Chapter 10 Chapter 3 Complicity

Both Dr. Darryl and Perez Ansel have lived a leisurely life in recent days. They have nothing to do during the day and are busy socializing with friends at night.Occasionally, some visitors came, and Dr. Darryl would introduce them, saying that this young man was his cousin from the far end of space.After this introduction, everyone no longer felt awkward about Ansuo's appearance. When the two of them chatted, someone's name was occasionally mentioned, followed by a moment of contemplation, and then Dr. Darryl would sometimes say "no" and sometimes "yes."If he said "yes", he would make a phone call through the communication wave and propose a very ordinary invitation to the other party: "Are you interested in meeting my cousin?"

Agatha herself had other plans, and proceeded step by step in an orderly manner.In fact, her actions can be described as quite devious.For example, for the needs of the project, she designed to lure her classmate Marisas Dan, and asked him to willingly donate his homemade sound collector.From the methods she used, it can be known that all men who come into contact with her in the future are destined to escape her palm.Simply put, since Marisas often likes to brag about his spare-time hobbies—he has a private laboratory and likes to do things by himself, she deliberately showed interest in Marisas's hobby, and Subtly shifted the interest gradually to Marisas's chunky figure.As a result, this unfortunate fool found himself doing the following things unknowingly: (1) talked about a lot of principles of superwave motors; Those big, bright eyes of his own; (3) placing his greatest masterpiece - the aforementioned sound collector - into Arcadia's outstretched hands.

Afterwards, Argatia began to perfunctory Marisas and gradually alienated him.She did it just enough not to make him suspect that the sound collector was the only reason for the friendship.For several months, Marisas regurgitated that brief happy time in his heart, but since there was no progress from then on, he finally had to give up and let this first love slip away from his life. On the evening of the seventh night after Perris Ansel's arrival, five gentlemen gathered in the Darryls' living room, all well fed and puffing.Upstairs, Agatha was sitting next to a desk on which was Marisas's homemade masterpiece—a sound collector that was the least likely of any sound collector.

Of course the five people in the living room included Dr. Darryl, a grizzled, well-dressed man who, although only forty-two, looked older than he really was.Perris Ansel had a serious expression at this time, his eyes wandered, and he looked young and unconfident.There are also three never-before-seen characters—Joel Tubber, a tall newscaster with thick lips; There seemed to be plenty of gaps in there; Houmyer Moon was a librarian, with a lanky figure and a perpetually anxious expression. At this time, Dr. Darryl began to speak, his tone was relaxed and natural: "Gentlemen, besides the social purpose, there is another reason for this party, and I think you have already guessed it. Due to the special background of everyone , will be carefully selected by us, and it should not be difficult for everyone to guess the danger involved. I will not pretend to be relaxed, but I also want to point out that we will not be able to get away anyway."

"Presumably you have noticed that my invitation to everyone is aboveboard, and I have not invited anyone to sneak in. The windows of my house are not set to pretend to be empty, and there are no anti-theft screens around the room. Because Once the enemy is suspicious, we are doomed. And the most likely way to attract attention is to make everything too mysterious, and then make it too obvious." (Ha, Argadia chuckled inwardly. She leaned over the desk and listened carefully to the shrill sound coming from the sound collector.) "Can everyone understand this?" Evitt Cemik interjected: "Oh, please get down to business and tell us who this young man is." Before he spoke a word, his lower lip would always twitch, and more tears would come out of his face. wrinkled and exposed the entire row of teeth.

Dr. Darryl replied: "His name is Perez Ansor, and he was a student of my old colleague Kleiss. My old colleague passed away last year. A few days before his death, he had sent the details of Ansel's The brainwave patterns—from the first to the fifth—sent me a copy. I compared the patterns he sent with the brainwaves of the man in front of you, and of course you should all You know, it is impossible to forge a brain wave pattern to the fifth level, and even experts in psychological science cannot do it. If you are not familiar with this fact, you must take my word for it.” Tu Bo pouted and said, "Let's get to the point. We'll take your word for it. Now that Kleis has passed away, you are the most authoritative neuroelectrician in the galaxy. At least, my evaluation of you in the news screen is So, I believe it myself. How old are you, Yasuo?"

