PERFECT MEMORY

Charles H. Grooms

John Trombley arrived for work early Monday morning. He was really looking forward to today. This was the day that they would try out the new drug that Dr. Dennis Miscer had been working on for the past six months. John was a graduate student acting as an assistant to Dr. Miscer and felt extremely honored to be in that position.

Dr. Miscer had been working on the chemistry of memory and they felt that they were on the verge of a major breakthrough. Some of the drugs that they had developed in the past had shown some promise and then had just fizzled out. At least they knew that those drugs didn't work. If this new drug lived up to their expectations, it could mean that they would have a much better understanding of how memory really worked, and maybe even help to improve both short and long term memory.

When John entered the lab, the first thing that he did was get the coffee pot going. He liked coffee himself, but Dr. Miscer claimed that it was absolutely barbaric to expect anyone to even think about trying to do any work without plenty of coffee. He liked it strong and black and in great quantities.

Just as the coffee was ready, Dr. Miscer entered the lab. "Ummm, smells like the coffee is ready. Well, John, today is the big day. Have you had a chance to check out the rats yet? No" Well, let me get some coffee and we will do that first."

After he had stirred in precisely one half of a teaspoonful of sugar, and John had fixed himself a slightly sweeter, and blonder cup of brew, they went over to the rat cages and looked over the experimental animals caged there.

"Well, they look healthy enough. OK, John, here is what we will do. These five rats will be controls. These five will receive a five microgram dose of the drug, diluted with saline solution to make one cc, and these five will receive 10 micrograms, diluted in the same way. Then we will see how long it takes all of them to learn the maze. Prepare the drug for me, will you?"

"Certainly, Dr. Miscer. Are we going to run both mazes simultaneously, or only one at a time?"

They had two mazes with movable partitions so that the route through the maze could be changed at will, and when they ran both simultaneously, they normally set them up identically.

"I think that we will only use one maze today, that way we can pay full attention to the subject. I don't want to miss anything on this test."

"Yes sir."

While John was diluting the drug to the prescribed strength, Dr. Miscer busied himself with setting up the maze and getting the video camcorder set up so that all parts of the maze were visible to it. He also got the other video and audio recording equipment set up and ready.

At last all was ready. The first rat was taken from it's cage and a collar was attached to it. On the collar, a tag was clearly visible with a number on it.

The monitoring equipment was started and the rat was set in the entrance of the maze. None of these rats had been fed for twenty four hours, and they had also been deprived of water for the last eight hours. They would be anxious to get through the maze where their training told them that they would find both food and water waiting.

As soon as the rat was released, it scurried forward. Five minutes later it received a small drink of water and a tidbit of food. Then it was started over. On it's second try, it threaded its way through the maze in four and a half minutes. Again, it received a small drink and a tidbit. On it's third try, it made it's way through even faster. Finally, after seven tries, it had learned the maze and could make it's way through in thirty five seconds.

On each run, both John and Dr. Miscer made notes, noting each time that the rat faltered at some turning, undecided which way to go. They recorded each error that the rat made and the times that it took to do things.

The other four rats made comparable test scores. All were about what they had expected.

"Well, Dr. Miscer, shall we inject the first group of rats?"

"No. First we will have a cup of coffee. Then we shall start with the five microgram solution."

They adjourned to the other side of the lab and prepared themselves coffee and Dr. Miscer dragged a disreputable looking pipe out of his pocket and filled it from a pouch found in another pocket. He soon had it burning and was puffing out aromatic clouds of smoke. John liked the aroma of the pipe, but he didn't smoke himself.

After their coffee, they injected the second group of rats with the five microgram solution. The recording equipment was started. Then the first of the rats was released. It scurried forward and four minutes and fifty five seconds later it received a tidbit of food and a small drink of water. On it's second run, it made it through the maze in two minutes and thirty six seconds. On it's third try, it made it through in thirty six seconds, which it also did on all subsequent runs. It had learned the maze in exactly two tries.

The second rat made it through the maze on it's first try in five minutes and three seconds. On it's second try, it made it through in thirty four seconds, as it also did on subsequent tries. The next three rats made test runs similar to that of the second rat. They had learned the maze on the first try.

"Well, it would seem that the drug does have some affect on the memory. The test subjects seem to have learned the maze faster than normal."

