"We call it templating." He pulled a rope and the curtain opened to show several images--pictures of some kind of weird machine.
"The concept is simple: we take a student who has graduated, and we copy their mind and body onto a younger student. The younger student gains all the knowledge of the older student and can immediately leave school. Because the mind can't be easily split into compartments, this will also copy some of the mental traits of the older student, but at a low enough strength that the younger student will keep his own identity."
One boy in the second row raised his hand.
"I see we have some questions already," said Mr. Jeffries. "Okay, you over there in the green shirt?"
"What does the body have to do with this?"
"First of all, it's part of the experiment even though we don't need it for our own purposes. Second, copying the body means that the 14 year old student who gets the education of an 18 year old will have the body of one too, and won't be seen as a strange prodigy. Third, depending on how strong the mental traits gained by the student and how strong his original self-image, he might find the new body more comfortable anyway."
"How do you choose who to copy from?"
"It depends on who graduates. Spring break just ended; it's April. In less than two months is graduation. We can wait until that time and copy the whole graduating class to a selection of underclassmen."
Jon felt a little relieved that it wouldn't happen immediately. But it was still coming up. And graduating in June, and therefore eligible to be copied, was....
