Chapter 30 30. Vertigo

There was a time when switching to a new address book on time became one of the important activities of every civilized person.With the advent of universal codes, there is no need for this anymore, because everyone can be found within minutes by knowing their identification number.However, human nature cannot bear the emptiness - the use of new technology eliminates a certain annoying "errand", but this technology itself quietly gives people another "errand" - one - the creation of personal interests. Program table has become a new content in human life. Now, most people rearrange their schedule of personal interests around New Year's Day or birthday.In doing this, there is absolutely no fixed goal to follow consistently.Many people like to prioritize their consoles to automatically receive various events that would be considered unthinkable from the traditional point of view, such as:

Dinosaurs, hatched from eggs. round, square. "Daxizhou" surfaced. Christ, the second coming. Huge monster of Loch-Nez, capture. And finally: The world, doomsday. Usually, out of egocentrism and professional needs, users tend to write the program list sequentially according to the terminology they are familiar with.Morgan was no exception. Among his self-programmed lists, the following items are quite unusual: Tower, for space orbits. tower, cosmic. Tower, (geo)synchronized. Elevator, cosmic. Elevators, space rails. lift, (geo)synchronized. With this schedule, it can be guaranteed that he can understand about 90% of the reports related to the design plan in time.In fact, it was in this way that he quickly gained access to all kinds of really important information.

Morgan's eyes were still sleepy when he saw the "Attention" signal on the console, the bed just in time to be retracted into the walls of his modest apartment.He pressed the two buttons of "coffee" and "organize information" at the same time, and quickly got ready to listen to the important news of the day. "Space Orbit Tower Collapsed" - the headline of the news came on the radio. Over the next ten seconds, Morgan went from disbelief to anger, then to anxiety.Morgan immediately forwarded the entire message to Warren Kingsley with the note: "Please contact me as soon as possible." Then he sat down to breakfast, but his heart was still filled with rage. Excited.In less than five minutes, Kingsley appeared on the screen.

"What's the matter, Pham?" he said, with comic humor. "We've been lucky, I must admit. I don't think there's much need to react too strongly! Maybe the guy has a point. " "What do you want to say?" Morgan's tone was clearly quite annoyed. Kingsley's face became a little embarrassed, and he stopped beating around the bush: "Aside from the technical problem, there is the psychological problem. Please consider that, Pham." The image dimmed.At this time, it is hard to say that Morgan's mental state does not carry a shadow of depression.He's used to hearing criticism and knows how to react.He also often took pleasure in polemics with equal opponents, and on the rare occasions in which he appeared to have been defeated by the opponent, he was almost never displeased.However, this unknown Bickerstaff...

However, this kind of guy will never go extinct.When Bruno, the greatest engineer of the nineteenth century, proposed to build a railway tunnel about thirty kilometers long, this man also exclaimed that it was "an appalling, unimaginable, dangerous and impractical tunnel." practical stuff”; “it is unimaginable that people can endure such painful torture” and so on—this is what the critics assert.They even said: "No one wants to be deprived of the light of the day... The noise of two trains crossing will break the nerves... No one will have the determination to take a train again..."

How familiar is the rhetoric; fellows of that sort have always embraced the maxim: "One should not do what has not been done before." Bickerstaff was such a character.He begins with a whole lot of duplicity and modesty, saying that technically he doesn't intend to criticize the space elevator, all he wants is to touch on some of the psychological problems that might arise.These problems can be summed up in one word - vertigo.In his words, a normal person has a perfectly good reason to have a fear of heights, it is an instinct; only acrobats and acrobats walking ropes are not subject to this natural response .The tallest building on earth has not reached 5,000 meters so far, and only a few people are willing to be "slid up" to the piers of the Gibraltar Bridge.