"Twenty-nine years old, Mr. Tu Bo." "Hmm—you're a neuroelectrician, too? An authority?" "I'm only a student, but I've worked very hard, and I've been lucky enough to be under the tutelage of Dr. Kleis." At this moment Meng En interjected a sentence: "I...I hope you can start...start talking about serious things. I think everyone talks...too much." He always stutters a little when he is nervous. Dr. Darryl raised his eyebrows at Meng En, and replied, "You're right, Hommy... Perris, go ahead." "I can't say it yet," Perris Ansuo replied slowly. "Although I agree with Mr. Meng En, before we start discussing the topic, I must ask everyone to provide brain wave data."

Darryl frowned and said, "What's going on, Yasuo? What brainwave data are you referring to?" "Brainwave patterns for each of you. You've taken my brainwaves, Dr. Darryl, and now I must take each of your brainwaves, and I'll have to do it myself." "He has no reason to trust us, Darryl, that young man has every right to do that," Tupper said. "Thank you," Ansel said. "Then, Dr. Darryl, please lead the way to your laboratory, and we will do as we say. I took the liberty of checking your equipment this morning." EEG analysis can be said to be the most cutting-edge science, and it can also be regarded as a very ancient knowledge.The reason why it is said to be ancient is due to the fact that biological nerve cells can generate weak currents, and it belongs to one of the human cultural heritages whose origins have long been untestable.It seems to have existed from the very earliest days of human history, if one could trace it back...

However, it is also the latest science—in the tens of thousands of years of history of the Galactic Empire, the phenomenon of neural currents has never been taken seriously, and it is only regarded as a wonderful and interesting piece of common sense, and most people think it is useless.Some people have tried to classify brain waves, such as walking and sleeping, calm and excited, healthy or not, and so on.But even the crudest taxonomy is bound to have a host of exceptions. In addition, some people want to prove that brain waves can also be divided into several different types like the well-known blood types.These people believe that external factors do not have a decisive influence on brain wave classification.Those who advocate this theory are somewhat racially biased, arguing that humans can be divided into several "subspecies" based on brain waves.However, under the strong ideology of the universality of the Galactic Empire, this doctrine is of course unable to make any real progress.Don't forget that the empire was a pan-galactic unified regime, including 20 million galaxies, from the central world of Trantor (its glorious and great past, now buried in the ashes of history), to any place on the outer edge of the galaxy. A lonely asteroid, every human in the galaxy is a citizen of the Empire.

In addition, in a society that focuses on the development of physical science and mechanical technology, such as the First Galactic Empire back then, there will naturally be an invisible and powerful resistance against research on the mind.Because of the lack of immediate application, mental science is generally scorned, and research funding has remained pitifully low because of its lack of utility. After the collapse of the First Empire, all kinds of science also suffered the fate of disintegration. They have been declining, declining, and declining to the point where even the basic nuclear energy has been forgotten, and they only know how to use the chemical energy of coal and oil.Of course, there is one exception, and that is the First Base—it continues the legacy of science, maintains the fire of technology, and can continue to flourish.It's just that on the first base, there is still a situation where physical science dominates.For the study of the human brain, except for surgery, other areas are still untapped virgin land.

