Chapter 8 chapter eight

The engine hummed in the distance.In the bushes as tall as a person, Handel was out of breath, and ran hard in the direction of the sound. Perhaps it had been a mistake to have Troppel in the Wolves.This guy is simply more human than wolf—well, never mind that, Handel thought.To be fair, of course his wolf nature is greater than human nature, but his wolf nature has been stained by sheep blood.He is a wolf when he fights; but no matter what, he will not give up some sheep behavior.Meditation enlightenment is one of them.He had been warned not to meditate, but had he ever given up?He didn't.

If everything had been left to Handel, Tropel would have been dismissed long ago.Either go back to the flock in despair, or be killed.Fortunately for Troppel, Handel cannot completely call the shots here.Wolves have their own rules, and there is no such thing as democracy in a society of wolves, but here the leader must also be bound by the voters, that is, the leader must not make mistakes.Like the big bad wolf in defense of its pups, it has to do its job; and it has to do it impeccably.If the little wolf pup makes a mistake, the pack will pull it down from the throne of the wolf. One of the voters, Inison, thought they needed Troppel—either because they didn't care about the humanity they hated in him, or on the contrary, because they liked it.

Handel yelled at the top of his voice: "Troppel! Where are you, Tropel?" There was no echo, only the chug of the engine accompanied by gusts of wind.Handel was furious. He has important things to do and has no time to find someone.But where would Troppel go?No one was seen, only the newly plowed field, the regular furrow, the engine humming endlessly at the end of the field, and a small burning fire—isn’t that Troppel?Handel stopped suddenly.His mouth was wide open, and he was about to call Tropel's name, but he froze all of a sudden, unable to make a sound. It was Troppel.I saw him focused, his eyes motionless like the eyes of dead fish, staring at the fire and the boiling water pot in front of him, already in meditation.Above hangs impressively the lens-like mysterious thing that frightened Handel the most: air eyes.

Handel didn't know what that air eye was, but he only knew that Tropel was about to be saved by it... What exactly is it?Maybe only time will tell.Handel bowed back into the head-high grass, knelt on the ground, took out the walkie-talkie from his pocket, and called eagerly: "Innison! Innison! For God's sake, get Innison! "After a few seconds, the other party replied.It was Inison. "Listen, Inison! Haven't you been looking for Troppel in meditation? Here you have found it! South corner of the old wheat field, under the elm tree by the creek. Do you hear me? Come quickly, Inison —that gas eye is appearing above him!"

Fortunately!What a blessing!As if prepared for this in advance.It turned out that Inison had just prepared the helicopter for the attack on the pyramid, and all the instruments needed to measure the various data of the pyramid's glow had been installed on the plane, waiting to be called at any time.After hearing the news, Inison immediately flew over by plane.A few minutes later, Troppel heard the drone of a helicopter and saw the propeller blades whirling over the hedge before landing in the clearing behind the elms.Handel carefully raised himself up and took a look.Well, Troppel is still there, and so is the gas eye over him.Only the sound of the plane disturbed the psychedelic magic: Troppel was a little distracted, and the airy eyes trembled and wobbled - but it didn't disappear.

Thank goodness!Handel hurried around the elm forest, rushed to the helicopter, pressed various switches nervously with Innesson, and adjusted the lens... Troppel sat there, the gas eye in the sky getting bigger and bigger, getting closer and closer to the top of his head.Handel and Inison watched nervously.They still have time, a minute - enough.They had turned every instrument on the plane on the silent, ignorant Troppel, just waiting for him to disappear—at last he disappeared. As the air refilled the space left by Troppel's disappearance, there was a muffled sound that made Handel and Innesson hunched over in fright.

"Get the data you want," said Handel gruffly. "Let's read the gauges." All of the surveying equipment onboard for the expedition to the pyramids—everything they could design and build—were pointed at Troppel throughout the transition, and the resulting data was sent to the recorder, whose 24 The data was recorded by a magnetic head on a spinning tape at 100 feet per second.At the moment of transcendence, the changes in the surrounding electric field, gravitational field, magnetic field, radiation, molecular shape and other factors in microseconds were also recorded.

