00100	.EVERY FOOTING(,{PAGE},)
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	.GROUP SKIP 10
01200	
01300	"What ever happened to Will?"  The words came slowly, for 
01400	Rick Bannon hadn't thought of Will for thirteen months.  But
01500	it was the tone -- more than confusion though not yet horror --
01600	which most surprised his wife.
01700	
01800	"Will who, darling?"  Without glancing up, Rick felt the soft
01900	concerned face searching for him in the dimness.  Helen's
02000	full blonde eyebrows were converging, as if their union would
02100	let her recall the name.
02200	
02300	"Will isn't a `who'.  Look here!"
02400	
02500	Helen groped cautiously across the living room.  As she approached
02600	the candle, a lean, intense face took form.  Though familliar it
02700	was made grotesque now by flickering shadows.  Rick's eyes forced
02800	his wife's to a plaque near the flame.  Through a year of dust 
02900	Helen discerned the President, herself, Rick,
03000	and a few of their co-workers
03100	at JCN poised over a huge machine.  The taper moved slightly,
03200	revealing an inscription: To Richard Bannon, With Deepest Admiration 
03300	and Appreciation of Will's Success.  August 26, 1972.
03400	
03500	"I can't remember meeting the President of 
03600	the United States.  I never heard of Will.
03700	I don't..."  Rick's voice trailed off into a chill that left him
03800	shaking.The room felt cold now, though just
03900	ten minutes before, he'd execrated the air conditioner
04000	for dying with the rest of the appliances.
04100	
04200	A tiny hand trembled on his shoulder, giving as much strength as
04300	it had meant to absorb.  Helen's hoarse whisper echoed Rick's
04400	thoughts.  "This is something neither of us could forget in a
04500	lifetime, and yet we've both forgotten it completely in a year."
04600	Her hand ran along the wall near where the plaque had been hanging.
04700	She rubbed the dust between her fingers.  "But I clean every week..."
04800	Her voice was devoured by darkness,  as the candle leapt to 
04900	the other side of the room.
05000	
05100	"I'm taking this to JCN right now."  The voice was Rick's.
05200	Rick Bannon was burly, six feet
05300	one, with a shock of dark hair which made him seem even taller.
05400	Yet his words seemed, to Helen, to emanate from the tiny flame
05500	itself.  
05600	
05700	"So late?" the darkness pleaded.  "No one's to
05800	go outside now unless it's an emergency."
05900	
06000	Rick wasn't listening.  Whatever Will was, there should be a
06100	file on it in his office.  The candle flounced across the room,
06200	collecting Rick's wallet and keys, then resettled on the glasstop
06300	table.
06400	
06500	Engulfed in the silence following the click of the outer door, the 
06600	darkness that was Helen cried "Will, me," without knowing what
06700	it meant.
06800	"Why does Rick leave me home alone almost every night, working eighteen
06900	hours a day at JCN?"  Helen shook her head, trying to clear it.
07000	"What am I saying?  Rick never leaves me alone.  How... bizarre!
07100	It seemed
07200	so familiar when he drove off..."  Instinctively, Helen had walked
07300	over to the telephone, and had dialled B-L-7.  She stared down at
07400	her fingers.  "What's wrong with me?  Why am I...?  I don't even know
07500	anyone with a BL 7 number."  But Helen was no longer certain.
     

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00200	.GROUP SKIP 10
00300	
00400	The black cougar ground to a halt before a usually-electified gate.
00500	An aged guard, recognizing Rick, smiled as his flashlight double-
00600	checked Dr. Richard Bannon's ID.  He began a reluctant struggle with 
00700	a massive crank.  "For twelve years I've wondered if this damned
00800	handle really did work the damned gate.  But you're the eighth
00900	car I had to let through this last hour, and damned if I'm not
01000	starting to
01100	pray for electricity."
01200	No sounds were audible as Rick drove off, save the rapidly
01300	fading creakings and cursings of gate and guard.
01400	
01500	The car scurried between looming livid shapes that were
01600	usually friendly lab buildings.