Hari Seldon was the first to point out the importance of the science of the mind, and his following statement is held to be true by posterity: "Neural microcurrents carry all human responses and impulses—both conscious and subconscious. The brainwave patterns recorded on graph paper seem to be just trembling, undulating peaks and troughs, but in fact, they can reflect the thinking pulse of billions of cells. Analyzing and studying the brainwave patterns, theoretically Can reveal any tiny thoughts and emotions. In addition to differences caused by congenital or acquired physical defects, changes in brain waves caused by intangible factors should also be detected, including emotional changes, different education and experiences, and even tested subtle elements of the author's philosophy of life." But even Seldon could do nothing more than speculate. In the past fifty years, the scientists of the First Base have finally opened up a brand new treasure trove of knowledge.Of course, the breakthrough in their research methods is mainly due to the gift of advanced technology.For example, a newly developed technology allows electrodes to pass through the cranial slits and directly contact brain cells without having to shave a hair.In addition, the newly invented device can automatically record brainwave data, not only for comprehensive recording, but also for automatically separating six independent variables. Perhaps the most significant development, however, has been the growing emphasis on EEG science and EEG scholars.Kleiss had been one of the best in the science, and when he went to academic conferences he was on a par with physicists.Although Dr. Darryl is no longer active in the scientific community, his outstanding contributions to brain wave analysis have already made him famous.Although his mother was Betta Darryl, the greatest heroine of the last generation, Dr. Darryl's fame is only half based on that fact and half on his own accomplishments. Dr. Darrell now sits on a recliner in his lab, feeling soft electrodes touching his skull as if without a touch.At the same time, the pointer sealed in the vacuum container began to swing back and forth, but he couldn't see it because his back was facing the recorder—according to the well-known facts, if the subject saw those jumping curves, the subconscious would want to control their variation, thus causing non-negligible errors.But Dr. Darryl knew very well that the central dial showed a very regular curve with only small changes.Since he's mentally strong and well-trained, that's definitely to be expected.After the output signal is amplified and filtered, the brain waves of the cerebellum can be displayed on another dial.In addition, the brain waves emitted from the frontal lobe have sharp and almost discontinuous jumps; while the brain waves in the surface area have a relatively narrow frequency range, and there will be no violent oscillations... He knows his brainwave patterns as well as an artist knows the color of his eyes. When Darryl got up from the couch, Percy Ansel didn't make any comments.He just studied the seven curves carefully, looking all the way through quickly and without omission.From these seemingly meaningless records, he was able to see clearly and knew what he should look for. "Next I would like to invite Dr. Cermick." Cermick's sallow old face looked very serious.EEG analysis was a new science, and his knowledge was rather limited, so he didn't have a good impression of this new subject.He knew he was getting old, and the brainwave pattern would reflect that fact.Of course, his wrinkled face, stooped walk, and trembling hands made him look old.But those are just physiological phenomena, but the brain wave pattern will prove that even his mind is aging.His last line of defence, his own soul, was now about to be breached, too embarrassing and unwilling. The electrodes were placed quickly, and the whole process was extremely smooth from beginning to end, and of course it was painless.The electrodes will only bring very weak stimulation, which is far below the threshold of human perception. Next it was Tu Bo's turn. During the fifteen minutes, he sat comfortably on the recliner without showing any discomfort.Finally it was Meng En's turn, and just as the electrode touched him, he twitched in fright, his eyes rolled and stopped, as if he wanted to turn his eyes to the back and observe the measurement process through the back of his head. "You should be satisfied now," Darryl said when it was all over. "It's too early to tell," Ansuo replied apologetically, "There is another person in the house." Daryl frowned and said, "You mean my daughter?" "Yes, you remember, I asked her to stay at home tonight." "For an EEG analysis? Jesus, why on earth are you doing this?" "I have to do it, otherwise nothing will happen." Darryl shrugged and walked towards the stairs.Agathia