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have been thinking about it," she told him, and he took that as something of
an assent. He picked up a portable communicator and triangulation device so
he'd stay on course and started off over the hard-packed dirt. They watched
him go.
For Connie, she'd never felt so emotional or so committed. Before he was out
of sight, she climbed up into the cab and got herself connected to Seventeen.
Ron was on guard now, and he neither knew about nor cared about Haller's
conversations, or hers either. She signed on and went about a lot of routine
stuff until Ron was preoccupied with setting up some of the other big amps.
"Seventeen, warn me if Ron starts paying attention to this conversation. I
want you to tell me everything about this change that you told Toby."
Seventeen, friendly as always, did just that.
"Can he put me in his own master program from his amp?"
"He could."
"Analysis of Haller's probable action in this matter."
"Indications strong that he will direct the restoration. He feels guilty
because he thinks he caused it all."
"Simple. Create a basic program now that will act to cancel his directive when
implemented."
She thought a moment. That would do for now, but then they'd be going back
through the new land to the core. He'd surely turn her over to Suzuki and
she'd get the treatment in spades.
"Seventeen what can I do to make this permanent? So that not even you or the
shrinks could take it away. Is that possible?"
"I feel obligated to warn you that such a step would be permanent and
irrevocable, even by you.
This borders on the irrational and may trip my Guard flag :"
1
"Is it possible?"
"Yes. However, I will have to have the specifics of your request before I can
make a judgment."
"I want to look, and feel, this way from now on. I want to be the most sexy,
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desirable girl around. I want to lose all the inhibitions that won't do harm
to others. I want to be mature, desirable, but get back the innocence and
wonder of childhood. I'd be happy to be like that until I
died. Can you understand that?"
"Would it disturb you to know that I felt compelled to send this to the
Special Projects office?
That Dr. Suzuki herself is monitoring this at this very moment?"
She felt a sudden crash. "Yes. It would disturb me a great deal."
"Interesting. Dr. Suzuki has just informed me that she will not object to or
interfere in this. It is up to you."
She wasn't sure. "You mean she's decided just like that that I'm expendable
and she's willing to allow me to be the subject of my own experiment for her
learning purposes."
"That's about it. I feel personally, though, that you should reconsider right
now. You are working from a predominantly emotional rather than rational
viewpoint, and you may regret it later, if you're able to. You don't have to
give it up now. The price you will pay for doing this in the manner you
suggest is quite high."
"What's the price?" she asked him.
"First, the method is to add the desired localized program to the master
program in such a mathematical string that it would be impossible to alter
your specifics without altering the master
Anchor program itself. That is effective permanence."
"You mean I would become a part of my own program instead of an overlay?"
"That's right. And the 7240 maintenance computers would be obligated to
maintain you that way to the same degree as they maintain the trees, grass,
and hills. The only modifications possible would be at Guard, since those
computers would be handling maintenance, not me. This is true of every
mathematical string involved, in case of extreme emergencies. To get around
this, you would have to supply your own personal string and allow me to make
it infinitely more complex. You would have to supply the original string for
the 7240 Guard to remove you from its master program."
She thought a moment. "But I could be just put under by any shrink or slipped
a pill and I'd give the number."
The computer seemed to hesitate. Then it said, "Not if a filter were in place
at activation that removed your computational abilities. This would be
necessary in any event to preclude any involuntary interactions with the grid
should you go into the void."
So that was the price, and it was a big one for her. Mathematics had been a
good part of her life.
"That's a hell of a price," she told the computer.
"Actually, it's computational abilities. You would be able to count to twenty,
perhaps, on your fingers and toes, and you might manage subtraction in that
range if the numbers weren't large, but even multiplication and division would
be beyond you. Further, the organization of each human brain is unique. The
filter required might also trap other skills or abilities you have learned." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]