She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
rehearsing."
"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
Electromechanically."
"But how?"
James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
final theory."
"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
wouldn't understand the principles at all."
"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
their discovery.
"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
the constant repetition.
"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and--sort of like
the key to a Yale lock--fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
groove, so to speak.
"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."
"And how do we use it?"
"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."
"And then I'll know it cold?"
James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."
"Why?"
"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
cookbook?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."
* * * * *
James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
bad.
But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.
His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
full status of a free adult.
Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
machine.
His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
do it."
Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.
James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.
So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
education only included such information as would make her own immediate
personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.
Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem--and stunned him
completely.
But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
found his hands full with Martha.
Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
the promptness--and intelligence--of a ventriloquist's dummy:
"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"
"No."
"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"
"Yes."
"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Then let's try it just once, please?"
"No."
Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
except the educator.
Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
head.
Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
issued a dictum:
"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"
And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.
She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.
Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
it came as elided babytalk.
"Again," he commanded.
"I don't wan' to."
"Again!" he snapped.
Martha began to cry.
That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.
"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."