However, this is insignificant compared with the thrilling height of the Space Orbital Tower. "Is there such a man in the world," said Bickerstaff eloquently, "if he could ever once do it: stand at the foot of a gigantic building and look up the sheer wall, without finally feeling That building seemed to be capsized and toppled down? Now you can imagine: this is a towering structure, it - straight up into the dark universe, around the orbit of all the giant space stations, and Going on and on, until it's more than half the way to the Moon! It's a technical feat, there's no doubt about it, but psychologically it's a terrible thing. Those who would lose their minds at the very thought of such things, and who could actually endure the dizzying vertical ascent through the vacuum of twenty-five thousand kilometers to the first stop on the 'central' space station, How many can you find?"

"It is absolutely unconvincing to argue that ordinary people can ascend to much higher altitudes in spaceships. Spaceships are essentially no different from airplanes. As far as ordinary people are concerned, even sitting in a spaceship He will not feel dizzy in a balloon basket thousands of meters above the ground. But if you let him stand on the edge of a cliff at the same height, then you should observe his reaction carefully!" Buicker Stafford went on eloquently: "The reason for this difference is extremely simple. In an airplane, the observer has no physical connection with our planet. Therefore, the observer is completely separated psychologically from the earth far below him. No thought of falling would cause him fear, so he could calmly look down at the distant scenery. This kind of physical separation that gives people a feeling of calm is exactly what the passengers of the space elevator lack. As the steep walls of the giant space orbital tower ascend, passengers feel a keen sense of their connection to Earth. Where is the guarantee that a man will survive such a test? I ask Dr. Morgan to answer that question."

Dr. Morgan has been thinking about the answer to the question, but, as the time passed, the answer he thought of became less polite.At this moment, the call signal light on the console came on.He pulled the "accept" button, not at all surprised when he saw it was Maxine Duvall. "Hi, Van!", she cut to the chase. "What are you going to do now?" "I'm going to re-cook my breakfast. What else can I do?" Morgan made no secret of his annoyance. "What else is there to do?! It's time to show everyone the test run of the device. You know, the first cable has been installed."

"It's not the cable that's installed, it's the guide tape." Out of habit, Morgan corrected Maxina's "outsider words". "Anyway, it's the same thing. How much load can it bear?" Maxina didn't intend to entangle Morgan in terminology. "Five hundred tons, no more." "That's really interesting. It's time for someone to go for a ride. Can I go?" Maxina made a request that was completely beyond Morgan's expectations. "Are you kidding me?" "I never make any jokes so early in the morning. To be honest, my audience has long been thinking about your latest report on the space orbit tower! The model of the space capsule is fascinating, but it is a dynamic No idea. My audience loves action. Of course, I do too. You once exhibited drawings of little machines that engineers were going to sit in and walk along cables- no, it should be said that the conduction belt —the machines that go up and down. What are they called?" Maxine's question was still "straight to the point".

Morgan's answer was also straightforward: "'spider'." "Phew, that's a disgusting name! Still, I like the design. Indeed, there really hasn't been anything like it before. For the first time, humans will be able to sit motionless in the sky, Even viewing the Earth from above the atmosphere. I hope to be the first to report this news that will be sensational." For a full five seconds, Morgan looked directly into Maxina's eyes in silence.He could see that she meant what she said. "If there is such a young female reporter," Morgan said wearily, "if she wants to take this opportunity to become famous in one fell swoop, then I can still fulfill her. For you, I absolutely do not agree." "Why is that? I'm not going to sit in your 'spider' before you have done all the tests and guaranteed 100% safety." Maxina didn't give in at all. "Anyway, the breath of thrilling stunts in this approach is too strong anyway." "So what?" "Listen, Maxina, I just received the "Lightning News": New Zealand has sunk into the ocean, and you have to go to the studio immediately. Do you understand?" Morgan deliberately changed the subject. "Dr. Van Niehua-Morgan, I know why you refused my request. You must want to 'monopolize the leader'." Maxina turned to the "aggressive method". Morgan shook his head. "This is of no help to you, Maxine," he said sarcastically, "I am very sorry, but your chances are still zero." Suddenly, for some reason, he remembered the red flake on his chest.