David Gerrold - When HARLIE Was One

The size of it—

—was staggering.

Of course, Auberson realized, the G.O.D. would never be a menace to personal privacy — simply because it would need extensive preliminary data from which to start its extrapolations, and as far as Auberson knew, there was just no way to trace the thought processes of a living man. Of course, if there were a way, and if everything else about that man’s life and body and environment were known, then perhaps the machine could extrapolate his thoughts—

That was still far in the future though. Or was it?—

He realized with a start that if there were a way, if anything were possible, the machine would know. And it would tell men the way to do it. Yes, of course. Knowing everything, the machine would be the greatest tool for scientific advance ever built. The Wright brothers would have only needed to ask it, “Is heavier-than-air flight possible?” and it not only would have told them, “Yes, it is,” but it would have also given them plans for an airplane or a rocket ship. It would have told them how to build the tools to build the tools to build that airplane, and told them how to finance the operation to support it. It would have told them about safety devices and ground crews and maintenance and flight controllers. It would have told them what training and testing programs they would have to undertake. It would have told them how to fly the machine and what it would handle like. It would have told them the side effects of their new industry — worldwide time disorientation, the noise over the airports, the luggage tangles in the terminals, and the necessity for air-sickness bags in the back of the seats. It would have warned them about financing and insurance and the high cost of laying down a new runway, and even the best way to set up a travel agency, or project a movie while in flight. It would have told them exactly what they were starting.

And the machine would be able to do this for industries that hadn’t even been dreamed of yet — new transportation modes, new manufacturing processes, new products and techniques. If a thing were possible, the G.O.D. would know it. And tell.

The scope of the thing was limitless.

But, of course. It was G.O.D.

Graphic Omniscient Device.

He wished it were already in existence. Just so he could use it to analyze HARLIE and find out if he was sane or not.

But, of course, before they could build the G.O.D., they needed that answer first.

It was an interesting paradox — if you weren’t personally involved in it.

If only he knew the truth. The truth. The machine would know it. It would know everything. Why does that keep repeating itself in my head? Knowing everything, it would be able to predict the consequences of anything. It would know the truth. A one-for-one representation of reality. The truth.

The truth, the truth.

Over and over, the truth, the truth, the truth—

—but it was only the truth if HARLIE was sane; only if HARLIE was sane. Only if HARLIE was-sane.

And there was no way to know.

If HARLIE was sane.

If HARLIE—

—was sane.

Sunday afternoon. The radio was droning quietly to itself — mostly music, but occasionally news. Neither David nor Annie was listening to it.

“—747 jumbo jetliner lost a wheel on its approach to Kennedy Airport tonight. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Spokesmen for Pan Am Airlines said—”

He stirred at his soup lackadaisically. He looked over at Annie and smiled, as if to say, “It’s not you, love; it’s me.”

“—in Hollywood, convicted cult leader, Chandra Mission, issued another of his quasi-religious statements from his jail cell. Like all the others, it ended with the words, ‘Trust me, believe in me, have faith in me, I am the truth. Love me, for I am the truth.’ Mission was convicted of—”

I am the truth, he thought. I wish I were. I wish I knew. I wish there were someone I could trust—

“—new papal encyclical is expected to be issued before the end of the week—”

He smiled at that. Papal encyclical. Another form of ‘truth,’ this one direct from God’s special emissary. How does one tell the difference, he wondered. Perhaps the only difference is that the Pope has more followers than Chandra Mission.

“—reaction to Friday’s announcement by Dr. Stanley Krofft of a major breakthrough—”

“Huh?” He looked at the radio. Something—

“—at M.I.T., Dr. Calvin W. Yang, commenting on the breakthrough, said, ‘We have our computers double-checking Dr. Krofft’s equations now, and that’s going to take some time, but if it checks out as well as Dr. Krofft says it does — and I have every reason to believe that it, will — then this could be the greatest scientific advance since Einstein’s theory of relativity. Dr. Krofft’s theory of gravitic stress suggests whole new areas of exploration for the physicist. No, I can’t even begin to predict what form any advances may take. Anti-gravity devices, maybe. Who knows? Maybe whole new sources of power or communications, maybe not — we simply don’t know what this means yet, except that it is a major scientific breakthrough. It may be the decisive step leading to a unified field theory; I certainly hope so. I know Dr. Krofft’s reputation for accuracy, and I’m very excited about this.’ Dr. Krofft himself could not be reached for comment.

“Elsewhere in the news, a gasoline tanker jackknifed on the Hollywood Freeway, spilling hundreds of gallons of—”

Auberson spun the dial of the radio, frantically searching for another news broadcast. He found only blaring rock music and raucous disc jockeys. “The paper,” he cried. “The Sunday paper.”

“David, what’s going on? What is this?”

“It’s HARLIE!” he cried excitedly. “Don’t you see, it’s HARLIE. He and Dr. Krofft were working together on this. Damn him anyway! He didn’t tell me they’d solved it! He and Dr. Krofft were working together on some kind of theory of gravity. Apparently they’ve done it — this proves it! HARLIE is sane. More than that! We don’t even need the G.O.D. Proposal any more to keep him going; this proves that HARLIE is a valuable scientific tool in his own right! He can talk to scientists and help them develop their theories and do creative research! My God, why didn’t we think of this — we could have shortened the whole meeting. All we’d have had to do was bring Krofft in — Look, go get a paper for me while I try calling Don; there’s a newsstand on the corner—”

“David,” she said, “this Dr. Krofft, isn’t he the one you were talking about before?”

“Huh? Which one?”

“The one with the stocks—”

“The stocks? Ohmigod, I forgot about that. Yes, he is the one with the stocks—”

“Can you trust him? I mean, obviously he must be on Elzer’s side.”

“Trust him? I don’t know — have to talk to him first This is proof that HARLIE is rational—” He leapt for the phone. She shrugged and picked up her jacket; she would go get the paper.

Krofft didn’t answer at his lab, and his housekeeper refused to say where he was. He couldn’t think of anywhere else that the scientist might be.

He called Handley and told him what bad happened.

“I’d heard about it,” said Don. “I didn’t realize HARLIE was part of it.”

“Who do you think solved those equations for Krofft?”

“HARLIE?”

“Right — don’t you see, Don? We don’t have to worry any more about HARLIE being sane or not. These equations prove that he is working properly.”

“Do they? Have they been double-checked?”

“Somebody at M.I.T. is doing that right now. If they come out correct, it’ll prove that HARLIE isn’t fooling around.”