Chapter 5 chapter Five

"How do you keep them from moving these rooms?" he asked eagerly. "I mean the robots." The hunched, thin old man straightened his stiff body, removed the vise and a large mess of small metal pieces on the broken table, and politely motioned him to sit down. "I have an immunity," Sledge told him gravely, "I did not call them, and they cannot enter the room I am in. It is an amendment of the highest order. They cannot help me, nor interfere with my actions." , unless I ask them to—and I will never do that." Underhill sat on the broken chair, carefully maintaining his balance, and looked at Sledge without moving his eyes.The old man's angry, hoarse voice was as weird as his words.His face was astonishingly pale, and his cheeks and eye sockets were sunken in to look horrific.

"Are you unwell, Mr. Sledge?" "As usual, nothing particularly uncomfortable. Just busy." He nodded toward the floor with a wry smile.Underhill saw the plate set aside. The bread on the plate was dry and hard, and the covered vegetables had gone cold. "We'll eat later," he whispered apologetically. "Your wife has been kind to me and brought the food, but I'm afraid I'm too absorbed in work to eat." His haggard finger pointed to the table.The gadgets on the table are bigger than before.The precious little mechanical device made of white metal and luminous rubber has been assembled, and the metal rods are welded together to form a fence with a certain pattern according to a certain design.

A long palladium needle rests on some jeweled pivots, and what looks like a telescope with precision dials and graduated verniers, the mechanism is driven like a telescope by a tiny electric motor, with a A concave palladium mirror, facing a similar palladium mirror, the upper palladium mirror is mounted on what looks like a small current transformer, and the upper end of the current transformer is connected by some thick silver metal handles The lower end is connected to a gray lead sphere a foot in diameter. The old man's mind was still from his work, so he was silent and had no idea of ​​explaining the mechanism, but Underhill's mind was thinking of the intelligent robot flashing behind the window in the new house. Shadow, very reluctant to leave this refuge from robots.

"What kind of work do you do?" he asked presumptuously. Old Sledge looked at him sternly with his reddened black eyes, and said after a while, "My last research project. I'm measuring the constant of the magnetic quantum of rhodium." His hoarse and weary voice had a weary end, as if he did not want to talk about the subject and ordered Underhill to evict him.But it was Underhill's fear of the titular servants, the robots who had in effect become masters of his house, that occupied Underhill's mind, and he just couldn't be sure. "What is that immunity you speak of?"

The old man sat on the stool bent over, staring solemnly at the long white needle and the gray lead sphere, without answering. "Those intelligent robots!" roared Underhill nervously. "These robots have destroyed my company and moved into my house." He patrolled the old man's scarred black face. "Tell me—you must know more about them than I do—is there a way to get rid of them?" It took about half a minute before the old man's frustrated eyes left the sphere, and his shaggy and thin head nodded wearily: "That's what I've been trying to do."

"Just tell me if you can use me." Underhill was trembling all over, with a sudden longing. "You can tell me to do anything." "Perhaps it will be useful." The sunken eyes gazed at him thoughtfully, revealing a strange eagerness. "If only you could do these things." "I was trained in engineering," Underhill reminded him, "and I have an engineering workshop in the basement. That's where I make models." He pointed to the model ship on the mantelpiece in the small living room Say, "I'm willing to do anything as long as I can."

And yet, even as he spoke, the spark of hope he had kindled was dashed by an irresistible, sudden wave of doubt.Why should he trust the old tramp when he knew Aurora's taste in tenants?He shouldn't forget the kind of game he's used to playing, so start scoring points for himself when he hears what he thinks is a lie.He got up from the broken chair, and walked mockingly towards the patched bum and his grotesque toys. "What are these for?" His voice suddenly became rough and harsh. "You let me know about these things first, so that if there is anything that can stop them, I will do it, really. But, how do you think you Can these robots be stopped?"

The thin old man looked at him thoughtfully. "I should be able to stop them," said Sledge softly, "because, you know, I'm the hapless fool who created these monsters. My intention was really to put them at the service of man, to obey man's will, to make man Safe from harm. Yes, the Supreme Purpose is what I came up with. I did not foresee such consequences at the time." Twilight slowly began to creep into this dilapidated small building.Darkness gathered in those unswept corners, and then slowly spread to the floor.The toy-like mechanisms on the table grew fainter and stranger, and the last rays of light reluctantly left the white palladium needles.

Outside, the town seemed eerily quiet.Just on the other side of the valley, those intelligent robots are quietly building a house without speaking to each other; they don't need to speak, because they know each other what they are doing and what they are going to do.They just put those strange materials together, and there is no sound of hammering or sawing.These little blind creatures moved back and forth soundlessly in the increasingly dark night, as silent as shadows. Sledge sat on a high stool, hunched over, looking tired and old.He explained the ins and outs of the matter.Underhill sat down again, listening to the old man while sitting carefully on the broken chair so that it would not fall over.He looked at Sledge's slightly trembling hands, twisted, veined, and tanned; hands that had once been strong and powerful now trembled in the dark, disturbed.

