{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24121/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24121","id":"gutenberg_24121","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24121","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Language & Communication","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Psychological fiction","Science Fiction","Science fiction","Short stories","Time travel -- Fiction"],"text":"Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding Science\nFiction, June, 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence\nthat the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.\n\n\n\nAS LONG AS YOU WISH\n\n_If, somehow, you get trapped in a circular time system ... how\nlong is the circumference of an infinitely retraced circle?_\n\n\nBy JOHN O'KEEFE\n\nIllustrated by van Dongen\n\n\nThe patient sat stiffly in the leather chair on the other side of the\ndesk. Nervously he pressed a coin into the palm of one hand.\n\n\"Just start anywhere,\" I said, \"and tell me all about it.\"\n\n\"As before?\" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, the coin\nclutched tightly in one hand. \"I'm Charles J. Fisher, professor of\nPhilosophy at Reiser College.\"\n\nHe looked at me quickly. \"Or at least I was until recently.\" For a\nsecond his face was boyish. \"Professor of Philosophy, that is.\"\n\nI smiled and found that I was staring at the coin in his hand. He gave\nit to me. On one side I read the words: THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE\nOF THIS COIN IS FALSE. The patient watched me with an expressionless\nface; I turned over the coin. It was engraved with the words: THE\nSTATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COIN IS FALSE.\n\n\"That's not the problem,\" he said, \"not _my_ problem. I had the coin\nmade when I was an undergraduate. I enjoyed reading one side, turning\nit over, reading the other side, and so on. A fiendish enjoyment like\nboys planning where to put the tipped-over outhouse.\"\n\nI looked at the patient. He was thirty-eight, single, medium build, had\nan M.A. and Ph.D. from an eastern university. I knew this and more from\nthe folder on my desk.\n\n\"Eight months ago,\" he continued, \"I read about the sphere found on\nPaney Island.\" He stopped, looking at me questioningly.\n\n\"Yes, I know,\" I said. I opened my desk drawer, took out a clipping\nfrom the newspaper, and handed it to him.\n\n\"That's it.\"\n\nI read the clipping before putting it back in the drawer.\n\n    Manila, Sept. 24 (INS) Archeologists from University of California\n    have discovered in earth fault of recent quake a sphere two feet in\n    diameter of an unidentifiable material.\n\n    Dr. Karl Schwartz, head of the group, said the sphere was returned\n    to the University for study. He declined to answer questions on the\n    cultural origin of the sphere.\n\n\"There wasn't any more in the newspapers about it,\" he said. \"I have a\nfriend in California who got me the photographs.\"\n\n_He looked at me intently. \"You won't believe any of this.\" He pressed\nthe coin into the palm of his hand. \"You won't be able to.\"_\n\n\"The photographs,\" he continued, as if lecturing, \"were of characters\nprojected by the sphere when placed before a focused light. The sphere\nwas transparent, you see, imbedded with dark microscopic specks. By\nmoving the sphere a certain distance each time, there was a total\nprojection of three hundred and sixty different characters in eighteen\ndifferent orderings. Or nineteen different orderings if you count one\nwhich was a list of all the characters.\"\n\nI made a mental note of the numbers. I felt they were significant.\n\n\"As I said,\" he continued, \"I obtained the photographs of the\ncharacters. Very strange shapes, totally unlike the characters of\nOriental languages, but yet that is the closest way to describe them.\"\nHe jerked forward in his chair, \"Except, of course, ostensively.\"\n\n\"Later,\" I said. I wanted to get through the preliminaries first. There\nwould be time later to see the photographs.\n\n                     *      *      *      *      *\n\n\"The characters projected by the sphere,\" he said, \"weren't like the\ncharacters of any known language.\" He paused dramatically. \"There was\nreason to believe they had origin in an unknown culture. A culture more\nscientifically advanced than our own.\"\n\n\"And the reasons for this supposition?\" I asked.\n\n\"The material ... the material of the sphere. It could only be roughly\nclassified as _ferro-plastic_. Totally unknown, amazing imperviousness.\nA synthetic material, hardly the product of a former culture.\"\n\n\"From Mars?\" I said, smiling.\n\n\"There were all kinds of conjectures, but, of course, the important\nthing was to see if the projection of characters was a message. The\nmessage, if any, would mean more than any conjecture.\"\n\n\"You translated it?\"\n\n_He polished the coin on his jacket. \"You won't dare believe it,\" he\nsaid sharply._\n\nHe cleared his throat and stiffened into a more rigid posture. \"It\nwasn't exactly translation. You see, _to us_ none of the characters had\ndesignation. They were just characters.\"\n\n\"So it was a problem of decoding?\" I asked.\n\n\"As it turned out, no. Decoding is dependent on knowledge of language\ncharacteristics--characteristics of known languages. Decoding was\ntried, but without success. No, what we had to find was a key to the\nlanguage.\"\n\n\"You mean like the Rune Stone?\"\n\n\"More or less. In principle, we needed a picture of a cow, and a sign\nof meaning indicating one of the characters.