[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
and they were married not long after he graduated. A few years later, she had
gotten pregnant with Julianne. They had had arguments, of course, but nothing
fatal, no problems they couldn't make it past. Not that it had always been
easy. Nor had it been easy when she had to readjust to living all alone. And
now ... She shook her head. "You must have been with Coleridge for years."
He grunted. "If it hadn't been for me, they'd never have developed the
file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...ooks/Tom%20Easton%20-%20Silicon%
20Karma.TXT (44 of 158) [1/3/2005 12:38:21 AM]
file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Tom%20Easton%20-%20Silicon%
20Karma.TXT
Xanadus or ... Goddam ignorant ingrates." He should, he told Rose, will his
company stock to the most reactionary anti-scanning group he could find. Such
groups still existed, he knew. They thought people had no business trying to
maintain their consciousness, to "live"--for lack of a better term--past their
allotted time, as if some divine niggard on a heavenly throne did indeed
ration out human lives, so much per customer and "Sorry, sir. There's no room
for another punch on your coupon."
But he had fought them once to get scanning accepted by society and approved
by the government. If he reversed himself now, he would suffer, not just the
ingrates who had kicked him out of the office. "You never used to bitch like
this," said Rose. After a moment of silence, he agreed. "You're right, of
course. But the way they treated me. And then they asked ... But never mind
that. Should I tell you how I got them the mindscanner?"
When she nodded, he smiled. He had been in New Products then, and one of his
junior research assistants had seen a report in the journal Brain
Research. A Judith Luria at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia had found
that a combination of magnetic resonance imaging and multipolar
electroencephalography could allow her to track conscious thoughts as they
coursed through the brain. She even thought she might soon be able to crack
Page 41
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the problem--as old as the discovery of brain waves--of how to read minds with
a machine. "The press," Michael Durgov had told himself, "will be on this very
soon." He had wasted no time in calling Dr. Luria, mentioning venture capital,
and making an appointment to see her the very next morning. By the time the
press began to call, she had already signed a Coleridge contract, banked half
a million dollars, and agreed not to talk. She had been a pretty thing too. He
had ... The research had continued. The hardware and software had improved.
The necessary patents had been granted in Coleridge's name. And then there was
a leak.
Reactionaries began to scream of sacrilege and violations of human dignity.
Congress began to hint at moratoria and bans, at doing to mindscanning what it
had once done to genetic engineering and any research that used fetal tissues.
It hadn't taken much pressure at all to convince Dr. Luria that her miracle
technology wasn't about to go anywhere. Before long, she had accepted a final
fifty thousand for all the rights to her discovery. And then he had managed
his greatest coup.
From his office window, the signs carried by the demonstrators in the plaza
below had been just barely readable with binoculars. "PROTECT THE
RESURRECTION!" they had said. "DEATH IS THE DOORWAY TO HEAVEN."
"HE THAT WOULD LIVE MUST DIE."
"It's a good thing they didn't find the garage entrance," said Teebelle
Radamang. Michael Durgov grunted and pointed at a white van whose flanks bore
the logo of network news. "No cameras there." He looked at her. His chief
assistant was a heavy woman who habitually wore Hawaiian-print shirts over
spandex tights. "Did you turn on the TV this morning?"
When he shook his head, she crossed the room and opened the polished panel
that concealed the set. A moment later, they were watching the recording of a
morning talk show. The show's host was asking a guest:
"Reverend Matthews, why does your sect disapprove of the Coleridge
Corporation's plans to copy a human mind into their computer?"
"CTR is not a sect, Jimmy." The Reverend Matthews was of middle height,
balding, and clearly well fed. "We are Christians for the True
Resurrection. We are a coalition of people from every religious denomination.
Many of us have been born again. Every one of us believes in the word of God
as it is infallibly recorded in the Holy Bible."
file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...ooks/Tom%20Easton%20-%20Silicon%
20Karma.TXT (45 of 158) [1/3/2005 12:38:21 AM]
file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Tom%20Easton%20-%20Silicon%
20Karma.TXT
"But ..."
"To answer your question, Jimmy." The Reverend had raised a forestalling
finger. "The Good Book is very clear. The Coleridge Corporation proposes to
cheat both man and God. We belong in our bodies. We cannot be taken out of
them except by the hand of God. Eternal life is a gift that can be given only
by Christ. And to suggest anything else is sacrilege, blasphemy, and anathema.
Those who accept the Coleridge temptation are damned forevermore."
"But what about our most important people, Reverend Matthews? Our
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]