Unwise Child

d chair, chewing angrily at the end of an unlighted cigar. His bald head gleamed like a pink bi

ays to the door marked wardroom 9 and had pushed it open gingerly, halfway hoping

slid open. Mike shrugged inwardly and stepped boldly into the ro

ice was oily, but the oil was oil of vitriol. "You not only

icers, but it wasn't muffled enough. Before Mike the A

s-and their betters-are being reprimanded! I only use sarcasm on officers I respect. Until

as addressed to

his youthful face became mas

anding at attention. Quill's voice resumed its caustic saccharinity. "But don't let th

twenty-four hours' notice. I couldn't get a new war

ply said, "Very well," thus dismissing the whole s

gineering Officer. The rest of these boys all know each other, Commander; you and I are

aracter who had a tendency to collapse into chairs as tho

; and Ensign Vaneski, Maintenance. You can all shake hands with each other later; right now, let's get on with business." H

assignment anybody evah got. Or words to that effect." Jeffers had been born in Georgia and had

, "that I phrased it a bit more delic

ake her, and her cargo, to a destination known only to myself and von Liegnitz. We will be followed there by another Service shi

hers g

be left there and, pr

ighter. The deeply tanned young man who had been introduced as Lieutenant Keku had just lighted a ciga

to give the ship a shakedown cruise because once we

e greatest single robotic brain ever built. Our job is to

ir," said Mi

uill lifted one huge eyebrow and g

e brain on whatever planet we'r

n all get a little advance information. Most of you men have been around here long enough to have some idea of what's going on, but I un

on his face. The skipper was letting the boot en

t Quill made a slight motion wi

said, "but I think it's becau

narrowed his eyes imperceptibly. Vaneski w

ed teaching it. Evidently they didn't see any reason for building it off Earth then. What I mean is, something must've happened since then

Captain Quill, "why don't t

's for the same reason. It knows too much, an

at that knowledge might

t whatever it is, it'

l-the Brainchild-was held in a lecture room at the laboratori

project was secret and asking them to pay the stric

of a university professor, launching himself into his speech as though he

to everyone for telling them something they already knew-the apology of the lear

er picture if we begin at the beginning

an be forcibly taught-that is, a technician can make changes in the circuits which will make the

self, a computer that could make the appropriate changes

n autoscriber is simply a machine which does what you tell it to-literally. Now, suppose a second computer is connected intimately

looking pretty bored. They'd come to get a briefing on the reason

he was wondering why it was necessary to tell anyone-even the crew. Why not jus

in it to

orate into the brain a physical analogue of Lagerglocke's

not completely recover from the effects of an outside force imposed upon it. If it recovers complet

out over the faces of the men before him. A

t the machine you will have to take care of is not just an ordinary computer. Every man here has had experience with machinery, from the very s

tell it to go through the planet, it might try to

n. They were a little more relaxed now,

"a spaceship which was given that so

laughter was

chanism is capable of learning, how do you keep

em that faced us wh

of Robotics propounded over a century ago by a

they

an being, nor, through inaction, al

n it by human beings except where such o

stence as long as such protection does no

nted out that they would be extremely difficult to put into practice. A robot is a logical machine, but it beco

expensive machine. On the other hand, if you don't define the five-year-old as

is pockets for smoking

gs. It would take an awful lot of explaining to make him understand the difference between, say, a chimpanzee and a man. Why should

company e

hugh was beginning to go up. The man

by that one. The little humanoid, caterpillar-track mechanism that we all tend to think of as Snookums isn't really Snookums, any more than a human being

n of every man in the place-had been distracted by the entrance of Leda Crannon. She stepped in through a

his speech, was rather mor

can be summed u

ously put into it. That information is more valuable than the whole cost of the William Branch

cal one, but it is operating in a more than l

e similar to beating a child for acting like a child; it would do serious harm to the mind. In Sn

ical. Snookums can't handle it,

fingers with the stem of his unlighted pipe. Now he shoved th

dom of the ship. At the same time, every one of us must be

. That would be as silly as getting sore at a phonograph

ows to be true-and they won't, believe me-he will reject the data

now it to be true. Say: 'There may be an error in my kno

ahead and

the answer, tell him so. Say: 'I

nless you

very one of them was thinking dark gray thoughts. It was bad enough that they had to take out a ship like the Brainchild, unte

tly, i

why it's necessary to take Snookums off Earth. I can only t

Vaneski had been right; Snookums was dangerous-n

, was a juven