\n\n\"For me, there was no possibility of finding similarities between the\ncharacters and characters of other languages--that would require\ntremendous linguistic knowledge and library facilities. Nor could I use\na decoding approach--that would require special knowledge of techniques\nand access to electronic computers and other mechanical aids. No, I had\nto work on the assumption that the key to the sphere was implicit in\nthe sphere.\"\n\n\"You hoped to find the key to the language in the language itself?\"\n\n\"Exactly. You know, of course, some languages do have an implicit key?\nFor example hieroglyphics or picture language. The word for _cow_ is a\npicture of a cow.\"\n\n_He looked at the toes of his shoes. \"You won't be able to believe it.\nIt's impossible to believe. I use the word impossible in its logical\nsense._\n\n\"In most languages,\" he continued, looking up from his shoes, \"the\nsound of some words themselves indicates the meaning of the word.\nOnomatopoetic words like _bowwow, buzz_.\"\n\n\"And the key to the unknown language?\" I asked. \"How did you find it?\"\n\n                     *      *      *      *      *\n\nI watched him push the coin against the back of his arm, then lift it\nto read the backward letters pressed into his skin. He looked up at me\nand smiled.\n\n\"I built models of the characters. Big material ones, exactly\nproportionate to the ones projected. Then--quite by accident--I viewed\none of them through a glass globe the size of the original sphere. What\ndo you think I saw?\"\n\n\"What?\" I noticed he had the boyish look again.\n\n\"A distortion of the model. But that's not what's important. The\ndistortions, on study, gave specific visual entities. Like when looking\nat one of those trick pictures and suddenly seeing the lion in the\ngrass. The lines outlining the lion are there all the time, only the\nobserver has to view them as the outline of a lion. It was the same\nwith the models of the characters, except the shapes that appeared were\nnot of lions or other recognizable things. But they did suggest.\"\n\n_He pressed the coin against his forehead, closed his eyes and appeared\nto be thinking deeply. \"Yes, impossible to believe. No one can believe\nit.\"_\n\n\"In addition to the visual response, the distortions gave me definite\nfeelings. Not mixtures of feelings, but one definite emotional\nexperience.\"\n\n\"How do you mean?\"\n\n\"One character when viewed through the globe gave me a visual image\nand, at the same time, a strong feeling of light hilarity.\"\n\n\"I take it then that these distortions seemed to connote meanings,\nrather than denote them. You might say that their meaning was conveyed\nthrough a Gestalt experience on the part of the observer.\"\n\n\"Yes, each character gave a definite Gestalt. But, the Gestalt was the\nsame for each observer. Or at least for thirty-five observers there was\nan eighty per cent correlation.\"\n\nI whistled softly. \"And the translation?\"\n\n\"Doctor, what would you say if I told you the translation was\nunbelievable; that it couldn't be seriously entertained by any man?\nWhat if I said that it would take the sanity of any man who believed\nit?\"\n\n\"I would say that it might well be incorrect.\"\n\nHe took some papers from his pocket and laughed excitedly, slumping\ndown in the chair. \"This is the complete translation in idiomatic\nEnglish. I'm going to let you read it, but first I want you to consider\na few things.\"\n\nHe hid the papers behind the back of his chair; his face became even\nmore boyish, almost as if he were deciding on where to put the tipped\nover outhouse.\n\n\"Consider first, doctor, that there was a total projection of three\nhundred and sixty different characters. The same number as the number\nof degrees in a circle. Consider also that there were eighteen\ndifferent orderings of the characters, or nineteen counting the\nalphabetical list. The square root of three hundred and sixty would lie\nbetween eighteen and nineteen.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I said. I remembered there was something significant about the\nnumbers, but I wasn't at all sure that it was this.\n\n\"Consider also,\" he continued, \"that the communication was through the\nmedium of a sphere. Moreover, keep in mind that physics accepts the\npath of a beam of light as its definition of a straight line. Yet, the\npath is a curve; if extended sufficiently it would be a circle, the\nsection of a sphere.\"\n\n\"All right,\" I said. By now the patient was pounding the coin against\nthe sole of one shoe.\n\n\"And,\" he said, \"keep in mind that in some sense time can be thought of\nas another dimension.\" He suddenly thrust the papers at me and sat back\nin the chair.\n\nI picked up the translation and began reading. The patient sat stiffly\nin the leather chair on the other side of the desk. Nervously he\npressed a coin into the palm of one hand.\n\n\"Just start anywhere,\" I said, \"and tell me all about it.\"\n\n\"As before?\" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, the coin\nclutched tightly in one hand. \"I'm Charles J. Fisher, professor of\nphilosophy at Reiser College.\"\n\nHe looked at me quickly. \"Or at least I was until recently.\" For a\nsecond his face was boyish. \"Professor of philosophy, that is.\"\n\nI smiled and found that I was staring at the coin in his hand. He gave\nit to me. On one side I read the words: THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE\nOF THIS COIN IS FALSE. The patient watched....\n\n\nTHE END","title":"As Long As You Wish","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":1770}