01700	Even when Rick reached his own office,
01800	he felt oppressed by the darkness more than by the heat.  "Hell must
01900	be a lot like this," he mused.  He pulled out a
02000	thin conical cup and pushed the
02100	WATER, NO ICE button.  After a few seconds, he laughed at himself,
02200	crumpled the dry cup into a tight ball, and threw it at the cooler.
02300	"We even get water electrically, now.  If only you were a
02400	horse-trough...
02500	I'm so thirsty I could
02600	drink a cup of water from one of the rivers in Hell.
02700	Styx?  No, that's on the border.  The one through the center..."
02800	Lethe caught him before he pronounced her name.  Renouncing
02900	thirst, Rick returned unsteadily to reality.  Shaking fingers
03000	sought the file lock, twisted the combination into it, and yanked
03100	it clattering to the tile floor.  A thin pencil of light located
03200	the Will file.  Rick blinked at the label.  The project had gone
03300	from Confidential to Eyes Only to Declassified in a three month
03400	period, one year earlier.
03500	
03600	The file lay strewn across
03700	his desk.  Rick read slowly, swallowing every
03800	word, forcing it through the disbelief in his throat.
03900	
04000	May 12, 1968.  Project Will inaugurated.  Director:Richard Bannon.
04100	Team: Jack Sills, Edward Ho, Helen Sappestein, Karl Muller, Ralph
04200	Amory.
04300	Task: Realization of a Self-optimizing LSI computer.
04400	Resources: Twenty-seven technician-years.  20 million dollars.
04500	Deadline: June 1, 1971.
04600	
04700	Nothing seemed familliar.  The names he had heard, but only because
04800	of their importance at JCN.  He had never worked
04900	with any of them before,
05000	even Helen.  Some he had never even seen at all.
05100	"Am I losing my mind?"  Rick struggled to review the events in
05200	computer development before 1967.  "ENIAC, the 
05300	first electronic brain."  He smiled at those early
05400	researchers' naivete.  "Brain, indeed!
05500	Built at the University of Pennsylvania
05600	in 1944.  Tube circuits; took a whole room.  Transistor logic in
05700	1950.  The same computer now fit into a shoe box.
05800	Integrated circuits
05900	a decade later.  An ENIAC could be built matchbox size.  In 1964,
06000	using a computer guided laser beam, large scale integrated
06100	circuits (LSI)
06200	appeared.  Using these, ENIAC would fit on the head of a
06300	pin.  Circuit densities approaching and surpassing the densities 
06400	of human brain cells.  Advances in neurology.  But the problem
06500	of interconnecting
06600	trillions of circuit `cells' seemed insurmountable.
06700	Elusive.  Research at Caltech, using disembodied feline
06800	brains, coming tantalizingly close.
06900	Then the breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, at Stanford
07000	and MIT.  
07100	Automatic programming.  Feasibility studies
07200	of self-optimizing heuristic
07300	systems, leading to my own idea for Project Will...  I'm beginning to 
07400	remember..."
07500	
07600	All night long, Rick read through the progress reports, summations,
07700	memos, lab reports, news clippings.  The truth settled upon him 
07800	just slowly enough for him to remain sane.  With the
07900	ending of darkness,
08000	murky fears,borne of ignorance, were replaced by more
08100	  explicit, more terrible ones.
08200	
08300	Aurora brought Rick stiffly to his feet.
08400	Automatically, he began dialing
08500	his home, thankful that at least the phone
08600	still worked.  What would he say to Helen?
08700	With the curtains drawn, it
08800	would still be dark there.
08900	"Hi darling...yes, everything's fine.  Listen, 
09000	I found out about Will.
09100	Some of it, anyway.  I need your help fitting
09200	it all together.  Also...  there's something we have to decide...  No,
09300	I'd rather not talk about it over the phone....Good.  
09400	See you in a little while.......Me, too."
09500	
09600	He put down the receiver and wiped his forehead.  This was something
09700	only the whole team could decide.  The JCN directory slid onto
09800	his desk.  "Amory, Ralph.  Chairman, Psychometrics Group.
