"Connie Willis - Bellweather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

home. But I was still trying to put my finger on what it was that was so unusual about him. I followed him through the ma
stuff.

"Is Flip responsible for this?" I said, squeezing between two stacks of boxes.

"No," he said. "I'm setting up my new project." He stepped over a tangle of cords.

"Which is?" I brushed aside a hanging plastic net.

"Information diffusion." He opened a door and stepped outside onto a porch. "It should keep cold enough out her
said, setting it down.

"Definitely," I said, hugging my arms against a chilly October wind. The porch faced a large, enclosed paddock, fe
in on all sides by high walls and overhead with wire netting. There was a gate at the back.

"It's used for large-animal experiments," Dr. O'Reilly said. "I'd hoped I'd have the monkeys by July so they could
outside, but the paperwork's taken longer than I expected."

"Monkeys?"
 "The project's studying information diffusion patterns in a troop of macaques. You teach a new skill to one of the
macaques and then document its spread through the troop. I'm working with the rate of utilitarian versus nonutilitarian sk
teach one of the macaques a nonutilitarian skill with a low ability threshold and multiple skill levelsтАФ"

"Like the Hula Hoop," I said.

He set the box down just outside the door and stood up. "The Hula Hoop?"

"The Hula Hoop, miniature golf, the twist. All fads have a low ability threshold. That's why you never see speed c
becoming a fad. Or fencing."

He pushed his Coke-bottle glasses up on his nose.

"I'm working on a project on fads. What causes them and where they come from," I said.

"Where do they come from?"

"I have no idea. And if I don't get back to work, I never will." I stuck out my hand again. "Nice to have met you,
O'Reilly." I started back through the maze.

He followed me, saying thoughtfully, "I never thought of teaching them to do a Hula Hoop."

I was going to say I didn't think there'd be room in here, but it was almost six, and I at least had to get my piles up
the floor and into file folders before I went home.

I told Dr. O'Reilly goodbye and went back up to Sociology. Flip was standing in the hall, her hands on the hips of
leather skirt.

"I came back and you'd left," she said, making it sound like I'd left her sinking in quicksand.

"I was down in Bio," I said.