The Complete Roderick Read Online Free Page A

tangible motivations.’
    ‘Well … what we’re doing is important. And it’s never been done before. And it works. Isn’t that enough?’
    Rogers grinned. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I respect the utilitarian ethic as much as the next guy. Gosh, science is swell, and all that. If it works, do it, and all that. But it’s not really enough, is it? What about the social impact of your work? Do we really need robots at all? Are they a good thing for society? I don’t believe you’ve really thought through the implications there, Lee. Then there’s the effect
on you –
the well-known observer effect.’
    ‘That’s not what it –’
    ‘No, you’ve had your say, how about letting me have mine? How does it affect you, playing God like this – creating man all over again? How does it make you feel? Touch of
hubris?
More than a touch of arrogance, I’ll bet.’
    ‘Arrogance? Just because I said it’s important? Damn it, it
is
important, if we didn’t believe that why would we be working on it? Roderick’s important, a model of human learning –’
    ‘Take it easy now, Lee. Remember, I’m on your side. I just want to know how it feels, playing God – sorry, but there’s no other word for it, is there? Playing God, how does it feel?’
    Fong opened his mouth and took a few deep breaths before replying. ‘I wouldn’t know. Not unless God’s got a bad stomach. Got a bleeding ulcer myself – I
feel
that, all right.’
    ‘I’m s –’
    ‘With Leo Bunsky it was his heart. Just worn out, he should have retired years ago. Finally had to quit, but you should have seen him, dragging himself in to work with his legs all swollen up like elephantiasis – maybe you should have asked
him
how it felt.’
    ‘Let’s be fair now, Lee, I –’
    ‘Too late now, he’s dead. And Mary Mendez, she’s as good as dead. Started working eighty hours at a stretch, piled up her car one night on the way home. Now she’s over there in the Health Service ward where they feed her and change her diapers and she doesn’t feel a damned thing.’
    ‘No, listen, this is tragic of course, but it’s got nothing to do with –’
    ‘What we feel? Sure it does, it’s all you want, right? The grassroots feelings, the opinion sample. The others are pretty much okay, as far as I know, but you could always ask them. Only Dan Sonnenschein, he’s started living in the lab, eating and sleeping in there –
when
he eats,
when
he sleeps – so he can keep on, pushing Roderick through one more test, just one more before they take it all away from us. Dan doesn’t have time to feel.’
    ‘Now take it easy, I know you all work hard, that’s not –’
    ‘What the hell are we supposed to feel? Arrogant? With the whole thing, our work for four years, washed out by some NASA bureaucrat? With the whole thing up before you and your committee of boneheads, all ready to pull the rug out from underus? That doesn’t make me feel arrogant at all. I feel like crawling and begging for another chance, just enough money for a few more months, weeks even – only the trouble is, it wouldn’t do a damned bit of good. Would it?’
    ‘I’m on your side, Lee, believe me. I’ve got faith in –’
    ‘Why don’t you go away? I don’t know what you want here, but we haven’t got it. Go on back to your opinion polls and your charts, your showing how many people brush their teeth before they make love, how many sports fans voted for Nixon. Social science, you call
that
science! Christ, what do you think? Science is some kind of opinion poll too?’
    Rogers stood up. ‘I’m not sure I like that imputation. Okay, it’s late, you’re upset. But –’
    ‘You just came to check the trend, right? Science is just like any other damned opinion poll, right? How many think Jupiter has moons? You think Galileo took a damned straw vote on it? Think he worked it up in a few histograms, tested the market reaction? Damn you, certain things are true, certain things