You arent the most gifted liar in the universe. And then, you argued very strongly for Angleseys scheme, this sending down the other pseudos. More strongly than a newcomer should.
I told you, I want his attention focused elsewhere when
Do you want it that badly? snapped Viken.
Cornelius was still for a minute. Then he sighed and leaned back.
All right, he said. I shall have to trust your discretion. I wasnt sure, you see, how any of you old-time station personnel would react. So I didnt want to blabber out my speculations, which may be wrong. The confirmed facts, yes, I will tell them; but I dont wish to attack a mans religion with a mere theory.
Viken scowled. What the devil do you mean?
Cornelius puffed hard on his cigar; its tip waxed and waned like a miniature red demon star. This Jupiter Five is more than a research station, he said gently. It is a way of life, is it not? No one would come here for even one hitch unless the work was important to him. Those who re-enlist, they must find something in the work, something which Earth with all her riches cannot offer them. No?
Yes, answered Viken. It was almost a whisper. I didnt think you would understand so well. But what of it?
Well, I dont want to tell you, unless I can prove it, that maybe this has all gone for nothing. Maybe you have wasted your lives and a lot of money, and will have to pack up and go home.
Vikens long face did not flicker a muscle. It seemed to have congealed. But he said calmly enough, Why?
Consider Joe, said Cornelius. His brain has as much capacity as any adult humans. It has been recording every sense datum that came to it, from the moment of birthmaldng a record in itself, in its own cells, not merely in Angleseys physical memory bank up here. Also, you know, a thought is a sense datum, too. And thoughts are not separated into neat little railway tracks; they form a continuous field. Every time Anglesey is in rapport with Joe, and thinks, the thought goes through Joes synapses as well as his ownand every thought carries its own associations, and every associated memory is recorded. Like if Joe is building a hut, the shape of the logs might remind Anglesey of some geometric figure, which in turn would remind him of the Pythagorean theorem
I get the idea, said Viken in a cautious way. Given time, Joes brain will have stored everything that ever was in Eds.
Correct. Now, a functioning nervous system with an engrammatic pattern of experience, in this case a nonhuman nervous systemisnt that a pretty good definition of a personality?
I suppose so, Good Lord! Viken jumped. You mean Joe is taking over?
In a way. A subtle, automatic, unconscious way. Cornelius drew a deep breath and plunged into it. The pseudojovian is so nearly perfect a life-form: your biologists engineered into it all the experience gained from natures mistakes in designing us. At first, Joe was only a remote-controlled biological machine. Then Anglesey and Joe became two facets of a single personality. Then, oh, very slowly, the stronger, healthier body… more amplitude to its thoughts.
do you see? Joe is becoming the dominant side. Like this business of sending down the other pseudosAnglesey only thinks he has logical reasons for wanting it done. Actually, his reasons are mere rationalizations for the instinctive desires of the Joe facet.
Angleseys subconscious must comprehend the situation, in a dim reactive way; it must feel his human ego gradually being submerged by the steamroller force of Joes instincts and Joes wishes. It tries to defend its own identity, and is swatted down by the superior force of Joes own nascent subconscious.
I put it crudely, he finished in an apologetic tone, but it will account for that oscifiation in the K tubes.
Viken nodded, slowly, like an old man. Yes, I see it, he answered. The alien environment down there … the different brain
structure. .… Good God! Eds being swallowed up in Joe! The puppet master is becoming the puppet! He looked ifi.