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

He was less confident about mystics.
"I can assure you that we would not use your name for anything other
than ecstatic practices."
"I apologize; I believe you are sincere, but the risk is too great.
The most I can do is remind you that the patent has a limited duration;
once it has expired, youТll be free to use the name however you like."
"But that will take years!"
"Surely you appreciate that there are others whose interests must be
taken into account."
"What I see is that commercial considerations are posing an obstacle to
spiritual awakening. The error was mine in expecting anything different."
"You are hardly being fair," protested Stratton.
"Fair?" Roth made a visible effort to restrain his anger. "You
СnomenclatorsТ steal techniques meant to honor God and use them to
aggrandize yourselves. Your entire industry prostitutes the techniques of
yezirah. You are in no position to speak of fairness."

"Now see here--"
"Thank you for speaking with me." With that, Roth took his leave.
Stratton sighed.


* * *


Peering through the eyepiece of the microscope, Stratton turned the
manipulatorТs adjustment wheel until the needle pressed against the side
of the ovum. There was a sudden enfolding, like the retraction of a
molluscТs foot when prodded, transforming the sphere into a tiny foetus.
Stratton withdrew the needle from the slide, unclamped it from the
framework, and inserted a new one. Next he transferred the slide into the
warmth of the incubator and placed another slide, bearing an untouched
human ovum, beneath the microscope. Once again he leaned toward the
microscope to repeat the process of impression.

Recently, the nomenclators had developed a name capable of inducing a
form indistinguishable from a human foetus. The forms did not quicken,
however: they remained immobile and unresponsive to stimuli. The consensus
was that the name did not accurately describe the non-physical traits of a
human being. Accordingly, Stratton and his colleagues had been diligently
compiling descriptions of human uniqueness, trying to distill a set of
epithets both expressive enough to denote these qualities, and succinct
enough to be integrated with the physical epithets into a
seventy-two-lettered name.
Stratton transferred the final slide to the incubator and made the
appropriate notations in the logbook. At the moment he had no more names
drawn in needle form, and it would be a day before the new foetuses were
mature enough to test for quickening. He decided to pass the rest of the
evening in the drawing room upstairs.
Upon entering the walnut paneled room, he found Fieldhurst and