"Pray, be seated, Professor. That is exactly what I was going to speak to you about."
I settled in the proffered chair and studied the broadly smiling face behind the large desk. Boltz was a typical north-country German with an elongated face, fair hair and large blue eyes. His fingers were playing with a cigarette-case.
"I'm in charge of the maths department here," he said.
"You? Are you a mathematician?"
"Yes, in a way. At least I have a smattering of it."
"That means I can meet some of them through you?"
"You've already met all of them, Rauch," Boltz said.
I stared at him blank-eyed.
"You've spent a day and night with them."
I remembered the ward and its inmates with their nonsense about impulses and codes.
"Do you expect me to believe those crackpots are the brilliant mathematicians who solved my equations?"
Not waiting for a reply I broke into laughter.
"And yet they are, indeed. Your last problem was solved by a certain Deinis. As far as I know the same individual who last night gave you a lecture on neurocybernetics."
After a few moments' thought I said:
"In that case I don't understand anything. Perhaps you would explain it all to me?"
"With pleasure. Only after you've seen this." And Boltz offered me the morning paper.
I unfolded it slowly and suddenly jumped up. Looking at me from the first page was… my own face framed in black. Over it was the banner caption: "Tragic death of Dr. Rauoh."
"What's the meaning of this, Boltz? What sort of farce is this?" I expostulated.
"Please calm yourself. It's all quite sample really. Last night when crossing the bridge over the river on your way home from a walk near the lake, you were attacked by two escaped lunatics from the Wise Men's Home, killed, mutilated and thrown into the river. Early this morning a corpse was discovered at the dam. The clothes, personal belongings and papers helped to identify the corpse as yours. The police called at the Home this morning and have pieced together a complete picture of your tragic death."
It was only then I looked at my clothes and realised that the suit I had on was not mine; I dived into my pockets, all the things I'd had on me were gone.
"But this is preposterous-"
"Yes, of course, I quite agree. But what can be done, Rauch, what can be done? Without you Kraftstudt and Co. may suffer a serious setback -go bust, if you like. I don't mind telling you that we are up to our eyebrows in orders. They're all military and extremely valuable. And that means round-the-clock computing. Since we completed the first batch of problems for the Defence Ministry business has just snowballed, you could say."
"And you want me to become another Deinis for you?"
"Oh, no, Rauch. Of course not."
"Then why that farce?"
"We need you as instructor in mathematics."
"Instructor?" I jumped up again, staring wildly at Boltz. He lighted a cigarette for himself and nodded at my chair. I sat down, completely bewildered.
"We need new mathematicians, Professor Rauch. Either we get them or we'll very soon be on the rocks."
I stared at the man who did not seem to me half as pleasant now as he'd done before. I seemed to discern traits of innate bestiality in him, faint, but coming to the fore now.
"Well, what if I refuse?" I asked. "That would be just too bad. I'm afraid you'd have to join our-er-computer force then." "Is that so bad?" I asked.
"It is," Boltz said firmly, standing up. "That would mean you'd finish your days in the Wise Men's Home."
Pacing up and down the room, Boltz began to speak in the tones of a lecturer addressing an audience:
"The computing abilities of the human brain are several hundred thousand times those of an electronic computer. A thousand million mathematical nerve cells plus the aids-memory, inhibition, logic, intuition, etc.-place the brain high above any conceivable machine. Yet the machine has one essential advantage."
"Which?" I asked, still not understanding what Boltz was driving at.
"If, say, a trigger or a group of triggers is out of order in an electronic machine, you can replace the valves, resistors or capacitors and the machine will work again. But if a nerve cell or a group of nerve cells in the computing area is out of order, replacement, alas, is impossible. Unfortunately we are obliged to make brain triggers work at an increased tempo here. As a result, wear and tear, if I may call it so, is greatly accelerated. The living computers are soon used up arid then-"
"What then?"
"Then the computer gets into the Home."
"But that's inhuman-and criminal," I said hotly.
Boltz stopped in front of me, placed a hand on my shoulder and, with a broad smile, said:
"Rauch, you've got to forget all those words and notions here. If you won't forget them yourself we'll have to erase them from your memory for you."
"You will never be able to do that!" I shouted, brushing away his hand.
"Deinis's lecture was wasted on you, I see. Pity. He spoke sense. Incidentally, d'you know what memory is?"
"What has that to do with our subject? Why the hell are you all buffooning here? Why-?"
"Memory, Professor Rauch, is prolonged stimulation in a group of neurones due to a positive reverse connection. In other words, memory is the electrochemical stimulation that circulates in a given group of nerve cells in your head. You, as a physicist interested in electromagnetic processes in complex media, must realise that by placing your head in the appropriate electromagnetic field we can stop that circulation in any group of neurones. Nothing could be simpler! We can not only make you forget what you know, but make you recall what you have never known. However it's not in our interests to resort to these-er- artificial means. We hope your common sense will prevail. The firm will be making over to you a sizeable share of its dividends."
"For what services?"
"I've already told you-for teaching mathematics. We sign up classes of twenty to thirty people with an aptitude for maths-this country has an abundance of unemployed, fortunately. Then we teach them higher mathematics in the course of two to three months-"
"But that's impossible," I said, "absolutely impossible. In such a short time, I mean…"
"It's not impossible, Rauch. Don't forget you'll be dealing with a very bright audience, uncommonly intelligent and possessing a wonderful memory for figures. We will see to that. That is in our power."
"Also by artificial means? By means of the pulse generator?" I asked.
Boltz nodded.
'Well, do you agree?"
I shut my eyes tightly and thought hard. So Deinis and the others in the ward were normal people and had been telling me the truth yesterday. So Kraftstudt and Go. had really developed a technique of commercialising human thought, will-power and emotions by means of electromagnetic fields. I sensed Boltz's searching glance on me and knew I must hurry with my decision. It was devilishly hard to make. If I agreed I'd be speeding my students on their way to the Wise Men's Home. If I refused I'd do the same to myself.
"Do you agree?" Boltz repeated, touching me on the shoulder.
"No," I said, my mind made up. "No. I can be no accomplice to such abomination."