"Yes, Dr. Miscer, but why did the first rat take two and a half minutes to get through on it's second try?"

"Apparently, the drug had not yet had it's full effect. Let's inject the third group with the ten microgram solution now, then we can have another cup. That will give the drug time to have it's full effect and then we can run the last group."

John chose to forgo the coffee this time, but he did join the Dr. while he had his cup.

When Dr. Miscer was through with his coffee, they restarted the recording equipment and started running the last group of rats. These animals all made test runs almost identical to the last four of the second group of rats.

Just as they were finishing up, the lab door opened and Dr. Paul Marquarht, the department head entered the lab. "Well, Dennis, how goes the tests?"

"Hello, Paul. It is too early to tell yet, but it looks like we may have made a breakthrough at last! We injected ten rats. One of them learned the maze after only two tries, and the rest learned it on their first run through the maze. I believe that the first one took an extra try because the drug hadn't yet taken full effect when we started."

"Marvelous! I'll call a press conference this afternoon."

"But we are not ready for that yet."

"Ready or not, we have to do it. I haven't told you this yet because I didn't want you to have to be worrying about it, but your research is about to get axed! There are those on the Board of Directors that think that it is a waste of time and money. If we can show that you are actually making some progress, not only will you not get the ax, you will probably get more money than you can spend. I am sorry to have to work this way, but I really don't have any choice, and neither do you."

"Well, if we have to, I guess that we have to. Doesn't mean that I have to like it."

Three PM that afternoon found Drs. Miscer and Marquarht and John in the department's main conference room along with about ten reporters. Dr. Miscer had his ever present cup of coffee with him. Dr. Marquarht started. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for coming. First of all, I would like to say that this is a very momentous occasion. We are about to enter a new chapter in human history, and we owe it all to one man. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce to you that man, Dr. Dennis Miscer." With that, he sat down.

Dr. Miscer stood up. He was obviously nervous, and not accustomed to speaking in front of a group of non-students. As he paused, trying to decide how to begin, John tugged at his sleeve. He bent over and John whispered, "Just pretend that they are students and that this is the classroom."

Dr. Miscer smiled, became composed and began, "For some time now, we have been studying the mechanism of memory, from an electrochemical viewpoint. Specifically, we have been trying to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of memory, and to find ways to improve both the short term and long term memory through the use of chemicals similar to those normally found in the brain.

"Although it is too early to tell as yet, and we need a lot more testing, it is quite possible that we may have made a major breakthrough in our research. I don't want to get too technical, not only because I don't want to bore you, but also because we are not yet ready to divulge too many details.

"Essentially, what we have done is this. We have made a drug, which, when injected into a test animal, seems to radically improve the short term memory. We devised a maze that took test rats about seven tries to learn. Other rats which had received injections of the drug, which we have tentatively named "Memoron," learned the maze in only one try." He sat down.

One of the reporters said, "Jennie Wilton, Dr. Miscer. You have mentioned `long term memory' and `short term memory.' Could you explain that, please?"

"Certainly. Ms. Wilton. Perhaps an example would be best. Suppose I were to tell you that the Jonathan Winston is a yellow rose. Now if I ask you what a Jonathan Winston is, and you tell me that it is a yellow rose, that is short term memory working. If I were to ask you in six months what a Jonathan Winston is, you may or may not be able to tell me. If you are really interested in roses, there is a good chance that you could tell me that it is a yellow rose. What has happened is that your mind has transferred the information to your long term memory. If you can't tell me what a Jonathan Winston is in six months, then the transfer was not made, at least not on a conscious level. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Dr. Miscer, Charlie Hart. You said that the drug improved the short term memory of the test rats. What about the long term memory?"

"We don't know yet. There hasn't been enough time to tell if the drug has also effected the long term memory. As I said earlier, it is too soon to tell yet. We need a lot more testing."

"Dr. Miscer, Bob Johnson. You say that this drug improves the short term memory of test rats, and perhaps the long term memory as well. So now you have a bunch of rats with good memories. What good does that do us?"

