Chapter 31 Chapter 29 The Ghost in the Machine

Frank Poole was first amazed, then overwhelmed with joy.He'd never really believed that any contact could be made, whether it was with the Oriens or with the slate.In fact, he even imagined that he kicked the towering and dark "Great Wall" in frustration, and shouted angrily: "Is anyone at home?" But he shouldn't be so surprised, there must be some intelligent life monitoring him from Ganymede and allowing him to land.He should have taken what Ted Khan said more seriously. "David," he said slowly, "is that really you?" Who else but him?A voice in his mind asked himself.But that's not a stupid question, because the voice from the small speaker on the Peregrine's control panel has an eerie, or unnatural, mechanical tone to it.

"That's right, Frank. It's me, David." After a brief pause, the same voice, without any change in tone, continued: "Hi, Frank, I'm Hal." Miss Prinkle Record Well, Indira, Tim, I'm glad I recorded that, otherwise you wouldn't believe me... I guess I still haven't recovered from the shock.First, how should I feel about a guy who tried - and did - to kill me, even 1000 years ago!But I understand now that Hal is not to be blamed, and nobody is to be blamed.There's a piece of advice that I often find helpful: "Standing your hands doesn't mean you're insecure." I can't afford to be mad at a bunch of programmers I don't know, and they've all been dead for centuries.

I'm glad it's an encrypted file, because I don't know what to do with it, and a lot of what I'm going to tell you will probably end up being 100% bullshit.I'm getting sick of the information overload and have to ask David to ignore me for a while - after all the hard work I've gone through to get him!But I don't feel like I hurt his feelings, I'm not even sure if he still has feelings... What is he?Good question!Well, he's David Bowman, yes, but stripped of most of his humanity.Like -- uh -- like an outline for a book or a technical paper.You also know that the abstract can provide basic information, but it cannot provide any clues about the author's personality traits.But there are still times when I feel like some part of old David is still there.I'm not going to talk about it very much, thinking he's happy to see me again - it's closer to saying it doesn't hurt... For myself, I'm still confused.It's like reuniting with a long-lost old friend, only to find that he has changed.Well, it's been 1,000 years—I can't even imagine what he's been through, but as I'm going to show you now, he's trying to share some of it with me.

And Hal—he was here too, there was no doubt about that.Most of the time, I couldn't tell who was talking to me.Isn't there also an example of dual personality in medicine?Maybe that was the case. I asked him, too, how this happened to them both, and he—they—damn it, call Harman!Harman also tried to explain.I'll say it again: I may not be completely right, but this is the only explanation that makes sense to me. Of course, the multifaceted slab is the key—no, that's not right.Didn't someone say it was the "Swiss knife of the universe"?There is still such a thing, I noticed, although Switzerland has disappeared for centuries.It's an all-purpose device that can do anything it wants, or is programmed to do...

Back then in Africa, 3 million years ago, it made a kick in our evolution, whether it was good or bad.Then its little brother on the moon, just waiting for us to climb out of the cradle.We already guessed it, and David confirmed it. I said he doesn't have much human emotion, but he's still curious—he wants to learn.What an opportunity he had come across! When the Jupiter Slate absorbed him—for lack of a better adjective—it paid off more than expected.While it was using him—apparently as a specimen, and a probe to investigate Earth—he was using it, too.With Hal's help -- who knows more about supercomputers than supercomputers? -Bowman explores its memory and tries to figure out its purpose.What followed was an unbelievable thing.The Slate is a mighty machine - look what it has done to Jupiter! — but that's all.It works automatically, without consciousness.I remember once thinking, maybe I'd kick the Great Wall and growl, "Is anyone home anyway?" And the standard answer was: No one else but David and Hal...

To make matters worse, some of its systems are broken.David even thinks it's basically dumbed down!Maybe it's been left unattended for too long and it's time for repairs. And he believed that Slate had misjudged at least once.That may not be true—perhaps it was deliberate and deliberate. Anyway, it's -- well, it's really scary, and its background is even scarier.Fortunately, I can let you see this, so you can decide for yourself.Yes, even though this happened 1,000 years ago, during the Leonov's second mission to Jupiter!And for such a long time, no one has ever guessed...

I'm really glad you put a brain cap on me.Of course it's a priceless gem - can't imagine life without it - but now it's doing a job beyond its original design, and it's doing admirably well. It took Harman about ten minutes to figure out how the Brain Cap worked and set up the interface.Right now we are mind-to-mind contact - it's stressful for me, I can tell you.I have to keep telling them to slow down, using childish words, or rather childish thoughts... I'm not sure how complete this transmission is, it's David's personal record of experience, it's 1,000 years old, somehow stored in the vast memory of the slate, and then caught by David and infused into my brain cap ——Don’t ask me how I did it——Finally, use the Ganymede control center to transfer and pass it on to you.I hope you don't have a headache when you download it.

Now back in the early 21st century, David Bowman was on Jupiter...