Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Earthlings commit crimes?

Jessie said goodbye to them.She wore a formal hat and a short horn coat. "I'm sorry, let me go out for a while." She said to R. Daniel, "I know you have a lot to discuss with Elijah." She opened the door and pushed her son to the door. "When are you coming back, Jessie?" Bailey asked. "When is it more convenient for me to come back?" She stopped in her tracks. "Er... don't have to stay out all night. I think it's like you come home when you usually come home, around midnight." He said, looking at R. Daniel questioningly. R. Daniel nodded. "Sorry to throw you out."

"Don't say that, Mr. Oliva. Actually, I was going out with my friends tonight." She pushed her son: "Let's go, Ben." The boy was very reluctant: "Oh, why must I go out? I won't disturb them. Really!" "obedient!" "Then why can't I watch an etheric movie with you?" "Because I'm going with friends and you have your own business." The door closed, interrupting their mother and son's conversation. Now, the moment has finally come.Bailey put it to the back of his mind, he used to think this way: First, let's meet the robot and see what he's up to.Then: take him home.Finally: let's eat.

But now that these are all over, I can't push and procrastinate any more.Now, he must finally face the murder, the intricacies of interstellar relationships, and the issues that could lead to his promotion or his dismissal.And, he can't even start, other than to ask the robot in front of him for help. The table hadn't been retracted into the wall, and his nails were scratching on the table. R. Daniel asked: "Will others hear us?" Bailey raised his head in surprise: "No one will eavesdrop on other people's speech." "Eavesdropping is not your custom?"

"It's bad behavior, Daniel, no one would do that. You might as well assume they will, and I don't know if they'll stare at your plate while you're eating." "Or, suppose they will commit murder?" "what?" "Killing people is also against your customs, isn't it, Ilya?" Bailey was furious: "Listen well, if we are going to work together on a case, don't imitate the rich and defiant appearance of the outsiders. Be arrogant , you are not qualified, R. Daniel!" He couldn't help emphasizing the word "R size".

"I apologize if what I said offended you, Ilya. I just wanted to point out that as humans occasionally violate custom by killing, they may also violate custom by committing lesser acts of eavesdropping." "The soundproofing of this apartment is very good." Bailey still frowned. "You don't hear anything from our neighbours, do you? Well, they can't hear us either. Besides, who would have thought that something important was being talked about here?" "We can't underestimate the enemy." Bailey shrugged impatiently. "Let's get started! The information I have is simple, so it's easy to discuss. I know that a man named Roach Sutton was murdered by some unknown person or persons. Sutton is Aurora Citizens of the world, residents of the space city. As far as I know, the outside world thinks this is an isolated incident. Am I right?"

"You are quite right, Elijah." "They associate one thing with another. Recently Outerworlders have been running a project to use the form of Outerworlds as a blueprint for transforming us into a society that combines humans and robots. This project has counted There was an attempt to sabotage it, so they assumed that the murder had something to do with it, probably by some well-organized terrorist group." "right." "Okay. So the first step is to clarify, is the assumption of aliens valid? Why can't the murder be committed by a single fanatic? The anti-robot sentiment on Earth is fierce, but there is no organized crime. groups are instigating this violence."

"Probably private. No." "Okay. Even if there is a secret organization that specializes in sabotaging robots and robot factories, they will know that they are planning to murder a person from the outside world. I think the person who is doing this case probably has a problem mind." R. Daniel had been listening attentively to Bailey. "I don't think what you call 'fanatics' is very likely," he said. "The victims were deliberately selected and the timing of the crime was well-timed, so it was clearly a well-planned operation by an organized group."

"Well, it seems that you have more information than me. Shake it out!" "Your wording was vague, but I think I understand what you mean. I must give you some background information. Ilya, the people of Space City are not happy with their relationship with Earth." "So what?" Bailey murmured. "I was told that when Space City was first established, most of us took it for granted that Earth would happily adopt the integrated social system that was already well practiced in other worlds. After the initial riots, we even thought that this was nothing more than a panic reaction of your people in the face of novelty. But it turned out that this was not the case. The rebellion continued, even with the cooperation of the Earth government and most of the city governments, the situation Still not much improvement. Of course, our people are very concerned about that." "Is it? It's altruism?" Bailey said.

"Not really," R. Daniel replied. "However, it is good that you give a positive and positive evaluation of their motives. From our standpoint, it is generally believed that a healthy and modern earth is beneficial to the whole world. The Milky Way is favorable. But I must admit that there are also people in the outer world who strongly oppose this argument." "What? There are differences among people from outside the world?" "Of course. Some people think that a modern Earth is also an imperialist Earth full of dangers. This is especially the case among the peoples of the older worlds that were closer to Earth. They have strong reasons for being difficult Don't worry, they can't forget that in the first few centuries of interstellar communication, they were politically and economically manipulated by the earth." Bailey sighed. "Oh! It's all old history. Are they really that worried? Are they still hating us for something that happened a thousand years ago?"

