"Asimov, Isaac - Feeling of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

ily on Earth. Possibly it was rising on Deneb, too.
And now Congressman Brant, head of the important Com-
mittee on Military Appropriations, was cheerfully and smooth-
ly spending his half-hour appointment spouting nonsense.
"Computing without a computer," said the president im-
patiently, "is a contradiction in terms."
"Computing," said the Congressman, "is only a system for
handling data. A machine might do it, or the human brain
might. Let me give you an example." And, using the new
skills he had learned, he worked out sums and products
until the president, despite himself, grew interested.
"Does this always work?"
"Every time, Mr. President. It is foolproof."
"Is it hard to learn?"
"It took me a week to get the real hang of it. I think you
would do better."
"Well," said the president, considering, "it's an interesting
parlour game, but what is the use of it?"
"What is the use of a newborn baby, Mr. President? At
the moment there is no use, but don't you see that this
points the way towards liberation from the machine. Consider,
Mr. President," the Congressman rose and his deep voice
automatically took on some of the cadences he used in public
debate, "that the Denebian war is a war of computer against
computer. Their computers forge an impenetrable field of
counter-missiles against our missiles, and ours forge one
against theirs. If we advance the efficiency of our comput-
ers, so do they theirs, and for five years a precarious and
profitless balance has existed.
"Now we have in our hands a method for going beyond
the computer, leapt rogging it, passing through it. We will
combine the mechanics of computation with human thought;
we will have the equivalent of intelligent computers; billions
of them. I can't prediet what the consequences will be in
detail but they will be incalculable. And if Deneb beats us to
the punch, they may be unimaginably catastrophic."
The president said, troubled, "What would you have me
do?"
"Put the power of the administration behind the establish-
ment of a secret project on human computation. Call it
Project Number, if you like. I can vouch for my committee,
but I will need the administration behind me."
"But how far can human computation go?"
"There is no limit. According to Programmer Shuman, who
first introduced me to this discovery"
"I've heard of Shuman, of course."
"Yes. Well, Dr. Shuman tells me that in theory there is
nothing the computer can do that the human mind cannot
do. The computer merely takes a finite amount of data and
performs a finite number of operations upon them. The hu-