#42
"Goodmorning class. Today we shall study cognition in specimen #42. As always, we have chosen this inferior, useless mass of flesh to gain insights into the workings of the more evolved races such as our own." [presses yellow button]
[An electronic cart-lift system snaps open as specimen #42, a cryogenically preserved, fresh, male Home Sapien, supported by pneumatic arms and thusands of sensors becomes visible. On one side is a display that projects the current cognitive stimulus being fed to the specimen. A second display unit shows in real time #42's response to the stimulus fed through a series of plotters and surface-graphs. The instructor begins feeding stimuli to #42 using a remote terminal where he is running some code.]
"As you can all see, its normal brain activity shows very little concentration or coherence, even during times when it believes it is 'fully focussed' " [taps away at his keyboard]
"Next stimulus. He has just a harsh worded conversation with his female companion. Notice how his brain activity goes erratic and primary body functions are thrown off priority. More than half of his cerebrum shows uncontrolled and noisy activity. Fool. How easily he has made himself vulnerable.. completely open to attack. Typical of his entire race."
"Next, I am about to provide it with a mild negative situation: Observe the display on your right as its thought pattern emerges now. First extreme dispair... complete lack of faith, a slight improvement followed by anger at itself, an urge to selfdestruct and finally a prolonged period of assigning blame to a series of other sapiens. Even though it continues with other activity, cortical signals are continuously diverted to this thought stream. The specimen is completely distracted as it remains in a cyclic thought-stream comprising anger, dismay and depression. It takes almost a complete day for it to recover."
"Uh.. Professor.. stupid question: why is it that despite being aware of its poor cognition and control abilities, the specimen's brain continues to make unfavorable decisions that can only worsen its condition? For instance, in experiment p-beta-p.69 involving the female companion, it chooses to inflict damage on itself and further endager itself by consuming alcohol."
"Ah.. You see the specimen's brain is constantly driven by a purely hedonistic function which constantly tells it what it must do - I know, very very stupid design - only slightly different from the instictive quadrupeds of its time. It completely lacks the ability impose control on itself, something that WE take for granted. Its a wonder how this primitive worthless bundle of neurons could sustain for so long.
We shall stop here today for today. Your midterm is on Tuesday. It will be for an hour and a half.. closed book and closed notes. Thank you"
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[An electronic cart-lift system snaps open as specimen #42, a cryogenically preserved, fresh, male Home Sapien, supported by pneumatic arms and thusands of sensors becomes visible. On one side is a display that projects the current cognitive stimulus being fed to the specimen. A second display unit shows in real time #42's response to the stimulus fed through a series of plotters and surface-graphs. The instructor begins feeding stimuli to #42 using a remote terminal where he is running some code.]
"As you can all see, its normal brain activity shows very little concentration or coherence, even during times when it believes it is 'fully focussed' " [taps away at his keyboard]
"Next stimulus. He has just a harsh worded conversation with his female companion. Notice how his brain activity goes erratic and primary body functions are thrown off priority. More than half of his cerebrum shows uncontrolled and noisy activity. Fool. How easily he has made himself vulnerable.. completely open to attack. Typical of his entire race."
"Next, I am about to provide it with a mild negative situation: Observe the display on your right as its thought pattern emerges now. First extreme dispair... complete lack of faith, a slight improvement followed by anger at itself, an urge to selfdestruct and finally a prolonged period of assigning blame to a series of other sapiens. Even though it continues with other activity, cortical signals are continuously diverted to this thought stream. The specimen is completely distracted as it remains in a cyclic thought-stream comprising anger, dismay and depression. It takes almost a complete day for it to recover."
"Uh.. Professor.. stupid question: why is it that despite being aware of its poor cognition and control abilities, the specimen's brain continues to make unfavorable decisions that can only worsen its condition? For instance, in experiment p-beta-p.69 involving the female companion, it chooses to inflict damage on itself and further endager itself by consuming alcohol."
"Ah.. You see the specimen's brain is constantly driven by a purely hedonistic function which constantly tells it what it must do - I know, very very stupid design - only slightly different from the instictive quadrupeds of its time. It completely lacks the ability impose control on itself, something that WE take for granted. Its a wonder how this primitive worthless bundle of neurons could sustain for so long.
We shall stop here today for today. Your midterm is on Tuesday. It will be for an hour and a half.. closed book and closed notes. Thank you"
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