The car speeds down the highway.
She pouted for a few minutes after losing the coin toss, but
nonetheless went with it because probability cannot be denied, even
after going through the rigorous steps of determining the coin was
neither weighted, fixed, or otherwise rigged. And hence Yui flips
through her emails as Asuka drives.
“S-so, Dr. Ikari?” Asuka
asks, checking the rear view mirror to confirm that, yes, the Section
2 escort is right behind them, “Can I ask something?”
“Sure.”
“Wh-what was it like, raising
the Ree?”
“It was...an experience. The
thing about the Ree is that all eight of them are highly intelligent
and curious. So, what would normally end up being ways to occupy
them would also end up being complex scientific experiments. Like
the lever exercise.”
“The...what?”
“It's a simple experiment,”
Yui says with a smile, “There's a lever on a desk. When you pull
the lever, you receive a static shock. The experiment is a
personality test, because it sees what stimulus a person responds to.
I found that the Ree all had a strikingly different reaction to the
experiment. But, they all had a similar reaction to me, which was to
pull the lever at least a second time to check for the causation and
correlation of the static shock.”
Asuka pauses. She purses her
lips.
“W-wouldn't it make more sense
to not pull the lever a second time?”
Yui pauses, this time.
“I'm not sure what you mean,
Asuka,” she responds, and sips her coffee.
“B-but if you're going to get
a shock, why would you pull the lever a s-second time?”
“To check for the connection
between the lever and the shock, clearly,” Yui responds, “Each of
them had a different reaction, which did give some hint of how their
personalities would develop. Nana kept pulling the lever even after
I disconnected the power cord, and eventually wrenched it out of the
socket. We didn't know how she was still getting shocked. May have
been an AT Field. Kei started to disassemble the device, and I'm not
sure what she was going to make but it's probably a good thing we
stopped her.”
“Um...”
“Kiko figured out a way to use
the electricity to stimulate muscles and cause a human body to
reflexively embrace something. Iti drew up a chart of the circuit
with scribbled in suggestions to increase current. And Zyuu...”
She continues talking for a
solid hour on variances, stimulus, coordination and repeat
experiments. Conditions for the experiment. Repeat experiments.
Variants of how many times a lever can be pulled. All the time she
is talking, the same sequence of events keeps repeating in Asuka's
head, that of Yui, her boss, her role model, repeatedly yanking on a
lever which repeatedly, without fail, shocks her. And all her
daughters lined up to take their turns with the shock stick.
“B-but you're being
electrocuted,” Asuka interjects, “Wouldn't it make more
sense n-not to pull the lever a second time?”
“...lost me again there,
Asuka.”
And once again, for the second
time this trip, Asuka finds her assessment of Yui Ikari's sanity
being adjusted downward.
She pouted for a few minutes after losing the coin toss, but
nonetheless went with it because probability cannot be denied, even
after going through the rigorous steps of determining the coin was
neither weighted, fixed, or otherwise rigged. And hence Yui flips
through her emails as Asuka drives.
“S-so, Dr. Ikari?” Asuka
asks, checking the rear view mirror to confirm that, yes, the Section
2 escort is right behind them, “Can I ask something?”
“Sure.”
“Wh-what was it like, raising
the Ree?”
“It was...an experience. The
thing about the Ree is that all eight of them are highly intelligent
and curious. So, what would normally end up being ways to occupy
them would also end up being complex scientific experiments. Like
the lever exercise.”
“The...what?”
“It's a simple experiment,”
Yui says with a smile, “There's a lever on a desk. When you pull
the lever, you receive a static shock. The experiment is a
personality test, because it sees what stimulus a person responds to.
I found that the Ree all had a strikingly different reaction to the
experiment. But, they all had a similar reaction to me, which was to
pull the lever at least a second time to check for the causation and
correlation of the static shock.”
Asuka pauses. She purses her
lips.
“W-wouldn't it make more sense
to not pull the lever a second time?”
Yui pauses, this time.
“I'm not sure what you mean,
Asuka,” she responds, and sips her coffee.
“B-but if you're going to get
a shock, why would you pull the lever a s-second time?”
“To check for the connection
between the lever and the shock, clearly,” Yui responds, “Each of
them had a different reaction, which did give some hint of how their
personalities would develop. Nana kept pulling the lever even after
I disconnected the power cord, and eventually wrenched it out of the
socket. We didn't know how she was still getting shocked. May have
been an AT Field. Kei started to disassemble the device, and I'm not
sure what she was going to make but it's probably a good thing we
stopped her.”
“Um...”
“Kiko figured out a way to use
the electricity to stimulate muscles and cause a human body to
reflexively embrace something. Iti drew up a chart of the circuit
with scribbled in suggestions to increase current. And Zyuu...”
She continues talking for a
solid hour on variances, stimulus, coordination and repeat
experiments. Conditions for the experiment. Repeat experiments.
Variants of how many times a lever can be pulled. All the time she
is talking, the same sequence of events keeps repeating in Asuka's
head, that of Yui, her boss, her role model, repeatedly yanking on a
lever which repeatedly, without fail, shocks her. And all her
daughters lined up to take their turns with the shock stick.
“B-but you're being
electrocuted,” Asuka interjects, “Wouldn't it make more
sense n-not to pull the lever a second time?”
“...lost me again there,
Asuka.”
And once again, for the second
time this trip, Asuka finds her assessment of Yui Ikari's sanity
being adjusted downward.