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

any, accomplish their goal and missle warfare is coming to
a dead end; for the enemy, fortunately, as well as for
ourselves.
"On the other hand, a missile with a man or two within,
controlling flight by graphitics, would be lighter, more mo-
bile, more intelligent. It would give us a lead that might
well mean the margin of victory. Besides which, gentlemen,
the exigencies of war compel us to remember one thing. A
man is much more dispensable than a computer. Manned
missiles could be launched in numbers and under circum-
stances that no good general would care to undertake as far
as computer-directed missiles are concerned"
He said much more but Technician Aub did not wait.
Technician Aub, in the privacy of his quarters, laboured
long over the note he was leaving behind. It read finally
as follows:
"When I began the study of what is now called graphitics,
it was no more than a hobby. I saw no more in it than an
interesting amusement, an exercise of mind.
"When Project Number began, I thought that others were
wiser than 1; that graphitics might be put to practical use
as a benefit to mankind, to aid in the production of really
practical mass-transference devices perhaps. But now I see
it to be used only for death and destruction.
"I cannot face the responsibility involved in having invent-
ed graphitics."
He then deliberately turned the focus of a prot,ein-depolar-
izer on himself and fell instantly and painlessly dead.
They stood over the grave of the little Technician while
tribute was paid to the greatness of his discovery.
Programmer Shuman bowed his head along with the rest
of them, but remained unmoved. The Technician had done
his share and was no longer needed, after all. He might
have started graphitics, but now that it had started, it would
carry on by itself overwhelmingly, triumphantly, until manned
missiles were possible, with who knew what else.
Nine times seven, thought Shuman with deep satisfaction,
is sixty-three, and I don't need a computer to tell me so.
The computer is in my own head.
And it was amazing the feeling of power that gave him.