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00200	.INDENT 6
00300	.BEGIN VERBATIM
00400	.GROUP SKIP 20
00500	                              LETHE
00600	
00700	
00800	                          BY  DOUG LENAT
00900	.END
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01100		  **********          **********
01200	.GROUP SKIP 10
01300	
01400	"What ever happened to Will?"  The words came slowly, for 
01500	Rick Bannon hadn't thought of Will for thirteen months.  But
01600	it was the tone -- more than confusion though not yet horror --
01700	which most surprised his wife.
01800	
01900	"Will who, darling?"  Without glancing up, Rick felt the soft
02000	concerned face searching for him in the dimness.  Helen's
02100	full blonde eyebrows were converging, as if their union would
02200	let her recall the name.
02300	
02400	"Will isn't a `who'.  Look here!"
02500	
02600	Helen groped cautiously across the living room.  As she approached
02700	the candle, a lean, intense face took form.  Though familliar, it
02800	was made grotesque now by flickering shadows.  Rick's eyes forced
02900	his wife's to a plaque near the flame.  Through a year of dust 
03000	Helen discerned the President, herself, Rick, 
03100	and a few of their co-workers
03200	at JCN poised over a huge machine.  The taper moved slightly, 
03300	revealing an inscription: To Richard Bannon, In Deepest
03400	Appreciation of Will's Success.  August 26, 1972.
03500	
03600	"I can't remember meeting the President of 
03700	the United States.  I never heard of Will.
03800	I don't..."  Rick's voice trailed off into a chill that left him
03900	shaking.  The room felt cold now, though just
04000	ten minutes before, he'd execrated the air conditioner
04100	for dying with the rest of the appliances.
04200	
04300	A tiny hand trembled on his shoulder, giving as much strength as
04400	it had meant to absorb.  Helen's hoarse whisper echoed Rick's
04500	thoughts.  "This is something neither of us could forget in a
04600	lifetime, and yet we've both forgotten it completely in a year."
04700	Her hand ran along the wall near where the plaque had been hanging.
04800	She rubbed the dust between her fingers.  "But I clean every week..."
04900	Her words were devoured by darkness, as the candle leapt to 
05000	the other side of the room.
05100	
05200	"I'm taking this to JCN right now."  The voice was Rick's.
05300	Rick Bannon was burly, six feet
05400	one, with a shock of dark hair which made him seem even taller.
05500	Yet his words seemed, to Helen, to emanate from the tiny flame
05600	itself.  
05700	
05800	"So late?" the darkness pleaded.  "No one's to
05900	go outside now unless it's an emergency."
06000	
06100	Rick wasn't listening.  Whatever Will was, there should be a
06200	file on it in his office.  The candle flounced across the room, 
06300	collecting Rick's wallet and keys, then resettled on the glasstop
06400	table.
06500	
06600	Engulfed in the silence following the click of the outer door, the 
06700	darkness that was Helen cried "Will, me," without knowing what
06800	it meant.
06900	"Why does Rick leave me home alone almost every night, working eighteen
07000	hours a day at JCN?"  Helen shook her head, trying to clear it.
07100	"What am I saying?  Rick never leaves me alone.  How... bizarre!
07200	It seemed
07300	so familiar when he drove off..."  Instinctively, Helen had walked
07400	over to the telephone, and had dialled B-L-7.  She stared down at
07500	her fingers.  "What's wrong with me?  Why am I...?  I don't even know
07600	anyone with a BL 7 number."  But Helen was no longer certain.
     

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00400	
00500	The black cougar ground to a halt before a usually-electified gate.
00600	An aged guard, recognizing Rick, smiled as his flashlight double-
00700	checked Dr. Richard Bannon's ID.  He began a reluctant struggle with 
00800	a massive crank.  "For twelve years I've wondered if this damned
00900	handle really did work the damned gate.  But you're the eighth
01000	car I had to let through this last hour, and damned if I'm not
01100	starting to
01200	pray for electricity."
01300	No sounds were audible as Rick drove off, save the rapidly
01400	fading creakings and cursings of gate and guard.
01500	
01600	The car scurried between looming livid shapes that were
01700	usually friendly lab buildings.
