| 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!
|
