Page 32 - Like No Business I Know

Somnilac

information more effectively, and, unlike dreams, that is something
observable. Accordingly, she designed a questionnaire and spent
several weeks tracking down and interviewing Somnilac users. Now,
she didn’t have access to anyone’s IQ test scores or other hard
documentary evidence of ‘before and after’ performance; her
interviews were primarily a gathering of anecdotal data, as reported
by the subjects themselves. She elicited, as indirectly as possible, any
differences in behavior notable enough to the subjects to be worthy
of telling the interviewer.”
“At first, the results of her inquiries superficially confirmed her
expectations: more sleep, or better-quality sleep, was significantly
improving the ability of people to evaluate nocturnally information
their short-term memories had gathered during the day; and that, in
turn, led to more intelligent and creative solutions to problems the
next day. This had never been observed before as the specific
outcome of any ingested compound, natural or synthetic. Somnilac
was embraced by its users, most of whom eagerly anticipated its
general availability so they could continue taking it and recommend it
to their friends and relatives.”
Pfizer glanced at Zell.
“You see? Didn’t I tell the board this stuff would sell itself?
Virtually no advertising budget after the first six months.”
“Indeed,” said Winslow Ball. “We are well aware of the potential
popularity of your product. But our researcher discovered something
else, an unexpected result: many of the test subjects who had never
been involved in any sort of social activism suddenly began
participating in political and environmental protest movements. Too
many to have occurred by chance. The report she filed made note of
this, and when it arrived on my desk I notified certain individuals—I
will not name them—in the government. A more detailed
investigation was ordered, which I supervised. We integrated current
dream theory with Somnilac data and came up with a new
explanation of the phenomenon of the political quiescence of the
American public in the last several decades. As is well-known,
membership in every kind of voluntary organization seeking to
achieve grass-roots power has declined—excepting the ultimately
manageable groups promoting fundamental religion, knee-jerk
patriotism, and xenophobic hate crimes.”

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