"Vernor Vinge - The Cookie Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

Now Dixie Mae was getting mad. "Look, Ellen. Whatever the time service says, I would not have made
up a whole extra week of my life." All those product-familiarization classes.

"No, you wouldnтАЩt." Ellen brought her heels back on the edge of her chair. For a long moment, she
didnтАЩt say anything, just stared through the haze at the city below.

Finally she said: "You know, Victor, you should be pleased."

"Why is that?" suspiciously.

"You may have stumbled into a real, world-class news story. Tell me. During this extra week of
life youтАЩve enjoyed, how often have you used your phone?"

Dixie Mae said, "Not at all. Mr. JohnsonтАУheтАЩs our instructorтАУsaid that weтАЩre deadzoned till we get
through the first week."

Ellen nodded. "So I guess they didnтАЩt expect the scam to last more than a week. See, we are not
deadzoned here. LotsaTech has a pretty broad embargo on web access, but I made a couple of phone
calls this morning."

Victor gave her a sharp look. "So where do you think the extra week came from?"

Ellen hesitated. "I think Gerry Reich has gone beyond where the UCLA human subjects committee
would ever let him go. You guys probably spent one night in drugged sleep, being pumped chock full
of LotsaTech product trivia."

"Oh! You mean . . . Just-in-Time Training?" Victor tapped away at his notepad. "I thought that was
years away."

"It is if you play by the FDAтАЩs rules. But there are meds and treatments that can speed up
learning. Just read the journals and youтАЩll see that in another year or two, theyтАЩll be a scandal
as big as sports drugs ever were. I think Gerry has just jumped the gun with something that is
very, very effective. You have no side-effects. You have all sorts of new, specialized
knowledgeтАУeven if itтАЩs about a throwaway topic. And apparently you have detailed memories of life
experience that never happened."



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Dixie Mae thought back over the last week. There had been no strangeness about her experience at
Olson Hall: the exams, the job interview. True, the johns were fantastically cleanтАУlike a
hospital, now that she thought about it. She had only visited them once, right after she accepted
the job offer. And then she had . . . done what? Taken a bus directly out to LotsaTech . . .
without even going back to her apartment? After that, everything was clear again. She could
remember jokes in the Voxalot classes. She could remember meals, and late night talks with Ulysse
about what they might do with this great opportunity. "ItтАЩs brainwashing," she finally said.