"James P. Hogan - Paths to Otherwhere" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

there to say?"

The screen showed a position in a checkers game. Red was down to four men,
one of them blocked, the others positioned hopelessly. Black still had five men,
plus another two already crowned. No six-year-old could have lost from that
position.

The woman in the chair continued staring with a puzzled expression, however.
Her name was Jane. She had only recently been promoted to Fiske's personal
secretary, and the role of being the guinea pig had fallen on her as the junior
member of the party. Her eyes and common sense were telling her the same as
the other two had said. And yetтАж

As she considered the three options in turn, draw seemed to shout insistently
from somewhere deep in her mind. It made no sense; yet every instinct impelled
her toward it. She bit her lip, uneasy at the thought of appearing foolish. But

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Kintner's instructions had been quite clear: "Forget everything you think you
know. Just play your hunches."

"Ten on a draw," she said finally.

Beside her, Fiske laughed. "Okay. It's your money."

"Then let's see what happens," Willard said "Would somebody care to decide the
move?"

Sarvin and Fiske looked at each other again. Fiske pointed at the screen. "How
about that guy to there? Move him up. Why take chances?"

"Looks good to me," Sarvin agreed.

"Very well," Willard said.

Kintner tapped at keys. The move appeared below the board, with a request to
confirm. He hit the y key.

And the board disappeared, to be replaced by the legend:

WHAT WE DIDN'T TELL YOU WAS THAT THE GAME SELF-
DESTRUCTS AT THIS POINT. NOBODY WINS. SORRY GUYS.

Willard's manner lost the flippancy that he had been maintaining. "It doesn't
predict the actual future. That's impossible on principle. But what the machine
can do is extract the probabilities of possible alternatives from the weightings of
the Multiverse branching structure ahead. And since it's driven by real future