Chapter 28 Bouquet for Algernon - Into Chaos

Bouquet for Algernon - Into Chaos "June 11th" When we arrived at the 'Shamus Hotel' in Chicago, everything was in chaos.First of all, there was a mistake in the hotel, and repeated reservations prevented us from staying in the originally arranged room. We had to stay in a nearby 'independent hotel' for one night.Nima was very unhappy about this and became very irritable.He took it as a personal affront, and quarreled with everyone in the hotel—from the doorman to the manager.While you're waiting in the lobby, almost everyone in charge of this has run away to go to a higher-ups supervisor to see what else can be done.

While waiting in the chaos, more and more tenants poured into the hall, and the waiters hurriedly transported batch after batch of luggage into the hall with small trolleys, and more and more people piled up beside us. Too much luggage almost surrounded us.Some were also members of the Psychological Society who hadn't seen each other for almost a year when they came to this meeting and met in the lobby, pointed out and greeted each other enthusiastically, the atmosphere made us feel awkward standing there overwhelmed, Nima Therefore, I was in a hurry to find the organizer of the International Psychological Association to settle the matter.

After some negotiations, there is still no room for change, we still have to stay in the 'Independent Hotel' for one night. After moving into the 'Independent Hotel', we were surprised to find that most of the young psychologists actually stayed here and that the first night party was held here.They've all heard about Nima's experiments, and most of them know who I am, so wherever we go, people come to me with questions about everything from the latest reformed tax system to Finland's recently discovered There are archaeological remains.This kind of situation is a kind of test for me, but because I have stored a lot of common sense in my mind in the past days, I can handle it with ease.However, Nima felt very uncomfortable seeing me being the object of everyone's pursuit.

Later, a young female clinical doctor from Formouth College came to ask me if I knew the reason for my previous mental retardation. I replied that Professor Nima should answer this question. Nima has been waiting for this opportunity to show his professional authority for a long time. When answering the question, he put his hand on my shoulder.This is the first time he has treated me like this since we have known each other for so long.He said: "Charlie suffered from a kind of PKU disease-phenylketonic acid mental infantilism since childhood. We don't fully know the cause of it. It should be an unusual biochemical or genetic abnormal state. When he was in the fetal stage, It may be affected by natural radiation or ionizing radiation, or even invaded by viruses; that is to say, dissimilation and abnormal production of malignant biochemical reactions, and the newly produced amino acids conflict with normal enzymes, resulting in damage to the brain. destroy."

The young female doctor who asked the question didn't expect that Nima would give a long answer, so she frowned.Nima finally seized this opportunity to publish, and continued to develop the original question regardless of whether she was willing to listen or not. "I call this phenomenon competitive inhibition of enzymes. Let me give you an example of how it works. The enzyme produced by the malignant gene is like a wrong key inserted in the chemical lock of the central nervous tissue. Keeping the right key, which is the benign enzyme, inaccessible. When that happens, what happens? The protein that causes the damage to the brain tissue can't be regenerated."

"However, if regeneration is really impossible," a young psychologist who had just joined this small informal presentation suddenly inserted a question, "won't Mr. Gordon here now be mentally retarded forever?" "Ah!" Nima yelled happily, as if he had met his opponent. "As I said earlier, damaged tissue cannot regenerate, but not the process itself. There are many researchers who reverse the process by injecting chemicals containing malignant enzymes to change the molecular structure that is in the way. Our technology center is This way. However, we first remove the damaged part of the brain, and then transplant the brain cells that have undergone chemical regeneration, so that it can produce brain protein at a supernormal speed..."

"Let me excuse you, Professor Nima," I suddenly remembered something before he was about to draw a conclusion. "Has Rahajmati's research also proposed a theory similar to this one?" When Nima heard me ask this, the expression on her face quickly turned dark. "Who are you talking about?" "Rahajmati, in his article he attacked Tanida's theory of enzyme fusion, that changing the chemical structure of an enzyme would block the pathway of metabolism." "Where is the translation of this article?" He frowned and asked me. "It hasn't been translated yet, I saw it in the Hindi edition of the Journal of Psychopathology a few days ago," I said.

