Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Shortcuts

After arriving in Chicago, Yabin felt uncomfortable all over, feeling that he was surrounded by unknown terror.Chicago is one of the largest cities on earth, with a population of 50,000, and in a certain corner of Chicago, there lived important officials sent by the great empire. In fact, he'd never seen anyone from the galaxy, and here, in Chicago, he kept twisting his neck lest he might run into one.If he got to the bottom of it, he couldn't tell how he would be able to tell the difference from the people on Earth even if he really met an outsider.However, he has a deep-seated belief that there will always be some difference between the two.

When he walked into that research institute, he still didn't forget to look back.He had parked his two-wheeler in a fairground and bought a six-hour parking voucher.Will such extravagant behavior arouse suspicion from others?Everything frightened him now, and there seemed to be eyes and ears in the air. I hope that stranger remembers his instructions and keeps hiding safely at the bottom of the back seat.He nodded desperately, but did he really understand?Yabin suddenly sulked at himself, why was he persuaded by Gru to make such a crazy move? The door in front of him opened at some point, and a voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

The voice said, "What's the matter with you?" His tone sounded impatient, maybe the same question had been asked several times by that person. He replied in a hoarse voice, every word was like dry powder dug out of his throat: "Is this a place where I can apply for a synaptic amplifier experiment?" The receptionist suddenly raised his head and said, "Sign here." But Yabin put his hands behind his back and continued to say in a hoarse voice: "Where can I learn about synaptic amplifiers first?" Gru once told him the name of the device, but he still said it strangely, as if Incomprehensible.

But the female receptionist said in a stubborn voice: "Unless you sign here as a visitor, I can't help you with anything. That's the rule." Yabin turned around and left without saying a word.The young lady behind the counter pursed her lips tightly while kicking the signal bar next to the seat. Albina would rather die than leave any bad records, but in his view, his efforts have failed miserably.The girl had been staring at him just now, even after a thousand years, she would still remember herself.He had a strong thought, wanted to run immediately, run back to his car, and escape to his farm...

From another room, a person in a lab coat suddenly came out in a hurry, and the receptionist immediately pointed at Yabin and said, "Volunteer for the synaptic amplifier, Miss Schechter." She then added: "He did not want to be named." Yabin looked up and saw that it was another young girl.He looked very frightened and asked, "Are you the person in charge of that machine, Miss?" "No, you're totally mistaken." She gave a very friendly smile, and Abin felt his anxiety subside a little. "However, I can take you to see him." She asked eagerly again, "Are you really willing to accept the synaptic amplifier experiment?"

"I just want to see the person in charge." Yabin replied blankly. "Okay." She didn't seem to care at all about his decidedly uncooperative attitude.After speaking, she disappeared behind the original door.Yabin waited for a while, and then finally saw a finger beckoning him... He followed her into a small drawing room, feeling his heart pounding. She said in a soft voice, "You can wait half an hour at most, and Dr. Schechter will come to see you. He is very busy at the moment... If you want some film books and reading machines to pass the time, I will get them for you right away." .”

Yabin shook his head.The four walls of the small room seemed to be closing in on him gradually, trapping him in between and unable to move.Did he fall into a trap?Are those ancients coming to arrest him soon? This was the longest wait in Yabin's life. Lord Ennias, the Administrator of Earth, encountered no similar difficulties when he came to Dr. Schechter.However, he was almost as excited as Yabin.He had been Earth Administrator for four years, but visiting Chicago was still a big deal.As the direct representative of His Majesty the Emperor far away, he was legally equal to the governors of the various regions of the galaxy, even if the domains of those star regions spanned hundreds of cubic parsecs.In practice, however, his situation was no different from exile.

Trapped in the barren and empty Himalayas, he's caught in the middle of a conflict between the masses who hate him and the empire he represents.So even a trip to Chicago was a relief for him. In fact, his relief was short-lived.This was helpless, since in Chicago he had to wear lead-filled clothing at all times, even when sleeping.To make matters worse, he had to continue taking metabolic boosters. For this reason, he vomited bitterness to Schechter. "Metabolism booster," he said, picking up the vermilion pill and examining it carefully, "my friend, it may be the true symbol of your planet. Its function is to increase all metabolic processes, because I'm sitting here now surrounded by a radioactive cloud that you can't even tell it's there."

