SCENE THREE

SCENE THREE

The Krohl Institute for Brain Science is a purpose-built complex of labs and offices on which no expense has been spared, set in its own grounds. It employs perhaps 150 people. Something of the expense and scale is suggested by what we see, which is a mere fragment of the whole, a walk-through/waiting area. Everyone we get to see has a security pass (with photo) worn around the neck, specific to the bearer. This is true of all scenes set in the Institute.

Hilary, dressed for the interview, with a laptop bag and an old satchel, sits waiting in a designer chair. Specialist periodicals and print-outs encased in Krohl-branded file-holders are available. Hilary turns over pages, looking up briefly when a woman, of Hilary’s age, crosses the space. The woman ( Julia) hesitates slightly as she takes a second look at Hilary, and continues on her way, and is followed in, more tentatively, by a young man, Amal, wearing a cheap suit and carrying a haversack. He is Indian. He sits down near Hilary.

Amal Hi.

Hilary Hi.

Amal chooses a print-out to look at. Hilary sizes him up. He catches her eye.

Amal Are you here for an interview?

Hilary (nods) Dr Reinhart.

Amal Same here. What time...?

Hilary Eleven-fifteen.

Amal It’s nearly twelve.

Hilary I know.

Amal Maybe he forgot about you.

Hilary Is your doctorate in psychology?

Amal If necessary. My degree is in maths, and I’m doing a Master’s in biophysics, which is actually a neurobiology research project I managed to latch on to, to make myself beautiful for the Krohl! We already published a paper which I’ve got my name on. I’m Amal, by the way.

Hilary Hilary. Wow.

Amal How about you?

Hilary Yes. Psychology. I haven’t graduated yet. So you liked the Krohl Institute?

Amal What’s not? It’s small, it’s not industry, it’s not academia, it’s state of the art for imaging and all the toys, it’s elitist but in a good way, it’s got a gym, and after five years of Cambridge it’s not in Cambridge.

Hilary Oh.

Amal Where are you?

Hilary Loughborough.

Amal Where’s that?

Hilary Loughborough.

We must be up for the same job.

Amal Well, good luck.

Hilary I’ll say.

Amal (?)

Hilary Thank you. Good luck to you, too.

Amal Thanks. Psychology is a sideshow at the Krohl. You need a hard-science crossover to improve your chances...ot of what they publish is on mice and macaques.

Hilary (surprised) Parrots?

Amal Monkeys.

Hilary Oh, right.

Amal Monkeys are great. Scan the hell out of them, open up their little heads, try this, try that, see what happens, and they don’t sue.

Hilary Yeah, that wouldn’t work with behavioural psychology.

Amal I’ve submitted to do an experiment tracking unconscious readiness potential move by move in two subjects playing a repeated prisoner’s dilemma.

Hilary They’re going to love you.

Amal It’s just to get me through the door. The Dilemma is cleaned out, it was oversold in the first place with the one-shot game –

Hilary (pleased) That’s just what... .

Amal I wonder what’s happened to our...?

Hilary Perhaps this is it. Candid Camera.

Amal Do you think so?

Made uneasy, he corrects his sprawl. They fall silent. Leo enters. He’s running late but unfussed.

Leo Apologies. I’m Leo Reinhart.

Hilary and Amal stand up.

Which of you is my eleven-fifteen?

Hilary I am, sir. Hilary Matthews.

Leo Then you must be my twelve o’clock.

Amal Amal Admati.

Leo I have to ask you a favour, Hilary. I can save a few minutes if I take Amal first.

Hilary (Of course.)

Leo So, Amal, come with me and tell me why you believe a machine can think, or why you believe it can’t, whichever you prefer.

Amal grabs his haversack and follows Leo out.

Amal (leaving) Can a machine think...?

Hilary takes out her laptop, opens it, gets something up, looks at it, despairs of it, closes the laptop.

Julia enters and goes straight to Hilary.

Julia Hilary... I knew it was you. Do you remember me? It’s Julia. Redcliffs High. The Purple Gang!

Hilary Julia... Julia Chamberlain. Gosh. Hello! Do you work here?

Julia Yes, nothing brainy, surprise, surprise! I do a pilates class for who wants it. My partner works here, she’s the brainy one. You’ll meet her in a minute. How are things with you, Hilary?

Hilary Fine. Thanks. The Purple Gang! Do you hear from anyone?

Julia Christmas cards. Not really. What did you do after Redcliffs?

Hilary I had the baby.

Julia Oh, I wasn’t asking... !

Hilary It’s all right.

Julia The Head told us, just the seniors.

Hilary Awful warning, was I?

Julia No, honestly, she was really sympathetic. She said you might come back to do your GCSEs.

Hilary I suppose that’s what girls do now, with a bucket under the desk.

Julia Mm, not at Redcliffs. What was your baby?

Hilary A girl. Catherine. I don’t know if she’s still Catherine. You don’t get to know. Anything. She was six in November. Guy Fawkes night! The sky was exploding.

Julia Oh, Hilly.

Hilary Yes. Well. You know. The adoption was all arranged beforehand. No granny, and my poor dad wasn’t about to take it in his stride. I was quite relieved, actually. I wasn’t into babies. It was different when it came to it. But, I don’t know, everything just went ahead, it seemed like the best thing.

Julia What about the, your, well, boyfriend, was he?

Hilary I didn’t have a boyfriend. It was stupider than that. I never saw him again, and didn’t much want to. Really stupid.

Julia But here you are.

Hilary (nods) Reading psychology at Loughborough.

Julia So everything turned out all right.

I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. Here’s Ursula coming. Listen, good luck.

Ursula approaches.

Ursula, look! – Hilary Matthews.