After the spate of mild laughter had died down, "Good question. I guess that we really don't need a bunch of smarter rats. But if the long term memory is similarly improved, then we may be able to apply the method to people. Imagine that you were to take a speed reading course, so that you could scan a printed page per second. Then imagine taking an encyclopedia and scanning through it. Then imagine that a year later, you could quote that encyclopedia word for word, with no errors. Imagine that you are a college student taking a course in microbiology or economics. All that you would have to do is read the assigned text and listen to the lectures, and you would automatically know the test answers. Actually, we would have to change the way that we grade students. We would have to start grading them not so much on what they could remember, but on being able to apply that knowledge, more on problem solving. Yes, Ms. Wilton?"

"Dr. Miscer. How long will it be before this drug is available for human use?"

"Not for a long time, I'm afraid. We only tested it on rats for the first time today. We don't know yet if the long term memory is also improved. If it isn't, then the drug is not of much use. We don't know if the effects are temporary or permanent. If they are temporary, will you forget the things that you learned under the drug's influence? Will another dose recall those things? Will there be any unpleasant side effects, such as cancer or birth defects? No, we have a lot of testing to do with the rats yet, then we will have to try testing with some higher animals, such as chimpanzees. Assuming that everything goes well with all of these tests, then we would have to apply for permission to use human tests. That permission could take a couple of years or more. Then we would have to make exhaustive human tests with no ill effects. Only then could we apply for use with humans. That permission for general human use is years in the future at the best."

"Dr. Miscer."

"Yes, Mr. Johnson?"

"Assuming that all of your tests go perfectly, the rats can still remember their way through the maze a year from now, the effects are permanent, it doesn't prove to be a carcinogen, doesn't cause birth defects, works just as well on dogs and cats and chimps, then you try it on human subjects and it works on them and doesn't cause them to break out in purple pimples, it other words, it works fine all of the way up the line, do we really want perfect memory? I mean, might not the ability to forget be necessary? Should we really be fooling with that aspect?"

"Well, I am neither a theologian nor a psychiatrist. I am a scientist. I set out to get a better understanding of memory. In the process, I have discovered a drug that seems to improve the memory. I can see a lot of benefits to that. I, myself, have on occasion spent as much as a week looking for a specific bit of information that I knew that I had read, but could not remember where I had read it. And although that week was not totally wasted, if I could have remembered the piece of information, or even where I had read it, I could have put that week to much better use. No, Sir. Whether or not this drug is ever used on humans will not be my decision. If it were my decision to make, as soon as I was satisfied that it was safe and that it worked, it would be made available. But even if it were my decision to make, it would still be years away from availability."

Dr. Marquarht stood up, "If there are no more questions, Dr. Miscer has a lot of work to do, as I am sure that you can all appreciate."

"One more question, please."

"Yes, Mr. Hart?"

"Dr. Marquarht, aside from the publicity, what does the university get out of this?"

"Oh, we receive a number of benefits, Mr. Hart. Discoveries such as this help us get more research grants, and that is the money that we need to continue to operate. If the drug does prove to be usable on humans, then we can license it's manufacture to a drug company and we will receive royalties from it, again money that will help us to continue operations. Also the publicity helps to attract students to our school. That also helps to keep us in operation. This type of publicity also attracts some of the finer minds seeking positions on our staff. That helps to make us a better school. And if you need an example of that, would you rather be the ace reporter of the Herald Tribune of Bullfiddle, Iowa--population 300, or just another fine reporter of the Boston Globe?"

"Where is Bullfiddle, Iowa?"

"I have no idea, I just made it up."

"I get your point. Thank you Drs."

********************

To say that the next few weeks were very busy would be grossly understating it. Not only was the project not axed, but it went from a one researcher with a single assistant type of operation to a much larger scale operation. Dr. Miscer remained in charge and John remained his personal assistant, but six other researchers who carried the "doctor" title were assigned to the project along with numerous other assistants. It was found that the effects of the drug did seem to wear off after about a month, but that those things that had been learned by the rats while they were under it's influence were not forgotten. That is, once they had learned a specific maze layout, they remembered it. One of the tests that they conducted was to combine the two mazes into one giant maze. A computer program had been set up to make the maze as complex as possible, with many false, dead end paths, but only a single pathway through it. Both treated and untreated rats were run through the maze. It took all of them from twenty five to thirty five minutes to find their way through the maze the first time. After going through it once, the treated rats could zip right through it with no false starts and no errors, whereas it took the untreated rats many, many tries to begin to learn their way through.

