"Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

criteria for selection constituted a mind-boggling collection of double
binds.
His fellow psychologists stared at him. "Can you suggest any specific
changes?" asked the chairman, Charles York.
"Perhaps we should all go to Antarctica with them, and observe them
in this first period of time together. It would teach us a lot."
"But our presence would be inhibitory. I think just one of us will be
enough."
So they sent Michel Duval. He joined a hundred and fifty-odd
finalists at McMurdo Station. The initial meeting resembled any other
international scientific conference, familiar to them all from their various
disciplines. But there was a difference: this was the continuation of a
selection process that had lasted for years, and would last another. And
those selected would go to Mars.
So they lived in Antarctica for over a year together, familiarizing
themselves with the shelters and equipment that were already landing on
Mars in robot vehicles; familiarizing themselves with a landscape that was
almost as cold and harsh as Mars itself; familiarizing themselves with
each other. They lived in a cluster of habitats located in Wright Valley, the
largest of Antarctica's Dry Valleys. They ran a biosphere farm, and then
they settled into the habitats through a dark austral winter, and studied
secondary or tertiary professions, or ran through simulations of the
various tasks they would be performing on the spaceship Ares, or later on
the red planet itself; and always, always aware that they were being
watched, evaluated, judged.
They were by no means all astronauts or cosmonauts, although there
were a dozen or so of each, with many more up north clamoring to be
included. But the majority of the colonists would have to have their
expertise in areas that would come into play after landfall: medical skills,
computer skills, robotics, systems design, architecture, geology, biosphere
design, genetic engineering, biology; also every sort of engineering, and
construction expertise of several kinds. Those who had made it to
Antarctica were an impressive group of experts in the relevant sciences
and professions, and they spent a good bit of their time cross-training to
become impressive in secondary and tertiary fields as well.
And all their activity took place under the constant pressure of
observation, evaluation, judgement. It was necessarily a stressful
procedure; that was part of the test. Michel Duval felt that this was a
mistake, as it tended to ingrain reticence and distrust in the colonists,
preventing the very compatability that the selection committee was
supposedly seeking. One of the many double binds, in fact. The
candidates themselves were quiet about that aspect of things, and he didn't
blame them; there wasn't any better strategy to take, that was a double
bind for you: it insured silence. They could not afford to offend anyone,
or complain too much; they could not risk withdrawing too far; they could
not make enemies.
So they went on being brilliant and accomplished enough to stand out,
but normal enough to get along. They were old enough to have learned a
great deal, but young enough to endure the physical rigors of the work.
They were driven enough to excell, but relaxed enough to socialize. And