银河系漫游指南国语 经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第24章4

经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第24章4  

"Indeed Earthman."
"Look
sorry — are we talking about the little white furry things with the cheese fixation and women standing on tables screaming in early sixties sit s?"
Slartibartfast coughed politely.
"Earthman
" he said
"it is sometimes hard to follow your mode of speech. Remember I have been asleep inside this pla of Magrathea for five million years and know little of these early sixties sit s of which you speak. These creatures you call mice
you see
they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vast hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front."
The old man paused
and with a sympathetic frown continued. "They've been experimenting on you I'm afraid."
Arthur thought about this for a second
and then his face cleared.
"Ah no
" he said
"I see the source of the misunderstanding now. No
look you see
what happened was that we used to do experiments on them. They were often used in behavioural research
Pavlov and all that sort of stuff. So what happened was hat the mice would be set all sorts of tests
learning to ring bells
run around mazes and things so that the whole nature of the learning process could be examined. From our observations of their behaviour we were able to learn all sorts of things about our own ..."
Arthur's voice tailed off.
"Such subtlety ..." said Slartibartfast
"one has to admire it."
"What?" said Arthur.
"How better to disguise their real natures
and how better to guide your thinking. Suddenly running down a maze the wrong way
eating the wrong bit of cheese
unexpectedly dropping dead of myxomatosis
— if it's finely calculated the cumulative effect is enormous."
He paused for effect.
"You see
Earthman
they really are particularly clever hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings. Your pla and people have formed the matrix of an anic puter running a ten-million-year research programme ..."Let me tell you the whole story. It'll take a little time."
"Time
" said Arthur weakly
"is not currently one of my problems."