The Tree of Knowledge, Daniel Miller [unputdownable books txt] 📗

the same divine power for both good or evil as the metaphorical tree of knowledge from which Adam and Eve first plucked the apple.”

At this point, the professor stopped, hoping that the gravity of what he had just said was sinking in.

Albert pursed his lips and furrowed his brow. “I’m not quite sure I’m following you, Angus.”

“Think of it this way,” said the professor, becoming increasingly animated. “In the game of chess, each player has a clear goal: to capture the other person’s king. This is equally true in real life. Every individual is motivated by a goal at every moment of the day. When you wake up, you are motivated by the desire to go to work and make money. When you blink, you are motivated by a desire to moisten your eyes. When you eat, you are motivated by the desire to quench the hunger in your belly. Consequently, the functioning of ‘society,’ as we call it, is nothing more than the interaction of competing motivations or goals in much the same way that chess is an interaction between the competing motivations of capturing each other’s king. If we see the world in this light, then it becomes clear that, with the proper tools and analysis, we can manipulate people’s actions in life in the same way they can be manipulated on a chessboard.

“For example, in chess, it is not your opponent’s goal to lose their bishop. However, given the right incentives, your opponent may surrender their bishop to save another piece. Similarly, at a restaurant, it is not the chef’s goal in life to make you a cheeseburger. However, if a company pays him enough money, he will happily do so.”

“But aren’t there a lot of people who have known this? Couldn’t anyone do this?” said Ying.

Turner issued a knowing smile. “There are many people that can shoot a basketball, but there are but a handful of people in the world who have the ability to do it with such precision that it becomes valuable. So it is with the tree. The only people in the world that can realize the potential of the tree in real time are the so-called mental calculators like ourselves. But even for people like us, it’s not enough to be able to perform multiple calculations in one’s head, you have to practice putting those calculations into action. You follow?”

“I’m following,” said Albert.

“Good. So once I considered that every person, including myself, has a motivation at all times and that my fate, as well as everyone else’s, was determined by the way in which these competing motivations interact, I began to experiment to see to what extent I could logically map out and then manipulate the motivations of the individuals around me. In doing this, I mimicked the way I think about chess. I drew a game tree outlining possible scenarios. If I do this, he will do this. If I do that, he will do that, and so on. I would have meetings with people and could anticipate the entire give-and-take, steering it where I wanted it to go.

“Just as I had theorized, I found that I could achieve any goal if I could determine the motivations or goals of the person with whom I was dealing—my opponent, as it were. I’m ashamed to say that, at the time, I found this new power of manipulation quite intoxicating. I can’t possibly explain to you what a powerful feeling it is to know that you can manipulate any individual to your whims at any given time.

“In the spring one year, an exceptionally beautiful and intelligent student of mine fell in love with me, and I with her. She had a face that was innocence and ruthlessness all wrapped up in one . . . like . . . like a child holding a weapon. And the clothes she wore. The clothes she wore made it worse. She would wear these light summer dresses like something you would see on a girl skipping rope, yet with this incredibly sensual body underneath.”

Turner’s eyes drifted to a far-off place.

“Even her eyes held little flecks of bright yellow surrounded by dark brown that appeared almost wolflike. As you might imagine, every man at Princeton was in love with her, and I remember feeling so blessed every day that she spent time with me because it felt like she chose me above everyone else. She exuded such a powerful combination of youth, vibrancy, ambition, and intelligence that you just wanted to cling to it in the hopes that it would rub off on you in some way.”

Ying touched her chest and gave an “aww.” Albert rolled his eyes at her romanticism.

“We would talk for hours until the early morning about life, love, mathematics, economics, chess, and the world. She hung on my every word and soaked up information like a sponge. So much so that I worried I would one day run out of knowledge to give her, and she would leave me. Over time, I grew more afraid. She would ask me about topics such as politics and war that were far outside my area of expertise. I could feel her pulling away from me more and more each day, so in desperation, I brought her into my confidence and told her about the ‘Tree of Knowledge,’ as I had taken to calling it.”

Albert sat up straighter as he thought back to the first words on the decoded logic tree.

“At first, she greeted me with the same healthy skepticism with which the two of you are greeting me right now. However, as I began to explain how information combined with game tree analysis could allow you to manipulate people, her interest greatly increased. I ran the calculations. I knew that she might abuse the Tree, but I let my heart win.

“When she had drained every piece of useful information about the Tree from me, she left. No goodbye, or thank you. I just returned home from class one day, and