Marta reached out to rub his shoulders but Dr. Luminaria had stopped her. “Please, Marta, don’t reinforce him when he’s in his ‘poor me’ mode. When he starts to work through a challenge, then you can rub his shoulder to reinforce that behavior. A quick pat as a small reward for a small achievement or a nice shoulder rub as a higher- value reward. And I’ll bet you can think of a nice reward for a bigger achievement,” she said with a smile and a wink to Marta.
Jim saw Marta grin and felt his face burn. Despite himself, he smiled.
Dr. Luminaria turned back to Jim. “Answer me. If a dog has a barking problem, what’s the best training response?”
“Remove the stimulus in the environment that causes the barking. Or cue a different behavior before the dog starts to bark,” Jim said.
“And what else? What do most people do wrong?” she prompted.
“They try to punish the barking.”
“Why is that wrong?” Her questions were rapid-fire, her cadence brisk.
“The punishment just reinforces it.”
“So you ignore the barking and then it goes away?”
“No,” he said, “First there’s an increase in the barking just before it subsides. An extinction burst. Most people give up there. But if they wait, they can reward the dog after the extinction burst, when the dog is finally quiet.”
“Well, people are the same. So, when someone really gets on your nerves, why not assume that you’re seeing an extinction burst and just wait?”
Jim nodded.
“Perhaps you get into trouble because you confuse the extinction burst with a threat. Wait it out. Most people call that patience and goodwill. If it helps you to use the language of behaviorism, then call it an extinction burst.”
“But if I don’t react, there could be trouble,” he argued.
“No!” She rapped on her desk to anchor her response. “The trouble starts when you react. Your father was prone to violence. Do you think most people are like him? Or are people generally peaceable?”
Jim lifted one shoulder in a ‘whatever’ gesture.
Luminaria pressed the point. “Don’t just shrug. You’re avoiding the question. If people were naturally violent, then there’d be a lot more blood on the streets, yes?”
She raised her eyebrows to punctuate her question.
“I guess so,” he said aloud.
She continued, “But if baseline human behavior isn’t violent, then the problem is inside of you.”
“I guess so,” he said again.
“Look, Jim,” she said softly, rewarding him with a soothing voice. “You’re the keenest observer of canine behavior that I’ve seen in a long time. But when you consider people, you confuse
“But what if someone takes a swing at me?” he asked.
“Duck,” she said.
Marta smiled in approval. Clearly, she liked Dr. Luminaria.
10
DISCONTENT, RENEWAL, AND DISQUIET
CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS
SPRING. 2030
A week before the end of the semester, Marta was in a feverish review of cellular biology, organic chemistry, and statistical analysis. Her coffee pot had given birth to a litter of cups. A pile of snack food wrappers grew in an apparent case of spontaneous generation. Marta was a bundle of caffeine-fueled, sugar- enhanced, stress-jangled nerves. Jim tried to help, but to little avail. The vocabulary of her studies was unpronounceable for him, let alone understandable.
Eva joined them, relaxed, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
“Well, look who’s gracing us with her presence,” Marta groused, part accusation, part cry for mercy. “You’ve decided you need to study like the rest of us mortals?”
“Nope. All set.” This drew a groan from Marta. Eva said, “Stop complaining. It’s just science.”
“I don’t understand how you do it,” said Marta.
“Simple. I learn it the first time, in class. Then I don’t forget it. Try it sometime.”
“Thank you very much for your most excellent advice,” said Marta. She was too tired to add the usual edge of asperity to her voice. “So how have you been filling your time? Surely not reading a novel?”
Eva looked askance. “Why would I do that? No, I’ve got a project. Here, look this over and approve it,” she directed. Marta’s dataslate pinged receipt of a document.
“What is it?” asked Marta.
“An application. Sign it.”
“Mind telling me what it is?”
“Read it,” Eva ordered.
“I’m in the middle of organic chemistry. Or is it statistics? Whatever—can’t it wait till after finals?”
“Nope. Need your approval. Project application is due tomorrow.”
“What project?” Marta asked, bewildered.
“Open it,” ordered Eva.
Marta groaned again and subvocalized to open a heads-up display. “It’s a work-study grant application,” she said, surprised. “Bingo.”
“I don’t get it. What work-study?”
“Listen,” Eva began. “We’re going to pool what we know and get credit for it. Take some time out of the classroom and do something real, make something. The project will show the feasibility of nanoassembly of medicines. It’s right up our alley. You know more about folk remedies than anybody in the world. We take the best stuff from your rainforests and synthesize it with a nanoassembler. Maybe even turn it into a business.”
“Where are we going to get an assembler?” asked Marta.
“Oh, ye of little faith. I have a plan,” said Eva.
“I get that you want to use what I’ve found in El Yunque. But I don’t like it,” said Marta. “I’ve spent years cataloging what I found in El Yunque and around the world because the rainforests are dying, not to be some kind of tycoon.”
Eva set down her dataslate with exaggerated care and stared at Marta. She made a hunched shoulders, palms-up, ‘what gives?’ gesture and said, “That’s exactly why my plan is perfect. The rainforests are dying. The people who know what’s in them are dead or moving to the cities. What’s going to happen then? Do you want to let it all get lost?”
“No, but I don’t like this idea of yours,” Marta repeated.
“What’s not to like?”
“Well, for one thing, I don’t like you doing this behind my back.”
“Oh, relax. I just did the part that I’m best at—organizing and creating a business plan. You ever done anything like that before?”
“No,” Marta admitted, “but—”
“You’ve written grant applications before? Even one?”
“No. I’m a researcher, not a wanna-be tycoon.”
“Wanna-be? Riiight.” She drew out this last word. “What about you, Jim? You have any desire to manage the
