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should die so soon after coming alive. "How is it, Raj," Bickel asked, "that we can explain more about the Page 127 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html unconscious networks of the human body than we can about the conscious?" "You're wasting time," Flattery said. "But the thing's dead," Bickel said. "I have to be sure," Flattery said. "Why can't you be sure after hearing what John has to say?" Prudence asked. She looked at Bickel to draw Flattery's attention there. Two lights had begun blinking on the main computer console behind Flattery. "It's a paradox," Bickel said. "We're asked to discard logical positivism while maintaining logic. We're asked to find a cause-and-effect system in a sea of probabilities where enormously large systems are based on even larger systems which are based on greater systems yet." Flattery looked at him, caught by the trailing ends of Bickel's thoughts. "Cause and effect?" he asked. "What happens if you push that key?" Bickel asked. He nodded to the trigger beneath Flattery's hand. Prudence held her breath, praying Flattery would not turn. More lights were winking on the main computer console above Timberlake's couch. She couldn't say why the lights gave her hope, but the evidence of life in the ship . . . "If I push this key," Flattery said, "an action sequence will be alerted in the computer." He glanced back at the winking lights. "You'll notice that part of the computer is becoming active. These circuits --" he returned his attention to Bickel "-- have extra buffering and emergency power. The master program set off by this key instructs the computer to destroy itself and the ship -- opening all the locks, exploding charges in key places." "Cause and effect," Bickel said. And he marveled at how automatic Flattery's movements appeared. A zombie. "Cause and effect doesn't square with consciousness," he said. A fascinating idea, Flattery thought. "If any subsequent action proceeds with absolute and immediate causality from the sequence of past actions, then there can be no conscious influence of behavior," Bickel said. "Think of a row of dominoes falling. The human will power -- the muscle and arm of our consciousness -- couldn't decide what behavior to use because that behavior would all have been predetermined by a long line of preceding cause and effect." Flattery felt the hand poised over the deadly key begin to ache. "We can't predict what this beast would do," he said. "I know." Bickel's signing our death warrant, Prudence thought. She got to her feet. Her muscles still felt weak, but she sensed the stimulant doing its work. She gripped Timberlake's arm to steady herself. Timberlake glanced at her hand, looked back at Flattery. How calm Tim seems, she thought. "Maybe consciousness doesn't influence neural activity at all," Timberlake said. "Perhaps we only imagine --" "Don't be ridiculous," Flattery said. "That'd have no survival value and wouldn't have arisen in nature. Conscious creatures would've died out long ago." Well, at least we've got him arguing, Timberlake thought. He smiled at Prudence, but she was watching Bickel. Timberlake returned his attention to Flattery. How dull . . . almost dead the man looks. "Think of an electronic tube," Bickel said. "A very tiny amount of energy applied at the critical bias junction produces a tremendous change in output. Consciousness does something on the same order, Tim. We have a neural amplifier." "Instant causality," Flattery whispered. Lord! How that hand ached -- as though it had been held above the trigger key for a century. "That's what we have to toss out of our thinking," Bickel said. "Instant causality says if we have complete knowledge of a natural law and complete Page 128 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html knowledge of the given system at a given time, then we can predict exactly what the system will do from that point on. That sure as hell isn't true at the atomic level and it doesn't apply to consciousness. Consciousness is like a system of lenses that select and amplify, that enlarge objects out of the surround. It can delve deep into the microcosm or into the macrocosm. It reduces the gigantic to the manageable, or enlarges the invisible to the visible." This doesn't change anything, Flattery thought. Why are we talking? Is he just trying to gain a little time? The pressures of the terrible necessity which had been built into him were becoming almost unbearable. Bickel saw the faint stirrings of life in Flattery's eyes. "But this consciousness factor isn't a completely random thing. In a universe packed with random possibility of destruction, random activity equals the certainty of encountering that destruction -- and we're assuming consciousness is survival-oriented:" "Unless it's a healing process," Flattery said. "But the healing process would have to completely counteract any destruction," Bickel said. And he saw the light of vitality grow in Flattery's eyes, his manner. "I have to push this key, John," Flattery said. "Do you know that?" "In a moment," Bickel said. "Raj, you can't," Prudence said. "Think of all those helpless lives down in the hyb tanks. Think of --" "Think of all those helpless lives back on Earth," Flattery said. "What would [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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