"Human beings," said R. Daniel, "have your own weird structure. In many ways, you are not as reasonable as we robots, because you are not pre-wired. But I have been told that there are benefits." "Probably." Bailey said indifferently. "You should know better than me." R. Daniel said: "In short, the successive failures of the Earth's reforms have prompted the rise of the power of the parties advocating nationalism in the outer world. They believe that the people on Earth are obviously different from the people of the outer world and cannot In the same tradition. They say that if we force the robots into the earth, it will eventually lead to the recovery of the imperialist earth, which will destroy the entire galaxy. You know, they will never forget that there are eight billion people on the earth, and fifty The total population of the Outer Worlds is a little over five and a half billion. Our people here, especially Dr. Sutton"

"Is he a doctor?" "Doctor of sociology, expert in robotics, very outstanding person." "I see, let's continue." "As I said, Dr. Sutton and others understand that if we continue to fail and cause dissatisfaction in the outside world to deepen, then Space City and what it stands for will not last long. Dr. Sutton feels that , the most urgent task is to understand the psychology of the earthlings, and try our best to understand it. We often say that the earthlings are conservative in nature, saying "the earth remains unchanged" and "the thinking of the earthlings is unpredictable". These words are easy to say, but they are all They are clichés, just evading the problem. Dr. Shatton said that these are ignorant arguments, and we cannot use an old-fashioned statement or some old-fashioned stubborn ideas as a shield to push people away from the earth. He said that foreign If the people of the world want to transform the earth, they must abandon the isolation and isolation of the space city, and they must coexist with the people on the earth, live and think with them, and regard themselves as them." "Outsiders? Impossible!" Bailey said. "You're right." R. Daniel said: "Although Dr. Shatton has this view, even he himself can't muster up the courage to enter any city of earthlings. He knows this very well. He knows that he I can’t bear the size and crowds of the city. Even if he walks into the city under the threat of explosions, the environment will make him unable to think, so he will never be able to explore the core truth he is looking for.” "What else? What about the germs they are always worried about?" Bailey asked, "Don't forget this. Just because of the germs, I don't think any of them have caught a cold and entered the city." "This is also a problem. In fact, people from outside the world don't know what the so-called germs of the earth people are. When facing something that they don't know, the fear is somewhat abnormal. All of this, Dr. Shatton understood everything. But he still didn’t give up, he still insisted that he must know more about the people on Earth, and he must understand the way of life of people on Earth.” "Then isn't he in a dilemma?" "Not necessarily. Opponents only oppose people from outside the world entering the city. As for robots, it's another matter." Bailey thought: Damn it!How do I keep forgetting this? "Oh?" he said aloud. "That's right," said R. Daniel. "It's only natural that we are more resilient. At least in these matters. It would be nice to be human, so that the Earthlings will accept us and allow us to take a deeper look into their lives." "And you" Bailey suddenly realized. "Yes, I am exactly such a robot. Dr. Shatton has spent a year designing and building such a robot. I am the first and only one he has completed. Unfortunately, I have not yet After a full education there was a murder, and I was sent early for the part I was supposed to play." "So not all robots from the Outer Worlds are like you? I mean, some are more robots than humans, aren't they?" "Yes, of course. The appearance of a robot depends on its function. My function needs to have a very human-like appearance, so my appearance is human-like. Other robots are anthropomorphic, but I am not. Not the same. Still, they're decidedly more human than those ugly primitive robots I've seen in the shoe store. Are all your robots like that?" "Almost," said Bailey. "You can't take it?" "Of course. It's difficult to treat a crude humanoid imitation as a truly intelligent counterpart. Couldn't your factory do a little better?" "I believe they can, Daniel. The question is whether we want to be like this. I think we would rather be able to distinguish whether the other party is a robot or not when dealing with people." Bailey said, looking directly into the robot's eyes .His eyes were bright and moist, like human eyes.However, Bailey felt that the eyes of these eyes were stable, and they did not flicker like people. "On this point, I hope I will have enough time to ask you a lot." R. Daniel said. For a moment Bailey thought R. Daniel was mocking himself, but he soon realized that was impossible. "All in all," said R. Daniel, "it's clear to Dr. Shatton that this is a case of C/Fe." "What does C/Fe mean?" "It's just the chemical symbols of carbon and iron, Ilya. Carbon is the basis of human life, and iron is the basis of robot life. The C/Fe we refer to is based on the principle of equality and parallelism. The best part of combining human and robot culture. It's easier to call it C/Fe for short." "C/Fe, do you have to use a hyphen when writing these two words? How else would you write them?" "No, Elijah, just put a slash between the two words. It symbolizes neither this nor that, but