Page 42 - Demo

Natch!28%u201cIf we want to know what%u2019s it like to be a bat, then we simplyhave to travel inside a bat, or to be more precise, we have toimplant our conscious selves inside the anatomy of a bat.%u201d Genegasped in astonishment, and as he did, for the first time henoticed a second egg-shaped shell on the other side of the room.%u201cDo you want to know what it%u2019s like to hang upside down in thedark, to feed upon ripening fruit and insects, to fly swiftlythrough the night sky using your ears to navigate?%u201d Gene took anunconscious step backward before he realized that Gad wasspeaking rhetorically. %u201cWe program these attributes into ourspecies%u2014most of them%u2014but before the bat mobile it was justreductionism and guess work on our part, trying to pretend thatwe knew. But now!%u201d Gad was beaming with the pride of hisachievement. %u201cNow, we really do know. The bat mobile can putus inside that earthworm or inside that robin. We don%u2019t have toguess. We can know what it is to sense the nutrients in soil. Tobe able to read its characteristics, feel its vibrations, sense itstemperature and moisture content.%u201d A sly grin crept over his faceand eyes sparkled. %u201cAnd the robin too, we can know all hersecrets%u2014how she chooses where to fly, where to land; how shechooses a mate, preferring one song over another, this nestingsite over that one; how she navigates that long migration,returning each year to the very same trees, the very same squaremeter of soil. We can know all these things. You can know allthese things.%u201d%u201cIt really freaked me out,%u201d Gene confessed to Jean as herecounted his first day with Gad. %u201cI mean, he%u2019s insanely brilliant,but I doubt that he would lose much sleep if he sent me off toexplore as an earthworm and I got snatched up by some hungryrobin.%u201d%u201cCan that happen?%u201d%u201cHe said that it was %u2018perfectly safe%u2019, but there was somethingabout his tone, the way that he said it, that made me think maybethere%u2019s more of a risk than he%u2019s letting on. I mean, for one thing, ifyou didn%u2019t have that fear of being eaten, you%u2019d be missing a bigpart of the experience, wouldn%u2019t you?%u201d