He swallowed the pill and said, "Okay! Now my heart will beat faster, my breathing will automatically speed up, and my liver will dissolve in these chemical compounds--the medical staff told me that this will make my heart beat faster. It became the most important factory in the human body. The price I paid was a severe headache and burnout afterwards." Dr. Schechter listened with interest.He gives the strong impression of being nearsighted, not because he wears glasses, or because there is anything wrong with his eyes, but because he has long been used to subconsciously observing everything carefully, and before speaking, he will consider everything. comprehensive.He was tall and was about to enter his old age, his slender figure was slightly stooped.

He is quite proficient in galactic culture, so unlike ordinary people on earth, he generally harbors hostility and suspicion towards outsiders—even against Ennias, an imperial man who claims to be a citizen of the universe, he is full of disgust without exception . "I'm sure you don't need these pills," Schechter said. Metabolic boosters are just one of your superstitions, and you know it yourself. If I surreptitiously replaced them with sugar pills, your body would never And it hurts because of it. Also, you get a similar headache afterward because of the psychological effect."

"You live in the environment you are used to, so of course you can say such sarcastic remarks. Can you deny that your basal metabolic rate is higher than mine?" "Of course I can't, but so what? Ennias, I know there's a superstition in the Empire that people on our planet are different from other humans, but that's not the case at all. Did you come here to Promoting anti-Earth dogma?" Ennias snorted, "I can swear to His Majesty, you people on Earth are the best propagandists of this dogma. They live here, huddled on this damned planet, festering in their own rage , they are simply chronic ulcers in the galaxy. "I mean it, Schechter. What planet has so many daily rituals that stick around like a masochist? Every day, without exception, I have to meet with some of this and that ruling group faction." Deputies came and asked me to authorize the execution of some poor soul. Their only crimes were trespassing, avoiding the sixty limit, or simply eating more food than they should have.” "Ah, but you always approve of these executions. Your idealistic revulsion does not seem to lead you to sternly reject these demands." "The stars are my witnesses, and I strongly oppose these judgments. But what can I do? His Majesty the Emperor has a decree that all members of the empire should maintain their own customs and must not interfere by force. This is a correct and wise decision, Because only in this way can we prevent the people from supporting some fools, otherwise, those fools will instigate rebellion every day. Besides, when your parliament, chamber, and chamber representatives insist on capital punishment, if I stubbornly oppose it, I will immediately Bring on the Wailing Wolf, and a slew of attacks on the Imperial government. I'd rather sleep for twenty years among demons than face Earth for another ten minutes." Schechter sighed, and stroked the thinning hair on the back of his head with his hand: "For the rest of the galaxy, if they know our existence, the earth is just a small pebble in the sky. But for us, it It is our home, our only home. Yet we are no different from you outworlders, only less fortunate. We are crammed together on this almost dead world, imprisoned in walls of radiation, surrounded by a vast galaxy Repel us. How do we vent the frustration that plagues us? Administrator, are you willing to send our surplus population to another planet?" Ennias shrugged. "Do I care? It's the people of other worlds who don't want to be victims of Earth's diseases." "Earth disease!" Schechter showed displeasure, "This is a ridiculous idea, and it should be eradicated as soon as possible. We will not infect deadly diseases. You have been with us for so long, wouldn't you have died long ago?" "Honestly," Ennias smiled, "I do everything possible to prevent inappropriate contact." "Because you yourself are terrified of the propaganda. Anyway, only the stupid minds of your bigots would dream up such a thing." "Ah, Schechter, don't those theories that people on Earth are radioactive have no scientific basis at all?" "Yes, of course we are radioactive, how can we avoid it? And you too, as is everyone in the empire's billions of planets. We carry more, I admit, but never enough to hurt anyone .” "However, I'm afraid that the average person in the galaxy thinks just the opposite, and they don't want to prove it through experiments. Besides..." "Besides, you're saying we're different—we're not human. Thanks to radiation, we mutate faster and change in many ways...that's an unproven theory, too." "It's a theory that everyone believes in." "As long