his head, and getting more and more stubborn-looking.
‘You are not putting me in that ,’ he stated flatly. ‘Enchant my arm, but leave the rest of me alone.’
Jay gave a sigh of frustration. ‘But I have to assess you first. Look – it’s just like, I don’t know – blood types, right? If you needed a transfusion I’d need to know what blood group you were first , wouldn’t I, and so I’d test your blood – and this is no different.’ Adom just looked at her. ‘Oh. Yeah. That explanation doesn’t exactly help, does it? Couple of thousand years too soon.’
‘Not quite that long,’ said Hurple, ‘but no, I don’t think that particular analogy is easing his disquietude very much.’
Jay stuck her tongue out at him, and tried again.
Adom, you need to listen to me here. All I want you to do is sit in the Assessor and I’ll fit the dome over your head, which will map your brain’s wiring pattern. Once I know what kind of neural class you are, I’ll also know what kind of learning package will suit you, we can get you understanding English and any other language you like, and everything’ll suddenly make more sense. Wouldn’t you like everything to make more sense?!’
Unfortunately, there just weren’t the words in Gaelic for a good part of what she was trying to get across, and so English (i.e. gibberish) words kept cropping up instead. The overall effect was to just make things worse.
Jay sighed and then stiffened, eyes wide.
‘Look! An eagle!’ she shouted suddenly, pointing at the ceiling. As Adom’s head snapped up she slapped a patch on to his hand. She just managed to catch himbefore he hit the floor. ‘Sedative,’ she grunted to the others. ‘Don’t stare at me like that – it doesn’t make any difference to the basic assessment whether he’s awake or not. Come on, give me a hand! He weighs a ton.’
With Eo’s help, she got him into the chair and lowered the dome.
‘What –’ he began, but Hurple shushed him.
‘Don’t distract her,’ he whispered solemnly.
Jay wasn’t listening to them anyway. She adjusted the dome and then plonked herself into her mother’s chair, pulled two of the keyboards over and began coding in information. A number of shapes and graphs came up on the screens around the walls. She watched them closely for a moment and then nodded her head, satisfied.
‘Now can I ask what you’re doing?’ said Eo, a bit huffily.
Jay checked the progress of the shape on the screens one more time. Coming along nicely. She swung back and forth idly in the chair, making Professor Hurple’s head swing back and forth in time.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I’m mind-mapping. Well, the computer is. It’s charting the basic wiring patterns in his brain so that I’ll know what sort he’s got – there’s not a lot of point plugging RD-class software into him if he’s got an O-class brain, now is there?!’
There was a pause.
‘Perhaps if you explained a little more fully?’ Professor Hurple suggested cautiously.
‘Yeah,’ said Eo. ‘Assume we’re really stupid.’
Jay refrained from making the obvious reply.
‘OK. We’ve got some time. Let’s see… There arethree basic wiring patterns in humans’ brains – three basic classes, is what we call them. There’s O-class, D-class and RD-class. O-class is the most common one. Stands for Ordinary Class. That’s where you have a bog-standard right-left division of things your brain does. There’s some flexibility, obviously, a range of abilities within a class, but still, we’re talking pretty ordinary’.
She checked the screen again and then looked over at her audience.
‘With me so far?’ she asked.
The two nodded numbly.
‘OK… Then there’s RD-class – that stands for Rigid Division. An RD brain has wiring that allows the least flexibility of functions. RD people tend to be extremely specialized. They have huge over-development of specific skills and huge under-development of the
‘You are not putting me in that ,’ he stated flatly. ‘Enchant my arm, but leave the rest of me alone.’
Jay gave a sigh of frustration. ‘But I have to assess you first. Look – it’s just like, I don’t know – blood types, right? If you needed a transfusion I’d need to know what blood group you were first , wouldn’t I, and so I’d test your blood – and this is no different.’ Adom just looked at her. ‘Oh. Yeah. That explanation doesn’t exactly help, does it? Couple of thousand years too soon.’
‘Not quite that long,’ said Hurple, ‘but no, I don’t think that particular analogy is easing his disquietude very much.’
Jay stuck her tongue out at him, and tried again.
Adom, you need to listen to me here. All I want you to do is sit in the Assessor and I’ll fit the dome over your head, which will map your brain’s wiring pattern. Once I know what kind of neural class you are, I’ll also know what kind of learning package will suit you, we can get you understanding English and any other language you like, and everything’ll suddenly make more sense. Wouldn’t you like everything to make more sense?!’
Unfortunately, there just weren’t the words in Gaelic for a good part of what she was trying to get across, and so English (i.e. gibberish) words kept cropping up instead. The overall effect was to just make things worse.
Jay sighed and then stiffened, eyes wide.
‘Look! An eagle!’ she shouted suddenly, pointing at the ceiling. As Adom’s head snapped up she slapped a patch on to his hand. She just managed to catch himbefore he hit the floor. ‘Sedative,’ she grunted to the others. ‘Don’t stare at me like that – it doesn’t make any difference to the basic assessment whether he’s awake or not. Come on, give me a hand! He weighs a ton.’
With Eo’s help, she got him into the chair and lowered the dome.
‘What –’ he began, but Hurple shushed him.
‘Don’t distract her,’ he whispered solemnly.
Jay wasn’t listening to them anyway. She adjusted the dome and then plonked herself into her mother’s chair, pulled two of the keyboards over and began coding in information. A number of shapes and graphs came up on the screens around the walls. She watched them closely for a moment and then nodded her head, satisfied.
‘Now can I ask what you’re doing?’ said Eo, a bit huffily.
Jay checked the progress of the shape on the screens one more time. Coming along nicely. She swung back and forth idly in the chair, making Professor Hurple’s head swing back and forth in time.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I’m mind-mapping. Well, the computer is. It’s charting the basic wiring patterns in his brain so that I’ll know what sort he’s got – there’s not a lot of point plugging RD-class software into him if he’s got an O-class brain, now is there?!’
There was a pause.
‘Perhaps if you explained a little more fully?’ Professor Hurple suggested cautiously.
‘Yeah,’ said Eo. ‘Assume we’re really stupid.’
Jay refrained from making the obvious reply.
‘OK. We’ve got some time. Let’s see… There arethree basic wiring patterns in humans’ brains – three basic classes, is what we call them. There’s O-class, D-class and RD-class. O-class is the most common one. Stands for Ordinary Class. That’s where you have a bog-standard right-left division of things your brain does. There’s some flexibility, obviously, a range of abilities within a class, but still, we’re talking pretty ordinary’.
She checked the screen again and then looked over at her audience.
‘With me so far?’ she asked.
The two nodded numbly.
‘OK… Then there’s RD-class – that stands for Rigid Division. An RD brain has wiring that allows the least flexibility of functions. RD people tend to be extremely specialized. They have huge over-development of specific skills and huge under-development of the
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