[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Her mouth twisted, coming through her filters, so apparently she had decided
to play this interview as a contest of wills. "You're hiding the peoples'
business from "
"My research is my own business. "
She waved this aside. "What do you say, as a mathematician, to those who feel
that deep sims of real people are immoral?"
Hari wished fervently for his own face filters. He was sure he was giving away
something, so he forced his face to stay blank. Best to deflect the argument.
"How real were those sims? Can anybody know?"
"They certainly seemed real and human to the audience, " Moonrose said,
raising her eyebrows.
"I'm afraid I didn't watch the performance, " Hari said. "I was busy. "
Strictly true, at least.
Moonrose leaned forward, scowling. "With your mathematics? Well, then, tell us
about psychohistory. "
He was still keeping his face wooden which gave the wrong signal. He made
himself smile. "A rumor. "
"I have it on good authority that you are favored by the Emperor because of
this theory of history. "
"What authority?"
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"Now sir, I should ask the questions here "
"Who says? I'm still a public servant, a professor. And you, madam, are taking
up time I could be devoting to my students. "
With a wave Hari cut off the link. He had learned, since bandying words with
Lamurk in clear view of an unsuspected
3D snout, to chop off talk when it was going the wrong way.
Dors came through the door as he leaned back into his airchair. "I got a hail,
said somebody important was grilling you. "
"She's gone. Poked at me about psychohistory. "
"Well, it was bound to get out. It's an exciting synthesis of terms. Appeals
to the imagination. "
"Maybe if I'd called it 'sociohistory' people would think it more boring and
leave me alone. "
"You could never live with so ugly a word. "
The electroshield sparkled and snapped as Yugo Amaryl came through. "Am I
interrupting anything?"
"Not at all. " Hari leapt up and helped him to a chair. He was still limping.
"How's the leg?"
He shrugged. "Decent. "
Three thuggos had come to Yugo on the street a week ago and explained the
situation very calmly. They had been commissioned to do him damage, a warning
he would not forget. Some bones had to be broken; that was the specification,
nothing he could do about it. The leader explained how they could do this the
hard way. If he fought, he would get messed up. The easy way, they would break
his shin bone in one clean snap.
Describing it afterward, Yugo had said, "I thought about it some, y'know, and
sat down on the sidewalk and stuck my left leg out straight. Braced it against
the curb, below the knee. The leader kicked me there. A good job; it broke
clean and straight. "
Hari had been horrified. The media latched onto the story, of course. His only
wry statement to them was, "Violence is the diplomacy of the incompetent. "
"Medtech tells me it'll heal up in another week, " Yugo said as Hari helped
him stretch out, the air-chair shaping itself subtly.
"The Imperials still haven't a clue who did it, " Dors said, pacing restlessly
around the office.
"Plenty of people will do a job like this. " Yugo grinned, an effect somewhat
offset by the big bruise on his jaw. The incident had not been quite as
gentlemanly as he described it. "They kinda liked doing it to a Dahlite, too.
"
Dors paced angrily. "If I'd been there... "
"You can't be everywhere, " Hari said kindly. "The Imperials think it wasn't
really about you, anyway, Yugo. "
Yugo's mouth twisted ruefully at Hari. "I figured. You, right?"
Hari nodded. "A 'signal, ' one of them said. "
Dors turned sharply from her pacing. "Of what?"
"A warning, " Yugo said. "Politics. "
"I see, " she said quickly. "Lamurk cannot strike at you directly, but he
leaves "
"An unsubtle calling card, " Yugo finished for her.
Dors smacked her hands together. "We should tell the Emperor!"
Hari had to chuckle. "And you, a historian.
Violence has always played a role in issues of succession. It can never be far
from Cleon's mind. "
"For emperors, yes, " she countered. "But in a contest for First Minister "
"Power is gettin' scarce 'round here, " Yugo drawled sarcastically. "Pesky
Dahlites makin' trouble, Empire itself slowin'
down, too. Or spinnin' off into loony 'renaissances. ' Probably a Dahlite
plot, that, righto?"
Hari said, "When food gets scarce, table manners change. "
Yugo said, "I'll just bet the Emperor's got this all analyzed. "
Page 90
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Dors began pacing again. "One of history's lessons is that emperors who
overanalyze fail, while those who oversimplify succeed. "
"A neat analysis, " Hari said, but she did not catch his irony.
"Uh, I actually came in to get some work done, " Yugo said softly. "I've
finished reconciling the Trantorian historical data with the modified Seldon
Equations. "
Hari leaned forward, though Dors kept pacing, her hands clasped behind her
back. "Wonderful! How far off are they?"
Yugo grinned as he slipped a ferrite cube into Hari's desk display slot.
"Watch. "
Trantor had endured at least eighteen millennia, though the pre-Empire period
was poorly documented. Yugo had collapsed the ocean of data into a 3D.