It took them less than a minute to rush back to Inison's laboratory from the observation site, but it took them several hours to input the tape data into the computer for processing and draw the corresponding curve on the coordinate paper .According to these curves, Inison studied the degree of excess and came to a conclusion. "There's no mystery. I mean, there's nothing mysterious about the whole thing except the speed," he said. "Want to know what happened to Troppel?" "Of course I want to know," said Handel. "A static current created by the pinching effect of the plasma is launched from the direction of Sakya-Mata - God knows how they deal with the altitude factor interference - Tropel and surrounding areas are charged and positively charged The charge is huge, exceeding the reading of the instrument, and cannot be read. Then the electrostatic beam separates the target object, causing the target object to bounce vertically, and then apply force to correct the direction of motion at a distance of one meter from the ground. Finally, we found that Troppel moved toward the pyramid At high speed in the direction of the symmetric planet. Note that I said high speed. This speed is so fast that the time for him to reach the symmetric planet is less than a fraction of a second. I think he is still alive when he arrives, because in the case of charging, human protein The time it takes from congealing to lethal is a fraction of a second. If they had released his charge as soon as they arrived - and I think they would - he would have survived."

"That friction—" "The strange thing is the friction problem," Inison said quietly. "He has only a layer of air around him, but there is no friction. How can there be no friction? I don't know. Without a strong electric charge to hold the air Now, how do they keep him alive in space? I don't know. Could it travel faster than the speed of light without a charge? I don't know either. I can only tell you what happened, but not how." Handel stood up thoughtfully. "It's an urgent question," he said sullenly. "Understanding how the overshoot occurs is far more important than getting the data."

"We'll figure it out," Handel assured him. "Now, Innesson, you know what to look for. Keep track, turn on the tracking equipment twenty-four hours a day, and turn on any machinery that might detect alien signals. , and send someone to supervise. Once you find any new signals—including signals that are temporarily uncertain, you must report to me. Whether I am eating, sleeping, or having sex, I must report, do you hear me? Pyle, you may be right, he is indeed useful to us, and perhaps he will become a roundworm in the stomach of the pyramids, disturbing their peace."

