"Mack Reynolds - Ability Quotient" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

The other sighed and handed over the card.

Bert said, "I'll be an hour or so. Help yourself to the liquor. There's a
library booster screen on the desk. There's one in every room in this place
Do some of your homework, or look up some books, whatever. There's a
king-size Tri-Di box over there."

"Take your time, take your time," Jim gushed, eyeing the bar with a
fond eye.

Bert left him and went to the study. For the first time, he noticed that
the door had a key on the other side. He locked the door behind him and
went over to the desk with its library booster screen. He put his friend's
Identity Card into the slot and dialed for the list of books on
neuro-physiology.

Since he was completely at sea in the subject, he had difficulty finding
what he wanted. When finally he had a book that looked promising,
something came to him and he stood and went over to his bottles of pills.
He took a brown one and went back to the screen.

He skimmed one book, skimmed another, got a smattering of
background and terminology, but wasn't happy. His texts would mention
some reference to another work which was then found to be beyond his
priority Three card. It mystified him. Did you have to be a doctor of
medicine, or even a specialist in this field before its full literature was
available? He could see that various works in say, nuclear physics, might
have to be banned to those without clearance There were evidently
methods of constructing nuclear mini-bombs in a home laboratory these
days and obviously the information couldn't be made available to every
crackpot that came along. But medical information pertaining to the
brain? Who could care that the information be available to anyone who
could understand it?

Various passages gave him pause. Early in his research he ran into: "…
Three major areas of excitement and progress can be detected among the
numerous enquiries in the field. First, there is a growing power to
intervene in the non-intellectual functions of the brain: a growing ability
to alter moods and emotional states—a development which is based on the
realization that the brain is not simply an electrical or computer-like
mechanism, but a complex chemical system as well. Secondly, a spirit of
extreme optimism has sprung up concerning the possibility of discovering
the nature of memory. Finally, there is a guarded belief that one may be
able to effect considerable improvement in the level of intelligence of
future generations.

He sat back for a moment and ran the palm of his right hand over his
lips. The passage had been written more than two decades previous.