human
The thing I don't understand is, why was it necessary to knock out Ch'ien? He'll have a sore jaw for weeks. Why didn't you just tell him who you were and what you were up to?
gpt
We couldn't allow that, said Candron, looking at Senator Kerotski.
human
Dr. James Ch'ien has too much of a logical, scientific mind for that. We'd have ruined him if he'd seen me in action.
gpt
Why? We've convinced other scientists that they were mistaken in their observations. Why not Ch'ien?
human
Ch'ien is too good a scientist, Candron said.
gpt
He's not the type who would refuse to believe something he saw simply because it didn't agree with his theories. Ch'ien is one of those dangerous in-betweens. He's too brilliant to be allowed to go to waste, and, at the same time, too rigid to change his manner of thinking. If he had seen me teleport or levitate, he wouldn't reject it--he'd try to explain it. And that would have effectively ruined him.
human
Ruined him?
gpt
Sure, Leo, he said to the senator.
human
Don't you see? We _need_ Ch'ien on this interstellar project. He absolutely _must_ dope out the answer somehow, and no one else can do it as quickly.
gpt
With the previous information, the senator said,
human
Yeah? Taggert said, sitting up.
gpt
Has anyone been able to dope out Fermat's Last Theorem without Fermat? No. So why ruin Ch'ien?
human
It would ruin him, Candron broke in, before the senator could speak.
gpt
If he saw, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that levitation and teleportation were possible, he would have accepted his own senses as usable data on definite phenomena. But, limited as he is by his scientific outlook, he would have tried to evolve a scientific theory to explain what he saw. What else could a scientist _do_?
human
I see. He would have diverted his attention from the field of the interstellar drive to the field of psionics. And he would have wasted years trying to explain an inherently nonlogical area of knowledge by logical means.
gpt
That's right, Candron said.
human
We would have set him off on a wild goose chase, trying to solve the problems of psionics by the scientific, the logical, method. We would have presented him with an unsolvable problem.
gpt
We would have given him a problem that he could not solve with the methodology at hand. It would be as though we had proved to an ancient Greek philosopher that the cube _could_ be doubled, and then allowed him to waste his life trying to do it with a straight-edge and compass.
human
We know Ch'ien's psychological pattern, Candron continued.
gpt
He's not capable of admitting that there is any other thought pattern than the logical. He would try to solve the problems of psionics by logical methods, and would waste the rest of his life trying to do the impossible.
human
That's clear, he said at last.
gpt
Well, it was worth a cracked jaw to save him. We've given him a perfectly logical explanation of his rescue and, simultaneously, we've put the Chinese government into absolute confusion. They have no idea of how you got out of there, Candron.
human
That's not as important as saving Ch'ien,
gpt
No, the senator said quickly,
human
I agree. He's practically indispensable--as much as a man can be.
gpt
He's the Secretary's right hand man,