09900	Office 1124 LR.
10000	Extension 3471.  Home 1308 Waverly Street.  Phone: BL 7-8013."  The
10100	receiver rose deliberately.  Chilblained
10200	fingers stabbed into the dial.  B - L - 7......  
     

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00200	.GROUP SKIP 10
00300	
00400	"But Jack, they have the money.  Why don't they release her?"
00500	The anguish demanded a reply.  How could he know why?
00600	
00700	"Maybe they want more.  The police captain told me they'd probably
00800	release her as soon as they were sure the bills weren't marked.
00900	Or if not, they'd leave her somewhere and we'd find her right 
01000	away."  The police captain had actually told him they'd
01100	probably kill her,
01200	or leave her somewhere she'd never be found.
01300	"They've...  I don't know,
01400	maybe been held up by the power failure."  He could never
01500	tell her he'd given up.
01600	
01700	"My baby, my baby..."
01800	
01900	The phone's ring gave Jack Sills some genuine hope.  "Who...?"  The
02000	hope ignited into anger.  "What the hell do you want?  Do you
02100	know its five a.m?...  What kind of an emergency?  Alright, but
02200	it'd better be important."  There was nothing more he could do
02300	here.  Getting back to work might be panacean.  He considered.
02400	"I'm going out to look for her again"  Jack Sills
02500	hoped his guilt didn't
02600	show.  As he left the bedroom, his wife called after him.
02700	
02800	"You forgot it!"
02900	
03000	Jack had always taken a revolver with him when he'd gone looking
03100	-- really looking -- for his daughter.  Now he had to carry it
03200	with him for his wife's benefit.  It was a disgusting world.
03300	
03400	"And bring your file on Project Will...  Good.  I'll see you in an 
03500	hour then.
03600	So long, Eddie."  Rick finished his last call.  Frustrated,
03700	he reached over and hit the watercooler,
03800	not really expecting a response,
03900	of course.  The blow was meant more to punish than to request.
04000	The machine answered with a spatter
04100	of water.  Rick stared in terror.  It had worked.  The current
04200	was back on!  He raced his eyes over the file.  Will's power
04300	circuits.  Would he...?  No!  He was off now.  Could only be started
04400	manually.  Relief found Rick Bannon wishing this were merely a
04500	nightmare.
04600	Slowly, he pulled out a cup.
     

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00200	.GROUP SKIP 10
00300	
00400	The door marked CONFERENCE opened for the sixth time that hour.
00500	Ralph Amory froze at the scene before him.  A series of
00600	half-serious explanations
00700	raced through his mind and were rejected.  JCN bankrupt?  World
00800	War III?  What could bring the top five scientists at JCN together
00900	at this hour?  He recognized some from staff meetings, the
01000	rest from their	Group Head ID badges.
01100	Jack Sills, Biophysics, Rick Bannon, Artificial Intelligence, Helen
01200	Sappestein -- no, she was Helen Bannon now --
01300	Mathematics, Eddie Ho, Electronics, Karl Muller,
01400	Computer Engineering.
01500	Why was he, a psychiatrist, sent for?
01600	
01700	Then he examined their faces more closely.  Varying degrees of 
01800	shock.  Bewilderment.  Disbelief.  Horror.  Confusion.
01900	Struggling to remember.
02000	
02100	With apparent calm, Ralph Amory removed a
02200	cigarette from its silver holder.  As he lit
02300	it, he began, "I deduce..."  
02400	The pause while deeply puffing always drew
02500	all eyes to him.  "...that you have been confronted with
02600	something horrid.
02700	You cannot accept it, and yet you must."  A thin smile
02800	traced a line which spread up the side of his face to meet one
02900	descending from his eyes.  Long greying hair.  Carefully touselled.
03000	Anything for effect.
03100	"Life is a collocation of various sorts of deceits,"
03200	he thought.  "God, this room is dim.
03300	Ought to have turned on more lights."
03400	
03500	Rick had only seen Ralph Amory four times in as many years.
03600	He sought
03700	the medical insignia for confirmation.