had heard these conversations, and when Darryl entered her room, she turned off the microphone just in time, and obediently followed her father downstairs.When she was a baby, she had undergone a basic psychic type test for identity registration.Besides, it was the first time in her life that so many electrodes were inserted into her head. When the measurement was over, she held out her hand and asked, "Can I have a look?" Dr. Darryl said, "You don't understand, Arcadia. Shouldn't you go to bed?" "Yes, Daddy," she said in mockery, "good night, uncles." She hurried upstairs, changed her clothes as quickly as possible, and jumped on the bed immediately.She put Marisas's sound collector next to the pillow, and felt an unprecedented excitement. She felt as if she was a character in a film book, and she was engaged in a secret "espionage activity". The first sentence she heard on the bed was Ansel's: "Gentlemen, all the analyzes are normal, and there is nothing wrong with that child." "Kid"—she was upset and made a face at Ansel in the dark room. At this moment, Ansuo had already opened his suitcase, and took out dozens of brain wave records from it.These records are not original, but the suitcase still uses a special lock.Even if others get the key, they will touch the mechanism when opening it, causing the internal data to oxidize into unrecognizable ashes immediately.Although Ansuo took it out by himself now, these records will be automatically turned into ashes in half an hour. In this short half hour, Ansuo bought time and said quickly: "These records belong to a few small officials in Anacreon, this is a psychologist from Lucquise University, and this is an industrialist from Sivina. Home, I don’t need to introduce the others.” Everyone huddled together, but only Darryl saw the meaning in the records.All others see are the many quivering ripples printed on the parchment. Ansuo lightly pointed to one of them, and said to everyone: "Dr. Darryl, please pay attention to those secondary ripples in the frontal lobe, please pay attention to the corresponding plateau area, these records have this common feature. Do you want to use My analytical ruler, to check my claims?" The analytical ruler Yasuo held was a distant relative to the logarithmic slide rule used by kindergarteners—as if skyscrapers were related to small huts.Darryl took the analytical ruler, manipulated it skillfully, and then drew the measurement results by hand.As Ansuo said, the brain waves in the frontal lobe have a gentle plateau, but logically it should be a curve with strong oscillations. "How do you explain this phenomenon, Dr. Darryl?" Ansel asked. "I can't be sure. Before I do further research, I don't know how it is possible to have this result. Even severe amnesia should only cause a depressive effect instead of eliminating the ripples. Perhaps, it is the movement Major brain surgery?" "Oh, something has been cut off." Ansuo yelled impatiently, "Yes! But it's not a physical operation. You know, the mule back then had a way to do this, he could put people's hearts into Certain emotions or thoughts are completely suppressed, causing the corresponding brain waves to become a straight line. Or..." "Or the second base can also do it, can't it?" Tu Bo asked, and at the same time slowly revealed a smile. There was no need to answer the question "Is it?" he asked. "How did you start noticing this, Mr. Ansel?" Meng En asked. "It's not me, it's Dr. Kleiss. He's devoted his life to collecting brainwave patterns, just like the planetary police do, but with different targets. He specializes in collecting brainwave patterns from intellectuals, government officials, and business leaders. You know, If the Second Foundation is in charge of the historical development of the galaxy - our development, it is obvious that they will have to do it subtly and with minimal intervention. If they use It is a method to control the minds of others—in fact, it must be the case, so the selected minds must be influential people, including cultural circles, business circles, and political circles, so Dr. Kleis pays special attention to these people.” "Oh," retorted Meng, "but is there any solid evidence? Is there anything unusual about these people—I mean those with plateaus in their brainwaves? Maybe it's a perfectly normal phenomenon." He looked around guiltily, and looked at the others with his childish blue eyes, but he didn't see a hint of encouragement. "I'll leave that question to Dr. Darryl," Ansel said. "You can ask him, in his research career for so many years, or in the academic report literature of the past generation, has he ever seen this phenomenon?" How many times have you seen it? Then you can ask him, in the sample studied by Dr. Kleiss, what is the probability that such an example occurs on average for every thousand people?" "These are mental states that have