“It’s a question of realizing HARLIE’s potential by giving him the proper tools. Our present-day hardware can’t even begin to handle the data HARLIE wants to work with. Right now, he’s plugged into twenty or so of our experimental MARK XX’s. It still isn’t enough.
Compared to what the G.O.D. will be, these are desk calculators. Gentlemen, we are talking about a machine that will be as much a step forward in computer technology as the 747 jumbo jet was a step forward over the prop-driven plane. Sure, it took a massive investment on the part of the airlines — but have any of you looked at airline profits lately? The airlines that took that risk a few years ago are profiting handsomely today. Almost every plane that left the ground this summer was loaded to capacity — but a capacity of three or four hundred is a hell of a lot more profitable than a capacity of ninety.
“Of course, we must be concerned about the cost. Because we are only one company, we must finance this ourselves — but that may also turn out to be our greatest asset. We are the only company that can build this machine. And we are the only company that can program it once it is built. No other computer manufacturer can produce judgment circuits without our permission; it’s that simple. And both HARLIE and the G.O.D. depend on judgment circuitry for most of their higher-order functions. No digital computer can duplicate them.
“What we have here is the next step, perhaps the ultimate step, in computer technology. And we are the only company that can take this step. If we don’t, no one will. At least, not for many years. If we do, we will have the field to ourselves.
“Now, you’ve all had a chance to see the specifications and the schematics, but on the off chance that you haven’t had the time to give them the full study they deserve—” There was an appreciative chuckle at this; most of the Directors were aware of the amount of material HARLIE had printed out. “—I’m going to turn this meeting over to Don Handley, our design engineer and staff genius. He honestly thinks he understands this proposal and is going to try to explain to you exactly how the machine will work. Later, I’ll discuss the nature of the problems it will handle. Don?”
Handley stood up, and Auberson relinquished the floor gratefully. Handley coughed modestly into his hand. “Well, now, I don’t rightly claim to understand the proposal — it’s just that HARLIE keeps asking me to explain it to him.” Easy laughter at this. Handley went on, “But I’m looking forward to building this machine, because after we do, HARLIE won’t have to bother me any more. He can ask the G.O.D. how it works — and it’ll tell him. So I’m in favor of this because it’ll make my job easier.”
He let himself become more serious. “HARLIE and the G.O.D. will be linked up completely. You won’t be able to talk to one without the other being a part of the conversation. You might think of them as being a symbiotic pair. Like a human programmer and a desktop terminal — and, like the human programmer and the desktop terminal, the efficiency of the relationship will be determined by the interface between them. That’s why they’ll be wired totally into each other, making them, for all practical purposes, one machine.
“Now, let’s get into this in some detail — and if there’s anything you have any questions about, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be discussing some pretty heavy schematics here, and I want you all to understand what we’re talking about. Copies of the specifications have been made available, of course, but we’re here to clarify anything you might not understand.”
Listening, Auberson suppressed a slight smile. Don and he had been studying those schematics since the day they had been printed out and they still didn’t understand them fully. Oh, they could talk about the principles involved, but if anyone were to ask anything really pertinent, they planned to refer him to HARLIE. In fact, that was the main reason why they had asked to have the computer console installed, for quick display of data to impress the Directors. Already, the technician there was querying HARLIE at Handley’s direction. An overhead screen had been placed to show the computer’s answers; equations and schematics were flashing on it.
Two of the Board members looked bored.
The day dragged on.
They recessed for lunch, and then Handley came back and spoke some more. He explained how HARLIE’s schematic had been derived from that of the human brain, and how his judgment units were equivalent to individual lobes. He pointed out the nature of the G.O.D.’s so-called “infinity circuits,” which allowed information to be holographically stored, and allowed circuits to handle several different functions at the same time. He spoke about the “infinite capacity” memory banks and the complex sorting and correlating circuitry necessary to keeping all this data straight. He spoke all day.
When they reconvened on Wednesday, he explained the supporting equipment that would be necessary. He spoke of banks and banks of consoles, because the G.O.D. would be able to handle hundreds, perhaps thousands of conversations at once. He envisaged a public computer office, whereby any individual could walk in off the street, sit down and converse with the machine on any subject whatsoever, whether he was writing a thesis, building an invention, or just lonely and in search of a little helpful guidance and analysis. It would be a service, said Handley, a public utility: The computer could offer financial planning, credit advice, ratings on competitive products, menu plans for dieters; it could even compute the odds on tomorrow’s races and program the most optimal bets a player might make. A person using the service would be limited only by his own imagination. If he wanted to play chess, the machine would do that too — and play only as good a game as the individual could cope with, adjusting its efficiency to that of the player. The G.O.D. would have infinite growth potential. Because HARLIE would be using it to program itself, the size of the models it could handle would grow with it. He spoke of the capabilities of the machine all of Wednesday and finished late in the afternoon.
Auberson resumed on Thursday morning. He spoke of financing and construction. He pointed out how HARLIE had developed an optimal program for building the machine and for financing it, plus alternate programs for every step of the way to allow for unforeseen circumstances. HARLIE had computed time-scales and efficiency studies to see that the proper parts arrived in the right place at the right time and that there would be workers there who had been trained to assemble them correctly.
Auberson spoke of five-year plans and ten-year plans, pointing out that the G.O.D. could go into production by next year at the earliest and be in operation within three to five years after that. He explained that the actual physical installation would be the size of a small city. It would consume all the power produced by a small nuclear reactor plant and would require a population of several hundred thousand to maintain it, service it, and operate its input units. This was a conservative estimate, of course, assuming that the G.O.D. would depend on large-scale-integration and hyper-state layering for most of its circuitry. HARLIE had planned for the construction of new assembly lines to make the tools to make the tools; the first major investment would be for two new hyper-state component plants. HARLIE had noted an additional schematic for a low-cost plant which would pay for itself by producing elements for other manufacturers as a sideline.
HARLIE had noted land requirements and financial requirements, and included studies on the most feasible sites and financing procedures. He had noted manpower requirements and training programs. HARLIE had thought of everything.
Auberson did not go into too much detail. He summarized each section of HARLIE’s proposal, then went on to the next. Elzer and the others had already examined those parts of the proposal they had the most doubts about, and they had been unable to find anything fundamentally wrong with HARLIE’s thinking. Some of it was offbeat, of course, working in unfamiliar directions, but none of it was unsound.