"Any kind," the Martian said blandly. "Burr told us what he wanted. He
had drawings with him of an Earthman device that used pictures on a
screen, and broadcast sounds, to carry the details of the story told to
the auditor."
"He stole those patents! He couldn't have used them on Earth."
* * * * *
"And why should he? Our device needs to convey no precise details. Any
mind can make its own. It only needs to be put into a situation, and
from there it can do all the work. If an auditor wishes a story of
contact with other sexes, for example, the projector simply makes it
seem to him, the next time he is with the object of his desire, that he
is getting positive feedback--that he is arousing a similar response
in that object. Once that has been established for him, the auditor
may then leave the machine, move about normally, conduct his life as
usual--but always in accordance with the basic situation. It is, you
see, in the end a means of introducing system into his view of reality.
Of course, his society must understand that he is not in accord with
reality, for some of what he does cannot seem rational from an outside
view of him. So some care must be taken, but not much. If many such
devices were to enter his society, soon the circumstances would become
commonplace, and the society would surely readjust to allow for it,"
said the English-speaking Martian.
"The machine creates any desired situation in the auditor's mind?"
"Certainly. There are simple predisposing tapes that can be inserted as
desired. Love, adventure, cerebration--it makes no difference."
Several of the bystanders clacked sounds out to each other. Sollenar
looked at them narrowly. It was obvious there had to be more than one
English-speaker among these people.
"And the device you gave Burr," he asked the engineer, neither
calmly nor hopefully. "What sort of stories could its auditors tell
themselves?"
* * * * *
The Martian cocked his head again. It gave him the look of an owl at
a bedroom window. "Oh, there was one situation we were particularly
instructed to include. Burr said he was thinking ahead to showing it to
an acquaintance of his.
"It was a situation of adventure; of adventure with the fearful. And
it was to end in loss and bitterness." The Martian looked even more
closely at Sollenar. "Of course, the device does not specify details.
No one but the auditor can know what fearful thing inhabits his story,
or precisely how the end of it would come. You would, I believe, be
Rufus Sollenar? Burr spoke of you and made the noise of laughing."
Sollenar opened his mouth. But there was nothing to say.
"You want such a device?" the Martian asked. "We've prepared several
since Burr left. He spoke of machines that would manufacture them in
astronomical numbers. We, of course, have done our best with our poor
hands."