PLAYTHINGS OF THE GODS
their parents know where they are. They believe their kids are doing a service to the country. Thetypical manufactured genius will have several Ph.D.'s before he becomes a teenager. The kids live on adiet of potato chips, candy bars and soft drinks. No one cares about the future effects this diet mighthave because there is no plan to keep the kids beyond the early twenties.
Although the government has all the supercomputers it could possibly want, there are still someproblems that only real people can be used to solve. The reason for selecting kids is that, although theycan achieve incredible intellectual capacity, they do not have any maturity, common sense or moralvalues. These are learned qualities which come over time and cannot be instantly "drugged intosomeone". The government does not want to see these qualities because it interferes with work. Forexample, if you told mature scientists, "go make germs to kill everyone in the world", they might havesecond thoughts about obeying since, for one thing, they live in the world too. However, if you tell thekids to go do this they will say," gee! - wee! - that sounds like fun - let's go do it". This is why thegovernment uses kids because the moral component of their personality has not developed and they willfreely do projects that mature people will refuse to do.
None of the kids is kept beyond the early twenties. The government cannot kill them because theirparents know where they are. However, it is not known whether the kids gradually return to normalonce the special drugs are withdrawn or whether the government uses one of its CEOM [ChemicalErasure Of Memory] drugs on them before they are released. Clearly, they know things that thegovernment wants kept secret so it is probable that something is done to them since the "lack ofmorality" which the government liked would now become a liability since the kids would also "lack anyrespect" for any nondisclosure agreement they signed.
Because the government can manufacture smart people when it needs them, there is really no longer anyneed for a strong public education system. Educating "ordinary" people could be a liability becauseeducated people tend to object to government policies. Therefore, public education has now beentrashed. School is just a place to get a free lunch, buy and sell street drugs, and hook up for sex. Thereis even a movement to arrange for all school kids to see a psychiatrist who would have the power toforce brain damaging drugs on any kid who showed a tendency toward independent thought.
THE "SCHEDULE ZERO" DRUGS
The government arranges controlled drugs into five categories or "schedules" from I to V. A regulardoctor can prescribe from schedule II to schedule V. Schedule I are drugs whose names are known[such as LSD] but which you cannot get without a special schedule I permit which is usually issued touniversities and research labs.
However, this does not account for all the available drugs. The cure for AIDS, for example, is kept at all