He reached past my shoulders with a rod. I felt a shocking,
unbearable pain. The room blacked out as if a switch had been
thrown.. I was split apart by it; for the moment I was
masterless.
The pain left, leaving only its searing memory behind. Before
I could speak, or even think coherently for myself, the
splitting away had ended and I was again safe in the arms of
my master...
The panic that possessed me washed away; I was again filled
with an unworried sense of well being...
"What are you?" "We are the people... We have studied you and
we know your ways... We come," I went on, "to bring you
peace.. and contentment-and the joy of-of surrender." I
hesitated again; "surrender" was not the right word. I
struggled with it the way one struggles with a poorly grasped
foreign language. "The joy," I repeated, "-the joy of . .
.nirvana." That was it; the word fitted. I felt like a dog
being patted for fetching a stick; I wriggled with pleasure.
並非所有的科幻小說都是有害的;閱讀 Brian Aldiss 1969 年的
Super-Toys Last All Summer Long(去年整個夏天的玩具,電影 AI 人工
智慧的劇情基礎)可以知道,Crosswell 條蟲可以讓人們狂吃結果變得過胖
。這裡沒提到基於機器人的寄生生物,只提到弓蟲跟精神分裂症之間的關係
,還有自殺的蚱蜢。