03800	"Pretty close, Doc.  But its `we',not
03900	`you'.  You are as much a part of this as anyone.  Read your copy 
04000	of this file."  Rick Bannon's fingers directed the psychiatrist 
04100	 to sit, open the folder, and begin reading.  
04200	
04300	Jack Sills looked as though he hadn't slept in two days.  He
04400	hadn't slept in three.  Ten years older than Rick, his face was
04500	beginning to wrinkle.  First the kidnapping, now this.  Tears
04600	welled in his eyes as he thought of Daphne.  Just a year old.
04700	But aloud: "Let's give Doc Amory a few minutes, and then summarize
04800	what's happened.  Just so we all agree."
04900	Ralph Amory looked up at him, but Jack Sills didn't perceive the
05000	suspicious look which crossed the Doctor's face.
     

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00200	.GROUP SKIP 10
00300	
00400	"....LSI circuitry.  This gave Will a thousand times the storage
00500	capacity of a human brain.  Ten milliard cell modules,
00600	interconnected like brain cells..."  
00700	Helen Bannon noticed the troubled
00800	stare Ralph Amory was giving her, and mistakenly interpretted it as a
00900	reprimand.  ".....sorry; I meant as close as we could come
01000	to synaptic networks.  For two months, the computer's main activity
01100	was optimizing its  own circuitry.  Dr. Amory and I devised seven
01200	hundred graduated problems that would mark Will's intellectual
01300	progress.  The first were trivial: adding, comparing, correlating
01400	and such.  Next came problems requiring Will to synthesize the vast
01500	stores of world knowledge we were pouring into him: natural language
01600	translation, Hilbert's third problem...   Finally, Will
01700	passed on to current questions.  Mathematics first.  Hilbert's other
01800	twenty-two problems in thirteen minutes.
01900	Jack, you'd better continue."  Jack
02000	Sills was better qualified to relate the biomedical part, but
02100	Helen stopped for other reasons as well.  The strain.
02200	The look Ralph Amory was giving her.  Why did she feel uneasy, almost
02300	guilty.  She slid into her chair, guided more by
02400	her hands grasping the table than by her mind.
02500	Rick's hand touched hers
02600	and Helen started, then
02700	leaned against him.  Straining to relax, she missed 
02800	Sills'  first few remarks.
02900	
03000	Ralph Amory's eyes were fixed upon Helen as she spoke, yet he
03100	hadn't heard any of her words.
03200	His thoughts drifted back to the first time they'd made
03300	love, the Hollywood touches of crashing waves and lightening,
03400	the demanding lips, the unexpected fury of her...  
03500	Suddenly, his reverie
03600	ended.  What had he been thinking?  
03700	He had seen Helen often, but only at
03800	meetings.  He'd never seen her nude, yet he remembered how she blushed
03900	about the strawberry-shaped birthmark on her bottom.  But he'd never
04000	even seen her by herself!  Was he simply fantisizing?  It seemed too
04100	much like a recollection.  For the first time in his adult life,
04200	Ralph Amory permitted his face to express bewilderment.
04300	
04400	"...Medical: Scores of devices were hooked directly into Will, and
04500	he could examine, diagnose, and treat patients at a rate of two
04600	hundred per hour."  Jack Sills' voice was dry and monotonic, as if
04700	he were disinterested.  "On August seventh, we asked Will to work on
04800	correlating the data we had on EEG's.  By the next day, he had
04900	cracked the mind's code.  It was so complex, however, that only 
05000	Will could figure out what a subject was thinking from his brain    
05100	wave patterns.
05200	"The next logical step was two-way communication of thoughts directly
05300	between Will and mens' minds."  Jack Sills' voice rasped the words,
05400	and a wild hope began to form in a nether chamber of his brain.
05500	"Transmitters were hooked
05600	into electroencephalographs; and giant dish receivers relayed
05700	Individual's patterns from all over the world.  Everyone's 
05800	wave configurations are so 
05900	individualized that Will had no trouble easing the 
06000	first surge of pain in an  infant in Sydney, while simultaneously
06100	alerting a pedestrian in Amsterdam of an onrushing trolley.