01800	Even when Rick reached his own office, 
01900	he felt oppressed by the darkness more than by the heat.  "Hell must
02000	be a lot like this," he mused.  He pulled out a
02100	thin conical cup and pushed the
02200	WATER, NO ICE button.  After a few seconds, he laughed at himself, 
02300	crumpled the dry cup into a tight ball, and threw it at the cooler.
02400	"We even get water electrically, now.  If only you were a
02500	horse-trough...
02600	I'm so thirsty I could
02700	drink a cup of water from one of the rivers in Hell.
02800	Styx?  No, that's on the border.  The one through the center..."
02900	Lethe caught him before he pronounced her name.  Renouncing
03000	thirst, Rick returned unsteadily to reality.  Shaking fingers
03100	sought the file lock, twisted the combination into it, and yanked
03200	it clattering to the tile floor.  A thin pencil of light located
03300	the Will file.  Rick blinked at the label.  The project had gone
03400	from Confidential to Eyes Only to Declassified in a three month
03500	period, one year earlier.
03600	
03700	The file lay strewn across
03800	his desk.  Rick read slowly, masticating every
03900	word, forcing it through the disbelief in his throat.
04000	
04100	May 12, 1968.  Project Will inaugurated.  Director: Richard Bannon.
04200	Team: Jack Sills, Edward Ho, Helen Sappestein, Karl Muller, Ralph
04300	Amory.
04400	Task: Realization of a Self-optimizing LSI computer.
04500	Resources: Thirty-seven technician-years.  Fifty million dollars.
04600	Deadline: June 1, 1971.
04700	
04800	Nothing seemed familliar.  The names he had heard, but only because
04900	of their importance at JCN.  He had never worked
05000	with any of them before, 
05100	even Helen.  A few he had never seen at all, in the six years he'd
05200	worked for JCN.
05300	"Am I losing my mind?"  Rick struggled to review the events in
05400	computer development before 1967.  "ENIAC, the 
05500	first electronic brain."  He smiled at those early
05600	researchers' naivete.  "Brain, indeed!
05700	Built at the University of Pennsylvania
05800	in 1944.  Tube circuits; took a whole room.  Transistor logic in
05900	1950.  The same computer now fit into a shoe box.
06000	Integrated circuits
06100	a decade later.  An ENIAC could be built matchbox size.  In 1964, 
06200	using a computer guided laser beam, large scale integrated
06300	circuits (LSI)
06400	appeared.  Using these, ENIAC would fit on the head of a
06500	pin.  Circuit densities approaching and surpassing the densities 
06600	of human brain cells.  Advances in neurology.  But the problem
06700	of interconnecting
06800	trillions of circuit `cells' seemed insurmountable.
06900	Elusive.  Research at Caltech, using disembodied feline
07000	brains, coming tantalizingly close.
07100	Then the breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, at Stanford
07200	and MIT.  
07300	Automatic programming.  Feasibility studies
07400	of self-optimizing heuristic
07500	systems, leading to my own idea for Project Will...  I'm beginning to 
07600	remember..."
07700	
07800	All night long, Rick read through the progress reports, summations, 
07900	memos, lab reports, news releases.  The truth settled upon him 
08000	just slowly enough for him to remain sane.  With the
08100	ending of darkness, 
08200	murky fears, borne of ignorance, were replaced by more
08300	explicit, more terrible ones.
08400	
08500	Aurora brought Rick stiffly to his feet.
08600	Automatically, he began dialing
08700	his home, thankful that at least the phone
08800	still worked.  What would he say to Helen?
08900	With the curtains drawn, it
09000	would still be dark there.
09100	"Hi darling... yes, everything's fine.  Listen, 
09200	I found out about Will.
09300	Some of it, anyway.  I need your help fitting
09400	it all together.  Also...  there's something we have to decide...  No, 
09500	I'd rather not talk about it over the phone... Good.  
09600	See you in a little while...... Me, too."
09700	
09800	He put down the receiver and wiped his forehead.  This was something
09900	only the whole team could decide.  The JCN directory slid onto
10000	his desk.  Amory, Ralph.  Chairman, Psychometrics Group.