"It's a shame they took him away. We could have gotten more data," Inison said thoughtfully, rattling back the tape. "It's a pity?" Handel laughed loudly. "Inneson, maybe it's not a pity at all. This time, they have provoked a difficult wolf." Sure enough, the pyramids imported a wolf—no small feat for them. Human knowledge of the pyramids is limited to some unreliable speculation, but it is obvious that they cannot distinguish humans from wolves. The old nest of the pyramid, the symmetrical star of the earth, is a small, dark, airless and waterless planet, the entire surface is covered with houses, and power facilities are installed in many houses. Throughout the planet's history, technology has run amok in pursuit of war, luxury, politics and leisure.Later, the sun it orbited gradually died out, and the intelligent components for the pyramid's input on nearby planets were also drying up.Then the pyramids, using the last batch of smart components, continue to perform their division and propulsion functions, pushing their planets away from the original orbiting stars. They know where to push the planet. A pyramid is a radio astronomy observatory. Its performance is so precise and powerful that earth radio astronomers can't even dream of it.After leaving the original star and running alone in space, the pyramid made various navigation instruments to make up for the lack of simplicity and dullness of its senses.Except for a small number of "staff", all pyramids are put into a kind of dormant state in order to reduce activities to a minimum, reduce energy consumption, and then go straight to the earth.They have every reason to believe that more of the smart components they need can be found on Earth.Their estimates were right. An intelligent mechanism carrier such as Troppel is one of the intelligent components.The pyramid chose him instead of others simply because he matured before others. The philosophy or principles pursued by Troppel make him one of the optional components, and the meditation derived from Zen Buddhism is like the fruit blown by the wind, an unexpected harvest for the pyramid. 【① Later, it is mentioned that the person who was transferred to the symmetrical star found water in the pipeline, which seems to be contradictory here.Perhaps the "water" here refers to natural water, and the "water" mentioned later refers to synthetic water.Although the original text does not say so, readers may wish to understand it this way. ——Translator's Note. 】 【②One of the sects of Buddhism, which mainly focuses on meditation. ——Translator's Note. 】 Of course, they don't know anything about meditation itself, and they don't care, because it doesn't matter. They only know that at a certain moment, some underlying intelligent mechanisms are no longer unavailable, but like crops are ripe, ready to be harvested, and can be used as intelligent components.When harvesting, it would be nice if this intelligent mechanism could remain blank with no information stored.This is important because it saves you the trouble of clearing residual information. Troppel was harvested at the very moment when the brain was suppressed and empty.What the pyramid needs is a blank intelligent mechanism, and is not interested in a mechanism with will and perception.What they want to use is only the sensory instinct of the human brain and its nerves.The human brain has a jump function that can switch and close, and the code of this function is expressed by the Rashevsky large number that is larger than the astronomical number, and the pyramid uses the Rashevsky large number. To put it bluntly, the pyramid uses the subliminal consciousness of the human brain—a physiological phenomenon that is not restricted by consciousness and directly responds instinctively to stimuli, also known as conditioned reflex. Under conditioned reflex, people's subconscious behavior skips the screening process of the brain, without going through the right and wrong judgments such as "should or should not".This is very different from conscious rational behavior. Only a human brain with subconscious behavior could be an ideal intelligent component.Let's just say you don't want your bedroom light switch to have a will of its own.When you want to turn on the light, you pull the switch, and you hope that the switch will turn on as you requested, not the other way around; the same is true when you turn off the light.Imagine that your switch suddenly has its own independent will one day. When you want to turn on the light, it will not turn on, and when you want to turn off the light, it will not turn off. What should you do?Isn't the situation the same for the pyramids?Smart components are among the materials used in industrial centers that convert decomposed food materials into synthetic ones. Using the long-term experience accumulated since its planetary escape, Pyramid successfully obtained the part of the white board ① of Troppel.He was processed into a complete piece of ice and carried by a layer of air to the symmetrical star.When he sat in meditation, his brain was empty, and he was in a state of mental anesthesia like a drunkard. At that moment, he was quick-frozen by the pyramid and turned into a big piece of ice.When landing, Pyramid used an electric charge layer cushion to relieve the huge impact of the big ice, making it land safely, and immediately released all the static charges on his body. [①Philosophical terms.Refers to a person's pure mind unaffected by the outside world and his own experience. ——Translator's Note. 