as you believe, Administrator, as long as we earthlings are treated as pariahs, you will find in us those qualities which revolt you. Would it be strange for us to resist if you cornered us? You hate us so much, can you complain that we hate you in turn? No, no, we are the passive victims, not the active ones." Ennias was very sorry for the anger he had provoked.Even the best Earthlings, he thought, have the same blind spot, the feeling that Earth is the enemy of the entire universe. He said tactfully: "Schechter, forgive my recklessness, will you? Even if I'm too young and too boring. You have a poor fellow before you, a young lad who just turned forty--a career civil servant. In life, forty years old is just the age of a baby—he is training on Earth for an internship. Maybe it will be many years before those idiots from the Alien Province Management Bureau remember that I have stayed here for too long and promote me to transfer to Less deadly duties. So, we are all prisoners on earth, and citizens of the mind world, in the great mind world, there is no distinction of any planet or any physical feature. Hold out your hand Come on, let's be friends." The wrinkles on Schechter's face disappeared, or rather, were replaced by wrinkles of pleasure.He laughed heartily, and then said: "The content of this speech is pleading, but the tone is still that of a career diplomat of the Empire. You are a poor actor, administrator." "Then you will be a good teacher and explain to me all about your synaptic amplifier." Schechter was obviously taken aback, and frowned again: "What, you've heard of that device? So, you're not only an administrative officer, but also a physicist?" "All news is within my purview. But honestly, Schechter, I wish I knew." Schechter looked at Ennias carefully, as if he didn't quite believe it.Then he stood up, raised his skinny palm to his mouth, and pinched his lips thoughtfully: "I hardly know where to start." "Well, all the stars, if you're thinking about which mathematical theory to start with, I'll save you trouble. Don't mention them all. I don't know anything about your functions, tensors, and the like." Schechter's eyes flickered: "Okay, so, if only qualitative description, it is a device used to enhance human learning ability." "Human ability to learn? Really! Does it work?" "I wish I knew that much experimentation is needed. I'll give you the main principles, Administrator, and you can judge for yourself. The human nervous system, as well as that of animals, is composed of neuroproteins. This substance Contains a huge number of molecules, in a very unstable state of electrical balance. Even the slightest stimulus will disturb one of the molecules, and that molecule will pass the disturbance to another molecule in order to restore the balance, and so on. Until the disturbance until it reaches the brain. "The brain itself is also a vast collection of similar molecules, all interconnected in every possible way. For the brain is about ten to the twentyth power—that is, one followed by twenty zeros ——There are so many neuroproteins, and their possible combinations are on the order of ten to the 20th power factorial. This number is really too large. If all the electrons and protons in the universe become another universe, And the electrons and protons in so many new universes, each in turn becoming another universe, then the sum of each electron and proton in the universes thus created is still close to zero compared to that number... do you understand me?" "By the stars, I don't understand a word. Even if I try to understand, I'll howl like a mad dog because my brains are drained." "Well, well, in short, what we call nerve impulses are nothing more than a gradual electrical imbalance that travels along the nerves to the brain and from the brain back to the nervous system. Do you understand this ?” "got it." "Very well, so you're a genius. The pulse travels fairly quickly when it's transmitted inside a nerve cell, because the nerve proteins have physical contact. However, the distribution of nerve cells is limited, and between two nerve cells , there is an extremely thin septum of non-neural tissue. In other words, two adjacent nerve cells are not actually connected." "Ah," said Ennias, "so the nerve impulse must jump over that barrier." "Exactly! That interval reduces the intensity of the pulse and reduces the rate of transmission by a factor proportional to the square of its thickness, and the brain is no exception. Now if you think about it, if you can find a way, It is possible to reduce the dielectric constant of this intercellular space..." "What constant?" "The insulation strength of the gap, that's what I mean. If you can make it lower, it's easier for pulses to cross that gap, and your rate of thinking and learning increases." "Okay, so, back to the original question, does it work?" "I've done experiments on animals." "How is the