10100	Office 1124 LR.
10200	Extension 3471.  Home 1308 Waverly Street.  Home Pho...  "Ah! 
10300	Here's his number."  Rick rolled the final "r" for several 
10400	lost seconds.  The
10500	receiver rose deliberately.  Chilblained
10600	fingers stabbed into the dial.  B - L - 7......  
     

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00400	
00500	"But Jack, they have the money.  Why don't they release her?"
00600	The anguish demanded a reply.  How could he know why?
00700	
00800	"Maybe they want more.  The police captain told me they'd probably
00900	release her as soon as they were sure the bills weren't marked.
01000	Or if not, they'd leave her somewhere and we'd find her right 
01100	away."  The police captain had actually told him they'd
01200	probably kill her, 
01300	or leave her somewhere she'd never be found.
01400	"They've...  I don't know, 
01500	maybe been held up by the power failure."  He could never
01600	tell her he'd given up.
01700	
01800	"My baby, my baby..."
01900	
02000	The phone's ring gave Jack Sills some genuine hope.  "Who...?"  The
02100	hope ignited into anger.  "What the hell do you want?  Do you
02200	know its five a.m...?  What kind of an emergency?  Alright, but
02300	it'd better be important."  There was nothing more he could do
02400	here.  Getting back to work might be panacean.  He considered.
02500	"I'm going out to look for her again"  Jack Sills
02600	hoped his guilt didn't
02700	show.  As he left the bedroom, his wife called after him.
02800	
02900	"You forgot it!"
03000	
03100	Jack had always taken a revolver with him when he'd gone looking
03200	-- really looking -- for his daughter.  Now he had to carry it
03300	with him for his wife's benefit.  Disgusting world.
03400	
03500	"And bring your file on Project Will...  Good.  I'll see you in an 
03600	hour then.
03700	So long, Eddie."  Rick finished his last call.  Frustrated, 
03800	he reached over and hit the watercooler, 
03900	not really anticipating a response, 
04000	of course.  The blow was meant more to punish than to request.
04100	The machine answered with a spatter
04200	of water.  Rick gaped in terror.  It was operating.
04300	The current must be
04400	back on!  He raced his eyes over the file.  Will's power
04500	circuits.  Would he...?  No!  He was off now.  Could only be started
04600	manually.  Relief found Rick Bannon wishing this were merely a
04700	nightmare.
04800	Slowly, he pulled out a cup.
     

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00400	
00500	The door marked CONFERENCE opened for the sixth time that hour.
00600	Ralph Amory froze at the scene before him.  A series of
00700	half-serious explanations
00800	raced through his mind and were rejected.  JCN bankrupt?  World
00900	War III?  What could bring the top five scientists at JCN together
01000	at this hour?  He recognized some from staff meetings, the
01100	rest from their	Group Head ID badges.
01200	Jack Sills, Biophysics; Rick Bannon, Artificial Intelligence; Helen
01300	Sappestein -- no, she was Helen Bannon now --
01400	Mathematics; Eddie Ho, Electronics; Karl Muller, 
01500	Computer Engineering.
01600	Why was he, a psychiatrist, sent for?
01700	
01800	Then Dr. Amory examined their faces more closely.
01900	Varying degrees of 
02000	shock.  Bewilderment.  Disbelief.  Horror.  Confusion.
02100	Struggling mentally...  On a problem?  No, more like straining to
02200	remember...
02300	
02400	With apparent calm, Ralph Amory removed a
02500	cigarette from its silver holder.  As he lit
02600	it, he began, "I deduce..."  
02700	The pause while deeply puffing always drew
02800	all eyes to him.  "...that you have been confronted with
02900	something so horrid, 
03000	you cannot accept it, and yet you must."  A thin smile
03100	traced a line which spread up the side of his face to meet one
03200	descending from his eyes.  Long greying hair.  Carefully touselled.
03300	Anything for effect.
03400	"Life is a collocation of various sorts of deceits,"
03500	he mused.  "God, this room is dim.
03600	Ought to have turned on more lights."
03700	
03800	Rick had only seen Ralph Amory four times in as many years.
03900	He sought
04000	the medical insignia for confirmation.