】 At this moment he is still a person, a sleeping person. He has been asleep.The circular magnetic field—the lifting device of the pyramid—lifted him up and slowly moved him into a large, loose and comfortable tank, which was filled with curing fluid.There are also many of the same spare large tanks placed around. The big slot can move by itself.The big trough where Troppel was located moved to a feeding station.There are also many large slots in the center, all of which are occupied.This place is a new parts receiving place, and the temperature in the room is adjusted to be very warm-this is entirely due to the needs of new parts preservation.Previously, the Pyramids had never wasted energy for such extravagant comforts.In this room, Troppel slowly showed some signs of life: his heart began to beat again, his suffocated lungs tried to breathe, and his chest could be seen slightly heaving and pulsating.But gradually the rise and fall of the chest became smaller and smaller, and finally stopped.In fact, the beating of the heart and the breathing of the lungs are superfluous, and the maintenance solution in the large tank has provided all the conditions necessary for life activities. The Troppel is "plugged into the line" via a wire. The so-called "access line" here is just a reluctant term, not entirely literal, but a small, sterilized and specially made electrode inserted into the main nerve connected to the olfactory brain.The olfactory brain contains the pleasure center of human beings, which is where the motivation of human behavior is (more than 1,000 parts of the pyramid were destroyed and discarded to gain the experience of accurately locating the pleasure center). Well, the connecting wires input a few pulses to the pleasure center, filling Troppel's body with animal-like pleasure and satisfaction as a reward for his correct execution of instructions.This is what the connecting wire does.After a while, when the wires were removed, Troppel had learned how to do all his work, that is, the conditioned reflex had been established. During his long effective use period as an intelligent component, as long as the same stimulus is given, this conditioned reflex will happen again and again. Parts may have a very long useful life.In the maintenance tank next to Troppel lay an eight-legged animal part with chitin fringes around its eyes.It has been lying here for 125,000 Earth-solar years. Components after conditioned reflexes were established were put into use.Now it is such an object: the eyes can open and see things; the limbs can feel things with normal touch; the hands and toes can also move and operate. Where is our Troppel? Where is he?This object is Tropel, all of him, a reanimated corpse: without will and memory.Now he is a machine himself, and at the same time a part of a larger machine.His gender is the polarity of the photocell, his political leaning is the performance leaning of the transistor, and his desire is the closing desire of the mercury switch.He only knows two things: input and output, and he knows nothing about other instincts, such as sex, fear, hope, and so on. The input came from the blinking of the lights on the control panel opposite him, and the vibration waves from the speakers in the curing fluid and sent to his eardrums. The information output is the command issued by him by pressing certain keys on the control panel under the stimulation of different input signals. Now, Glenn Troppel is a black box of the human body that holds the codes of Rashevsky's large number of switches, lying in the maintenance tank, receiving input signals and issuing corresponding instructions.Besides, he is nothing. The specific function assigned to him was to monitor a chemical called "3,7,12-trihydroxycholic acid".This chemical is an essential raw material for the production of another chemical, Protoporphyrin 9.Protoporphyrin No. 9 is a catabolism product, which is the "food" for the pyramid to carry out metabolism.There are 517 operating steps involving the use of 3,7,12-trihydroxycholic acid in the process of synthesizing protoporphyrin No. 9, all of which must be completed by the part of Troppel. In addition to Tropel, there are other components in the workshop, all of which have their own functions, and Tropel is the only component that monitors the tasks of the above operation steps. 3,7,12-Trihydroxycholic acid was stored in some large jars a mile away.Troppel knows its concentration, temperature, and pressure, as well as the various impurities that affect the reaction.He lightly moved his fingers, pressed the buttons, and issued a series of binary code instructions to control the opening and closing of various valves.He can accurately grasp the opening and closing time of the valve, and the time is not bad; it can discharge liquid materials with a certain temperature and a certain volume; it can control the agitator to stir with a certain force for a certain period of time. If there is an error in one of the 517 large and small steps, he—it? - Will decide whether to take one of the following measures for remediation: ★Scrap the batch of liquid material; ★Close the relevant valves, isolate the liquid material, and make it flow back along the loop; ★Take emergency measures to troubleshoot. In the absence of rational norms and human constraints, components exert extraordinary capabilities.All kinds of complex light signals and sound signals can be quickly received, evaluated, and become one of the basis for decision-making. It—he? —Alive? This question makes no sense.It works and is a perfect machine.That's what Pyramid is all about.Apart from conditioned reflexes to its prescribed functions, its own consciousness is nothing more than "the sound of a slap": zero, void, samadhi, puppet. [①In Hinduism and Buddhist philosophy, it refers to the highest state of concentration that a person can achieve when he is still bound by the body, which is a state of unconsciousness and coma. ——Translator's Note. 】 It works continuously for a period of time—minutes or months—until the required amount of protoporphyrin-9 is produced.During the work, it feels happy (as long as the operation process does not fail, it will feel happy, this conditioned reflex has been established in advance). After the work is over, it will automatically turn off, and send a task end signal, and then be put aside, in the Freeze state for future re-enabling. This part was not taken from an ordinary person, but from a special wolf.But this distinction doesn't matter to the pyramid, it's all the same.As long as it works properly.