Fun House by Appel Benjamin

Author:Appel, Benjamin [ Appel, Benjamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-6283-9
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 2012-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

“Very good, Fleischy,” his master said, and his eyes fixed on me. “I told you how I made him grow a foot by pressuring his genes, my friend. I warn you for the last time. I’ll hybridize you! I’ll unconscience you!”

“You threaten me with removing my conscience,” I said. “But I still have it and speak up I will. I don’t know what you want. All I know is that the A-I-D is threatening all of us. All of us!” I cried. “And that’s wrong, Dr. Bangani. That’s wrong!”

“You’ve got courage,” he said. “And that’s what I had to know, my friend. I need a man with courage. Come!”

I was stunned but I followed him. He led me out of the den and five minutes later we were on the upper floor of the Castle, walking down the corridor with its equations on the walls. We passed the Sex Laboratory, the Time Stream Room, and finally he paused in front of a door with no sign. Inside was a complicated machine with hundreds and hundreds of electric tubes. Attached to its top was a yellow and red hobby horse. “This is a Think Machine,” he explained swiftly. “It can work a million times faster than the human eye, the human hand or human mind. The human eye has been duplicated and surpassed in those rows of tubes. The human hand with its five digits have been multiplied into a series of holes on a strip of tape, into current in an electromagnet. The human mind has been copied in the memory device and calculator.”

I stared at him, not knowing what to think. He pointed up at the yellow and red hobby horse. “Get up on it. There’s a ladder behind the machine.”

He chuckled when I hesitated. “Ah, you are afraid I’m going to operate on that conscience of yours?” He shook his fingers at me. “Wanted in this hour of crisis,” he said mockingly. “A man of courage!”

Without a word I walked to the rear of the machine and climbed the ladder. I seated myself on the hobby horse, and he stared up at me, grinning. “You have courage,” he said and rubbed his hands together. Then he advanced on the machine and pressed a button. The hobby horse began to rock up and down and to speak:

“An electric signal has caused the quartz crystal inside my bowels to expand and press against my mercury. It ripples, it ripples, and in 1/3000 of a second it presses against another crystal, generating a new electric impulse. Hey, hey, and a hi nonny-nonny. You-Too-Can-Be-A-Think-Machine! Rider, do you feel the electric impulses?”

I did feel them. They came in waves …

“Hey, hey, and a hi nonny-nonny. Electric impulses to amplifier, and a hi-nonny-nonny. Feedback to computing circuits, and a hi-nonny-nonny. Magnetic tape for intermediate, erasable memory, and ask my rider any question, ask my rider any question and a hi nonny-nonny. You-Too-Can-Be-A-Think-Machine!”

As those electric impulses flowed into me, as I rocked up and down

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.