"01 - Code of the Lifemaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

least some degree, was duly built on a rocky shelf above an ice beach
flanking an inlet of a shallow methane sea. The ship's master programs were
copied across into the newly installed factory computers, which identified
the commencement of work on Factory Two as their first assignment.
Accordingly Factory One's Supervisor program signaled the ship's databank
for a copy of the "How to Make a Factory" file, which included a set of
subfiles on "How to Make the Machines Needed to Make a Factory," i.e.,
robots. And that was where everything really started to go wrong.

The robots contained small internal processors that could be reprogramed
via radiolink from the factory computers for each new task to be
accomplished. This allowed the robots to proceed with their various jobs
under autonomous local control and freed up the central computers for other
work while they were waiting for the next "Done thatЧwhat do I do now?"
signal. Hence many software mechanisms existed for initiating data
transfers between the factory computers and the remote processors inside
the robots.

When the copying of the "How to Make a Factory" file from the ship to
Factory One was attempted, the wrong software linkages were activated;
instead of finding their way into the factory's central system, the
subfiles containing the manufacturing information for the various robots
were merely relayed through the factory and beamed out into the local
memories of the respective robot types to which they pertained. No copies
at all were retained in the factory databank. And even worse, the originals
inside the ship managed to self-destruct in the process and were
irretrievably erased. The only copies of the "How to Make a Fred-type
Robot" subfile were the ones contained inside the Fred-types out on the
surface. And the same was true for all the other types as well.

So when the factory's Supervisor program ordered the Scheduler program to
schedule more robots for manufacture, and the Scheduler lodged a request
with the Databank Manager for the relevant subfiles, the Databank Manager
found that it couldn't deliver. Neither could it obtain a recopy from the
ship. The Databank Manager reported the problem to the Scheduler; the
Scheduler complained to the Supervisor; the Supervisor blamed the
Communications Manager; the Communications Manager demanded an explanation
from the Message Handler; and after a lot of mutual electronic
recriminations and accusations, the system logging and diagnostic programs
determined that the missing subfiles had last been tracked streaming out
through the transmission buffers on their way to the robots outside. Under
a stem directive from the Supervisor, the Communications Manager selected a
Fred from the first category of robots called for on the Scheduler's list,
and beamed it a message telling it to send its subfile back again.

But the Fred didn't have a complete copy of the subfile; its local memory
simply hadn't been big enough to hold all of it. And for the same reason,
none of the other Freds could return a full copy either. They had been
sprayed in succession with the datastream like buckets being filled from a
fire-hose, and all had ended up with different portions of the subfile; but