Dr. Ferdinand Steinbrenner, in the intensive care ward, was adored by the hospital staff. He was hooked up to machines which monitored his heart and respiration. He examined the machinery with delight and told the nurses they were beautiful. His white halo of hair was shining, his cheeks were pink; he resembled an old fairy-tale gnome.
When he slept he dreamed of the beautiful young girl that was used to complete the body of his computer. The only sub-conscious thought that disturbed him concerned the duration of the copying process. It might not have come to a conclusion at the correct time to complete the computer's brain. It was scheduled to terminate exactly when the woman, Sabrina, awakened. He had attached electrodes to her scalp so that he could monitor her brain wave rhythms, as they went from the delta waves of sleep, through the resting alpha waves, to the waking beta brain waves. Sabrina had gone through several sleep cycles and had awakened briefly a few times. He had not anticipated that she would come to full consciousness so quickly. Near the termination of the process he had had to take the electrodes off of Sabrina's head. Then his sons had interrupted him.
If Sabrina did wake up too soon, it might mean that the nervous system for the computer was incomplete. It could also mean that the brain would be more primitive than he had anticipated. The process of chemically hooking the computer to the brain's neurons had finished, so that part of the system would be fine. But the brain stem, the primitive part of the brain and the first to evolve, might take precedence over the evolutionary newer parts of the brain, like the frontal lobes. When the computer did get emotions, he dreamed that the computer was a primitive throwback to early man, with more violent tendencies.
Even in his dreams Dr. Steinbrenner was a genius. His mind argued logically that the function of the computer was to promote more reason into mankind and encourage less violence toward others. That was the justification for the whole experiment.
Ferd awoke in the middle of the night and spent the rest of it wide awake, wondering how he had been such an errant father to produce two men who would even think of killing that beautiful girl, Sabrina. He had given his sons everything to make them happy, bright and responsible young men. They had never lacked for anything tangible. They both received the best education. When they had decided to become lawyers and had passed through college and then law school without any difficulties he had been very proud. Maybe it was because he had doted on them so after their mother, his beautiful Angela, had died. He did not have anything but his sons, and he guessed he had spoiled them. Ferd nodded and sighed. He had spoiled them rotten.
Ferd thought he should have recognized the deficit in his sons long ago, before they had forced him do the experiment.
As Ferd drifted back to sleep in the early hours of the morning he had pleasant dreams about his hope for the improved human race through his robotic-biological breakthrough. He saw a peaceful world with happy people who would make improvements that would save the planet and the environment; a world without war and hunger. A marvelous new future for mankind.