Read Online They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Mark Clifton
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past. A tabulating pattern combined only identicals. They could combine the symbols for two apples and six apples correctly into eight apples, but when it came across one apple, it broke this out into a separate cate-gory, for the latter symbol differed from the former in that the letter “s” was missing. The cybernetic machines in the past had no sense, were not keyed to vagaries of grammar, spelling mistakes, variations which a child of eight would know were not really variations.
A way must be found to duplicate the dull stupidity of the human mind which could not detect differences unless they were glaring, and yet retain the fine sensitivity of the cybernetic machine.
It became apparent that not only must there be a code impulse for each isolated aspect of the external world, there must also be an interlocking code for activation to bring back the total picture.
Remem-brances are by association, one thing leads to another.
A symbol of a square must not only activate any previous experience of the symbol of a square but also the circumstances in which that symbol was experienced. Yes, there must be a horizontal interlocking of codes, as well as vertical. For was not that the way decisions were made? In terms of how things, similar things, under similar circumstances, worked out in the past?
Much had been written that the patterns of life duplicate themselves again and again and again; that the intelligent man recognizes this duplication even though it may be in a different guise, while the unintelligent and the machine do not and must solve each thing as if it were new.
While they were setting up the new system of cod-ing, the art department threw the worst curve of all. There was the matter of foreshortening. A square on a card looks square when faced head-on, but looks rectangular if the card is turned at an angle. The human mind learns to make adjustments for foreshortening, so shouldn’t Bossy? They asked it blandly, and perhaps a little maliciously, for they had not been consulted up to this point.
Billings was dismayed at this obvious difficulty, and his spirits were not lifted either by the knowledge that it took over three thousand years of art painting for man to move from the side view of the foot, as portrayed by the Egyptians, to the front view, as discovered by the Greeks. And almost another five hundred years to move from the profile of the face to a front view.
It would be difficult to achieve this for Bossy. Still, there was no new principle involved, simply a coding method which would tell Bossy that one object was truly a rectangle seen head-on, and another which appeared to be the same was really a square seen at an angle. It was the same kind of lateral coding which would solve this.
*
The key to Bossy’s first overt reaction to stimuli came from one of the younger assistant professors one night in the common room. He was ruefully telling how his new baby responded to his wife’s hands with contentment and to his hands with fright. The baby was much too young to recognize the difference between mama and papa. It must be familiarity versus unfamiliarity in the manner of touch.
A few days later, safety guards were installed around Bossy. They had long since installed the yes-no principle to be found in other cybernetic machines. There was jubilation and something approaching awe when Bossy demonstrated it could learn—and learn with only one trial. The safety guards were keyed to the reject pattern, but when Hoskins, who installed the guards, depressed the accept key for his own hands, thereafter the machine threw up its guards when approached by alien hands, but left them down for Hoskins’ hands. Perhaps it was mass, or shape codes. Perhaps it was color. Perhaps it was scent, for Hoskins had been working around the machine when scent codes were being fed into it. Still Hoskins had no code of his own scent as differing from others. Scent was out, for the machine had no equipment
A way must be found to duplicate the dull stupidity of the human mind which could not detect differences unless they were glaring, and yet retain the fine sensitivity of the cybernetic machine.
It became apparent that not only must there be a code impulse for each isolated aspect of the external world, there must also be an interlocking code for activation to bring back the total picture.
Remem-brances are by association, one thing leads to another.
A symbol of a square must not only activate any previous experience of the symbol of a square but also the circumstances in which that symbol was experienced. Yes, there must be a horizontal interlocking of codes, as well as vertical. For was not that the way decisions were made? In terms of how things, similar things, under similar circumstances, worked out in the past?
Much had been written that the patterns of life duplicate themselves again and again and again; that the intelligent man recognizes this duplication even though it may be in a different guise, while the unintelligent and the machine do not and must solve each thing as if it were new.
While they were setting up the new system of cod-ing, the art department threw the worst curve of all. There was the matter of foreshortening. A square on a card looks square when faced head-on, but looks rectangular if the card is turned at an angle. The human mind learns to make adjustments for foreshortening, so shouldn’t Bossy? They asked it blandly, and perhaps a little maliciously, for they had not been consulted up to this point.
Billings was dismayed at this obvious difficulty, and his spirits were not lifted either by the knowledge that it took over three thousand years of art painting for man to move from the side view of the foot, as portrayed by the Egyptians, to the front view, as discovered by the Greeks. And almost another five hundred years to move from the profile of the face to a front view.
It would be difficult to achieve this for Bossy. Still, there was no new principle involved, simply a coding method which would tell Bossy that one object was truly a rectangle seen head-on, and another which appeared to be the same was really a square seen at an angle. It was the same kind of lateral coding which would solve this.
*
The key to Bossy’s first overt reaction to stimuli came from one of the younger assistant professors one night in the common room. He was ruefully telling how his new baby responded to his wife’s hands with contentment and to his hands with fright. The baby was much too young to recognize the difference between mama and papa. It must be familiarity versus unfamiliarity in the manner of touch.
A few days later, safety guards were installed around Bossy. They had long since installed the yes-no principle to be found in other cybernetic machines. There was jubilation and something approaching awe when Bossy demonstrated it could learn—and learn with only one trial. The safety guards were keyed to the reject pattern, but when Hoskins, who installed the guards, depressed the accept key for his own hands, thereafter the machine threw up its guards when approached by alien hands, but left them down for Hoskins’ hands. Perhaps it was mass, or shape codes. Perhaps it was color. Perhaps it was scent, for Hoskins had been working around the machine when scent codes were being fed into it. Still Hoskins had no code of his own scent as differing from others. Scent was out, for the machine had no equipment
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