06200	At about that time the project drifted out of my hands.  
06300	Rick....?"
06400	
06500	"...given certain priorities.  First, not to change our culture.
06600	Secondarily, to help individuals solve their problems.  Finally,
06700	to continue optimizing its circuitry in any spare instants it had.
06800	Will had developed a crude kind of conciousness, although nothing
06900	resembling emotions was ever  observed.
07000	These constraints formed the sole motivation Will ever evinced.
07100	
07200	"When Will was revealed to the public, he drew a mixed response.
07300	Some threats, some praises.  Always there was an apprehension
07400	that something would go wrong.  Maybe everyone had read too many
07500	sci-fi stories."  Rick's chuckle ended as a sigh.
07600	"Maybe each of us knows
07700	more about human nature than he cares to admit, even to himself.
07800	In any case,
07900	billions of people were calling `Will, me' at all times, in all
08000	tongues.
08100	This was the signal to Will to
08200	probe that person's thoughts, ascertain the
08300	problem, compute the best solution, and inject it into his mind.
08400	Within a month, everyone in the world was hooked.  Dr. Amory..?"
08500	Rick had heard enough of Amory not to get caught up in
08600	psychological technicalities with him around.
08700	
08800	"Anxiety, hatred, all antisocial behavior vanished from the face of
08900	the earth.  True.  But with no responsibility, with a mammoth 
09000	parent figure like Will, men degenerated emotionally into...
09100	into infants."
09200	Dr. Amory paused to observe the tightened look on Jack Sill's
09300	face at the mention of infants.  Record it for later consideration.
09400	"The culture was significantly altered.  Aha!   Will's prime
09500	directive
09600	was violated: Will realized this and tried to correct for it, by
09700	removing the deleterious agent:
09800	himself."  Rick noted that the Doctor still
09900	spoke as  if delivering a Psych 1 lecture.  Sustain interest while
10000	maintaining and reinforcing your pretention of
10100	superior intelligence.  Amusingly
10200	out of place.  Everything seemed
10300	out of place here.  "...Will tried to turn himself off ,
10400	but we kept restarting him.  There is, I believe, no subsequent
10500	written record acknowledging Will's
10600	existance.  Since then no  
10700	living being has mentioned Will.
10800	The conclusion appears inescapable that..."
10900	
11000	"Will made us forget him!"  The shock of realization contorted Jack
11100	Sill's features.
11200	
11300	"Precisely."  Dr. Amory looked pleased.  "I believe that is why 
11400	Dr. Bannon asked us here tonight."  
11500	
11600	Rick Bannon nodded regretfully.  "These past months, Will has
11700	apparently done no `helping' at all.  He's spent his time doing
11800	nothing but making us forget that he ever existed.  Oh, possibly
11900	some auto-optimizing, concurrently."
12000	
12100	No one stirred.  Each scientist's mind
12200	was racing along its own path; thus most were barely
12300	listening as Eddie Ho spoke.
12400	"So when the current started to drop, my breaking circuits
12500	cut off all electricity at this junction and kept it off.  They were
12600	designed to protect Will from the sudden surge of current when
12700	power would be resumed.  He can only be started manually now.
12800	It should take a full two hundred milliseconds to bring the current
12900	up to its final value..."  Ralph Amory could not help smiling at
13000	a man who considered a fifth of a second an eternity.  After
13100	momentary deliberation, he silently apologized.  After all,
13200	how different was
13300	this from the way we consider a thousand years.  
13400	And to a piece of metal,
13500	a millenium is as insignificant as a second.  "...automatically.
13600	So all one need to do to restart Will is to throw this switch,
13700	toggle five."  The short heavyset Hawaiian gathered his diagrams
13800	and pictures back into one tight pack and neatly sat down.
13900	Edward Ho was not uninterested, though his voice was as
14000	emotionless as Jack Sills'.
14100	Edward Ho was devoid of human compassion.
14200	Except for a rigid code of ethics, and a passion for handball,
14300	he might have been the archtypical mad scientist.