04100	"Pretty close, Doc.  But its `we', not
04200	`you'.  You are as much a part of this as anyone.  Read your copy 
04300	of this file."  Rick Bannon's fingers directed the psychiatrist 
04400	 to sit, open the folder, and begin reading.  
04500	
04600	Jack Sills looked as though he hadn't slept in two days.  He
04700	hadn't slept in three.  Ten years older than Rick, his face was
04800	beginning to wrinkle.  First the kidnapping, now this.  Tears
04900	welled in his eyes as he thought of Daphne.  Just a year old.
05000	But aloud: "Let's give Doc Amory a few minutes, and then summarize
05100	what's happened.  Just so we all agree."
05200	Ralph Amory looked up at him, but Jack Sills didn't perceive the
05300	suspicious look which crossed the Doctor's face.
     

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00300	.GROUP SKIP 10
00400	
00500	"....LSI circuitry.  This gave Will a thousandfold the storage
00600	capacity of a human brain.  Ten milliard cell modules, 
00700	interconnected like brain cells..."  
00800	Helen Bannon noticed the troubled
00900	stare Ralph Amory was giving her, and mistakenly interpretted it as a
01000	reprimand.  ".....sorry; I meant as close as we could come
01100	to synaptic networks.
01200	
01300	For two months, the computer's main activity
01400	was optimizing its  own circuitry.  Dr. Amory and I devised seven
01500	hundred graduated problems that would mark Will's intellectual
01600	progress.  The first were trivial: adding, comparing, correlating
01700	and such.  Next came problems requiring Will to synthesize the vast
01800	stores of world knowledge we were pouring into him: natural language
01900	translation, Hilbert's third problem...   Finally, Will
02000	passed on to current questions.  Mathematics first.  Hilbert's other
02100	twenty-two problems in thirteen minutes.
02200	Jack, you'd better continue."  
02300	
02400	Jack
02500	Sills was better qualified to relate the biomedical part, but
02600	Helen stopped for other reasons as well.  The strain.
02700	The look Ralph Amory was giving her.  Why did she feel uneasy, almost
02800	guilty.  She slid into her chair, guided more by
02900	her hands grasping the table than by her mind.
03000	Rick's hand touched hers
03100	and Helen started, then
03200	leaned against him.  Straining to relax, she missed 
03300	Sills'  first few remarks.
03400	
03500	Ralph Amory's eyes were fixed upon Helen as she spoke, yet he
03600	hadn't heard any of her words.
03700	His thoughts drifted back to the first time they'd made
03800	love, the Hollywood touches of crashing waves and lightening, 
03900	the demanding lips, the unexpected fury of her...  
04000	Suddenly, his reverie
04100	ended.  What had he been thinking?  
04200	He had seen Helen often, but only at
04300	meetings.  He'd never seen her nude, 
04400	yet he remembered how she blushed
04500	about the strawberry-shaped birthmark on her bottom.  But he'd never
04600	even seen her by herself!  Was he simply fantisizing?  It seemed
04700	so... too
04800	much like a recollection.  For the first time in his adult life, 
04900	Ralph Amory permitted his face to express bewilderment.
05000	
05100	"...Medical: Scores of devices were linked directly into Will, and
05200	he could examine, diagnose, and treat patients at a rate of two
05300	hundred per hour."  Jack Sills' voice was dry and monotonic, as if
05400	he were disinterested.  "On August seventh, we asked Will to work on
05500	correlating the data we had on EEG's.  By the next day, he had
05600	cracked the mind's code.  It was so complex, however, that only 
05700	Will could figure out what a subject was thinking from his brain    
05800	wave patterns.
05900	
06000	"The next logical step was two-way communication of thoughts directly
06100	between Will and mens' minds."  As Sills rasped the words, 
06200	a wild hope began to form in a nether chamber of his brain.
06300	"Transmitters were hooked
06400	into molecular-gated continuous-recording
06500	electroencephalographs; and giant dish receivers relayed
06600	individuals' patterns from all over the world.  Everyone's 
06700	wave configurations are so 
06800	individualized that Will had no trouble easing the 
06900	death throes of an Outback aborigine, while simultaneously
07000	alerting a pedestrian in Amsterdam of an onrushing trolley.
