“I have read a little,” Anna said.
The doctor nodded and cleared his throat. “I should add that the neuron is not an ‘on and off’ switch, in case you are thinking of something like a binary computer.
“It’s more like a rheostat. It can receive waves of various amplitudes through its dendrites. The neuron sums the input signals at the axon hillock. Nerves aggregate as inhibitors and activators. For example, some aggregations may increase hunger and some may decrease hunger. Exercise stimulates cells that inhibit hunger. There are cell aggregations that activate fear and those that inhibit it. Any model of the brain must take into account a myriad offsetting nerve groups. Individual nerves fire an impulse out their axon if there is sufficient incoming signal strength. Inputs are summed at the axon hillock. Once triggered at the axon hillock, the axon normally fires with uniform strength through its various terminal buttons.
“As an aside, the human body isn’t big on growing new neurons, maybe some, but unfortunately not enough to keep up with neuron mortality. Furthermore, synapses that aren’t used dissipate. But the good news is that neurons make new connections with learning. That’s why you should keep thinking and stretching your mind into old age. Read, play a musical instrument, work puzzles, keep the mind zapping itself and those interconnections growing. Anyway, I digress.
“Now if you were as smart as your brother, Ms. Wade, you might be able to mathematically model the various potential relationships between a population of neurons. There are billions of neuron brain cells with total interconnections numbering in the trillions in one human brain. On your brother’s computer CD, Carl Fielding found equations along those lines. Utterly impressive work, even given the fraction of the data that seemed to have been successfully transferred.”
“I can’t imagine math can describe the creation of human consciousness,” Anna said.
“Yeah, well, a lot of us have a hard time imagining that consciousness exists and is replicated every time an infant is born and matures. So the mathematicians may never have a perfect model,” Yanavitch replied. “And I haven’t mentioned the other complicating factors. For instance, at any moment a neuron may be receiving more than one pulse at a time, summing up impulses and in addition recognizing the firing activity of neighboring neurons.
“Just to review: A neuron receives electrical waves of varying amplitude through the dendrite and sums them. If the axon is triggered by the input, it fires a uniform signal through all of its various branches.
“This allows for an incredible amount of signal variation and integration among multiple neurons. Which is wonderful for the elegant brain but tough on the mathematician.
“To further complicate matters, one neuron can detect incidental parallel stimulation of other neurons. That is to say, a neuron can make a biochemical note of the triggering of other related neurons. Certain molecules, such as glutamate from a neighboring axon, will stimulate a chemical response in a dendrite more easily if the neuron to which the dendrite feeds is likewise stimulated from another source. The cell becomes more readily stimulated if parallel messages are being received by other neurons. Conversely some neurons are inhibitors; they dampen or counteract a particular response. For example, in a holistic sense a hunger response can be dampened by exercise.”
Sam and Anna nodded dumbly.
“Dr. Fielding believes that Jason has derived one of the most complex equations they have ever seen in order to model brain function. And Dr. Fielding’s colleagues in neurology are in misery because they didn’t receive all of it.”
“We knew he’s a genius,” said Anna. “We’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with him.”
“There is something else. We can tell that Jason was postulating an increased potential. Maybe an induced response, for example, with a drug-Only the drug he was apparently thinking of doesn’t exist.”
“What was he thinking of?”
“Nannites.”
“Give me a break,” Anna said.
“I know, but it was on the disk,” Yanavitch said. “Judging from his notes, Jason really believes in some factor that he ascribes to Nannites.”
“You don’t believe in Nannites?”
“No. But the first day somebody suggested that light was disappearing in black holes, I probably wouldn’t have believed in that either. Look, I can’t take it seriously, but I can’t make any final conclusions until we get the rest of his data. Especially the code.”
“What is that?” Sam asked.
“After we used Anna’s code, there were other codes to access files within the first file. They’re using your computer to break it.”
“I’m aware,” Sam said.
“Dr. Fielding learned that it’s against U.S. law to use such a lengthy encryption.” The doctor paused and was dialing the telephone. After a few queries he hung up.
“Dr. Fielding is at a lecture. They’ll have him call me the instant he returns.”
“So you’ll see my brother if we can get him?”
“Oh, absolutely. Go anywhere, do anything.”
“You may have to,” Sam said.
“Is my brother fixable?” Anna asked. “Of course I know before I ask that you can’t answer.”
“You’re looking for some hope and I don’t blame you. I can’t say. But I know the question to ask: Why the fear message? He’s clearly getting fear messages or neuronal activity in the fear areas of the brain. The brain’s intellectual tendency creates an explanation for the fear. Which in his case is the Nannites.”
“If someone is mostly normal but just a little emotionally unavailable, how do you fix that?” she asked.
Sam wrinkled his brow.
Yanavitch thought for a moment. Looked at Sam, then back at her. “Well, before you go into Gestalt therapy you might try this popular book… what is it? I think it’s called Where Did He Go? Where Did She Go?
Twenty-three
“You look like you’ve run out of room.”
Roberto found Jason staring at an equation he’d written on a white board. The formula covered the board from edge to edge and nearly from top to bottom. “Yes, well, I’m going to take a digital photo and put this up on a screen. Then I’ll start with a fresh board.”
“We think we should move you.”
“Why is that?”
Roberto tried to look sincere. “Trick the Nannites.”
“You don’t believe in them.”
“It should be clear to you that we believe in you and your work. So if you believe in Nannites, that’s good enough for us.”
“How would you propose to trick them?”
“Make them think you died.”
“In the beginning what was to be the universe was packed into space almost infinitely small. Then something happened. Maybe God said good morning. The big bang, some have called it. A tenth of a millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second later the universe had started cooling off and was about a hundred million, trillion degrees and we had gravity.
“I won’t bore you with what happened next. Suffice it to say it took another three hundred thousand years and an average temperature of three thousand degrees for atoms to form. That was the Nannite moment and the world of the Nannites began in our world. They must have gotten here from someplace else, but now they could start to develop their carrier in our universe. We are the most highly evolved carrier.
“Given that Nannites were here before we even became mammals and that they had all that time to evolve, beating us by over five billion years-given that we don’t even know how much longer than our universe they have been around-what makes you think we can fool them?” His eyes were wild. “I think you’re dull, Roberto. You just
