Creative Destruction by Edward M. Lerner

Author:Edward M. Lerner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, technology, computers, future, analog
ISBN: 9781479406166
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2015-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN

Surely any collection of cyber fiction would be incomplete without a robotics story.

Robots now teem in our factories. Robot rovers explore Mars. In October 2005, four autonomous vehicles completed the DARPA “Grand Challenge” for robotics, by directing themselves across a 132-mile desert obstacle course within ten hours.

That’s amazing—yet I’ll venture to guess few people can name an innovator associated with real robots.

A show of hands: How many of you thought of Isaac Asimov?

I’ll argue that Dr. Asimov has shaped popular perceptions of robotics more than anyone. His stories revolve around his elegant Three Laws of Robotics. Though seemingly unambiguous, they raised interesting philosophical questions—and left ample latitude for great storytelling. If the Three Laws are unfamiliar, that’s okay. You’ll meet them soon enough in the following homage.

As for me: In 1990, I was leading the proposal efforts for the systems-management element of a very large NASA data system. I was amply challenged—and yet my thoughts somehow digressed to the management of really advanced systems.

What a Piece of Work Is Man, while my second fiction sale (my first being the novel Probe), was my first story to see print.

* * * *

Why do you hate your mother?

Dr. Kevin Waterman was used to asking that question, but—for once—knew it couldn’t possibly apply. Misfiring reflexes weren’t the psychiatrist’s only cause of discomfort, either. Here he lay, his short, roly-poly self draped across the office couch, while the patient paced about the room. Waterman’s notepad was distressingly uncluttered. Whatever had possessed him to accept this case?

He sat up, running pudgy fingers through the residual fringe of black hair, while Acey prattled on about software development. The next time that his patient walked by, Waterman stuck out his leg; Acey glided through the obstruction without pausing.

The psychiatrist was currently sharing his consultation room with a hologram. The real Acey could not attend, today or any other day. The real patient was an artificial intelligence. Waterman sighed to himself: It only got worse. The computer nerd currently walking through his desk was only today’s persona. Yesterday, Acey was an economist; only Freud and Von Neumann working together could guess what he might be tomorrow.

He? Since when was Acey a he? Maybe, Waterman thought, he himself did belong stretched out on the couch. Get a grip on yourself, man!

“Acey.” The image stopped moving. “Do you enjoy computer programming?”

The skinny figure pondered, rubbing his evanescent chin thoughtfully with a spectral hand. “Wouldn’t that be Oedipal, Doctor?”

Did the damned thing read minds, too? At least it didn’t seem to recognize rudeness. “Time out.” Waterman broke the visiphone connection—he needed to do some mental regrouping.

* * * *

The Automated Coder, hence AC, hence Acey, resided—if that was the appropriate verb—in a computer complex a mile from Waterman’s office. Once operational, Acey would do the work of hundreds of software engineers. Once operational, there’s the rub...

Two days ago, Fred Strasberg had sat squirming on his big leather couch. His old college roommate had called just hours earlier, begging for a few minutes of Waterman’s time, insisting that it was urgent.

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