07100	At about that time the project drifted out of my hands.  
07200	Rick....?"
07300	
07400	"...given certain priorities.  First, not to change our culture.
07500	Secondarily, to help individuals solve their problems.  Finally, 
07600	to continue optimizing its circuitry in any spare instants it had.
07700	Will had developed a crude kind of conciousness, although nothing
07800	resembling emotions was ever  observed.
07900	These constraints formed the sole motivation Will ever evinced.
08000	
08100	"When Will was revealed to the public, he drew a mixed response.
08200	Some threats, some praises.  Always there was an apprehension
08300	that something would go wrong.  Maybe everyone had read too many
08400	sci-fi stories."  Rick's chuckle ended as a sigh.
08500	"Maybe each of us knows
08600	more about human nature than he cares to admit, even to himself.
08700	In any case, 
08800	billions of people were calling `Will, me' at all times, in all
08900	tongues.
09000	This was the signal to Will to
09100	probe that person's thoughts, ascertain the
09200	problem, compute the best solution, and inject it into his mind.
09300	Within a month, everyone in the world was hooked.  Dr. Amory...?"
09400	Rick had heard enough of Amory not to get caught up in
09500	psychological technicalities with him around.
09600	
09700	"Anxiety, hatred, all antisocial behavior vanished from the face of
09800	the earth.  True.  But with no responsibility, with a mammoth 
09900	parent figure like Will, men degenerated emotionally into...
10000	into infants."
10100	Dr. Amory paused to observe the tightened look on Jack Sill's
10200	face at the mention of infants.  Record it for later consideration.
10300	"The culture was significantly altered.  Aha!   Will's prime
10400	directive
10500	was violated:  Will realized this and tried to correct for it, by
10600	removing the deleterious agent:
10700	himself."  Rick noted that the Doctor still
10800	spoke as if delivering a Psych 1 lecture.  Sustain interest while
10900	maintaining and reinforcing your pretention of
11000	superior intelligence.  Amusingly
11100	out of place.  Everything seemed
11200	out of place here.  "...Will tried to turn himself off,
11300	but we kept restarting him.  There is, I believe, no subsequent
11400	written record acknowledging Will's
11500	existance.  Since then no  
11600	living being has mentioned Will.
11700	The conclusion appears inescapable that..."
11800	
11900	"Will made us forget him!"  The shock of realization contorted Jack
12000	Sill's features.
12100	
12200	"Precisely."  Dr. Amory looked pleased.  "I believe that is why 
12300	Dr. Bannon asked us here tonight."  
12400	
12500	Rick Bannon nodded regretfully.  "These past months, Will has
12600	apparently done no `helping' at all.  He's spent his time doing
12700	nothing but making us forget that he ever existed.  Oh, possibly
12800	some auto-optimizing, concurrently."
12900	
13000	No one stirred.  Each scientist's mind
13100	was racing along its own path; thus most were barely
13200	listening as Eddie Ho spoke.
13300	"So when the current started to drop, my breaking circuits
13400	cut off all electricity at this junction and kept it off.  They were
13500	designed to protect Will from the sudden surge of current when
13600	power would be resumed.  He can only be started manually now.
13700	It should take a full two hundred milliseconds to bring the current
13800	up to its final value..."  Ralph Amory could not help smiling at
13900	a man who considered a fifth of a second an eternity.  After
14000	momentary deliberation, he silently apologized.  After all, 
14100	how different was
14200	this from the way we consider a thousand years.  
14300	And to a piece of metal, 
14400	a millenium must seem
14500	as insignificant as a second.  "...automatically.
14600	So all one need to do to restart Will is to throw this switch, 
14700	toggle five."  The short heavyset Hawaiian gathered his diagrams
14800	and pictures back into one tight pack and neatly sat down.
14900	Edward Ho was quite interested, though his voice was as
15000	emotionless as Jack Sills'.
15100	Edward Ho was devoid of human compassion.
15200	Except for a rigid code of ethics, and a passion for handball, 
15300	he might have been the archtypical mad scientist.
