“These are modern times, Chuck, we should be able to do better than that.”
“Everybody lives in modern times, Doc, including you and me. The difference between them and us is that we’re on the outside and they’re on the inside. They like things just as they are because they understand them, and they don’t understand what we’re doing. We make them uncomfortable.”
“Is that it? They’re afraid of change?”
“It’s a big part, Doc, but not all of it. I run into this far more than you do because computers have come so far in such a short time. The general public is intrigued but baffled. They like to play with computers but they really don’t like having to trust them. The average person endures this because he hasn’t got any choice, but if he had his way he’d stay where he’s comfortable and count on his fingers.”
“It’s human nature to fear the unknown, Chuck.”
“And, anybody who dabbles in the unknown. Doc, I think that pretty well defines the problem. It may well be that it isn’t the unknown they really fear, but the people whom they think understand what they don’t. That is very hard on the ego.”
“I’ve been teasing up a theory of my own about that, Chuck. Tell me, why is it you’ve never taken the test yourself?”
“Me? Why, no particular reason, I suppose, except that I wrote the software, and—”
“Are you saying that would make the result invalid in your case?”
“No, nothing of the sort. The program should function the same for me as for anybody. Uh, how come you never took it?”
“I suspect it’s the same reason why you didn’t, Chuck, I’m afraid I might find out I’m not as smart as I thought I was. With the old tests there was always room for argument, the possibility of error was conceded, but now we’re dealing in absolutes, absolutes with the finality of natural laws. We can no more alter our own innate intelligence than we can defy the force of gravity.”
Bradford winced at the sound of that forbidden word. Frustration could do strange things, even to dedicated scientists. But he let it pass without comment. “We’re better off not knowing, huh, Doc?”
“Hardly. In fact we’re worse off. We’re like the people who wouldn’t take the AIDS test, the result might make us uncomfortable and we don’t like that. We’ve been hypocritical, Chuck. Worse, we’ve been cowards. We won’t do what we’ve been asking others to do, we aren’t as brave as the student volunteers.”
“Then, we’ve both got to take it, Doc. Somehow, I think that’s essential to the solution. I don’t think we have any chance of exploiting this thing until we do that.”
“How are you going to feel if it turns out you’re below normal intelligence? Can you handle that?”
“I don’t know. Doc. How about you? What if you take the test and somebody you don’t like tests out smarter? What if it’s somebody like Connor? It’s easy to be contemptuous of enemies when you can denigrate them, but what if the test shows they’re markedly more intelligent than you are, what then?”
“Chuck, you’re starting to scare me.”
“How about we get on with it, Doc.? I think I might just be in the mood now. After awhile, who knows? Let’s not give ourselves time to find excuses, let’s do it now.”
“Why not?” Bryant answered with a sigh of resignation.
“All right, Chuck, you’re five points up scale from me, the test proves you’re more intelligent than I am. Why don’t I resent it?”
“I don’t know, Doc. Maybe it’s got something to do with the norm. Granted, I check out a little bit higher, but we’re still so close to the right slope of the bell the difference is almost nothing compared to the gap between us and the left side. But, that’s not entirely unexpected, is it? We wouldn’t have gotten where we are if we were stupid. It’s always possible that you are too intelligent to let this bother you.”
“Possible,” Bryant conceded thoughtfully. “Still, psychology is my field of expertise and I know reason counts for precious little when it comes to human behavior. No, Chuck, I think there’s more to it than that. I think what we have here is a breakthrough, all right, but I don’t think we have the complete answer. I suspect that we’ve really measured only one facet of intelligence.”
“Now you’re rationalizing, Doc, and that’s a cop-out.”
“I should resent that remark, Chuck. Somehow, I don’t, because I know it isn’t true.”
“I’m sorry, Doc.”
“I do resent your apparent need to apologize. I wasn’t looking for pity, I….”
“What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know.”
“But, you look funny.”
“Yeah!”
“Well?”
“That’s because I think maybe Connor actually may have finally said something intelligent. It sure would be fun to test him.”
“What did he say?”
“He accused me of developing computer games on school time. I was highly insulted, but you know, he could be right? After all, such games do test aptitudes. Some people are better at them than other people.”
“Sure, Doc, but not the way we’re better than the people at the low end on our tests. The average computer game tests motor skills, the ability to concentrate and the ability to plan ahead, and this is why practice makes the player better. No amount of practice can pump up a player’s smarts.”
“That is an interesting revelation, Chuck. However, we also test these same abilities. We have our own built-in errors. We have to eliminate them too, or we will continue to get invalid results, just as we have been doing.”
“You mean, you think our data’s bad?”
“Not necessarily bad, but it’s imperfect. We—”
“—Perfection is unattainable, Doc. Nobody should know that better than you. We can only strive for it, but we’ll never achieve it.”
“We can do better than we have done.”
“We can’t do anything without money, and with Connor on our backs we’ll have to find our volunteers elsewhere, and pay them ourselves, which means we won’t eat very well. And, consider the alternative: if we don’t continue the studies we’ll lose this grant and it might not be so easy to get more.”
“You’ve missed the point, Chuck. I said ‘Connor had an intelligent idea,’ and he did. You must know something about computer games. Tell me, how difficult is it to make and market one?”
“Idiots do it, which means we’re in business,” Bradford grinned. “But, what would a tiling like that do to our credibility? We have to consider that?”
“I am considering it, Chuck. I think that may depend more on our choice of markets than anything else, I think we have to cater to a particular segment.”
“Who?”
“I can show you better than I can tell you. Let’s take a drive downtown.”
“Where downtown?”
“The State Unemployment Office.”
“I get it. Connor’s going to fire us and we have to sign up for compensation?”
“Something like that.”
“All right,” Connor glared, “this is it. It was bad enough when you were just screwing up on campus, now you’re running a gambling operation all over town. I think this pretty well ends both your academic careers.”
“It’s not gambling. Moreover, we don’t run it. All we do is supply software, and we do that through a private corporation that doesn’t even mention our names, much less this school’s.”
“Doesn’t matter, people important to the school know of your connection. They don’t like it. They don’t like it, I don’t like it. The reason I know that is I’ve already talked to enough of them to make sure that when your contracts come up for renewal two weeks from now that won’t happen.”
He paused, letting it sink in. “I said it before, I’ll say it again—people who get themselves in your situation and are involuntarily terminated don’t get hired elsewhere. You can keep that off your records by submitting your resignations right now, gathering up your garbage and getting it and yourselves off Waybellowe property. Don’t worry about your students. Others are waiting to take your places. Waybellowe will get along just fine.”