"Having formed these abstract ideas, it becomes necessary to symbolize
them, in order to deal with them apart from the actual object. The sapient
being is a symbolizer, and a symbol communicator; he is able to convey to
other sapient beings his ideas in symbolic form."
"Like '_Pa-pee Jaak_'?" the judge on his right, with the black mustache,
asked.
The globe flashed red at once.
"Your Honors, I cannot consider words picked up at random and learned by
rote speech. The Fuzzies have merely learned to associate that sound with
a specific human, and use it as a signal, not as a symbol."
The globe was still red. The Chief Justice, in the middle, rapped with his
gavel.
"Dr. Mallin! Of all the people on this planet, you at least should know
the impossibility of lying under veridication. Other people just know it
can't be done; you know why. Now I'm going to rephrase Judge Janiver's
question, and I'll expect you to answer truthfully. If you don't I'm going
to hold you in contempt. When those Fuzzies cried out, 'Pappy Jack!' do
you or do you not believe that they were using a verbal expression which
stood, in their minds, for Mr. Holloway?"
He couldn't say it. This sapience was all a big fake; he had to believe
that. The Fuzzies were only little mindless animals.
But he didn't believe it. He knew better. He gulped for a moment.
"Yes, your Honor. The term 'Pappy Jack' is, in their minds, a symbol
standing for Mr. Jack Holloway."
He looked at the globe. The red had turned to mauve, the mauve was
becoming violet, and then clear blue. He felt better than he had felt
since the afternoon Leonard Kellogg had told him about the Fuzzies.
"Then Fuzzies do think consciously, Dr. Mallin?" That was Pendarvis.
"Oh, yes. The fact that they use verbal symbols indicates that, even
without other evidence. And the instrumental evidence was most impressive.
The mentation pictures we got by encephalography compare very favorably
with those of any human child of ten or twelve years old, and so does
their learning and puzzle-solving ability. On puzzles, they always think
the problem out first, and then do the mechanical work with about the same
mental effort, say, as a man washing his hands or tying his neckcloth."
The globe was perfectly blue. Mallin had given up trying to lie; he was
simply gushing out everything he thought.
* * * * *
Leonard Kellogg slumped forward, his head buried in his elbows on the
table, and misery washed over him in tides.
_I am a murderer; I killed a person. Only a funny little person with fur,
but she was a person, and I knew it when I killed her, I knew it when I
saw that little grave out in the woods, and they'll put me in that chair
and make me admit it to everybody, and then they'll take me out in the
jail yard and somebody will shoot me through the head with a pistol,
and--_
_And all the poor little thing wanted was to show me her new jingle!_
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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