a mix of both, with no priority." Bailey found himself unable to resist I am interested in this.Since the outer world launched a great rebellion and became independent from the mother planet, the formal education on Earth no longer mentioned the history or sociological materials of the outer world.However, in popular story film books, there are many otherworldly characters: cranky, eccentric, visiting tycoons from Earth; beautiful heiresses who are bound to fall in love with Earthlings; The extraterrestrial villain who must be defeated in the end...but these descriptions are worthless because they violate the most basic and well-known fact that the extraterrestrials have never entered the city, and the female extraterrestrials have never been to the earth . For the first time in his life, Bailey felt a strange curiosity.He thought in his heart, what is the life of people in the outside world like? He struggled to bring his thoughts back to the matter in front of him. "I think I know what you're going to say," he said. "Your Dr. Shatton is taking a fresh and hopeful angle on the problems that arise when the Earth transitions to C/Fe. Our conservative The group, or those who call themselves Medievalists, were very disturbed by this. They were afraid that he would succeed, so they killed him. With this motive, the case became an organized and planned A conspiracy, not an isolated act of violence. Right?" "Generally yes, Ilya, you're right." Bailey whistled thoughtfully, and tapped his slender fingers on the table slowly.Then, he shook his head. "It's not reliable, it's not reliable at all." "Sorry, I can not understand what you said." "I'm simulating the scenario: an Earthling walks into the space city, walks up to Dr. Shatton, blasts him to death, and walks out. I really don't see that possible. There are no guards at the entrance to the space city Defense?" R. Daniel nodded: "That's right. So it is safer to say that it is impossible for people on Earth to pass through the entrance illegally." "In this case, how is your hypothesis established?" "If there was only one such entrance from New York City to Space City, of course we wouldn't be able to figure it out, Elijah." Bailey looked at his work partner thoughtfully: "I can't understand you. That's the only connection between the two places!" "It's a direct link between the two places, yes." R. Daniel paused for a moment, and then said, "You still don't get what I mean, do you?" "Yes, I don't understand." "Well, I'll try to explain it, and I hope I won't offend you, Ilya. Can I have a piece of paper and a pen, please? Thank you. Now look here, I've drawn a big circle, and on the circle Mark the words 'New York City', and then I draw a small circle tangent to the big circle, and mark the words 'Space City' on the small circle. From here, you see, where they are tangent, I draw An arrow, this is the 'fence wall', see if there are other connection points." "Of course not," Bailey replied. "There is no other connection." "Hearing what you said, in a way, I feel at ease." The robot said, "Fortunately, your thoughts are consistent with the way of thinking of the people on Earth that I know. That's right, the fence is the place between them." The only direct connection point. However, New York City and Space City are fully open to the open countryside. With so many exits from New York City, if you leave New York City by any one exit, and then cross the countryside into Space City, it will not be easy. It will be blocked by the fence." Bailey pressed the tip of his tongue against his upper lip, and was speechless for a long time.Finally he said, "You mean crossing the country?" "right." "Alone, across the country?" "Why not?" "walk?" "On foot, no doubt. Walking has the least chance of being detected. The murder was committed on a weekday morning, so the murderer must have set off a few hours before daylight." "Impossible! No one in the city would do such a thing! Leaving the city? Acting alone? Impossible!" "In general, this seems impossible. True. We outsiders know this too, so we only post guards at the entrance. Even during the last riot, your people only attacked That cordon that protected the entrance at the time. Not a single person left New York City." "Hmm. So what?" "What we have now is an extraordinary situation. This is not a mindless attack by a mob along the least defended part of the blockade. It is a planned operation by a small group to capture an unguarded In order to launch an attack. Only in this way can the earthlings enter the space city, walk up to the victim, kill him, and leave as you said. The murderer is through a complete blind spot of our side attack." Bailey shook his head: "This is too impossible! Haven't your people investigated the reliability of this statement?" "Yes, we have an investigation. Your chief of police was almost there when the murder happened" "I know, he told me." "Look, the other party timed the murder so accurately, Elijah, this is another example. Your director has cooperated with Dr. Shatton in the past, and this time Dr. Shatton is right to send a robot like me to infiltrate you Plans, intended to make preliminary arrangements with him. They had made an appointment that morning to talk about these matters. Of course, the murders stopped these plans, at least temporarily. And the most difficult thing for the earth and our people There is nothing more embarrassing than this. When your chief of police was in space city, a murder happened in space city. Well, now back to the topic I just talked about. Your chief was there at the time, and we said to him: 'the murderer Must have come across the