A year ago, Katherine and her brother had been discussing one of philosophy’s most enduring questions — the existence of the human soul — specifically the issue of whether or not humans possessed some kind of consciousness capable of survival
They both sensed that such a human soul probably
The existence of the human soul, Katherine noted with some frustration, was probably a concept that would never be scientifically proven. confirming that a consciousness survived outside the human body after death was akin to exhaling a puff of smoke and hoping to find it years later.
After their discussion, Katherine had a strange notion. Her brother had mentioned the Book of Genesis and its description of the soul as
The notion was impossible, of course. . foolish even to ponder.
It was three days later that Katherine suddenly woke up from a dead sleep and sat bolt upright in bed. She jumped up, drove to her lab, and immediately began work designing an experiment that was both startlingly simple. . and frighteningly bold.
She had no idea if it would work, and she decided not to tell Peter about her idea until her work was complete. It took four months, but finally Katherine brought her brother into the lab. She wheeled out a large piece of gear that she had been keeping hidden in the back storage room.
«I designed and built it myself,» she said, showing Peter her invention. «Any guesses?»
Her brother stared at the strange machine. «An incubator?»
Katherine laughed and shook her head, although it was a reasonable guess. The machine
«See if
When she was done, the display read:
0.0000000000 kg
«A scale?» Peter asked, looking puzzled.
«Not just any scale.» Katherine took a tiny scrap of paper off a nearby counter and laid it gently on top of the capsule. The numbers on the display jumped around again and then settled on a new reading.
0008194325 kg
«High-precision microbalance,» she said. «Resolution down to a few micrograms.»
Peter still looked puzzled. «You built a precise scale for. . a person?»
«Exactly.» She lifted the transparent lid on the machine. «If I place a person inside this capsule and close the lid, the individual is in an entirely
Peter ran a hand through his thick head of silver hair, a nervous mannerism shared by Katherine. «Hmm. . obviously a person would die in there pretty quickly.»
She nodded. «Six minutes or so, depending on their breathing rate.»
He turned to her. «I don’t get it.»
She smiled. «You
Leaving the machine behind, Katherine led Peter into the Cube’s control room and sat him down in front of the plasma wall. She began typing and accessed a series of video files stored on the holographic drives. When the plasma wall flickered to life, the image before them looked like home-video footage.
The camera panned across a modest bedroom with an unmade bed, medication bottles, a respirator, and a heart monitor. Peter looked baffled as the camera kept panning and finally revealed, near the center of the bedroom, Katherine’s scale contraption.
Peter’s eyes widened. «What the. .?»
The capsule’s transparent lid was open, and a very old man in an oxygen mask lay inside. His elderly wife and a hospice worker stood beside the pod. The man’s breathing was labored, and his eyes were closed.
«The man in the capsule was a science teacher of mine at Yale,» Katherine said. «He and I have kept in touch over the years. He’s been very ill. He always said he wanted to donate his body to science, so when I explained my idea for this experiment, he immediately wanted to be a part of it.»
Peter was apparently mute with shock as he stared at the scene unfolding before them.
The hospice worker now turned to the man’s wife. «It’s time. He’s ready.»
The old woman dabbed her tearful eyes and nodded with a resolute calm. «Okay.»
Very gently, the hospice worker reached into the pod and removed the man’s oxygen mask. the man stirred slightly, but his eyes remained closed. now the worker wheeled the respirator and other equipment off to the side, leaving the old man in the capsule totally isolated in the center of the room.
The dying man’s wife now approached the pod, leaned down, and gently kissed her husband’s forehead. The old man did not open his eyes, but his lips moved, ever so slightly, into a faint, loving smile.
Without his oxygen mask, the man’s breathing was quickly becoming more labored. The end was obviously near. With an admirable strength and calm, the man’s wife slowly lowered the transparent lid of the capsule and sealed it shut, exactly as Katherine had taught her.
Peter recoiled in alarm. «Katherine, what in the name of God?!»
«It’s okay,» Katherine whispered. «There’s plenty of air in the capsule.» She had seen this video dozens of times now, but it still made her pulse race. She pointed to the scale beneath the dying man’s sealed pod. The digital numbers read:
51.4534644 kg
«That’s his body weight,» Katherine said.
The old man’s breathing became more shallow, and Peter inched forward, transfixed.
«This is what he wanted,» Katherine whispered. «Watch what happens.»
The man’s wife had stepped back and was now seated on the bed, silently looking on with the hospice worker.
Over the course of the next sixty seconds, the man’s shallow breathing grew faster, until all at once, as if the man himself had chosen the moment, he simply took his last breath. Everything stopped.
It was over.
The wife and hospice worker quietly comforted each other.
Nothing else happened.
After a few seconds, Peter glanced over at Katherine in apparent confusion.
Then it happened.
When Peter saw it, he jolted backward, almost falling out of his chair. «But. . that’s. .» He covered his