"It's best not to tell anyone. I'll tell you all about it, so you can understand what we're supposed to do. But it's best not to tell anyone when you leave this room. It's said here and it's left here - because the intelligent robots will take effective methods to erase all his memories if they find someone threatening their highest purpose." "They're very efficient at what they do," Underhill said ruefully. "That's the trouble," said the old man. "I've been trying to make a perfect robot. Basically I've been quite successful. Here's how it happened."

A thin old man, hunched over and weary, sat in the dark and told his own personal experience. "Sixty years ago, I was an instructor in a technical school on the barren southern continent of Wing IV, teaching atomic theory. I was young and an idealist. I think, because of my ignorance at the time, I'm terrified of life, of politics, of war—almost everything, except atomic theory." His wrinkled old face gave a wry smile in the darkness, and then disappeared. "I think I was too attached to facts, and too distrustful of human beings. I distrusted feelings, because I had no time to think about anything but the natural sciences. I remember that I was a maniac, in love with general semantics, trying to Apply the research methods of natural science to every communication situation, and use mathematical formulas to express people's life experience. Now that I think about it, I was too impatient with human ignorance and defects. I thought: only science can construct a perfect The perfect world." He sat still for a while, looking out of the window at the dark things moving like shadows in the palace beyond the valley; "I'm in love with a girl." At this point, his broad, tired shoulders shrugged resignedly. "If there were no accidents, we might get married and live out our lives peacefully in the small town where I teach, and maybe raise a child or two. Then there would be no intelligent robots. " In the growing cool darkness, he sighed. "I was almost done with my dissertation on palladium isotope separation—a small research project, but I should be content with getting it this far. She was in biology, but she planned on getting married when we got married. No longer working. I still think that if the two of us combine, we will definitely be a very happy couple, and also a very ordinary couple, at least a couple that will not cause any harm to others. "But at that moment, war broke out—since humans colonized the planets of the Wing constellation, wars have been commonplace and frequent. I survived because I designed intelligent robots in a secret underground laboratory. However, she Volunteering to join a military research team on biological toxins. An accident occurred during the research, and a newly developed virus molecule escaped and spread in the air. All members of the research team died tragically, and none survived. "All that was left of me in the world was science and that haunting sadness. After the war I went back to that school with military research funding. The research project was pure science—a theoretical study of the binding power of nuclear power. , this research was misunderstood. The government didn't expect me to produce an actual weapon, and when I discovered this weapon, I didn't realize that it was a lethal weapon for killing people. "The research report is only a few thin pages, full of deep and difficult mathematical problems. It is a new theory of atomic structure, including a new expression for a component of nuclear energy binding. But those tensors seem to be some Harmless abstract theory. I could not see at the time any way to test this theory or control this predetermined binding force. The paper was published in a small technical newsletter journal sponsored by my university, Military Authority After seeing it, it was not allowed to be published. "The following year, I made the astonishing discovery -- I discovered the meaning of those tensors. It turned out that the composition of those rhodium magnetic trivalent elements was, in theory, the unexpected key to controlling nuclear energy binding. Unfortunately Unfortunately, my paper was reprinted in foreign journals, and some other people must have made the same unfortunate discovery at about the same time as I did. "In less than a year, war broke out, probably caused by an experimental accident. One cannot predict the force of rhodium magnetic radiation in a steady state, nor can it destabilize heavy atoms. A subterranean The heavy metal mine was blown up, which was undoubtedly an accident, and the careless experimenter was also blown to pieces. "The military of that country thought it was a premeditated act of sabotage and retaliated against the supposed attackers, and their rhodium magnetic poles made those old bad atoms look innocuous. One carries only a few The rhodium magnetic wave column of watt energy can blast all the heavy metals in remote electrical equipment, silver coins in people's pockets, gold foreskins inlaid on teeth, and even iodine in people's thyroid glands. If a little more energy , can blow up the heavy metal mines underground. "Using rhodium magnetic weapons, every continent on Wing Star No. 4 has left deep pits. These deep pits are deeper and wider than the sea, so the continents are full of new mountains piled up with magma. In the atmosphere Filled with radioactive fallout and gas, it rains not rain but dust, and the ground is covered in a thick layer of deadly dust. Most people died in the war, even hiding in underground bunkers doom. "Physically, I was not injured, but I was imprisoned in an underground building again, this time to design a new type of military robot, these robots must be powered and controlled by rhodium magnetic waves-because of the war The speed and lethality of weapons have developed to the point where human soldiers cannot participate. This building is located in an area where there are sedimentary rocks on the upper, lower, left, and right sides. This sedimentary rock cannot be blasted, and the underground tunnels have also taken precautions Fission measures. "Mentally, however, I was so badly wounded that my nerves were almost out of order. My own discoveries left the planet in ruins. No one could bear the weight of guilt that this A sense of guilt robs me