Unconventional warfare....

Inquirer steps forward. "We'd like to see Dr. Han Fastolfe, please."

Plainclothsman Elijah Baley

Okay, we've caught a break here in that we were only sprayed down by disinfectant rather than blaster fire! Jehosaphat, I doubt that the TARDIS could have......

Wait, considering the oddity that the TARDIS (whatever that exactly stands for) is....the way it can travel and the interior being larger than what the exterior lets on, I would not be surprised if it wouldn't even be phased by even heavy blaster fire!

Considering what's at stake here I don't feel like confronting this savant who I've only heard called the Doctor right now. It could only lead to sheer disaster right now! But to risk a vast understatement.....something is just not right here!

"Terry" or not, I'm going to have a few questions with this Special Agent of the TBI who is dressed in the most Medievalist manner yet to date!

So, after a small detour through some type of Spacer contraption that dries our still sopping wet clothing (boy do the Doctor and Sigin still look ticked off at that business) we are taken to see the moderate Spacer who, according to Daneel, could have the political where whither to get his fellow people to spare little ole' Earth.

......

Hmm, got to add one extra question to that list. How did their clothing get so neatened up again? That shower we took took the starch out of some of our clothing, but while I'm turned away I hear some kind of....strange mutter stuff behind me and their outfits look like their fresh from the Insta cleaners!

Being the Spacers apparently have their minds on other things than clothing, they've overlooked that little blip.

I haven't. Wouldn't have been able to rise in the ranks to become a Plainclothman by being unobservant.

Daneel

After a bit we are taken to speak with the very human being who could advert this disaster in the making. We are taken to see my fa....er....my creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe.

.....

Oh dear, it's happening again.....

Had started ever since meeting that one Robot deep exploration ship who'd survived the Alegera debacle.....

Will have to get this looked at. I'd have done it sooner if not for this case taking precedence. I'd thought that it wouldn't get any worse....just a stray fluctuation and such now and again....

Well...

Back to business....

We present our findings to Dr. Fastolfe and he nods, seeming to see the grounds of my reasoning (that is, I and Partner Baley do the presenting, since the TBI agent had said: "This is still your show. I'm only hear to lend a hand.").

Earthers have the oddest phrases it seems to me, sometimes,. But the meaning is clear enough to me.

That said, my creator says he believes that this revelation about who was responsible for the murder...coupled with this news about aliens will sway even the hotheads like his political rival (a man who wanted to study me so he could create a colonization program utilizing humanform robots...a bit more advanced than what I am).

With that, my creator proves to be able to accomplish something of a miracle (if there was such a thing as miracles) and at least for now the Earth is safe. Now the attention is focused on what I feel is the real issue, a possible alien invasion force!

I turn back to speak with those who've somehow managed to make this possible (with technology I fear....is somewhat....er..... more advanced than what I expected of Earth).

?

Besides some people who are talking rather excitedly about something about the one named Elrondir who'd been rather terse with several of the Spacers when somehow the issue of medicine had come up and they'd laughed at him when he'd asked why they couldn't have just boosted the Spacer immune systems. I know that current medical opinion states that such isn't possible, but apparently the oddly dressed man (with pointed ears?) had said something that was making heads shake and mouths keep saying: "Why didn't we didn't think of that!?" Something about "pan-immunity"?

Is that possible?

If it is...then.....

...then....

....what will they need me for?

Oh, I know there will be other things, I'm sure, but the reason I'd been created was to be the "go between" between Earth and Spacers.....

.....

Space, why do I feel so.....out of sorts over this? It's not....ordinary.

That's about the time that Partner Baley is calling for my attention, telling me to follow him so we can catch up with those odd fellows before they disappear!

Space, there are so many questions I have for them right now!....

Meanwhile....

Elrondir

We are heading back to the TARDIS, and I'm still somewhat pissed at those arrogant SOBs over laughing at me over asking about their immunity issues.

