"Ringo, John - Council Wars 1 - There Will Be Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

program had been cutting off all input to the brain itself. For the process to
work, brain function had to be at a minimum. There was nothing that they could
do about random processing and "wandering thoughts" but they could cut back on
all sensory inputs and motor functions. In effect, the brain was put into
sensory deprivation.
However, it couldn't be full sensory deprivation. Full SD causes the brain to
assume that damage has occurred to its inputs and brain activity raises to
frantic levels. What happened instead was that the nannites sent in
preprogrammed impulses, soothing ones, that lulled the brain into thinking that
everything was working well. Better, in fact, than it had been for some time.
Meanwhile other nannites took up the business of ensuring the body kept
functioning.
Using the inputs while feeding selective data into the system and reducing
neurotransmitter production, the nannites slowly reduced brain function to a
crawl. The effect was similar to being heavily drugged, but cell-by-cell
specific.
As soon as the brain functions reduced to a minimum acceptable level, the doctor
program signaled that it was prepared to begin replacement.
As with the body, Daneh had determined to start with the simplest and least
important portions of the brain first. Most portions of the brain were
critically important, but losing some parts, notably small portions of the
parietal lobes, was recoverable. Thus they started there.
Daneh's vision was filled with flashing lights. Each of the lights represented a
functioning neuron, sending or receiving information. The brain functioned
holographically so a neuron might be communicating with another neuron far, far
away. However, all of them had to shut down from time to time and it was when
they went "dark" that the program would strike.
In a separate room a complete brain, identical to Herzer's but with repaired
cells and controlled input/output, had been reproduced cell by cell and then put
into stasis. Using teleport nannites the program now grabbed the cells, one by
one, and replaced them, in situ.
Daneh, and the doctor program, watched carefully but the process seemed to be
functioning fine. Replaced cells appeared to activate normally and the standard
rhythms of Herzer's sleeping brain didn't even flicker.
Once the parietal lobes were replaced they delved into deeper and more dangerous
territory. Bit by bit the cerebral cortex was replaced, then the thalamus and
hypothalamus, cerebellum, pons and portions of the medulla.
Finally the only part left to replace was the reticular activating center.
Daneh had left this for last because it was the trickiest. The RAC was the part
of the brain that controlled and activated all the rest. As such, its cells were
rarely quiescent. And if it went "off-line" the rest of the brain wouldn't
function.
The human body has tricks, though. Under certain conditions, notably electric
shock, the whole body can shut down then start back up again.
Daneh was faced with a choice. The rest of the body was repaired, every neuron
firing perfectly and now producing the proper amount of neurotransmitters and
binding to them in the proper fashion. She could leave the reticular activating
center alone, and Herzer would be almost completely fixed, and might survive to
a ripe old age with only occasional epileptic fits, or she could shut the whole
thing down, switch it out and hope that the brain would come back "on-line."