"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Millennium Babies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

those with the cutest babies, or the pushiest parents, got endorsements as well.
"Oh, goodie," Brooke said, filling her voice with all the sarcasm she could muster. "My mother was upset that I
didn't get exploited enough as a child so you're here to fill the gap."
His back straightened. "It's not like that."
"Really? How is it then?" She regretted the words the moment she spoke them. She was giving Franke the opening
he wanted.
"We've chosen our candidates with care," he said. "We are not taking babies born randomly on January 1 of 2000.
We're taking children whose birth was planned, whose parents made public statements about the birth, and whose
parents hoped to get a piece of the pie."
"Wonderful," she said. "You're studying children with dysfunctional families."
"Are we?" he asked.
"Well, if you study me, you are," she said and stood. "Now, I'd like it if you'd leave."
"You haven't let me finish."
"Why should I?"
"Because this study might help you, Professor Cross."
"I'm doing fine without your help."
"But you never talk about your Millennium Baby status."
"And how often do you discuss the day you were born, Professor?"
"My birthday is rather unremarkable," he said. "Unlike yours."
She crossed her arms. "Get out."
"Remember that I study human potential," he said. "And you all have the same beginnings. All of you come from
parents who had the same goal -- parents who were driven to achieve something unusual."
"Parents who were greedy," she said.
"Some of them," he said. "And some of them planned to have children anyway, and thought it might be fun to try to
join the contest."
"I don't see how our beginnings are relevant."
He smiled, and she cursed under her breath. As long as she talked to him, as long as she asked thinly veiled
questions, he had her and they both knew it.
"In the past forty years, studies of identical twins raised apart have shown that at least 50 percent of a person's
disposition is apparent at birth. Which means that no matter how you're raised, if you were a happy baby, you have a
greater than 50 percent chance of being a happy adult. The remaining factors are probably environmental. Are you
familiar with DNA mapping?"
"You're not answering my question," she said.
"I'm trying to," he said. "Listen to me for a few moments, and then kick me out of your office."
She wouldn't get rid of him otherwise. She slowly sat in her chair.
"Are you familiar with DNA mapping?" he repeated.
"A little," she said.
"Good." He leaned back in his chair and templed his fingers. "We haven't located a happiness gene or an
unhappiness gene. We're not sure what it is about the physical make-up that makes these things work. But we do
know that it has something to do with serotonin levels."
"Get to the part about Millennium Babies," she said.
He smiled. "I am. My last book was partly based on the happiness/unhappiness model, but I believe that's too
simplistic. Human beings are complex creatures. And as I grow older, I see a lot of lost potential. Some of us were
raised to fail, and some were raised to succeed. Some of those raised to succeed have failed, and some who were raised
to fail have succeeded. So clearly it isn't all environment."
"Unless some were reacting against their environment," she said, hearing the sullenness in her tone, a sullenness
she hadn't used since she'd last spoken to her mother five years before.
"That's one option," he said, sounding brighter. He must have taken her statement for interest. "But one of the
things I learned while working on human potential is that drive is like happiness. Some children are born driven. They
walk sooner than others. They learn faster. They adapt faster. They achieve more, from the moment they take their first