country.' His reaction was the same as yours, he seemed to say: 'Impossible!' or 'Impossible!' Of course he was disturbed, perhaps so disturbed that it was hard for him to see at once. The important key comes. Nevertheless, we forced him to evaluate the possibility of this inference immediately." Bailey couldn't help thinking about the incident when the chief broke his glasses.Even at such a serious moment, the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching.Poor Julie!Of course he would be flustered, how could he explain his situation to the conceited and arrogant outsider?Outerworlders have always believed that genetically unselected Earthlings have a weird and annoying characteristic, that is, biological imperfection.He couldn't explain it, at least for the sake of face.And face is the second life of police chief Julie Enderby.Well, Bailey thought, Earthlings could be united in some ways.The robot will never be able to tell from his mouth that Juliel is very short-sighted. R. Daniel continued, "We counted all the exits in New York City. Do you know how many there are, Elijah?" Bailey shook his head and made a random guess: "Twenty?" "Five hundred and two." "what?" "Originally there were a little more, but there are still 502 available. Your New York City is growing slowly, Ilya, it was once exposed to space, and humans can freely travel between cities and countryside." "Of course, I know." "When it was sealed, there were still many exits. There are 502 exits that still exist, and the rest are blocked or covered by buildings. Of course, we are not counting air entry points." "Well, what about those exits?" "It's terrible, it's all unguarded. We can't find any officials in charge, and we can't find officials who claim to be in their jurisdiction. It seems that no one knows that these exits exist. Anyone can go through at any time. Any way out of town, he'll never be found." "What else? I think the murder weapon may not be found either, right?" "yes." "Any clues?" "Nothing. We did a thorough search of the outskirts of the space city. The robots on the farm couldn't have been a possible witness. They were just a little more sophisticated than automatic farming machines, not anthropomorphic at all. Besides, there were no humans in the area. " "Um...and then?" "So far, no clues have been found in Space City, so we are preparing to investigate in New York City. Our responsibility is to track down all possible sabotage organizations" "How long are you going to spend?" Bailey interrupted. "As needed, but as quickly as possible." "Really?" Bailey said thoughtfully, "I wish you had another work partner to accompany you in this muddy water." "I haven't," said R. Daniel. "The director has a very high opinion of your loyalty and ability." "He's so kind," Bailey said to himself.He thought: Poor Julie, he feels guilty about me, so he's trying to put in a good word for me. "Of course we won't just take his word for it." R. Daniel said: "We checked your records. You have publicly opposed the use of robots in your workplace." "Oh? Do you have any objections?" "Not at all. Your opinion is your own. But because of this, we had to check your psychological profile. We later learned that although you don't like robots very much, if it is your job, you will still Working with robots. You have a particularly high propensity for loyalty, respect for legitimate authority. That's what we need. The Chief was right about you." "Personally, don't you feel a little resentment at my anti-robot attitude?" R. Daniel replied, "If it doesn't prevent you from working with me, if it doesn't prevent you from assisting me in my work, what does it matter?" Bailey was annoyed.He said in a challenging tone: "Well, if I pass the qualification review, what about you? Why do you become a criminal police officer?" "I do not understand what you mean." "You are a machine designed as a machine material, a humanoid product that records the lives of people on Earth for people from outside the world." "So being a researcher is a good place to start, isn't it? I mean, it's a good place to start as a data-collecting bot." "Maybe it's a start, but it's definitely not enough for you." "Of course, so my line was last adjusted." "Oh? I really want to hear that." "It's simple. A particularly powerful drive has entered into my arsenal of motives a desire to seek justice." "Justice!" The contemptuous expression on Bailey's face disappeared, replaced by an unbelievable shock. At this time, R. Daniel, who was sitting on the chair, quickly turned around and stared at the door. "There's someone out there," he said. There are people outside. The door was pushed open, and Jessie appeared in front of their eyes with a pale face and tightly pursed lips. Bailey was startled: "Jessie! What's the matter?" She stood where she was, avoiding Baley's gaze. "I'm sorry, I...I have to..." Her voice trailed off, until there was a pause. "Where's Bentleley?" "He's sleeping in the youth hall tonight." "Why?" asked Bailey, "I didn't ask you to do that!" "You said your colleague was going to spend the night at home. I think he'll probably use Bentleigh's room." "It's not necessary, Jessie," said R. Daniel. Jessie opened her eyes wide and stared at R. Daniel very intently. Bailey looked down at his fingers, unable to say anything about what might happen next, only feeling extremely uncomfortable in his stomach. This moment of silence pressed against his eardrums with great force.Then, as if through several layers of plastic, he heard his wife's voice in the distance: "I think you're a robot, Daniel." R. Daniel replied in his usual calm tone: "Yes, I am a robot."