At least I was able to wipe that superior look off their faces with something so simple as what the Alliance back in the early part of the 21rst century!

Got to expect different tech levels and such but I figure by 4721 AD (local calander) they'd have figured out pan-immunity by NOW!

Hmmm, actually, despite still being a bit behind in tech by a decade or so to the Star Trekkers, we actually are head and shoulders above them in things like disease control and a few other things. Perhaps I should haven't been so hard on those Spacers.....

Speaking about differences in tech.....

"Was it me or did I just see one of those Spacers pull out a sliderule?" I asks, waving back at one of the Spacers who'd been bent over a bunch of calculations in a side room.

Inquirer laughed a little bit and then explained her pet theory on the matter.

Could be wrong but I think it fits what little I've seen of this world and reality, she begins, that we could say that this "Robot" universe has a vastly different history after WWII than that of the other one's we've touched on so far. It would effect way computer technology developed.

That sounds reasonable, Ragan put in, Although exactly *why* it should be so different in terms of how computer technology evolved may be a difficult question to answer...

It lays within what I kind of got from a prediction of an early IBM executive type that now has been proven VERY wrong, I put in, guessing, About the erroneous assumption that computers would keep growing and growing as they get more and more powerful.

Yep, Inquirer chuckled, It seemed to me when I read the three books in that series that not much (if anything) was mentioned about computer crimes. Knowing that during the time that the first book was written nobody probably had any idea of things like hacking, computer viruses, and such

Yeah, I'd say it's a pretty fair assessment that when the book was written such things weren't really even thought of. Betty agreed, It always kind of amuses me to look back on SF stories from that era, where you've got robots intelligent enough to mimic a human being, but computers hardly seem to exist otherwise, and people are still doing math on sliderules!

The Doctor probably would have added his own opinion on the matter, but I notice he keeps glancing back the way we've gone as if expecting somebody.

I begin to look back myself, but get distracted again by the silent mental conversation. By the way that Sigin is looking, he's rapt in curiosity over this rather alien (for him) topic himself.

See, long ago this executive predicted that the world would soon only need a grand total of five (I think) computers in the future. I send over to him.

Just five? he asks, remembering how many he'd seen, even carried around on those of the Military and such (the PDAs).

He and his students didn't need such tools for math calculations because of having learned the Mage Way (nicknamed by those who'd read Dune as the Mentat, the Living Computer Method). Still, this high technology toy drew Sigin like a moth to a flame, sometimes.

Yes, five computers! I say, smiling fondly at that stuff yesteryear, Well, we shall not go into the reasons why *we* developed the PC (which is in part due to businesses needing them for accounting), so instead let's get back to that exec.

I'll get to that Inquirer put in, Let's say that in this time stream that IBM exec was right.....kind of. Let us say that instead of developing minicomputers and microcomputers (i.e. the PCs), they went for one massive central computer where everything needing to be run electronically is done through there (with enough backup components to prevent a disaster if parts should go haywire in that electronic monster). Let's say that those pioneers like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates never existed, and we never even saw anyone try to make a PC (those things were considered just geek toys at one time....until some bright person developed Visacalc and turned a toy into a serious accounting tool).

The scifi authors of early times seemed to have believed that vision and geared their visions of the future around that....more or less. she finished up.

In that being the case, I ask, remembering my speciality back while in the Alliance's Military, How do you think the Spacers will handle malicious logic (computer viruses) and hacking?

Oh, wow. Betty blinks, thinking about it, Again, it's been *ages* since I've read these books that mimic this reality, so I'm not sure I have enough knowledge to predict their behavior. IIRC, though, the spacers are *very* dependent on robots, and very obsessed with safety, so if computer hacking includes the ability to mess with a robot's brain (without actually opening up its skull or something), that's likely to make them *very* nervous. Though whether you'd be able to do that with a robot or not I don't know.

