"The Planners by Kate Wilhelm" - читать интересную книгу автора (1969)

wind had grown chill. He went to bed. Lea drew away from
him in her sleep. She felt hot to his touch. He turned to his
left side, his back to her, and he slept.
"There is potential x," Darin said to Lea the next morning
at breakfast. "We don't know where x is actually. It repre-
sents the highest intellectual achievement possible for the
monkeys, for example. We test each new batch of monkeys
that we get and sort themx-i, x-2, x-3, suppose, and then
we breed for more x-l's. Also we feed the other two groups
the sRNA that we extract from the original x-l's. Eventually
we get a monkey that is higher than our original x-i, and
we reclassify right down the line and start over, using his
sRNA to bring the others up to his level. We make constant
checks to be sure we aren't allowing inferior strains to mingle
with our highest achievers, and we keep control groups that
are given the same training, the same food, the same sorting
process, but no sRNA. We test them against each other."
Lea was watching his face with some interest as he talked.
He thought he had got through, until she said, "Did you
realize that your hair is almost solid white at the temples?
All at once it is turning white."
Carefully he put his cup back on the saucer. He smiled at
her and got up. "See you tonight," he said.
They also had two separate compounds of chimps that had
started out identically. Neither had received any training
whatever through the years; they had been kept isolated from
each other and from man. Adam's group had been fed
sRNA daily from the most intelligent chimps they had found.
The control group had been fed none. The control-group
chimps had yet to master the intricacies of the fountain with
its ice-cold water; they used the small stream that flowed
through the compound. The control group had yet to learn
that fruit on the high, fragile branches could be had, if one
used the telescoping sticks to knock them down. The control
group huddled without protection, or under the scant cover
of palm-trees when it rained and the dome was opened.
Adam long ago had led his group in the construction of a
rude but functional hut where they gathered when it rained.
Darin saw the women's committee filing past the compound
when he parked his car. He went straight to the console in his
office, flicked on a switch and manipulated buttons and dials,
leading the group through the paths, opening one, closing
another to them, until he led them to the newest of the com-
pounds, where he opened the gate and let them inside.
Quickly he closed the gate again and watched their frantic
efforts to get out. Later he turned the chimps loose on them,
and his grin grew broader as he watched the new-men ravage
the old women. Some of the offspring were black and hairy,
others pink and hairless, some intermediate. They grew
rapidly, lined up with arms extended to receive their daily