(eng) Mack Reynolds by Ability Quotient

Author:Ability Quotient [Quotient, Ability]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Evidently, the raw spirits had done Kneedler some good. His face was defiant again. He said, "How much do you know about brain stimulation, the augmentation of concentration and the increasing of mind capacity?"

"Precious little except personal experience the last couple of days. Start at the beginning, Kneedler," Bert said.

Kneedler breathed deeply. "Very well. If there is ever a beginning, possibly the beginnings were back a few decades ago when the biological explosion really started."

"Come again on that one," Jim said.

Kneedler looked over at him. "The science writer, Gordon Taylor, called it the Biological Time Bomb, and it was. A dozen breakthroughs were made over a very short period. Have you heard of Cylert, developed by the Abbott Laboratories in Chicago? No? It was the trade name of magnesium pemoline. They tested it on amnesia patients and others suffering from senility. Memory was fantastically improved. But that was just the beginning and just one line of experimentation. Another line was with THC, the laboratory equivalent of cannabis sativa."

"Pot," Jim said.

"Yes, marijuana. But that was just one of the hallucinogens they worked with. Mescaline was another, and LSD, too. You're probably not up on the subject, but the earliest advocates of the hallucinogens, as a means of expanding perception, such as Aldous Huxley, had a germ of reality in some of their crackpot beliefs. Obviously, it is, and always has been, possible to speed up your perception, brighten your wits, through the use of chemicals. Caffeine comes to mind, and nicotine, for that matter."

He thought back for a moment, before going on. "There were other lines of investigation into the possibilities of increasing I.Q. At first they worked considerably with babies and children. Holger Hyden, a Swedish professor, was a pioneer. Influencing the child before it was ever born, he came up with one, Karl Ortel, who was answering the phone at the age of thirteen months and was speaking four languages at the age of three. Hyden's super-children had an average vocabulary of two hundred words by eighteen months, as compared to six words for ordinary children. This meant their I.Q.s would be over the 140 level of genius and perhaps as high as 250. By the way, up until that time the highest I.Q. ever recorded was 205, attained by a California girl."

"Kay," Bert said impatiently. "As far back as several decades ago, they began making breakthroughs in bettering memory, increasing speed of perception and goosing along I.Q. So then…?"

"So then the curtain dropped."

Jill, Jim and Bert all stared at him.

Kneedler said impatiently, "Can't you see some of the implications?" He came to his feet and went over to the desk. He sat down before the library booster, activated and spoke into it.

He said, "This, for instance, was written some time ago by a Gerald Feinberg in his The Prometheus Project: 'Suppose it were decided that children to be born in the future should be biologically modified so that their mental powers were greatly increased in such respects

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