Ursula Hello. Ursula Tarrant.

Julia Hilary’s here for her interview.

Hilary I was amazed. I think it must be a mistake.

Ursula Usually is, but picking a winner from the slush pile is Leo’s little vanity. Sorry, that sounds rude. I bet your application was brilliant. How did you get on?

Hilary I haven’t had it yet... Dr Reinhart is in there with the other candidate.

Ursula The men’s room? That could be good. It could be bad. Hard to tell. What’s the competition?

Hilary Mathematician. He’s Indian.

Ursula Ooh, that’s bad.

Hilary I know.

Ursula Where’s your degree?

Hilary Loughborough.

Ursula That’s definitely good. That’s inclusive, Loughborough. The intake here is way too up itself.

Julia Don’t mind Ursula.

Hilary Oh, I don’t! God, I wish I had an earthly now! I wish my model had a neurobiology crossover –

Ursula Forget your model, he just wants to hear what you’re thinking. Good luck.

Julia Come to the gym after if you can.

Hilary nods.

Ursula makes to leave with Julia but changes her mind and comes back, close to Hilary, more intimately. Julia pauses to watch.

Ursula He doesn’t like neurobiology. Obviously he likes it, but it’s not what he likes, do you see?

Hilary No.

Ursula The Krohl mostly does brains. Matter. But Leo likes minds as the way to go. What he likes, what he really, really likes, is the Hard Problem.

Hilary Which hard problem?

Ursula We do brain science. There is only one Hard Problem.

Leo and Amal are returning, already audible.

Hilary (beat) Okay.

Ursula goes back to Julia and they leave.

When Leo reappears with Amal he has changed into a tracksuit and tennis shoes. He carries a tennis racket.

Amal... Sure, but the brain is a machine, a biological machine, and it thinks. It happens to be made of living cells but it would make no difference if the machine was made of electronic gates and circuits, or paperclips and rubber bands for that matter. It just has to be able to compute.

Leo Computers compute. Brains think. Is the machine thinking?

Amal If it’s playing chess and you can’t tell from the moves if the computer is playing white or black, it’s thinking.

Leo What it’s doing is a lot of binary operations following the rules of its programming.

Amal So is a brain.

Leo But can a computer do what a brain can do?

Amal Are you kidding?...rain doesn’t come close!

Leo (to Hilary) Do you want to jump in?

Hilary Not much.

Leo Really? Why?

Hilary It’s not deep. If that’s thinking. An adding machine on speed. A two-way switch with a memory. Why wouldn’t it play chess? But when it’s me to move, is the computer thoughtful or is it sitting there like a toaster? It’s sitting there like a toaster.

Leo So, what would be your idea of deep?

Hilary A computer that minds losing.

Leo takes a moment to reconsider her.

Amal If I made a computer simulating a human brain neuron by neuron, it would mind losing.

Leo (to Hilary) Do you agree?

Hilary No.

Leo Amal’s machine wouldn’t be conscious?

Hilary No, but how would you tell? You can’t tell by watching the wheels go round. Just like with a brain. I couldn’t tell what you’re thinking by watching what your brain is doing, or even that you’re thinking.

Amal I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. There is overwhelming evidence that the brain causes consciousness.

Hilary There’s overwhelming evidence that brain activity correlates with consciousness. Registers consciousness. Nobody’s got anywhere trying to show how the brain is conscious.

Amal This is sophistry!

Leo (to Hilary) So, how would consciousness come about?

Hilary I have no idea, and nor does anyone else. I thought that’s why we’re here. To crack the Hard Problem.

Leo (beat) It is. It is why we’re here. (Checking his watch, to Amal.) Thank you. Apologies again.

Jerry, dressed for tennis and carrying his racket, enters.

Jerry!

(To Hilary.) As you see, I have a pressing engagement. There is an excellent eatery, lavishly subsidised. After lunch, you can hang around in the department and see what’s going on.

Leo and Jerry shake hands.

Amal Excuse me!

They stop for him.

Was that my interview? In the toilet?

Leo Yes. Good luck with your career.

They are leaving again.

Amal Good luck with yours!

That stops them again.

I’m sorry, but if you separate what you can’t understand from anatomy, you’re going backwards to Plato. The brain is physical, and there’s no other kind of stuff out there, there’s no beans that haven’t been counted. The maths to explain what’s going on in the brain is like trying to write the equations for a waterfall as big as...ave no idea how big, as big as a million Niagaras maybe – and so far we can write a short-term prediction for two variables in a mixer tap; probably – but the only way to go is to map brain activity in greater and greater detail against conscious experience. There’s no hard science in a psychology test if it’s not plugged into a brain scan. Neurobiology.

Leo (pause) Amal, you’re bright, you’re going to do fine.

He goes to leave.

Jerry Go ahead, Leo, I’ll be right there.

Leo leaves.

(To Amal.) I don’t think you can write a prediction for a non-linear complex system, even for a mixer tap.

Amal Short term you can, if you have some earlier values for the variables. That gives you a history of the system’s behaviour, like a library of the patterns it made, because there is a pattern, a chaotic system isn’t really random, it just looks random. So you look in the library for previous states of the system, and where you find some similarity to what you’re looking at now, you can expect to see similar behaviour in the short-term future.

Jerry considers this for a couple of beats; accepts it.

Jerry Uh-huh.

Amal You’re not the tennis coach, then. Do you work here?

Jerry Not really. I visit. My office is in town. Come and see us.

Amal Oh. Okay.

Jerry What’s your name?

Amal Admati, Amal Admati. What’s yours?

Jerry It’s on the building. But people call me Jerry.

He goes.

Amal and Hilary stare at each other.

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