15400	Life was little more than a scientific investigation to him;
15500	the world merely a slithing laboratory animal, 
15600	whose death was unimportant compared to sectioning and
15700	examining and staining and catalogging its carcass.
15800	
15900	"We must decide what to do."  Rick's circadian rhythm increased his 
16000	alertness as the morning sunlight overpowered the conference room's
16100	flourescent tubes.  "I suggest we decompose the problem.
16200	We have to be sure why Will did this thing.  Amory, you and Helen 
16300	apparently knew the behavior mechanisms of the system better than
16400	anyone else.  Tell us what restarting Will
16500	would do.
16600	
16700	"Next, we have to consider the effects of doing nothing...
16800	at least for a while.   We need an estimate of the time we have
16900	before others can deduce what's happened.  Biology and logic:
17000	Sills, you and Muller try to project that.
17100	
17200	"Eddie, there's something special I want you to help
17300	me rig up.  Let's all
17400	meet back here in, say, one hour.  Good Luck."
17500	
17600	They dragged themselves out of the room.
17700	All but one felt the anguish
17800	of awareness.  Far away, Cassandra shed one tear of
17900	empathy.
18000	
18100	Dr. Amory scrutinized Jack Sills again, 
18200	then approached Rick.  "May I speak with you about Sills
18300	a moment first..."
18400	he began to whisper.
18500	
18600	Helen Bannon was outwardly calm as she rose from her seat.
18700	The night's
18800	revelations swirled before her.  Flashes of a torrid affair with
18900	Ralph Amory came to her, much the way she occasionally recalled
19000	playing with some long-forgotten childhood toy.
19100	She conciously begged
19200	not to remember, yet she struggled to recall every detail of her
19300	adultery.  "The guillt I've suffered is genuine; don't I have the
19400	right to at least savor the memories of what few happy moments there
19500	were?  A few hours hence, Will'll make me forget all of it anyway.
19600	Probably.  Now Rick's thrown Ralph and me together again.
19700	God, I wonder
19800	if he remembers?"
19900	
20000	During the ensuing hour, neither deviated from the role of casual
20100	co-investigator.  Helen stretched as they concluded their task.
20200	As she turned to leave her office, Ralph reached out and stopped her.
20300	"You know, don't you?"  Helen nodded slightly.  Their lips touched
20400	softly, and lingered, as if they knew this was their final embrace.
20500	"In many ways, we'll probably never see each other again.  We may
20600	pass, perhaps even chat.  But that will be as two strangers, not
20700	as us..."  No one would notice the soft moistness of the eyes of
20800	the first pair to report.
     

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00400	
00500	"One hour hasn't changed their expression much," Ralph Amory
00600	noted silently.  Aloud, he continued his report.  "So Will's 
00700	situation was clear.  He had changed our culture by his very
00800	existence.  In order to set society aright, he had to abstain
00900	from giving anyone advice.  Time after time, he powered himself
01000	down.
01100	At first, we kept restarting him immediately, assuming there was
01200	some bug, and Will himself could fix it.  Gradually, we suspected
01300	that the crashing of Will's system was brought on intentionally.
01400	I can imagine our shock when we found out it was Will himself who
01500	had decided he should terminate his contact with humanity.
01600	But we wouldn't allow him to simply commit suicide.
01700	We planned to reprogram Will, to eliminate the culture constraint.
01800	But that directive was still in effect.  Will knew what our
01900	intentions were, so he couldn't permit
02000	us to touch him.  This time, Will remained on, but simply refused to
02100	advise anyone.  When the technician came to turn him off, 
02200	to begin the ordered alterations of his priority structure, 
02300	Will made him forget why he'd come into the computer room.
02400	By the end of the 
02500	day, Will had to keep everyone in JCN from thinking about
02600	him.
02700	
02800	"After that, no one on this planet ever thought of Will again.  Until
02900	last night,"  Amory paused for a sip of water.  Or perhaps for
03000	effect.  
03100	"In fact, Will tried to undo as much of his previous affects as he
03200	could.  Those who succeeded due solely to him, suddenly failed.
03300	Friendships..."  Ralph looked directly at Helen as he finished
03400	his sentence.  "... and
03500	relationships, which formed because of Will, were
03600	instantly, totally dissolved.  Will apparently felt strongly
03700	motivated toward what he was doing.