He looked around the audience, trying to downplay the problem. "I don't think you need to worry too much about it at the moment, the results will speak for themselves." "However, Tanida was the first to propose the use of fusion to block malignant enzymes. Now, he points out that..." "Oh! Charlie, the first person to put forward such a theory may not necessarily have a place in the final stage of experimental development. I think everyone in the audience will agree that such experiments in the United States or England will have better results than those far away in India. Or Japan did a great job. We have the best labs and equipment in the world."

"But your statement has nothing to do with Rahajmati's theory..." "This occasion is not suitable for discussing this question. I believe tomorrow's meeting can give a satisfactory answer to this question." At this point, he turned to talk to others about his former colleagues, completely excluding me and letting me stand there Speechless, with nothing to say. Later, I went to Dr. Strauss.As soon as I opened my mouth, I immediately asked him: "Okay, you used to say that I was too sensitive to him. How should I explain what happened today? Why would he be so upset when I asked him a question?"

"You make him feel that you are superior to him, and he can't accept it." "I came to ask you sincerely. For God's sake, tell me the truth." "Oh! Charlie, you can stop thinking that everyone is laughing at you. Nima can't discuss this issue today because he hasn't read the article, and he doesn't understand the language." "Don't even understand Hindi and Japanese? Come on!" "Charlie, not everyone is gifted with languages." "Then how can he refute Rahajmati's method of attacking him? Moreover, he also refuted Tanida's academic status in control law! He should know everything!"