Economics lay along one axis, social indices along another, with politics [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
Her mouth twisted, coming through her filters, so apparently she had decided
to play this interview as a contest of wills. "You're hiding the peoples'
business from "
"My research is my own business. "
She waved this aside. "What do you say, as a mathematician, to those who feel
that deep sims of real people are immoral?"
Hari wished fervently for his own face filters. He was sure he was giving away
something, so he forced his face to stay blank. Best to deflect the argument.
"How real were those sims? Can anybody know?"
"They certainly seemed real and human to the audience, " Moonrose said,
raising her eyebrows.
"I'm afraid I didn't watch the performance, " Hari said. "I was busy. "
Strictly true, at least.
Moonrose leaned forward, scowling. "With your mathematics? Well, then, tell us
about psychohistory. "
He was still keeping his face wooden which gave the wrong signal. He made
himself smile. "A rumor. "
"I have it on good authority that you are favored by the Emperor because of
this theory of history. "
"What authority?"
Page 89
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Now sir, I should ask the questions here "
"Who says? I'm still a public servant, a professor. And you, madam, are taking
up time I could be devoting to my students. "
With a wave Hari cut off the link. He had learned, since bandying words with
Lamurk in clear view of an unsuspected
3D snout, to chop off talk when it was going the wrong way.
Dors came through the door as he leaned back into his airchair. "I got a hail,
said somebody important was grilling you. "
"She's gone. Poked at me about psychohistory. "
"Well, it was bound to get out. It's an exciting synthesis of terms. Appeals
to the imagination. "
"Maybe if I'd called it 'sociohistory' people would think it more boring and
leave me alone. "
"You could never live with so ugly a word. "
The electroshield sparkled and snapped as Yugo Amaryl came through. "Am I
interrupting anything?"
"Not at all. " Hari leapt up and helped him to a chair. He was still limping.
"How's the leg?"
He shrugged. "Decent. "
Three thuggos had come to Yugo on the street a week ago and explained the
situation very calmly. They had been commissioned to do him damage, a warning
he would not forget. Some bones had to be broken; that was the specification,
nothing he could do about it. The leader explained how they could do this the
hard way. If he fought, he would get messed up. The easy way, they would break
his shin bone in one clean snap.
Describing it afterward, Yugo had said, "I thought about it some, y'know, and
sat down on the sidewalk and stuck my left leg out straight. Braced it against
the curb, below the knee. The leader kicked me there. A good job; it broke
clean and straight. "
Hari had been horrified. The media latched onto the story, of course. His only
wry statement to them was, "Violence is the diplomacy of the incompetent. "
"Medtech tells me it'll heal up in another week, " Yugo said as Hari helped
him stretch out, the air-chair shaping itself subtly.
"The Imperials still haven't a clue who did it, " Dors said, pacing restlessly
around the office.
"Plenty of people will do a job like this. " Yugo grinned, an effect somewhat
offset by the big bruise on his jaw. The incident had not been quite as
gentlemanly as he described it. "They kinda liked doing it to a Dahlite, too.
"
Dors paced angrily. "If I'd been there... "
"You can't be everywhere, " Hari said kindly. "The Imperials think it wasn't
really about you, anyway, Yugo. "
Yugo's mouth twisted ruefully at Hari. "I figured. You, right?"
Hari nodded. "A 'signal, ' one of them said. "
Dors turned sharply from her pacing. "Of what?"
"A warning, " Yugo said. "Politics. "
"I see, " she said quickly. "Lamurk cannot strike at you directly, but he
leaves "
"An unsubtle calling card, " Yugo finished for her.
Dors smacked her hands together. "We should tell the Emperor!"
Hari had to chuckle. "And you, a historian.
Violence has always played a role in issues of succession. It can never be far
from Cleon's mind. "
"For emperors, yes, " she countered. "But in a contest for First Minister "
"Power is gettin' scarce 'round here, " Yugo drawled sarcastically. "Pesky
Dahlites makin' trouble, Empire itself slowin'
down, too. Or spinnin' off into loony 'renaissances. ' Probably a Dahlite
plot, that, righto?"
Hari said, "When food gets scarce, table manners change. "
Yugo said, "I'll just bet the Emperor's got this all analyzed. "
Page 90
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Dors began pacing again. "One of history's lessons is that emperors who
overanalyze fail, while those who oversimplify succeed. "
"A neat analysis, " Hari said, but she did not catch his irony.
"Uh, I actually came in to get some work done, " Yugo said softly. "I've
finished reconciling the Trantorian historical data with the modified Seldon
Equations. "
Hari leaned forward, though Dors kept pacing, her hands clasped behind her
back. "Wonderful! How far off are they?"
Yugo grinned as he slipped a ferrite cube into Hari's desk display slot.
"Watch. "
Trantor had endured at least eighteen millennia, though the pre-Empire period
was poorly documented. Yugo had collapsed the ocean of data into a 3D.
Economics lay along one axis, social indices along another, with politics [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]