After the treated rats started having litters of young, and the young were thoroughly examined and shown to have no birth defects, plans were started for primate testing.

But all was not roses. A fundamentalist religious cult had sprung up in opposition to their work. They started picketing the university and passing out religious tracts. They carried signs and banners protesting the drug tests. One banner read, "IF GOD HAD WANTED MAN TO HAVE PERFEK MEMORIES, HE WOULD HAVE MADE THEM THAT WAY." They didn't seem to realize that they had misspelled the word "perfect." One of the signs read, "Don't mess with my head." The other signs and banners were similar.

After two weeks, a smaller group showed up carrying a banner that read, "IF GOD WERE OPPOSED TO PERFECT MEMORY, HE WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR MAN TO ACHIEVE IT."

Before the day was over, the two groups ended up in a fight. The police arrested both groups. At their trial, all involved were fined a small sum and the judge ordered both groups to stay away from the university and to cease their picketing. He also informed them that any disobedience would be considered contempt of court and would result in stiff penalties.

The cult members changed their tactics. They started going door to door and talking to anyone that they could get to listen to them. Most of those people laughed at them, but a few listened. They managed to make TV appearances. They badgered politicians. They wrote letters to senators and representatives. They wrote letters to the President of the United States. They circulated petitions to have the testing of the drug halted. Slowly, they increased their numbers.

Eventually, the researchers at the university started to feel the pressure. They did not in any way cut back on their research, but they did try to be more circumspect about it and to keep a lower profile.

By now their work had expanded to include tests on chimpanzees. After giving the chimpanzees the drug, they taught them sign language. There was already a good precedent for this step. Several years earlier, Koko the gorilla had been taught sign language without the use of the drug, and had become proficient with it. The difference was that the chimps learned it much more rapidly with the drug. The main problem facing the researchers was getting the chimps to understand what any sign meant. Once the animal understood what a sign meant, they remembered it.

Once the chimps had been taught sign language, some bright researcher decided to see if they could learn to read and write. It wasn't too much of a surprise to anyone to find that they made the transition without too much trouble, although their vocabularies never became that of a normal adult human, once they learned to spell a word, they never misspelled it again, which is something that you can't say about many adult humans.

Somehow or other, the fundamentalist cult found out about this and really got up in arms. They claimed that God had given man dominion over all of the animals, but that did not mean that a bunch of meddlesome scientists had the right to raise them up to be man's equals. Some of the more extreme of the cultists claimed that there was no way that monkeys (they didn't realize that chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys) could learn to read and write unless they were no longer simply monkeys, and that the only way that that could happen was if human genes had been mixed in with the monkey genes. That meant that either the researchers were fornicating with the monkeys or that the biologists were splicing human genes onto monkey genes. The most extreme of the cultists insisted on the fornication theory. Unfortunately, some of the lessor educated of the population that had laughed at the cultists prior to this accepted these new theories and joined forces with them. Of course, no such things were happening.

********************

For some reason, although the drug seemed to wear off with the rats in about a month, it lasted more like three months with the chimps. Whether this was a matter of metabolism, body mass or brain size to body mass ratio or to life span was not yet known. Once enough of the drug had been administered to have effect, the concentration or amount of the drug given didn't seem to matter. It's effectiveness was the same and it wore off in the same length of time. After the drug had worn off with the chimps, they did not loose the ability to communicate with sign language, or to read and write, but their learning abilities did seem to drop off, and their ability to remember new things returned to normal. Administering another dose of the drug seemed to return their super memories.

By now, the researchers knew that the drug worked very well on rats and chimpanzees, they knew that no birth defects were produced by the use of the drug with rats, as their test rat population had seen three new generations of rats that had had the drug used on them. It was too early to tell with the chimps, as their reproductive cycle was much closer to that of man than that of rodents. They also knew that no cancers or other diseases had occurred in any of the test animals that could in any way be attributed to the drug, although one chimp did cause some anxious moments when it started acting sick. It turned out that it was only a cold.

