Captain Sir Henry (Black Bart) Quill was seated in an old-fashioned, formyl-covered, chair, at the end of an cigar. His like a pink ball, almost the of his against his tunic.
Mike the Angel had his way through the of to the door marked 9 and had pushed it open gingerly, that he wouldn’t be in late but not it would happen.
He was right. Black Bart was directly at the door when it open. Mike and into the room, a over the of the other officers present.
“Well, well, well, Mister Gabriel,” said Black Bart. The voice was oily, but the oil was oil of vitriol. “You not only come late, but you come incognito. Where is your uniform?”
There was a from one of the junior officers, but it wasn’t enough. Before Mike the Angel answer, Captain Quill’s around.
“That will do, Mister Vaneski!” he barked. “Boot don’t when their superiors—and their betters—are being reprimanded! I only use on officers I respect. Until an officer earns my sarcasm, he nothing but when he off. Understand?”
The last word was to the whole group.
Ensign Vaneski colored, and his masklike. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”
Quill didn’t to answer; he looked at Mike the Angel, who was still at attention. Quill’s voice its saccharinity. “But don’t let that go to your head, Mister Gabriel. I repeat: Where is your red spaceman’s suit?”
“If the Captain will recall,” said Mike, “I had only twenty-four hours’ notice. I couldn’t a new in that time. It’ll be in on the next rocket.”
Captain Quill was for a moment, then he said, “Very well,” thus the whole subject. He Mike the Angel to a seat. Mike sat.
“We’ll with the introductions,” said Quill. “Commander Gabriel is our Engineering Officer. The of these boys all know each other, Commander; you and I are the only ones who don’t come from Chilblains Base. You know Commander Jeffers, of course.”
Mike and at Peter Jeffers, a lean, who had a to into chairs as though he had come unhinged. Jeffers and back.
“This is Lieutenant Commander Liegnitz, Navigation Officer; Lieutenant Keku, Supply; Lieutenant Mellon, Medical Officer; and Ensign Vaneski, Maintenance. You can all shake hands with each other later; right now, let’s on with business.” He frowned, his with those great, brows. “What was I saying just Commander Gabriel came in?”
Pete Jeffers in his seat. “You were sayin’, suh, that this’s the dam’ got. Or to that effect.” Jeffers had been in Georgia and had moved to the south of England at the age of ten. Consequently, his was from standard.
“I think, Mister Jeffers,” said Quill, “that I phrased it a more delicately, but that was the of it.
“The Brainchild, as she has been nicknamed, has been at great for the purpose of making a single trip. We are to take her, and her cargo, to a only to myself and Liegnitz. We will be there by another Service ship, which will us as passengers.” He allowed himself a half-smile. “At least we’ll to around on the way back.”
The others grinned.
“The Brainchild will be left there and, presumably, dismantled.”
He took the cigar out of his mouth, looked at it, and in his pocket for a lighter. The man who had been as Lieutenant Keku had just a cigarette, so he his own to the captain. Quill his cigar and on.
“It isn’t going to be easy. We won’t have a to give the ship a once we take off we might as well keep going—which we will.
“You all know what the is—Cargo Hold One the single brain built. Our job is to make sure it to our in perfect condition.”
“Question, sir,” said Mike the Angel.
Without moving his head, Captain Quill one and in Mike’s direction. “Yes?”
“Why didn’t C.C. of E. the brain on we’re going to in the place?”
“We’re to be told that in the over at the C.C. of E. in”—he at his watch—“half an hour. But I think we can all a little information. Most of you men have been around here long to have some idea of what’s going on, but I that Mister Vaneski more about than most of us. Do you have any light to on this, Mister Vaneski?”
Mike to himself without it on his face. The was the himself after the he’d made.
Vaneski started to up, but Quill a motion with his hand and the boy relaxed.
“It’s only a guess, sir,” he said, “but I think it’s the too much.”
Quill and the others looked blank, but Mike his imperceptibly. Vaneski was Mike’s own deductions.
“I mean—well, look, sir,” Vaneski on, a little flustered, “they started to that thing ten years ago. Eight years ago they started teaching it. Evidently they didn’t see any for it off Earth then. What I is, something must’ve since then to make them decide to take it off Earth. If they’ve all this much money to it away, that must that it’s somehow.”
“If that’s the case,” said Captain Quill, “why don’t they just the thing off?”
“Well—” Vaneski spread his hands. “I think it’s for the same reason. It too much, and they don’t want to that knowledge.”
“Do you have any idea what that knowledge might be?” Mike the Angel asked.
“No, sir, I don’t. But it is, it’s as hell.”
The for the officers and men of the William Branchell—the Brainchild—was in a lecture room at the of the Computer Corporation of Earth’s big Antarctic base.
Captain Quill spoke first, that the project was and them to pay the attention to what Dr. Morris Fitzhugh had to say.
Then Fitzhugh got up, his with nervousness. He the air of a professor, himself into his speech as though he were to through it in a time without too early.
“I’m sure you’re all familiar with the situation,” he said, as though to for telling them something they already knew—the of the learned man who doesn’t want anyone to think he’s being proud of his learning.
“I think, however, we can all a picture if we at the and work our way up to the present time.
“The original problem was to a computer that learn by itself. An ordinary computer can be taught—that is, a can make in the which will make the do something from the way it was done before, or make it do something new.