14400	Life was little more than a scientific investigation to him;
14500	the world merely a slithing laboratory animal,
14600	whose death was unimportant compared to sectioning and
14700	examining and staining and catalogging its carcass.
14800	
14900	"We must decide what to do."  Rick's circadian rhythm increased his 
15000	alertness as the morning sunlight overpowered the conference room's
15100	flourescent tubes.  "I suggest we decompose the problem.
15200	We have to be sure why Will did this thing.  Amory, you and Helen 
15300	apparently knew the behavior mechanisms of the system better than
15400	anyone else.  Tell us what restarting Will
15500	would do.
15600	
15700	"Next, we have to consider the effects of doing nothing...
15800	at least for a while.   We need an estimate of the time we have
15900	before others can deduce what's happened.  Biology and logic:
16000	Sills, you and Muller try to project that.
16100	
16200	"Eddie, there's something special I want you to help
16300	me rig up.  Let's all
16400	meet back here in, say, one hour.  Good Luck."
16500	
16600	They dragged themselves out of the room.  All but one felt the anguish
16700	of awareness.  Far away, Cassandra shed one tear of
16800	empathy.
16900	
17000	Dr. Amory scrutinized Jack Sills again,
17100	then approached Rick.  "May I speak with you about Sills
17200	a moment first..."
17300	he began to whisper.
17400	
17500	Helen Bannon was outwardly calm as she rose from her seat.
17600	The night's
17700	revelations swirled before her.  Flashes of a torrid affair with
17800	Ralph Amory came to her, much the way she occasionally recalled
17900	playing with some long-forgotten childhood toy.
18000	She conciously begged
18100	not to remember, yet she struggled to recall every detail of her
18200	adultery.  "The guillt I've suffered is genuine; don't I have the
18300	right to at least savor the memories of what few happy moments there
18400	were?  A few hours hence, Will'll make me forget again anyway.
18500	Probably.  Now Rick's thrown Ralph and me together again.
18600	God, I wonder
18700	if he remembers?"
18800	
18900	During the ensuing hour, neither deviated from the role of casual
19000	co-investigator.  Helen stretched as they concluded their task.
19100	As she turned to leave her office, Ralph reached out and stopped her.
19200	"You know, don't you?"  Helen nodded slightly.  Their lips touched
19300	softly, and lingered, as if they knew this was their final embrace.
19400	"In many ways, we'll probably never see each other again.  We may
19500	pass, perhaps even chat.  But that will be as two strangers, not
19600	as us..."  No one would notice the soft moistness of the eyes of
19700	the first pair to report.
     

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00300	
00400	"One hour hasn't changed their expression much," Ralph Amory
00500	noted silently.  Aloud, he continued his report.  "So Will's 
00600	situation was clear.  He had changed our culture by his very
00700	existence.  In order to set society aright, he had to abstain
00800	from giving anyone advice.  Time after time, he powered himself
00900	down.
01000	At first, we kept restarting him immediately, assuming there was
01100	some bug, and Will himself could fix it.  Gradually, we suspected
01200	that the crashing of Will's system was brought on intentionally.
01300	I can imagine our shock when we found out it was Will himself who
01400	had decided he should terminate his contact with humanity.
01500	But we wouldn't allow him to simply commit suicide.
01600	We planned to reprogram Will, to eliminate the culture constraint.
01700	But that directive was still in effect.  So he couldn't allow
01800	us to touch him.  This time, Will remained on, but simply refused to
01900	advise anyone.  When the technician came to turn him off,
02000	to begin the ordered alterations of his priority structure,
02100	Will made him forget why he'd come into the computer room.
02200	By the end of the 
02300	day, Will had to keep everyone in JCN from thinking about
02400	him.
02500	
02600	"After that, no one on this planet ever thought of Will again.  Until
02700	last night,"  Amory paused for a sip of water.  Or perhaps for
02800	effect.  
02900	"In fact, Will tried to undo as much of his previous affects as he
03000	could.  Those who succeeded due solely to him, suddenly failed.
03100	Friendships...  and relationships, which formed because of Will, were
03200	instantly, totally dissolved.  Will apparently felt strongly
03300	motivated toward what he was doing.