result?" "Ah, most of them died quickly due to the denaturation of the brain protein. In other words, the brain protein condenses, just like an egg is boiled." Ennias was stunned for a moment: "Science is sometimes indescribably cruel, so what about the ones that don't die?" "There are no conclusive conclusions, because they are not human. Judging from the data, it seems quite optimistic for them... But I need human beings to do experiments. If you think about it, the electronic properties of everyone's brain are different, Each brain produces specific microcurrents, no two groups are exactly alike. They are like fingerprints, or the blood vessel patterns of the retina. They are, in theory, more distinctive. I believe this should be taken into account when making modifications. If I'm right, there will be no sex change... The problem is that I can't find humans to experiment with, I'm looking for volunteers, but—" He spread his hands helplessly. "I certainly don't blame them for not coming, man," said Ennias, "but seriously, what are you going to do with this device if it works?" The physicist shrugged: "This is not something I can say, of course it has to be decided by the Great Council." "You don't consider dedicating this invention to the Empire?" "Me? I don't object at all. But only the Great Council has jurisdiction..." "Oh," said Ennias in an impatient tone, "fuck the Great Council, I've dealt with them before. Will you speak to them in due course?" "Why, what influence can I have?" "You can tell them that if a 100% safe synaptic amplifier suitable for human beings can be produced on the earth, and if this device can be shared with the whole galaxy, then some restrictions on your immigration to alien planets will be possible. May be revoked." "What," Schechter said sarcastically, "isn't afraid of our contagion, our differences, our inhuman qualities now?" "It's even possible for you," said Ennias calmly, "to be transported entirely to another planet, think about it." At this moment, the door of the room opened suddenly, and a young girl walked in, and briskly passed the bookcase where the film books were placed.She naturally brought a breath of spring, dispelling the musty smell in this secret secretary's room.Seeing this stranger, she blushed a little, and immediately turned around to leave. "Come in, Paula," Schechter called hastily. "My lord," he said to Ennias again, "I believe you have never seen my daughter. Paula, this is my lord Ennias, the magistrate of Earth." When she was about to curtsy, the magistrate rose quickly and, with a rather gentlemanly gesture, excused her. "Dear Miss Schechter," he said, "I can't believe that a jewel like you could have been born on this earth. In fact, you would be a shining jewel in any world I could think of. Pearl." He took Paula's hand, and she stretched it forward quickly, somewhat shyly.For a moment, Ennias seemed ready to bow his head and kiss the jade hand, following the ancient ritual.But even if he thought about it, he didn't realize it in the end.He halfway raised her hand and let it go, maybe a little too quickly. Paula frowned slightly and said, "My lord, I am really flattered by your kindness to an ordinary earth woman. You are not afraid of infectious diseases and dare to visit us in person. You are extremely brave and courageous." Schechter cleared his throat and interrupted, "My daughter, the administrator, is pursuing a degree at the University of Chicago. Two days a week, she works as a technician in my lab for the necessary internship credit. She's a capable girl, and although I'm her father, I can't help but praise her too much, but I still have to say that she may one day take my place." "Father," Paula said softly, "I have important news for you." She seemed a little hesitant. "Should I go?" said Ennias politely. "No, no," Schechter said, "what's the matter, Paula?" The girl then replied, "We have a volunteer, Father." Schechter's eyes widened and he was almost stunned: "The volunteer of the synaptic amplifier?" "That's what he said." "Well," said Ennias, "it seems that I bring you good luck." "That seems to be the case." Schechter turned to his daughter again. "Tell him to wait and take him to Room C. I'll see him soon." When Paula was gone, he turned to Ennias again and said, "You don't mind if I excuse you, magistrate?" "Of course I don't mind, how long will the operation take?" "I'm afraid it will take a few hours. Do you wish to visit?" "I can't think of anything more appalling, dear Schechter. I'll be staying at the State Guest House until tomorrow, and will you tell me the result?" Schechter seemed relieved: "Yes, of course." "Very well... Consider my proposal about synaptic amplifiers just now, that is your new shortcut to the temple of knowledge." Having said that, Ennias left, more disturbed than when he came.He didn't find out anything, but his sense of fear increased a lot.