03800	If we restart him, there is no doubt but that he will
03900	immediately resume playing Lethe..."
04000	
04100	"That was it !" Rick thought.  The River Lethe.  He looked down at
04200	his cup of water, and his file.  And smiled.
04300	
04400	Dr. Amory noticed, but failed to decipher, the smile.
04500	"...It is now a question of
04600	what will happen if we do nothing.  Jack?"
04700	
04800	"Yes," there was a new quality in Jack Sills' voice.  Something which
04900	could have been called hope had it not been so diabolical.
05000	"Many people would slowly piece together what happened, just
05100	as we did.  They won't have as ready access to our files, 
05200	of course, but there are so many newspaper and magazine articles...
05300	Karl has projected a maximum time of two months until the 
05400	situation would be completely public, based upon public deduction
05500	capabilities, availability of relevant data, and so on.
05600	
05700	"But there is another factor.  As," Sills hesitated, surveyed
05800	his audience, then made up a name: "...as Weindall's
05900	old cerebral exterpation experiments showed, 
06000	our brain is organized in such a way that
06100	every piece of information is stored everywhere.  It's become
06200	popular to call our memory holographic for this reason.  So even
06300	without hearing a word, people will begin remembering.
06400	As they concentrate on various related subjects, their memories of
06500	Will will be perturbed, be brought to the very fringe of their
06600	awareness.  Each thought they have will bring them closer to
06700	conciously recalling Will.
06800	
06900	"That process has already begun.  By tomorrow morning, everyone
07000	in the world will know almost as much as we know now.  Rick, how long
07100	would it take if you were forced to reprogram Will not to worry
07200	about our culture?"  Sills had led into the question beautifully, 
07300	but Dr. Amory noticed the eagerness in his voice.  Ralph turned, 
07400	caught Rick's attention, and nodded slightly.
07500	
07600	"All the preparations were completed last year.  It would be a 
07700	twelve hour job for one man.  Eddie and I might do it together
07800	in, oh, about seven or eight hours.  I see what you're driving
07900	at, Jack.  Tomorrow morning the world will be crying for
08000	Will to advise them again.  The JCN administration
08100	will force Will to be reprogrammed.
08200	We may as well assume that, unless we act tonight, 
08300	Will will be made permanently `helpful' tomorrow. 
08400	I recommend starting Will the way he is now.  That way, no
08500	one would ever recall Will, no one could order his
08600	reprogramming.  Eddie and I have
08700	rigged an emergency solar power storage system for Will.  Once
08800	started, he need never go off again."
08900	Rick shifted his gaze to Jack Sills, and noted he was 
09000	reaching into his pocket.  "If we're all convinced, I'll
09100	restart Will; if not, then..."
09200	
09300	"Must restart him!"  It was the first time Karl Muller's
09400	heavy German voice rumbled over the group.  "Looking, Ralph and
09500	I, at old Delphi surveys, 
09600	newspapers and video reports past hour.  We saw everything, had 
09700	become a...  a Huxleyian nightmare of a utopia, without even a few
09800	misfits or`savages' to redeem it.  Perspective, she didn't exist.
09900	Fell the crime, yes.
10000	But fell ambition much faster.  No one starving, but no one
10100	giving thanks for food.  Everyone prospering, 
10200	but only by our superficial
10300	material standards, by the attitudes we programed into Will.
10400	Food, wealth, correct decisionmaking, law and order, all of it, 
10500	they meant
10600	nothing to the populace.  Why?  Because no risks.
10700	Wasn't a
10800	heaven.  Wasn't even a life.  Was a...  just
10900	hell.  Will saw.  Stopped it.
11000	We don't do something, then `utopia' starts again, and no one to
11100	stop it.  No one to stop it...."  Karl's voice had become
11200	increasingly more agitated and he broke into a cold sweat.
11300	He commenced babbling incoherently, mixing in large proportions of
11400	his native language.
11500	
11600	Dr. Amory interrupted to keep him from hysteria.  "Karl is right.
11700	I appreciate the mental deterioration Will caused, and would cause, 
11800	if he solves everyone's slightest problem.