"That's not the case," he replied thoughtfully. "These are recent paper reports, and they probably haven't been translated into English yet." "You mean you haven't read it either?" He shrugged. "I am even less talented than him in language. But I am sure that all the documents will be carefully confirmed before the final report is completed." Hearing his answer like this, I have nothing to say, but it is hard to accept the fact that they are so ignorant of their own research field. "How many languages ​​do you know?" I asked him. "French, German, Spanish and Italian, and Swedish is sufficient for communication." "Can't speak Russian, Chinese or Portuguese?" He reminded me that he was a practicing psychiatrist and brain surgeon with limited time to study languages, the only ancient languages ​​he could read were Latin and Greek, and he knew nothing of the ancient Eastern languages. Speaking of this, I can clearly see that he really wants to stop at this juncture, but I have no intention of letting go, eager to know how much he knows. Later, I finally found out. Physics: only limited to quantum magnetic field theory; geology: no knowledge of topography, stratigraphy, petrology; no knowledge of individual and general economics; elementary knowledge of mathematics-variational method I have a little understanding, but I have no contact with Banach algebras and Riemannian complex numbers.This unexpected new discovery seemed to be waiting for me to discover over the weekend. I couldn't stay at the party anymore, so I took the opportunity to sneak out, trying to find out what was going on.They were two great liars, pretending to be all-knowing geniuses, but after all, just blind mortals, pretending to be saints who could bring light to this dark world.I really don't get it, why does everyone have to lie?Why is everyone different from the surface?As I turned the corner in suspense with these thoughts, I glimpsed Burt trailing me. "Why are you here?" I asked him when he caught up with me. "Are you following me?" He shrugged no, then smiled unnaturally. "The big star of this meeting. Aren't you afraid that Chicago cowboys on bikes will follow you and chase you down the street?" "I don't like the feeling of being watched." The two of us later changed to walk side by side, he put his hands in his pockets and avoided eye contact with me. "I said take it easy, Charlie. You know the old man's been freaked out by this meeting lately because it's so important to him and he's betting his reputation on the line." "When did you get so close to him? I don't know why." I answered him sarcastically.I remember that he always complained about Nima's narrow-mindedness and impatience. "I didn't get very close to him." He retorted immediately, defending himself. "However, he did put his life's heart and soul into it. He was neither Freud, Jung, Pavlov, nor Watson incarnate, but just a mortal doing these important jobs. I still admire it His devotion, perhaps more than that, because he was a mortal doing great things, and many so-called great men were actually busy making bombs." "I hope you dare to say to his face that he is a mortal." "It doesn't matter who he thinks he is! He's a little egotistical, so what? Sometimes egoism drives a person to achieve something like this. I've seen a lot of people like him A self-affirming person is actually faking this attitude because of inner fear and insecurity." "This kind of people are superficial and ignorant, they are out-and-out fakes!" I said, "Now, I have seen their true colors, they are all a group of fakes. I really doubt Nima's character. His heart seems to be forever There was a sense of fear in both, and Strauss surprised me." Bert paused for a while, did not refute, and sighed a long breath.We turned another corner and saw a restaurant where we could sit and drink coffee. Up until this point, I hadn't turned my head to see his face, but I could tell from the sound of his answer that he was quite annoyed. up. "You think I'm wrong?" I asked him. "You have developed too fast." He replied: "Your mind has developed so well that others can't estimate your wisdom at all. The amount of knowledge you absorb is beyond the reach of others who can read for a lifetime. But because of you Developing too fast, suffering from a partial eclipse, absorbing knowledge when it comes into contact with it, but not understanding the reason-excuse me for using the word 'forgiveness'-you don't understand what forgiveness is. You call them counterfeit, but why do they He also said that he is perfect and superhuman? They are just ordinary people, and you are the genius." Burt said this in one breath, and suddenly realized that he seemed to be preaching, so he quickly stopped, and the atmosphere seemed a little strange. "It's okay to keep talking." "Have you seen Nima's wife?" "never seen it." "If you want to know why Nima always seems to be under a lot of pressure, even when the laboratory work is going well, then you should meet his wife Bazaar? Nima. You know his academic status is How did he get it? It was her wife who used the influence of her natal family to get him a place in the Weinberg Foundation. The reason why this experiment was eager to be exposed at the Psychological Society when it was not mature today was also urged by his wife Relationship. Unless you also marry a woman who rides on her husband like this, you can’t understand the situation of this kind of man.” After listening to his account of these things, I was speechless for a moment.I could see that he wanted to go back to the hotel, so I followed him back.Along the way, both of us were silent. He just said that I'm a genius, and I can't agree with him, at least not for now.Bert was just playing hard rhetorical tricks.I am unique (the word unique is more enlightened, and it can be used to replace the two words of talent or handicap to describe intelligence and mental retardation respectively. These two words have a certain narrow meaning when you hear them.) However, when unique Once the word is limited to a certain meaning, will they find another word to replace it?People seem to like to use words with less conscious labels, like unique, which can be used to describe two extreme situations at the same time.And am I going to be in this extreme situation all my life? Learning is a wonderful thing.The more you learn, the more you doubt the existence of such knowledge.A while ago, I foolishly thought I'd learn about everything—everything that happened in the world.Right now, however, I just want to be able to know if knowledge exists, even if it's just a clue. Then again, do I have enough time? Even Bert is getting impatient with me now.He thought I was impatient, and maybe others felt the same way.But they were the ones who put me in my place first.And where am I?What have I become now?The time I spend is the sum total of my life?Or is it just the equivalent of the past few months?I'd love to discuss these issues with them, but they simply don't want to spend time on it, and they don't like admitting they don't know.It's ironic to say that a mortal like Nima wants to devote himself to transforming others and making them smarter.He likes others to see him as a scientist who discovered new laws of the universe like Einstein, but like many professors, he is afraid of being ahead of his juniors and affecting his performance. I can now understand Nima's fear.He is afraid of being seen by others, but in fact he is just like a person who bumps and walks among giants, as long as one accidentally falls, his life will be ruined.At his age, he couldn't bear the blow of failure in his later years. It was a bit of a shock to discover the true nature of these people whom I had looked up and respected so much.Bert was right, I should have been patient with them.After all, it was their ideas and good work that made this experiment possible.Now that I have surpassed them, it is inevitable that I will unconsciously see the reality and despise them, but I must get rid of this bad nature. Also, I had to understand that they told me to be succinct when speaking or writing, so that others would understand that they were really talking about themselves.However, after knowing this, I am also quite afraid, because I must entrust my fate to these two giants who I thought were giants, but in fact they are not omniscient.