The Eyes of Heisenberg Read Online Free Page B

universe.”
    Svengaard felt stung by a quality of harshness in Potter’s voice, said, “Not precisely. I meant only that I hoped no super causal agency had a hand in—”
    â€œGod? You don’t really mean you’re afraid this is the action of a deity?”
    Svengaard looked away. “I remember in school,” he said. “You were lecturing. You said we always have to be ready to face the fact that the reality we see will be shockingly different from anything our theories led us to suspect.”
    â€œDid I say that? Did I really say that?”
    â€œYou did.”
    â€œSomething’s out there, eh? Something beyond our instruments. It’s never heard of Heisenberg. It isn’t uncertain at all. It moves.” His voice lowered. “It moves directly. It
adjusts things.” He cocked his head to one side. “Ah-hah! The ghost of Heisenberg is confounded!”
    Svengaard glared at Potter. The man was mocking him. He spoke stiffly, “Heisenberg did point out that we have our limits.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Potter said. “There’s a caprice in our universe. He taught us that. There’s always something we can’t interpret or understand … or measure. He set us up for this present dilemma, eh?” Potter glanced at his finger watch, back to Svengaard. “We tend to interpret everything around us by screening it through that system which is native to us. Our civilization sees indeterminately through the eyes of Heisenberg. If he taught us truly, how can we tell whether the unknown’s an accident or the deliberate intent of God? What’s the use of even asking?”
    Svengaard spoke defensively, “We appear to manage, somehow.”
    Potter startled him by laughing, head tipped back, body shaking with enjoyment. The laughter subsided and presently Potter said, “Sven, you are a gem. I mean that. If it weren’t for the ones like you, we’d still be back in the muck and mire, running from glaciers and saber-tooth tigers.”
    Svengaard fought to keep anger from his voice, said, “What do they think this arginine adjustment is?”
    Potter stared at him, measuring, then, “Damned if I haven’t underestimated you, Sven. Apologies, eh?”
    Svengaard shrugged. Potter was acting oddly today—astonishing reactions, strange eruptions of emotion. “Do you know what they say about this?” he asked.
    â€œYou heard Max on the phone,” Potter said.
    So that was Allgood, Svengaard thought.
    â€œCertainly, I know,” Potter growled. “Max has it all wrong. They say gene-shaping inflicts itself on nature—on a nature that can never be reduced to mechanical systems and, therefore, to stationary matter. You can’t stop the movement, see? It’s an extended system phenomenon, energy seeking a level that’s—”
    â€œExtended system?” Svengaard asked.
    Potter looked up at the man’s scowling face. The question
focused Potters’ attention abruptly on the differences in thought patterns between those who lived close to Central and those who touched the Optiman world only through reports and second-hand associations.
    We are so different, Potter thought. Just as the Optimen are different from us and Sven here is different from the Sterries and breeders. We’re cut off from each other … and none of us has a past. Only the Optimen have a past. But each has an individual past … selfishly personal … and ancient.
    â€œExtended system,” Potter said. “From the microcosmos to the macrocosmos, they say all is order and systems. The idea of matter is insubstantial. All is collisions of energy—some appearing large, swift and spectacular … some small, gentle and slow. But this too is relative. The aspects of energy are infinite. Everything depends on the viewpoint of the observer. For each change of viewpoint, the energy rules