"Тед Чан. Seventy-Two Letters (72 буквы, Рассказ) (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

megafoetuses, but Ashbourne reminded him that ova were viable only when
taken from a living woman. It was a basic dictum of biology: females were
the source of the vital principle that gave the offspring life, while
males provided the basic form. Because of this division, neither sex could
reproduce by itself.
Of course, that restriction had been lifted by AshbourneТs discovery:
the maleТs participation was no longer necessary since form could be
induced lexically. Once a name was found that could generate human
foetuses, women could reproduce purely by themselves.
Stratton realized that such a discovery might be welcomed by women
exhibiting sexual inversion, feeling love for persons of the same rather
than the opposite sex. If the name were to become available to such women,
they might establish a commune of some sort that reproduced via
parthenogenesis. Would such a society flourish by magnifying the finer
sensibilities of the gentle sex, or would it collapse under the
unrestrained pathology of its membership? It was impossible to guess.
Before StrattonТs enlistment, the nomenclators had developed names
capable of generating vaguely homuncular forms in an ovum. Using Dubuisson
and GilleТs methods, they enlarged the forms to a size that allowed
detailed examination; the forms resembled automata more than humans, their
limbs ending in paddles of fused digits. By incorporating his epithets for
dexterity, Stratton was able to separate the digits and refine the overall
appearance of the forms.
All the while, Ashbourne emphasized the need for an unconventional
approach.
"Consider the thermodynamics of what most automata do," said Ashbourne
during one of their frequent discussions. "The mining engines dig ore, the
reaping engines harvest wheat, the woodcutting engines fell timber; yet
none of these tasks, no matter how useful we find them to be, can be said
to create order. While all their names create order at the thermal level,
by converting heat into motion, in the vast majority the resulting work is
applied at the visible level to create disorder."
"This is an interesting perspective," said Stratton thoughtfully.
"Many long-standing deficits in the capabilities of automata become
intelligible in this light: the fact that automata are unable to stack
crates more neatly than they find them; their inability to sort pieces of
crushed ore based on their composition. You believe that the known classes
of industrial names are not powerful enough in thermodynamic terms."
"Precisely!" Ashbourne displayed the excitement of a tutor finding an
unexpectedly apt pupil. "This is another feature that distinguishes your
class of dexterous names. By enabling an automaton to perform skilled
labour, your names not only create order at the thermal level, they use it
to create order at the visible level as well."
"I see a commonality with MilburnТs discoveries," said Stratton.
Milburn had developed the household automata able to return objects to
their proper places. "His work likewise involves the creation of order at
the visible level."
"Indeed it does, and this commonality suggests a hypothesis."
Ashbourne leaned forward. "Suppose we were able to factor out an
epithet common to the names developed by you and Milburn: an epithet