4376 The Other Side 345
The boy smiled and continued, “For human beings, the brain is the most frightening thing on the planet. From what we know now, the human brain is like the universe, in fact, there’s more to the brain’s potential than just the universe. You know, sometimes you can’t even control your own brain to think about something. People can’t even control themselves. They can’t do what they think, like other creatures. For example, when they’re sad, they can’t help thinking about it when they obviously don’t want to. Don’t you think that’s a terrible thing?”
“Stop imagining things.” Lisa knew what he was worrying about.
With an exasperated laugh, Youyou stood up and gently brushed the sand off his bottom. “Get up,” he told her. “It’s time to go back.”
“Aren’t you going to continue basking in the sun?”
“We’ll get sunburn if we stay in the sun too long.”
Lisa got onto her feet and followed the boy back to the medical center.
Seeing that the boy had returned, Professor Romanka immediately asked to see him in private. The boy followed him to the medical room. Alice wasn’t there, so he asked in a low voice, “What are the chances that my personality and Gong Fan’s will merge?”
“Very high chance.”
“How high exactly?”
“There’s no precise figure for that. If nothing unexpected happens, the two of you are perfectly capable of fusing. After all, if you’re willing to accept him, he’s willing to accept you. There’s nothing wrong with fusing.”
Youyou was silent for a moment. “What do you mean by ‘nothing unexpected’?”
“Didn’t I mention it before? If he dies in a dream, he’ll be gone forever.”
“Why will he disappear?” The boy was indignant. “He’s a personality I created. Why should he disappear? Can he disappear without my permission?”
A personality is controlled by the brain. Of course Youyou was indignant at the thought that he couldn’t even control his own brain.
Romanka glanced at him. “Do you know why people suffer from depression?”
“Eh?”
“Because people can’t control their nerves at all. There are thousands of sensory systems in the human body and a critical link can go wrong. But when that happens, the person may not be able to fix it by himself. He can’t be happy or sad naturally anymore. Even normal sleep becomes a huge problem. In fact, why wouldn’t you think that the brain controls this shell of a body rather than the person controlling the brain?”
“… you mean, it’s nothing more than people just inhabiting this shell, being parasites under the control of the brain?”
“I didn’t say that.” Romanka lifted the boy onto the monitoring chair and, as he put the brain-imaging helmet on him, said, “Man is neither a parasite nor the god that dominates the brain. Just as man can never rule the world.”
“Why aren’t human beings dominating the world now?”
“If by ‘world’ you mean Earth, then I can also disprove your fallacy. So far, man has not fully conquered nature. Why is it that, with all the considerable technology man has invented, he cannot prevent natural disasters?”
The boy had no answer to that. He didn’t even know how to answer that question.
“Don’t overthink things at such a young age. You don’t have any sense of being a patient.”