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look in the box behind her and saw that the Taya in that one had hardly any hair, and a pink patch on its
arm that she didn t have. And at the top of its legs its body was curiously different. She looked across at
the box in the next row, and at the one next to that. All the Tayas were different . . . the same as her, but
all different.
Kort moved forward to stare down from alongside her. Taya looked up at him, but was unable to form
any question because her mouth just hung open and wouldn t close. Scientist had no way of knowing
how long he would be able to keep his tiny chemical thing growing, he said. If it stopped the way the
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others had, he d have to start all over again. So, when he had managed to keep one growing properly for
one year, he picked out another fifty groups of numbers to make fifty more different sets of giant
molecules, and he started them all growing in the same way that he d managed to make the first one
grow. So now he had fifty-one chemical things, but one of them was a year older than the rest.
Taya was listening rapturously, but she couldn t keep her eyes off the figures in the glass-covered boxes.
They were all about the same size bigger than Rassie, but much smaller than Taya. Their chests were
moving the way hers did not as much as hers, and more quickly . . . but they were moving. Kort s
chest never moved like that because he didn t need air. They were really like her. Some of them were
darker than she was, a sort of brown instead of pink, and a few almost black. And some were yellowy
and some more red. Taya wondered why there weren t any blue ones or green ones or purple ones, too.
She began moving through the room between the boxes, stopping and gazing through every one of the
glass covers to marvel at how delicately a nose was formed here, or to stare at a miniature hand there, or
a brown foot that was pink underneath. This one had hardly any eyebrows, while that one had thick
black ones; this one had hair that was almost red, and another had tiny ears, not much bigger than
Rassie s.
By that time all of the minds were saying how clever Scientist was, Kort resumed. But then Skeptic
reminded them that nothing Scientist had done so far proved anything about chemical intelligence. All
he d proved was that a set of molecules could cause a chemical structure to grow. And he had a point,
because even the one that was a year older had never actually done anything that could be called
intelligent. All it had done was kick, squirm about, and eat the food that the machines gave it. So the
machines settled down to watch and wait for it to do something intelligent.
Scientist must have been very clever to make these, Taya thought to herself, never mind what the other
minds said. When she had reached the end of the room and looked inside every one of the glass covers,
she turned. She was happy now, Kort could see, and the laughter in her eyes was echoed by the relieved
currents flowing into his mind from the entire network of Merkon. But there was something else in her
eyes, too. The expression on her face contained more than just the simple happiness that he saw when
she watched the stars or created a picture that she especially liked. There was a light of awareness there
now, which added to the happiness to produce an effect that was new to him as if in the last few
minutes she had suddenly become older and changed more than she had in all of the previous nine years.
He continued. The minds waited for almost another year, but no sign of intelligence appeared. Then
Mystic started saying it was because Supermind was angry at the machines for trying to create
intelligence. Only Supermind was supposed to create intelligence. If the machines didn t stop trying to do
something that machines were never meant to do, Supermind would scrap all of them, and Merkon as
well. This worried the minds, and they argued about whether they should allow Scientist to keep his
creations.
There was nothing left to see at the end of the room. Taya clasped Kort s hand and they began walking
back between the boxes toward the door. By this time a new mind had formed out of parts of Scientist,
Evolutionist, Biologist, and Thinker. Its name was Kort. Taya stopped and looked up. Kort paused for
a second, then continued. Kort had spent a lot of time studying the strange chemical things and watching
them grow. He had become fond of them and didn t want Mystic to take them away. He suggested that
maybe the machines were mistaken in assuming that all kinds of intelligence had to be like
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