One thing that did happen was that some of the researchers that had thought of chimps as only mildly intelligent test animals learned that the chimps were more intelligent than they had given them credit for, and moreover, that each chimp had it's own personality, and that some of them had relatively highly developed senses of humor. They were generally different that the human's senses of humor, but they were there. That wasn't too hard to understand, even among humans, there are different types of humor. They also learned that the chimps were capable of feelings of affection.

By now, political pressure against the project was increasing. There were frequent debates in both state and federal Houses of Representatives and Senates. It wasn't so much that most of the politicians themselves were against the project, but they were aware that these cultists did vote, and that they were influencing a disproportionately large number of other voters, and an election year was coming up.

********************

It was the first thing on a Monday morning, and the researchers were all gathered in the conference room for the weekly staff meeting. Dr. Miscer insisted that everyone always attend these meetings, even those assistants whose only job it was to clean the cages and feed the animals. In addition, he also sometimes held smaller, private staff meetings, but these Monday morning meetings, everyone attended. And everyone had the right to speak and ask questions.

When everyone had gathered, he took a final sip of his ever present cup of coffee, took a puff from his pipe, and called the meeting to order.

After discussing the progress of the past week, and laying out the general plans for the coming week, Dr. Miscer changed the topic. He turned to one of the younger staff members, a young student whose job it was to feed the animals. "Miss Johnson. I have had a complaint about your work." At the young girl's shocked expression, he laughed. "It seems that one of the chimps, Goldie, I believe it is, claims that you are giving Bobo more bananas than you are giving her."

"But Dr. Miscer, that is not true."

"I'm sure that it isn't true. But does anyone have any idea why she would say so?"

One of the research assistants, Don Lucas, spoke up. "I think I may have an idea on that, Sir. Last Thursday, Goldie laid her banana down to get a drink of water. When she did, Bobo rushed up and stole it from her."

"So she thinks that by making this accusation, either she will be given more bananas to make up for the disparity, or Bobo will be punished by not receiving as many. Devious mind in that animal.

"But now to a more serious subject. I'm sure that all of you are aware of the political situation concerning the project. There is an excellent chance right now that enough political pressure will be brought to bear on the university to close our project down.

"What some of you may not be aware of is that the military is interested in what we are doing. If the university is forced to shut down operations, it is almost certain that the military would take over. Most of you have never worked on military projects. Believe me, it is an entirely different ball game. We would loose much of the control over our work that we have had in the past. A military liaison officer would be assigned to us, who, in reality, would be in charge of the project. The things that we could discuss at these Monday morning meetings would be limited. If one of you didn't need to know something about some aspect of the work, you would not be allowed to know. Even though we have to turn in reports now, it would be a lot worse if the military were in charge.

"One more thing, if we can continue to work as we are now, and eventually get the drug approved for human use, it can be made available to humanity in general. If the military takes over, we would probably start human testing much earlier, but it's general availability would be greatly limited. It might never be made available to the general public.

"Any questions or comments?"

John spoke up, "Dr. Miscer, the feeling that I get is that the main reason that there is so much opposition to the project is that we are developing animals with superior memories. And I mean superior to human. My gut feeling is that if we were testing the drug on people instead of animals, there wouldn't be so much opposition."

"I'm sure that you are right, John."

"In that case, Sir, is there any way that we could speed up the transition to human testing?"

"I'm afraid not. If we were to apply for permission for human testing at this stage, we would be flatly turned down. And even if we were ready to apply for human testing, at the best it would be months before we could receive permission. At the worst, it could be years. So even at the best, the permission would probably come too late.

"If there are no other comments? OK, lets get to work."

During the next two weeks, more opposition surfaced against the project. A new group, People for Ethical Simian Treatment, or PEST, joined forces with the Deny University Meddling of Brains Of Simians, or DUMBOS. They formed the Coalition Against Needless and Careless Experimenting and Restructuring of Simians, or CANCERS. Although they did not repeat the fornication charges, they did hint at them, and they did accuse the researchers with everything else from sadistic mistreatment to vivisection without the use of anesthesia. One of them even came up with the peabrained idea that the researchers were killing some of the chimps and splicing parts of the brains of the sacrificed chimps into the other chimps, in order to give them bigger brains and more smarts (their words).