“But what we wanted was a computer that learn by itself, a computer that make the in its own without physical manipulation.
“It’s not as difficult as it sounds. You’ve all autoscribers, which can spoken into printed symbols. An is a machine which what you tell it to—literally. Now, a second computer is with the in such a manner that the second can, on order, the of the first. Then, all that is needed is....”
Mike looked around him while the on. The men were looking bored. They’d come to a on the for the trip, and all they were was a lecture on robotics.
Mike himself wasn’t so much in the and of the trip; he was why it was necessary to tell anyone—even the crew. Why not just pack Snookums up, take him to he was going, and say nothing about it?
Why it to the crew?
“Thus,” Fitzhugh, “it necessary to into the brain a physical of Lagerglocke’s Principle: ‘Learning is a result of an collision.’
“I won’t give it to you symbolically, but the idea is that an only if it not from the of an upon it. If it completely, it’s just as it was before. Consequently, it hasn’t learned anything. The must change.”
He the of his nose and looked out over the of the men him. A came over his features.
“Some of you, I know, are why I am you with this long recital. Believe me, it’s necessary. I want all of you to that the machine you will have to take of is not just an ordinary computer. Every man here has had with machinery, from the very to the complex. You know that you have to be of the of information—the of force—you give a machine.
“If you a at Mars, for instance, and tell it to go through the planet, it might try to obey, but you’d the machine in the process.”
A of through the men. They were a little more now, and Fitzhugh had their attention.
“And you must admit,” Fitzhugh added, “a which was that of might be dangerous.”
This time the was louder.
“Well, then,” the continued, “if a is of learning, how do you keep it from or itself?
“That was the problem that us when we Snookums.
“So we to apply the famous Three Laws of Robotics over a century ago by a American and philosopher.
“Here they are:
“‘One: A may not a being, nor, through inaction, allow a being to come to harm.’
“‘Two: A must the orders it by beings where such orders would with the First Law.’
“‘Three: A must protect its own as long as such protection not with the First or Second Law.’”
Fitzhugh paused to let his in, then: “Those are the laws, of course. Even their pointed out that they would be difficult to put into practice. A is a logical machine, but it of a problem to a being. Is a five-year-old to give orders to a robot?
“If you him as a being, then he can give orders that might an machine. On the other hand, if you don’t the five-year-old as human, then the is under no to from the child.”
He into his pockets for materials as he on.
“We took the easy way out. We solved that problem by Snookums isolated. He has met any animal adult beings. It would take an of to make him the between, say, a and a man. Why should a and a low make a non-human? After all, some men are hairy, and some are moronic.
“Present company excepted.”
More laughter. Mike’s opinion of Fitzhugh was to go up. The man when to with humor.
“Finally,” Fitzhugh said, when the had subsided, “we must ask what is meant by ‘protecting his own existence.’ Frankly, we’ve been by that one. The little humanoid, caterpillar-track that we all to think of as Snookums isn’t Snookums, any more than a being is a hand or an eye. Snookums wouldn’t actually be his own unless his brain—now in the of the William Branchell—is destroyed.”
As Dr. Fitzhugh continued, Mike the Angel with about an ear. His attention—and the attention of every man in the place—had been by the entrance of Leda Crannon. She in through a door, walked over to Dr. Fitzhugh, and something in his ear. He nodded, and she left again.
Fitzhugh, when he his speech, was more in his delivery.
“The whole thing can be up quickly.
“Point One: Snookums’ brain the that eight years of hard work have put into it. That is more valuable than the whole cost of the William Branchell; it’s billions. So the can’t be disassembled, or the would be lost.
“Point Two: Snookums’ mind is a logical one, but it is in a more than logical universe. Consequently, it is unstable.
“Point Three: Snookums was to his own experiments. To him to do that would be to a child for acting like a child; it would do to the mind. In Snookums’ case, the of the brain would optimum, and the would insane.
“Point Four: Emotion is not logical. Snookums can’t it, in a very limited way.”
Fitzhugh had been making his points by them off on his with the of his pipe. Now he the pipe in his pocket and his hands his back.
“It all up to this: Snookums must be allowed the of the ship. At the same time, every one of us must be not to ... to push the buttons, as it were.
“So here are a don’ts. Don’t angry with Snookums. That would be as as at a it was playing music you didn’t to like.
“Don’t to Snookums. If your don’t fit in with what he to be true—and they won’t, me—he will reject the data. But it would him, he that don’t lie.
“If Snookums you for data, it—even if you know it to be true. Say: ‘There may be an error in my knowledge of this data, but to the best of my knowledge....’
“Then go ahead and tell him.
“But if you don’t know the answer, tell him so. Say: ‘I don’t have that data, Snookums.’
“Don’t, unless you are....”
He on, but it was that the officers and of the William Branchell weren’t paying the attention they should. Every one of them was dark thoughts. It was that they had to take out a ship like the Brainchild, and jerry-built as she was. Was it necessary to have an eight-hundred-pound, moron-genius child-machine loose, too?
Evidently, it was.
“To wind it up,” Fitzhugh said, “I you are why it’s necessary to take Snookums off Earth. I can only tell you this: Snookums too much about energy.”
Mike the Angel to himself. Ensign Vaneski had been right; Snookums was dangerous—not only to individuals, but to the whole planet.
Snookums, too, was a delinquent.