03400	If we restart him, there is no doubt but that he will
03500	immediately resume playing Lethe..."
03600	
03700	"That was it !" Rick thought.  The River Lethe.  He looked down at
03800	his cup of water, and his file.  And smiled.
03900	
04000	Dr. Amory noticed, but failed to decipher, the smile.
04100	"....It is now a question of
04200	what will happen if we do nothing.  Jack?"
04300	
04400	"Yes," there was a new quality in Jack Sills' voice.  Something which
04500	could have been called hope had it not been so diabolical.
04600	"Many people would slowly piece together what happened, just
04700	as we did.  They won't have as ready access to our files,
04800	of course, but there are so many newspaper and magazine articles...
04900	Karl has projected a maximum time of two months until the 
05000	situation would be completely public, based upon public deduction
05100	capabilities, availability of relevant data, and so on.
05200	
05300	"But there is another factor.  As," Sills hesitated, surveyed
05400	his audience, then made up a name: "...as Weindall's
05500	old cerebral exterpation experiments showed,
05600	our brain is organized in such a way that
05700	every piece of information is stored everywhere.  It's become
05800	popular to call our memory holographic for this reason.  So even
05900	without hearing a word, people will begin remembering.
06000	As they concentrate on various related subjects, their memories of
06100	Will will be perturbed, be brought to the very fringe of their
06200	awareness.  Each thought they have will bring them closer to
06300	conciously recalling Will.
06400	
06500	"That process has already begun.  By tomorrow morning, everyone
06600	in the world will know almost as much as we know now.  Rick, how long
06700	would it take if you were forced to reprogram Will not to worry
06800	about our culture?"  Sills had led into the question beautifully,
06900	but Dr. Amory noticed the eagerness in his voice.  he turned,
07000	caught Rick's attention, and nodded slightly.
07100	
07200	"All the preparations were completed last year.  It would be a 
07300	twelve hour job for one man.  Eddie and I might do it together
07400	in, oh, about seven or eight hours.  I see what you're driving
07500	at, Jack.  Tomorrow morning the world will be crying for
07600	Will to advise them again.  The JCN administration
07700	will force Will to be reprogrammed.
07800	We may as well assume that, unless we act tonight,
07900	Will will be made permanently `helpful' tomorrow .
08000	I recommend starting Will the way he is now.  That way, no
08100	one would ever recall Will, no one could order his
08200	reprogramming.  Eddie and I have
08300	rigged an emergency solar power storage system for Will.  Once
08400	started, he need never go off again."
08500	Rick was looking directly at Jack Sills,
08600	who reached into his pocket.  "If we're all convinced, I'll
08700	restart Will; if not, then..."
08800	
08900	"Must restart him!"  It was the first time Karl Muller's
09000	heavy German voice rumbled over the group.  "Looking, Ralph and
09100	I, at old Delphi surveys,
09200	newspapers and video reports past hour.  We saw everything, had 
09300	become a...  a Huxleyian nightmare of a utopia, without even a few
09400	misfits or`savages' to redeem it.  Perspective, she didn't exist.
09500	Fell the crime, yes.
09600	But fell ambition much faster.  No one starving, but no one
09700	giving thanks for food.  Everyone prospering,
09800	but only by our superficial
09900	material standards, by the standards we programed into Will.
10000	Food, wealth, correct decisionmaking, law and order, all of it,
10100	it meant
10200	nothing to the populace.  Why?  Because no risks.
10300	Wasn't a
10400	heaven.  Wasn't even a life.  Was a...  just
10500	hell.  Will saw.  Stopped it.
10600	We don't do something, then `utopia' starts again, and no one to
10700	stop it.  No one to stop it...."  Karl's voice had become
10800	increasingly more agitated and he broke into a cold sweat.
10900	He commenced babbling incoherently, mixing in large proportions of
11000	his native German.
11100	Dr. Amory interrupted to keep him from hysteria.  "Karl is right.
11200	I appreciate the mental deterioration Will caused, and would cause,
11300	if he solves everyone's slightest problem.