Wouldn't do it even if it was possible, Betty. Inquirer says empathically, Besides being that positronics don't allow for that as far as I know....I'd rather not plunge into one area that should be the final place for privacy.

Being of positronic descent made her and me rather uncomfortable about that idea....

I figure that electronic embezzlement might exist on Earth, I then say, putting the conversation back on track, But even there if a computer expert of this reality was faced with the ideas and methods of hackers and such of our reality....they'd get a nasty surprise.

Do you mean that it'd be a nasty surprise for them to discover that such things were possible? Betty asked, Given that scenario, quite possibly. Although it still occurs to me to wonder why they *don't* have hackers.

If there were just one mass computer per City...as what we overheard while with Baley and Daneel, Inquirer said, Then you could not have "traditional" hackers. They'd would have to actually walk into the very computer control room to do the hacking! Would have to because the computer controls the City's components...but the reverse isn't true (i.e. no remote control....not enough control to do enough...anyway).

That terminal that Daneel had used earlier in that one doctor's office had been a dumb terminal, where Daneel had isolated and used as a monitor with himself as the CPU to display the pictures of the broken glasses.

Seems to me that if it's possible to hack into computers, *somebody's* going to do it, B'elanna put in stubbornly, I don't buy "it just never occurred to anyone" as an answer! Maybe there's something about the positronics of this reality that's very different from our own computer systems, so the security issues are very different.

Maybe a matter of economics there, love. I say to her, That and something like cascade failure.

B'elanna and the others ask what I meant by that. Inquirer did the honors of explaining.

Okay, as I can envision it, she explained, The circuitry for these massive City computers are less complex than positronic circuitry, but cheaper to build and maintain. That and I bet you that a City computer has more number crunching power than that of your average (or even above average) Robot! With positronic circuits, one's something breaks it's broke for good! That's kind of what I got from the books.... Maybe a robot mind can be damaged but still function (by bypassing damaged areas, maybe), but enough damage done and you have nothing but something to be recycled. Also, trying to build something positronic with enough number crunching ability to run a City would perhaps lead to a cascade failure as seen with the "daughter" that Data build back on one Star Trek: TNG episode. In other words, the non-positronic route is feasible while the other isn't.

Or....it could be that there are inherent limitations on how big and small a positronic brain can be, I feel compelled to add, Maybe you can't have massively large brains or little, tiny postitronic brains? Maybe the process of making them doesn't leave much leeway on how large and small you make them? A thought, I think, that could work.... Take it one step further. Let us say that it's only economical to use positronics for robot minds. Robot minds are made of gold and iridium if I recall correctly. Expensive stuff now, and I'm sure still so in this time line of the story. You may be able to make postitronic telephones, radios, and such....but the price would be sky high! It would become economical then, I guess, to use them only in robots....which are basically servants who work without pay! A worker who'll work and work tirelessly might have a high initial capital cost....but would pay for itself and then some over time!! Such as what we have for robots in "The Caves of Steel". They work for nothing, displacing humans who work for money.

Inquirer put in that this was a valid possibility that she wished we could stick around right now to investigate. But right now we had to be getting to Solaria to find out if that ship!

What about computer security matters? Betty put in, How would that be different in this universe?

She was curious despite herself.

It would be a matter of physical security (walls, fences, guards). I explain, No need for firewalls or the like as what *we* are familiar with. Don't need to protect against modem attacks and such. No such thing as personal computers.

We finally get to the TARDIS and get in before somebody remembers about us and asks touchy questions...or so we think.....

The Doctor, shrugging and figuring that he'd only been seeing things that last time, steps up and puts coordinates in for Solaria (boy, getting that info had been fun in and of itself....let me tell you!)

That's about the time we see Daneel and Baley rushing through the door before it closes.

The TARDIS' Control Column begins to start to move....

And then that's about the time something happens to Daneel! He gasps and falls to the ground!

1. We all rush over to see.....a sparkling gem form on his forehead?!

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