Finally, a joint investigative committee of U.S. Senators and Representatives along with representatives of the national SPCA dropped in on the project, unannounced. After seeing for themselves how the animals were being treated, and their living conditions, they left happy and satisfied. One of the Representatives, a known animal lover, was completely won over when one of the chimps offered him a banana. When they made their report public, there were accusations of copouts and bribes. The pressure increased.

Finally, it became obvious to everyone involved with the project that they had a week, two at the most before the pressure would close the project down.

After work, on his way to his off campus apartment, John decided to stop off at a tavern that catered to university students and employees. He was in a brown mood and sat quietly by himself in a corner nursing his beer. It just wasn't fair that some uneducated fanatics could put so much pressure on the university and the government in general that they could kill a project that potentially held so much promise for the general good of all mankind. Finally, after several beers, John knew what he had to do.

John arrived at work early the next morning and made certain preparations. He set up the video recording equipment and the camcorder and a tape recorder. He had even hooked himself up to an electroencephalograph. A single foot switch turned everything on. He calculated the minimum dose of the drug necessary to be effective with a human of his mass, using the figures that had been determined from the chimp tests. He prepared an injection.

Dr. Miscer was always very punctual in arriving at the lab. Just before he was due to arrive, John rolled up his sleeve, wrapped a rubber tube around his upper arm and swabbed his arm with alcohol. Then he turned on the recording and monitoring equipment and started talking.

"This is John Trombley. I am about to undertake an experiment with the drug, `Memoron'. It has become increasingly obvious to all of us here that outside pressure is about to close down our project, before we have had a chance to perform any human tests on the drug Memoron. This pressure, although based on ignorance and misinformation, is very real. I feel, as we all do, that this is a very important drug, and that we can not afford to allow prejudice and ignorance to cause it's loss to mankind even before a single human test has been made.

"Therefore, unknown to anyone else involved with the project, I have decided to make a human test, with myself being the test subject. I am presently alone in the research lab, but I expect Dr. Miscer to arrive at any minute. When I hear him entering the lab, I will inject the drug into my own vein."

He then went on to describe the recording and monitoring setup that he had made, the amount and strength of the drug that he was about to use and everything else that he could think of to add.

Just as he heard the lab door open, he said, "I just heard the door open, I am now inserting the needle into my vein and as Dr. Miscer enters the lab, I will make the injection." Just then Dr. Miscer entered the lab and John said, "Dr. Miscer, I am taking the drug!" and pushed the syringe plunger home.

"John! No! Don't do it!"

"Too late, Doc." John removed the needle from his arm and loosened the elastic tube.

"But John, why?"

"Because, Dr. Miscer, we were about to get shut down without ever having the opportunity to make a single human test. At least this way, we will know if it works on people. I have recorded everything that I have done and absolved you and everyone else involved with the project of all responsibility."

As Dr. Miscer checked John's pulse, John went on to describe everything that he had done.

Ten minutes later, John said, "Funny, I just remembered a little toy truck that I had when I was four years old. I hadn't thought of it in years. And now I remember the time when I stumped my toe when I was six. I was barefoot and running and...God! that hurts!"

Slowly, his eyes opened wider and an expression of horror crossed his face. He remembered floating in warm darkness and the contractions and pressure pushing on him. He remembered the sudden brilliance of the lights in the delivery room and the rude slap of the doctor's hand on his bare bottom. He remembered his cries of birth. He remembered every spanking and swat on the bottom that he had ever had. He remembered every time that he had ever been hurt through every minor accident throughout his childhood. He remembered every harsh word that he had ever heard. He remembered every time that he had ever been hit in every fight that he had ever been in. He remembered every time that he had ever been embarrassed. He remembered the time when he was in the third grade and a bunch of fifth grade boys had caught him and taken all of his clothes off and run them up the flagpole. Then they wouldn't let him run away, but made him get them down while half of the kids in the school watched. He remembered every time that he had ever been sick and how he had felt. He remembered every nightmare that he had ever had and the fear that had accompanied them. He remembered everything that had ever happened to him during every moment of his life. This is not to say that he remembered them in some sort of sequential order, he remembered them all SIMULTANEOUSLY! And he remembered them all with all of the freshness and vividness as if it were all happening right NOW! His memory was perfect.

He screamed. And kept on screaming and screaming and screaming.

He screamed until they sedated him.

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