“And you help him?”
“Yes, certainly. There are big fees involved, Herman.”
Gelb shook his head, “Peter! Are you going to try to arrange a war, just for money?”
“There won’t be a war. There’s no realistic combination of events that would make the computer decide on war. Computers place a greater value on human lives than human beings do themselves, and what will seem bearable to Secretary Hargrove, or even to you and me, will never be passed by a computer.”
“How can you be sure of that? “
“Because I’m a programmer and I don’t know of any way of programming a computer to give it what is most needed to start any war, any persecution, any devilry, while ignoring any harm that may be done in the process. And because it lacks what is most needed, the computers will always give Hargrove, and all others who hanker for war, nothing but frustration.”
“What is it that a computer doesn’t have, then?”
“Why, Gelb. It totally lacks a sense of self-righteousness.”
Hallucination
Part One
Sam Chase arrived on Energy Planet on his fifteenth birthday.
It was a great achievement, he had been told, to have been assigned there, but he wasn’t at all sure he felt that at the moment.
It meant a three-year separation from Earth and from his family, while he continued a specialized education in the field, and that was a sobering thought. It was not the field of education in which he was interested, and he could not understand why Central computer had assigned him to this project, and that was downright depressing.
He looked at the transparent dome overhead. It was quite high, perhaps a thousand meters high, and it stretched in all directions farther than he could clearly see. He asked, “Is it true that this is the only Dome on the planet, sir?“
The information-films he had studied on the spaceship that had carried him here had described only one Dome, but they might have been out-of-date.
Donald Gentry, to whom the question had been addressed, smiled. He was a large man, a little chubby, with dark brown, goodnatured eyes, not much hair, and a short, graying beard.
He said, “The only one, Sam. It’s quite large, though, and most of the housing facilities are underground, where you ‘II find no lack of space. Besides, once your basic training is done, you’ll be spending most of your time in space. This is just our planetary base.”
“I see, sir,” said Sam, a little troubled.
Gentry said, “I am in charge of our basic trainees so I have to study their records carefully. It seems clear to me that this assignment was not your first choice. Am I right? “
Sam hesitated, and then decided he didn’t have much choice but to be honest about it. He said, “I’m not sure that I’ll do as well as I would like to in gravitational engineering.”
“Why not? Surely the Central Computer, which evaluated your scholastic record and your social and personal background can be trusted in its judgments. And if you do well, it will be a great achievement for you, for right here we are on the cutting edge of a new technology.”
“I know that, sir,” said Sam. “Back on Earth, everyone is very excited about it. No one before has ever tried to get close to a neutron star and make use of its energy.”
“Yes?” said Gentry. “I haven’t been on Earth for two years. What else do they say about it? I understand there’s considerable opposition?” His eyes probed the boy.
Sam shifted uneasily, aware he was being tested. He said, “There are people on Earth who say it’s all too dangerous and might be a waste of money.” “Do you believe that?”
“It might be so, but most new technologies have their dangers and many are worth doing despite that. This one is, I think.”
“Very good. What else do they say on Earth?”
Sam said, “They say the Commander isn’t well and that the project might fail without him.” When Gentry didn’t respond, Sam said, hastily, “That’s what they say.”
Gentry acted as though he did not hear. He put his hand on Sam’s shoulder and said, “Come, I’ve got to show you to your Corridor, introduce you to your roommate, and explain what your initial duties will be. “ As they walked toward the elevator that would take them downward, he said, “What was your first choice in assignment, Chase?”
“Neurophysiology, sir.”
“Not a bad choice. Even today, the human brain continues to be a mystery. We know more about neutron stars than we do about the brain, as we found out when this project first began.”
“Oh?”
“Indeed! At the start, various people at the base-it was much smaller and more primitive then- reported having experienced hallucinations. They never caused any bad effects, and after a while, there were no further reports. We never found out the cause.”
Sam stopped, and looked up and about again, “Was that why the Dome was built, Dr. Gentry? “
“No, not at all. We needed a place with a completely Earth-like environment, for various reasons, but we haven’t isolated ourselves. People can go outside freely. There are no hallucinations being reported now.”
Sam said, “The information I was given about Energy Planet is that there is no life on it except for plants and insects, and that they’re harmless.”
“That’s right, but they’re also inedible, so we grow our own vegetables, and keep some small animals, right here under the Dome. Still, we’ve found nothing hallucinogenic about the planetary life.”
“Anything unusual about the atmosphere, sir?”
Gentry looked down from his only slightly greater height and said, “Not at all. People have camped in the open overnight on occasion and nothing has happened. It is a pleasant world. There are streams but no fish, just algae and water-insects. There is nothing to sting you or poison you. There are yellow berries that look delicious and taste terrible but do no other harm. The weather’s pretty nearly always good. There are frequent light rains and it is sometimes windy, but there are no extremes of heat and cold.”
“And no hallucinations any more, Dr. Gentry?”
“You sound disappointed,” said Gentry, smiling.
Sam took a chance. “Does the Commander’s trouble have anything to do with the hallucinations, sir?”
The good nature vanished from Gentry’s eyes for a moment, and he frowned. He said, “What trouble do you refer to?”
Sam flushed and they proceeded in silence.
Sam found few others in the Corridor he had been assigned to, but Gentry explained it was a busy time at the forward station, where the power system was being built in a ring around the neutron star-the tiny object less than ten miles across that had all the mass of a normal star, and a magnetic field of incredible power.
It was the magnetic field that would be tapped. Energy would be led away in enormous amounts and yet it would all be a pinprick, less than a pinprick, to the star’s rotational energy, which was the ultimate source. It would take billions of years to bleed off all that energy, and in that time, dozens of populated planets, fed the energy through hyperspace, would have all they needed for an indefinite time.
Sharing his room was Robert Gillette, a dark-haired, unhappy-looking young man. After cautious greetings had been exchanged, Robert revealed the fact that he was sixteen and had been “grounded” with a broken arm, though the fact didn’t show since it had been pinned internally.
Robert said, ruefully, “It takes a while before you learn to handle things in space. They may not have weight, but they have inertia and you have to allow for that.”
Sam said, “They always teach you that in-” He was going to say that it was taught in fourth-grade science, but realized that would be insulting, and stopped himself.
Robert caught the implication, however, and flushed. He said, “It’s easy to know it in your head. It doesn’t mean you get the proper reflexes, till you’ve practiced quite a bit. You’ll find out.” Sam said, “Is it very complicated to get to go outside.”
“No, but why do you want to go? There’s nothing there.” “Have you ever been outside.”