David Gerrold - When HARLIE Was One

“At least not with the laws of mathematics. Remember, HARLIE doesn’t have a vested interest in Krofft’s research like he does in the G.O.D. Maybe this gravity thing was only an interesting problem to him — the G.O.D. Proposal is a lot bigger. That one’s life and death.”

“No, Don — they’re related. I’m sure of it. The man from M.I.T. said that this might be the all-important step toward a unified field theory. That’s what HARLIE’s been working toward all this time — a single piece of knowledge, a single truth from which all other truths about the universe must follow. Like Newton’s laws of motion are the foundation of a whole field of math, a unified field theory would be the foundation of all knowledge about all the laws of physics! It wouldn’t just tell us what the laws were, but why they exist and why they work like they do. It would show us all the complex interrelationships. Can’t you see the connection? It’s another extension of the G.O.D. Proposal — his search for the ultimate truth. The gravity thing and the G.O.D, are just different aspects of the same question, and HARLIE is determined to find an answer to it.”

“Aubie, I see it, I see it; you don’t have to convince me of HARLIE’s intentions. But this still doesn’t change the basic question that much, at least not as far as I can see. Is he sane? ”

“Don, he has to be. If it’s his goal to find the ultimate truth, would he intentionally fake the answer? He’d only be cheating himself. And Krofft’s no fool either. He wouldn’t have announced his theory until he was completely satisfied. He must have double-checked every angle of it to make bloody-well sure there were no mistakes; every scientist in the world would be on top of him if there were. This’ll prove that HARLIE is rational, and when M.I.T. confirms the equations, there won’t be any question at all.”

“All right, Aubie, I’ll buy it I have to — hell, I want to. But can we use it tomorrow?”

“Not unless we can get hold of Krofft. He’s the only one who can confirm that he was working with HARLIE. He was only at the plant once; the rest of the time it was by telephone. I purposely kept it a secret because I was afraid of what Elzer might say if he found out I was letting outsiders into the HARLIE project.”

Handley said a word. “All right, I’ll get down to the lab and see what I can find out.”

“Talk to HARLIE. He may know how you can get in touch with Krofft.”

“Good idea.”

“—and tell him why you want to. We need Krofft for the meeting tomorrow.”

Dr. Stanley Krofft looked as if he had slept in his suit. Auberson didn’t care. He was so happy to see the rumpled little scientist, he wouldn’t have cared if the man had come in wearing sackcloth and ashes and dragging a cross behind him. He wouldn’t have cared if Krofft had come in stark naked or in full drag. He was here at the meeting, and that was what counted.

Dr. Stanley Krofft was The Man Of The Hour as far as the newspapers of America were concerned. He was a major stockholder in Stellar-American as far as the Board of Directors was concerned. But to Auberson, he was the man who knew HARLIE. In fact, it had been HARLIE who had finally gotten in touch with Krofft. Knowing that Krofft was holed up over at the nearby university,

HARLIE had tapped into the university computer and — well, never mind, Krofft was here now.

“Are they voting the HARLIE Project and the G.O.D. Proposal as one?” whispered Krofft.

“Yeah,” Auberson whispered back. “That’s Dome, Chairman of the Board—”

“Him, I know.”

“—next to him is Carl Elzer—”

“I know him by name.”

“—he doesn’t look good today. Next to him is—”

“I know the Clintwoods. And I know MacDonald and one or two others.”

Handley came in then, slipped into his seat on the other side of Auberson, grinning broadly. “Hey, what’s up with Elzer? He didn’t nip at my heels when I came in.”

“I don’t know. He looks sick, doesn’t he?” Indeed, the sallow-complexioned man looked even more jaundiced than ever. He seemed almost — withdrawn. “Don, you know Dr. Krofft, don’t you? Don Handley—”

Handley and Krofft shook hands across Auberson’s lap. “You know about our little G.O.D. Project, Dr. Krofft?”

“HARLIE told me — I think it’ll be quite a machine if it works.”

“If it works?? Of course, it’ll work — I think.”

“That’s the whole problem,” explained Auberson. “We think it’ll work, but that’s not enough; we’re not sure . The only one who’s sure is HARLIE. That makes the big question one of HARLIE’s validity. All you have to do is confirm that he helped work out your major equations and there won’t be any question at all.”

“You can go ahead with the G.O.D. Project?”

“If they okay it.”

“Hm,” said Krofft. “I wish you’d let me have a little more time with those schematics this morning. I might have been able to help you sell it to the Board.”

“It’s too late for that,” put in Handley. “We spent all last week on that. They’re convinced we know what we’re talking about—”

“But we’re still afraid to put it to a vote. Dome and Elzer are after our throats,” said Auberson. “At least, they were on Friday. I’m not so sure now.”

Dome called the meeting to order then. Almost immediately, he turned it over to Auberson.

“When we adjourned on Friday,” he said, “one major question was left in all our minds. ‘Is HARLIE rational? Is HARLIE valid?’ ” He looked around the table; every eye was on him. “We’re all aware of the ‘HAL 9000 Syndrome.’ It only takes one little irrationality to throw off a big machine. This is especially true of the higher brain functions of our judgment units. One little distortion in a machine’s self-image or world-image, and everything that computer puts out will be of questionable validity. The only way to be sure of the answer is to test it.

“That’s why we have ‘control problems.’ These are problems we already know the answers to. If there’s any variation in the computer’s response from one running of the problem to the next, it’s a sign that something may be wrong.

“Now, we don’t have any control problems per se for HARLIE. Instead, we have to check his validity ‘in the field’ so to speak. That’s why this whole matter of his rationality is so important. We have no control problem that we can point to and say, ‘Look, HARLIE’s okay.’

“However, we have the next best thing. We have someone who has double-checked one of HARLIE’s most recent runs and can swear to its validity. In fact, he’s staking his scientific reputation on it. Dr. Stanley Krofft.

“If you’ve been listening to the news at all this weekend, then you’ll know who Dr. Krofft is. On Friday, Dr. Krofft announced the publication of his theory of Gravitic Stress. The scientific world has been — oh, what’s the modest way to put it—”

“Don’t be modest,” snapped Krofft. “Tell the truth.” There was laughter at his interruption.

Auberson grinned. “Okay, the talk is that Dr. Krofft’s theory may be as important as Einstein’s theory. Maybe more. Already, the speculation is that this is just one step short of a unified field theory.”

“That’s my next project,” said Krofft.

“I think I’ll just turn this over to you then, and let you talk.” Auberson sat down.

Krofft stood up. “Auberson here has already said it all. There’s not much to add. HARLIE helped me work out my equations. This morning. Dr. Calvin W. Yang at M.I.T. confirmed their validity. I guess that’s all—”