes in his hand and by the nods of the examiners. Let us sketch the reflex chain: the executive apparatus of the second signal system utters a phrase — the visual organs register a reinforcing stimulus, a nod — and the signal is passed to the brain and supports the stimulation of nerve cells in the proper part of the cortex. A new phrase… a nod… and so on. This is often accompanied by a secondary reflex reaction: the student gesticulates, which makes his answer all the more convincing.
Meanwhile the unconditioned reflex chains operate on their own, inexorably and unconstrainedly. The trapezoid bone and broad muscles of the back support the student's body in an upright sitting position — as natural for us as the position of walking was for our predecessors. The chest and intercostal muscles maintain rhythmic breathing. Other muscles are tensed just enough to counteract gravity. The heart beats evenly; the sympathetic nervous system has stopped the digestive process so as not to distract the student. and everything is in order.
But now the student registers a new aural stimulus through his eardrums and membranes of the ears: the examiner has asked him a question. I never tire of observing what follows — and I assure you, there is no sadism in this. It's simply pleasant to watch how quickly and clearly, taking the millions of years experience of our ancestors into account, our nervous system reacts to the slightest hint of danger! Look: new air vibrations first bring on the end of the previous activity of the unconditioned reflexes — the student stops talking, often in mid — word. Then the signals from the hearing cells reach the medulla, excite the nerve cells of the rear tubers of the lamina tecti which commands the unconditioned reflex of caution: the student turns his head in the direction of the examiner! Simultaneously the signals of the aural stimulus branch off into the diencephalon, and from there into the temporal lobes of the cortex, where a hurried meaning analysis is undertaken of the air vibrations.
I want to direct your attention to the high expediency level of the location of the analyzers of aural stimuli in the cortex — right next to theears. Evolution naturally took into account that a sound in the air moves very slowly: some 300 meters a second, almost the same as the speed of signals traveling along nerve fiber. Yet a sound could be the rustle of a lurking tiger, the hissing of a snake, or — in our times — the noise of a car careening around the corner. You can't lose even a fraction of a second to transmit the sound through the brain!
But in the present situation the student recognized not the rustle of a tiger but a question posed in a quiet, polite voice. Hah, I think some would prefer the tiger! I assume that I don't have to explain that a question asked during an oral exam is taken as a signal of danger. After all, broadly speaking, danger is an obstacle in the path toward a given goal. In ourwell — ordered times there are few dangers that threaten the basic goals of a living being which are protection of life and health, propagation of the species, and satisfaction of hunger and thirst. That's why secondary dangers — the protection of dignity, respect, scholarships, the opportunity to study and then have an interesting job and so on — take on primary prominence. Thus, the student's unconditioned reflex reaction to danger worked beautifully. Let's see how he reflects it.
In biochemistry lectures you have been familiarized with the properties of ribonucleic acid, which is found in all the brain cells. Under the action of electrical nervous signals RNA changes the continous distribution of its bases: thymine, uracil, cytosine, and guanine. These bases are the letters of our memory; we can write down any information in the cortex of the brain using combinations of them. And so, this is the picture: the question, understood in the temporal sites of the cortex leads to the excitation of nerve cells that take care of abstract knowledge in the student's brain. Weak response impulses arise in neighboring areas of the cortex: “Aha, I read something about that!” So the stimulation concentrates in the most hopeful of these areas, takes it over, and — oh horrors! — there with the help of thymine, uracil, cytosine, and guanine there is recorded God only knows what in long molecules of RNA, for instance: “Drop your studying, Alex! We need a fourth!” Quiet down, comrades, don't be distracted.