Once Leoh realized the part he had played in all this, he was confronted with two emotions; a deep sense of guilt, both personal and professional; and, countering this, a determination to do something, anything, to restore at least some balance to man’s collective mentality.
Leoh stepped out of physics and electronics, and entered the field of psychology. Instead of retiring, he applied for a beginner’s status in his new profession. It took considerable bending and straining of me Commonwealth’s rules, but for a man of Leoh’s stature the rules could sometimes be flexed a little, Leoh became a student once again, then a researcher, and finally a professor of psychophysiology.
Out of this came the dueling machine. A combination of electroencephalograph and autocomputer, A dream machine. that amplified a man’s imagination until he could engulf himself in a world of his own making. Leoh envisioned it as a device to enable men to rid themselves of hostility and tension, safely. Certainly psychiatrists and psychotechnicians used the machines to treat their patients. But Leoh saw further, saw that—as a dueling machine—the psychonic device could be used to prevent mental tensions and disorders. And he convinced many governments to install dueling machines for that purpose.
When two men had a severe difference of opinion, deep enough to warrant legal action, they could go to the dueling machine instead of the courts. Instead of passively watching the machinations of the law grind impersonally through their differences, they could allow their imaginations free rein in the dueling machine. They could settle the argument as violently as they wished, without hurting themselves or anyone else. On most ivilized worlds, the results of properly monitored duels were accepted as legally binding.