been altered by external forces," Darryl said in a thoughtful tone, "I think there is no doubt about it. Their hearts have all been disturbed. Doubt this..." "I know, Dr. Darryl," Ansel said. "I also know that you have worked with Dr. Kleiss. I want to know why you quit halfway." There was really no hostility in the question, the motive might have been pure caution, but in any case it produced a long silence.Darryl stared at each guest in turn, and finally said candidly: "Because Krys' long fight is meaningless, his opponent is far superior to him. What he wants to prove is that we— - He and I - know one thing well, that we are just puppets for other people. However, I do not wish to know the truth! I have my ego, and I would rather believe that the Foundation is the true leader of its own members , and our ancestors did not sacrifice for no reason. I dare not face the reality, and the easiest way is not to continue to study. As long as I am not sure, I will not feel so painful in my heart. I am not I need that position, the perpetual salary that the government gave to my mother is enough to take care of the simple life of my family, my private laboratory can help me pass the time, and the day will always be over... But now Krys is dead..." Cermick showed his entire row of teeth first, and then said: "That guy named Kles, I don't know him, how did he die?" An Suo interjected: "He is dead. He has foreseen the time of his death. More than half a year ago, he told me that he is getting closer..." "And now we're getting...closer, right?" Meng En asked.His mouth felt parched, and his Adam's apple kept moving up and down. "That's right," Ansuo replied in a flat tone, "but anyway, we—all of us—were doomed, and that's why we invited you to come here. I'm Krys A student of Dr. Darrell, who was once a colleague. Joel Tubbs was finally fired by the government after he blatantly criticized our blind reliance on Second Foundation on the radio program-maybe I should mention by the way that the government uses It is a trick to kill with a knife, and it is a rich and powerful capitalist who comes forward, and the brain waves of that capitalist have what Kleiss called the "disturbance plateau". Houmil Munn collected the most complete "Muleology" privately. 'The literature—I'm using that word on purpose to refer to various sources on mules—and several papers have been published speculating on the nature and function of Second Foundation. Mathematics has done great things, but I don't think even he knew that the mathematics he developed could be applied in this respect." Cermick's eyes widened, and he couldn't breathe with a smile.He said, "I don't know. You know, boy, I work on intranuclear motion—that's the many-body problem, and I don't know anything about EEG." "So, now we all know where we stand. Of course, the government is completely helpless on this issue, and I don't know if the mayor, or anyone under him, has understood the seriousness of the problem. But I do know that the five of us Anyway, it is already a dead end, if we come forward, we may still have a chance to turn things around. The more we know, the safer our situation will be, and everything is just beginning now, everyone should understand." "The infiltration conducted by the second base," Tu Bo interjected, "how extensive is the scope?" "I don't know, but I can tell you that the infiltration phenomena we have discovered so far are only in the peripheral areas, and the capital world may not have been affected. But this is not completely certain-otherwise, I don't need to check you at all Dr. Darryl, you are actually the most suspicious person. Do you know that because you broke up with Clays halfway, Clays never forgave you. I once guessed that maybe the Second Foundation bought you, But Krys has always insisted that you are a coward. Please don't take offense, Dr. Darryl, I just want to show my position when I say this. I-I think I can understand your mind, if you are really a coward If so, it really makes sense.” Darryl took a deep breath before replying, "I did run away! Say what you will, I tried to keep our friendship alive, but he hasn't written or called since. Give it to me. Until that day, I received your brain wave data, and he passed away a week later..." "I'm sorry," Hommyer Moon interrupted, and then said nervously and reassuringly, "I don't think you can figure out . . . Non-stop, non-stop, non-stop talking, then we're just a bunch of conspiratorial people who only know what to do... anyway, I don't see what we can do, it's really... very naive , What brain... a lot of nonsense such as brain waves, have you thought of any specific actions?" Perris Ansel's eyes suddenly lit up: "Of course, we need to collect more information about the Second Foundation. This is the most important thing. During the first five years of the mule's rule of the galaxy, he He once