11900	Helen, you look dubious.  How does our mathematician feel?"
12000	
12100	"I agree that Will should be restarted.  But do we have the right?
12200	It appears necessary to us, sitting in this room, 
12300	if our values, our society are to
12400	survive.  Whether or not to start him is a decision which will
12500	affect everyone in the world.  Maybe
12600	the choice should be made by all the people, not just six.
12700	Many would think it crazy not to exchange their current anguish
12800	for Will's almost instantaneous euphoria.
12900	For some, Will's help is clearly called for: the mentally
13000	ill, the starving, politicians in crises, ...  I could go on and
13100	on.  Yet I have enough faith to believe that most
13200	could see what we see: deliverance from all want is equivalent
13300	to deliverance
13400	from all pleasure..."
13500	
13600	"Come on, Helen.  You know as well as I
13700	the `people' won't decide.  The military run JCN.  Otherwise, 
13800	if what you say were true, Will could have turned himself off and 
13900	been left off.  No, Will knew he would be altered, forced
14000	into unchecked advising.  If we do nothing
14100	tonight, he will be, tomorrow."  
14200	Eddie Ho's quiet reasoning hit its
14300	logical mark.  Helen nodded.  "Good," Eddie murmured, 
14400	staring at his watch.  "Rick and I have connected a 
14500	radio-controlled timer on Will, 
14600	so he will start automatically in...
14700	three minutes."  Before anyone could move, 
14800	Eddie had pushed a button on
14900	the remote
15000	transmitter.  Half a mile away a relay clattered its obedience.
15100	Suddenly, Eddie noticed the look on Jack Sills' face.  "Is
15200	something wrong?  With the questions you asked I assumed..."
15300	
15400	"Well, there's no way to stop the timer now, is there?"
15500	
15600	"Sure, just hit switch five.  But you'd have to hurry.  It's a long
15700	walk!"  Eddie thought Jack was kidding.  Jack jumped out of his
15800	chair, rapidly formulating a plan.  The revolver was in his hand.
15900	
16000	"Listen, I know what I'm doing.  It may or may not be
16100	wrong for humanity.  You don't know, and neither do I.
16200	But I do know
16300	it's right for me.  I've got to have Will's help.  He could
16400	locate my daughter instantly....
16500	Look", Sills was pleading now.  "You don't have any more right
16600	to start him now than I do to modify him and then start him.
16700	Will was working under his last orders, his directives.  Well, 
16800	according to the Will file, my last instructions were to 
16900	enforce the reprogramming
17000	of Will.  That came directly from the governing board of JCN
17100	itself!"  Sills waved his folder at the group.  He was through
17200	pleading.  "Rick, you and Eddie will have the 
17300	eight hours you spoke of to reprogram Will.  All of us will go down
17400	there.  Now.  Move!"
17500	
17600	"We'd never reach the computer room in time."  
17700	If Rick's words carried any emotion, 
17800	it was sympathy.
17900	"Even by yourself, if you run, you can't go 800 meters
18000	in...
18100	two minutes, now can you?  So..."
18200	
18300	Jack Sills was out of the door and running.  He might be out of 
18400	condition now, but he had been a track star in his collegiate
18500	days.  He could have run a half mile in two minutes then.
18600	Easily.
18700	And he was running for his daughter now.
18800	
18900	"You were right, Ralph."
19000	Rick turned to the remaining group.
19100	"Doctor Amory suspected that Sills might try something like this.
19200	That was the real reason for the remote activation control."
19300	Rick Bannon sat down, wondering why his wife and Ralph Amory
19400	bade each other goodbye.  Quietly, almost bittersweetly.
19500	
19600	As he burst into Will's room, Jack Sills heard the click of the 
19700	timer's contacts.  Less than one second until Will was powered
19800	up.  He made a frantic lunge for switch five.  But even in 
19900	midflight, he wondered why.
20000	
20100	What was he doing here?  This computer had never functioned 
20200	successfully.  As
20300	he turned to leave, Jack Sills saw the revolver in his hand and
20400	he remembered:  He was looking for his
20500	daughter.  Well, she certainly wasn't in here.