11400	
11500	"Helen, you look dubious.  How does our mathematician feel?"
11600	
11700	"I agree that Will should be restarted.  But do we have the right?
11800	It appears necessary to us, sitting in this room,
11900	if our values, our society are to
12000	survive.  Whether or not to start him is a decision which will
12100	affect everyone in the world.  Maybe
12200	the choice should be made by all the people, not just six.
12300	Many would think it crazy not to exchange their current anguish
12400	for Will's almost instantaneous euphoria.
12500	For some, Will's help is clearly called for: the mentally
12600	ill, the starving, politicians in crises,...  I could go on and
12700	on.  I have enough faith to believe that most
12800	could see what we see: deliverance from all want is equivalent
12900	to deliverance
13000	from all pleasure..."
13100	
13200	"Come on, Helen.  You know as well as I
13300	 the `people' won't decide.  The military run JCN.  Otherwise,
13400	if what you say were true, Will could have turned himself off and 
13500	been left off.  No, Will knew he would be altered,forced
13600	into unchecked advising.  If we do nothing
13700	tonight, he will be, tomorrow."  
13800	Eddie Ho's quiet reasoning hit its
13900	logical mark.  Helen nodded.  "Good," Eddie murmured,
14000	staring at his watch.  "Rick and I have connected a 
14100	raadio controlled timer on Will,
14200	so he will start automatically in...
14300	three minutes."  Before anyone could move,
14400	Eddie had pushed a button on
14500	the remote
14600	transmitter.  Half a mile away a relay clattered its obedience.
14700	Suddenly, Eddie noticed the look on Jack Sills' face.  "Is
14800	something wrong?  With the questions you asked I assumed..."
14900	
15000	"Well, there's no way to stop the timer now, is there?"
15100	
15200	"Sure, just hit switch five.  But you'd have to hurry.  It's a long
15300	walk!"  Eddie thought Jack was kidding.  Jack jumped out of his
15400	chair, rapidly formulating a plan.  The revolver was in his hand.
15500	
15600	"Listen, I know what I'm doing.  It may or may not be
15700	wrong for humanity.  But I know
15800	it's right for me.  I've got to have Will's help.  He could
15900	locate my daughter instantly....
16000	Look", Sills was pleading now.  "You don't have any more right
16100	 to start him now than I do to modify him and then start him.
16200	Will was working under his last orders, his directives.  Well,
16300	according to the Will file, my last instructions were to 
16400	enforce the reprogramming
16500	of Will.  That came directly from the governing board of JCN
16600	itself!"  Sills waved his folder at the group.  He was through
16700	pleading.  "Rick, you and Eddie will have the 
16800	eight hours you spoke of to reprogram Will.  All of us will go down
16900	there.  Now.  Move!"
17000	
17100	"We'd never be there in time."  If Rick's words carried any emotion,
17200	it was sympathy.
17300	"Even by yourself, if you run, you can't go 800 meters
17400	in...
17500	two minutes, now can you?  So..."
17600	
17700	Jack Sills was out of the door and running.  He might be out of 
17800	condition now, but he had been a track star in his collegiate
17900	days.  He could have run a half mile in two minutes then.
18000	Easily.
18100	And he was running for his daughter now.
18200	
18300	"You were right, Ralph."
18400	Rick turned to the remaining group.
18500	"Doctor Amory suspected that Sills might try something like this.
18600	That was the real reason for the remote activation control."
18700	Rick Bannon sat down, wondering why his wife and Ralph Amory
18800	bade each other goodbye.  Quietly, almost bittersweetly.
18900	
19000	As he burst into Will's room, Jack Sills heard the click of the 
19100	timer's contacts.  Less than one second until Will was powered
19200	up.  He made a frantic lunge for switch five.  But even in 
19300	midflight, he wondered why.
19400	
19500	What was he doing here?  This computer had never functioned 
19600	successfully.  As
19700	he turned to leave,Jack Sills saw the revolver in his hand and
19800	he remembered:  He was looking for his
19900	daughter.  Well, she certainly wasn't in here.