tried to explore the whereabouts of the second base, but failed in the end—or, everyone thought he had failed. However, he suddenly stopped searching. Why? Because he failed? Or because he succeeded? ?” "Still... still playing lip service," Meng En said in a bitter tone, "How do we know?" "Please listen to me patiently. Back then, the mules were based in Kalgen. Before the rise of the mules, Kalgen was not in the base's trading power network, and it still is. Now Kalgen is ruled by a warlord named Stettin —unless there is another court revolution tomorrow. He calls himself First Citizen and the Mule's successor. If there's any tradition in that world, it's the fetish of the Mule's superhuman abilities—a strong tradition It’s almost superstitious. As a result, Mule’s mansion is now a temple, and the government is doing its best to maintain it. Ordinary people are not allowed to enter, and all the things inside are still intact.” "So what?" "Well, why is this happening? Today is an era where things happen for a reason. What if the Mule's mansion is intact and not due to superstition? What if it was arranged by the Second Foundation? Simply put , if the result of the mule's five years of exploration is in it..." "Oh, blah... blah blah blah." "Why not?" Yasuo asked back. "Second Foundation has been elusive since the beginning, and has maintained minimal interference in galactic affairs. I know that in our view, it would be more reasonable to destroy that mansion, or at least it should be destroyed." The materials in it are removed. But you must try to figure out the psychology of those master psychologists. They are all Seldons and mules; A state of mind that protects the data in it enough that they don't want to destroy it or move it away. Don't you?" No one answered right away, so Ansuo continued: "And you, Meng En, are our best candidate. You must help us get the information." "Me?" This sentence was actually a roar full of astonishment.Then Meng En quickly looked around everyone, and said, "I won't do this kind of thing. I'm neither an activist nor a supervision hero. I'm just a librarian. If I can help you in the library If you’re doing me a favor, then I’ll go all out and take the risk to help you find a second base. But I never want to go to space and do crazy…crazy things.” "Listen," Ansel said patiently, "Dr. Darryl and I agree that you are the best candidate, and it will only look most natural if you go. You said you are a librarian, very good !What topic are you most interested in? It is 'Mule Studies'! Looking at the Milky Way today, no one can compare your collection of materials about mules. Naturally, you will want to collect more materials in this area, so your motivation is more than Be simple, everyone. If you apply to enter the Mule Temple in Kalgan, no one will suspect you of other motives. Your application may be rejected, but no suspicion will be raised. Besides, you have a one-man spaceship Yachting, and everyone knows that you travel to exotic planets on that yacht every summer vacation, and you have been to Kalgen. You just have to do it the way you used to, don’t you understand? ?” "But I can't just say so rashly: Will you...can you grant me access to your holiest sanctuary, Your Excellency the... First Citizen?" "Why not?" "Because, the Galaxy is above, it is impossible for him to approve it!" "Okay, if he doesn't agree, then you come back right away, and we'll think of other ways." Meng En showed an expression of extreme reluctance, silently looking around at the other four people.He felt that he was about to be persuaded to do something he did not want to do.But none of the other people present was willing to lend a helping hand to him. And so, before the night was over, two decisions were made at Dr. Darryl's house.The first one is Meng En's decision. He reluctantly promised everyone that once the summer vacation starts, he will immediately go to space. The second decision came from an informal member of the party.When Arcadia turned off her sound collector and was finally getting ready for bed, she made an important private decision.As for its content, it is not important to us now. On second base, another week passed.Now, the chief speaker once again greeted the disciple with a wide smile. "You must have discovered something interesting, otherwise you wouldn't be full of anger." The disciple pressed the bundle of calculation papers he brought with his hand, and said, "Are you sure this question is true?" "The premise is absolutely true, and I haven't changed it at all." "Then, I have to accept the result of the calculation, but I don't want to accept it." "Naturally, but what do your own hopes have to do with it? Well, tell me what it is that worries you. No, no, put your derivation aside and I'll analyze it later. Now, use your own Tell me, and let me judge how well you understand the subject."