Анатолий Днепров - Siema

" 'I beg your pardon,' she said in her toneless voice. 'But for the sake of science you will have to experience a few unpleasant hours, after which you will die.'

" 'What nonsense is this?' I said, starting up.

" 'No, no, lie still,' she said, pushing me in the chest with her metallic paw. My blood froze as I saw she was holding a scalpel, the very one I had taught her to sharpen pencils with.

" 'What are you going to do?' I cried. 'What is that knife for?'

" 'To cut open your skull. You see, there are one or two points I should like to clarify. . . .'

" 'You are mad!' I shouted, trying to get out of bed. Tut that knife down at once!'

" 'Lie still, if you really value the goal you have dedicated yourself to, if you wish your paper on electronic models of the higher nervous system to be a success. I can finish it myself after you are gone.'

"With these words she slid closer to me and pressed me back against the bed.

"I tried to resist, but it was no use. She was too heavy.

" 'Let me go,' I panted, 'or else. . . .'

" 'You can do nothing. I am stronger than you. So you had better lie still. I am doing this for the sake of science, in order to get at the truth. I have saved a little space in my memory precisely for this purpose. Can't you understand, you stubborn man, that with my vast store of knowledge, my highly developed sense organs and my capacity for swift and faultless analyses and generalizations, it is I who can have the final say in the creation of self-improving machines and provide the information science is waiting for. I still have enough memory left to record all the electrical impulses passing along your nerve fibres; to understand the most complicated biological, biochemical and electrical structure of all parts of your body, and, particularly, of your brain. I shall learn how the proteins in your organism generate and amplify the electrical impulses, how the process of coding signals received from without works, and what form that code takes, and how it is used in the living organism. I shall fathom all the secrets of the biological structure in the living organism, the laws of its development, how it controls and perfects itself. Is that not worth sacrificing one's life for?'

" If you are so reluctant to experience those unpleasant sensations which you humans call fear and pain, if you are afraid of death, let me put your mind at rest. Remember my telling you that the temperature and intensity of the biocurrents in the region of your rhombencephalon was much higher than normal? Well, this phenomenon has already spread to most of the left side of your cranium. You are doomed. You are the victim of an incurable disease and before very long you will no longer be of any use as a human being. Therefore, while there is still time, I must perform my experiment. Future generations will be grateful to both of us.'

" To hell with that!' I shouted. 'I refuse to be killed by a stupid electronic monster of my own creation.'

" 'Ha! Ha! Ha!' Siema uttered coldly, and raised the knife over my head.

"In a flash I snatched up my pillow. The knife sank into it, ripping the pillow case. Before the metallic fingers had disentangled themselves I leapt aside, jumped off the bed and dashed over to the switch. But Siema was too quick for me. In an instant she had slid over to me and knocked me down. As I lay helpless on the floor, I saw that her hands were not long enough to reach me, and fortunately she was unable to bend.

" 'I did not realize that in this position I cannot do anything to you,' she said in an icy voice. 'However I can try.'

"She began to move slowly toward me so that I had to crawl on my belly to escape her wheels. I crawled over the floor toward the bed and ducked under it. She tried to pull it aside. But this was not so easy for the bed was wedged securely between the wall and the bookcase. Then she began to pull off the bed-clothes. When she saw me under the spring mattress she cried out in triumph.

" 'You will not be able to get away from me now! Of course it will not be so easy to operate in this position.5

"When she picked up the mattress I jumped up, snatched up the bed end and brought it down full force on the machine. The blow bounded harmlessly off the metal body. Siema turned round and came toward me. I lifted the bed end again, this time aiming at the head. She quickly slid away.

" 'Do you really want to destroy me?' she asked in amazement. 'Won't you be sorry to lose me?'

" 'Sorry?' I said hoarsely. 'When you want to murder me? Certainly not!'

" 'But I only want to do what is necessary for the solution of a very important scientific problem. Why should you want to destroy me? Look how useful I could be to mankind.'

" 'Don't be a fool!' I roared. 'When a man is attacked it is only natural for him to defend himself.'

" 'But I only want your research on electronics. . . .'

" 'To hell with my research! Don't come near me or I'll smash you to pieces.'

" 'But I must!'

"With these words she rushed toward me brandishing the scalpel. But this time I acted swiftly and surely. There was a loud crash. The sound of shattered glass mingled with a wild scream from Siema's loudspeaker. A loud hissing and crackling arose from within the metal cylinder, and I saw a flash of fire. The lights went out and a strong smell of burning insulation wire filled the room. 'A short circuit,' was the last thought that flashed through my mind as I dropped unconscious to the floor."

. . . My travelling companion fell silent. He sat huddled in his corner by the window, his head resting in his hands and his eyes closed. I was so amazed by his story that I could not speak.

We sat thus for a few minutes and then he spoke again.

"The whole affair has exhausted me. I feel I must take a prolonged vacation. But I am afraid I shall be unable to rest. Do you know why? Because there is one question that is constantly haunting me. It is this. How and why did this absurd conflict with myself come about?"

I stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"I repeat, with myself. Because Siema was my creation. Every detail of her was my own invention. How is it that the machine turned against its creator? Where is the logic? That is something I cannot explain."

I pondered this for a while in silence.

"Perhaps you did not operate your Siema properly? In industry, for example, careless handling of a machine often leads to bodily injuries."

He frowned.

"You may be right. At any rate I like your analogy, although I cannot quite see what rules I violated in handling Siema."

"Not being a specialist, that is hard for me to say," I said. "But it seems to me that in some respects your Siema may have resembled an automobile without brakes. You know what can happen when a car's brakes fail suddenly."

"Damn it, man," he exclaimed brightening, "I believe you have inadvertently hit upon the right explanation. Why, Pavlov said as much himself."

I stared at him in amazement, for as far as I knew Pavlov had written nothing about automobile brakes.

"Of course, of course," he repeated, getting up and rubbing his hands in satisfaction. "Why didn't I think of it before? Nervous activity in man is regulated by two contradictory processes-excitation and inhibition. People who have no inhibitions often commit crimes. That is precisely what happened to my Siema!"

He seized my hand and shook it heartily.

"Thank you! Thank you! You have given me a splendid idea. You see, my mistake was in not having included in Siema's design a system for controlling her actions. If I had, her behaviour could have been programmed so as to make her completely safe. In other words, she could have been inhibited."

His face was beaming now, his eyes shining with excitement. He was a different man.