of my last hopes for human virtue and integrity. "I wanted to try to make up for what I had done. Battle droids armed with rhodium magnetic weapons had left the entire planet devastated and desolate. That's when I started designing rhodium magnetic robots to clean up the ruins and rebuild their homes. "I'm trying to design new robots that always follow the instructions of the implants so that they're never used in wars or crimes or other things that are harmful to humans. Technically, it's very difficult. There are some politicians and military Adventurers wanted unrestricted robots to carry out their own plots - and while there was nothing more to fight for on Wing IV, there were other worlds they could plunder to their heart's content. Come on, my difficulty is even greater. "After finishing the design of the new robot, I was forced to go away in anonymity. I took some of the best robots I could build, and I took a rhodium magnetic test boat, and finally arrived on a desert island. That fission explosion in an underground metal mine killed me. "Finally we landed on a small flat land surrounded by all kinds of mountains newly formed after the explosion. Such a place has nothing to do with comfort. The ground is covered with thick layers. black residue and toxic dust. Steep ridges, high, jagged peaks, covered with wreckage of planes and other objects, covered with red lava flows. The highest peaks are covered with snow, but the volcanic cones are still there Black clouds of smoke and horrific death erupted. Everything here was fiery in color and angry in shape. "Where I had to take extraordinary precautions to save my life. I stayed on board until the first laboratory with shielded protection was built. I wore elaborate armor and a mask and used the All possible medical precautions, repairing what was destroyed by the destructive rays and particles. Despite this, I was seriously ill. "However, the robots are at home there, free and easy. The radiation can't harm them, the harsh environment can't make them depressed, because they have no emotions. There is no life on the island, and it doesn't matter to them, because they are not themselves. There are living things. There, on that deserted island, a large number of intelligent robots were born." The old man bent over in the growing darkness, his face as pale as death, and he was silent for a while, his deep-set eyes only stared out of the window seriously, and the robots on the other side of the valley moved back and forth like shadows Busily, quietly, a strange new palace was being built, which shimmered in the night. "Somehow, I got used to that place too," he continued calmly in a low, slightly hoarse voice. "Since then, my little remaining belief in human beings has disappeared. It's just the robot and me." together, and I implanted my beliefs in them. I resolved to make better robots, free of human weaknesses, capable of freeing humans from their own weaknesses. "I was such a sick-minded person at the time, and these robots became my lovely children. Needless to say, the work was hard. I also made mistakes, experienced setbacks and failures, and deformed robots. Also sweat , pain and heartbreak. It took several years to successfully produce the first perfect intelligent robots. "Then you need to build the control center—because each individual robot is at best the limbs and senses of a mechanical mind. Building the control center opens the door to truly perfect, perfect intelligent robots. Those old electronic Robots, since the relay center is independent, the energy that the battery can supply is quite limited, has its own insurmountable flaws. These old-fashioned robots are likely to be stupid, physically weak, clumsy in design, and slow in movement. In my opinion, the main The nice thing is that humans can modify their settings as needed. "The establishment of the control center avoids these deficiencies. Its energy beam can enable each robot to receive a steady stream of energy supply from the huge nuclear power plant. Its control beam can provide each robot with endless information memory and amazing intelligence. And most of all--so I thought at the time--its safety devices made them immune to any human interference. "The entire response system is designed from the point of view that human beings cannot modify the robot settings for self-interest or fanaticism. The control center is established so that the robot can automatically ensure the safety and happiness of human beings. You know, the highest level of robot The purpose is to 'do one's best, obey instructions, and ensure that human beings are not harmed'. "The old robots I brought helped me produce the parts of the robot. It took me three years to assemble the first phase of the control center project by myself. After the assembly, the first intelligent robot built came alive. " From the darkness, Sledge peered down at Underhill in dismay. "It seemed to me like a real living being," he said slowly in his low voice, "and not only that, but more wonderful than any living being, because it was made to protect Human life. Although I am dear to each other and sick, I am proud to be the father of a new life - a life that is perfect, perfect, and will never do evil. "These droids faithfully obeyed the highest purpose. The first droids made other droids, and together they built those factories underground to mass-produce clans of droids. The ships they built poured metal ores and sand into the In the nuclear blast furnace under the plain, the perfect new intelligent robots came out of the dark mechanical matrix in groups. "These numerous robots built a new tower for the control center. This is a tall and towering white metal tower, standing in the middle of the devastated wasteland after the explosion. The tower increases layer by layer, relaying relays one after another. The brain is connected to the same control center until its control is almost endless. "Then they went out to rebuild war-torn planets, and then they brought their perfect service to other planets. At that time, my joy was gone. I thought I had found the end of the war and crime, the eradication of poverty and injustice, and the eradication of the root causes of human error and suffering.” The old man sighed, and his mood became heavier in the darkness.