"Nancy Kress - Steamship Soldier on the Information Front" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

case was dragging on. Patti identified two more companies for Allan to check out, both on the
far edge, both potential coups. One was in Sydney, the other in Brasilia. The Charlie icon on
Allan's PID sat motionless.
The Singapore company had developed what it called a "graciously serious approaching" to
that perennial coming attraction, the smart road that would direct cars, freeing the driver to
do other things besides drive. Allan had expected that his visit would result in hiring one of the
independent consultants Haller Ventures used to evaluate automotive technology, but it didn't
even need that. Singapore wasn't doing anything Allan hadn't seen before. Not worth a
skirmish. On to Sydney.
From the plane he called Charlie. "Son? Not much action in your PID icon." Totally
vibrationless, for five straight hours, and not a time when Charlie could be expected to be
asleep.
"No," Charlie said neutrally.
Allan tried to keep his tone light. "So what ya doing?"
"Nothing."
"Charlie -- "
"Did you know that when Robert Fulton invented the steamship, at least three other guys
were making the same thing at the same time?"
"Charlie -- "
"Gotta go, Dad. Love you."
"Three minutes till landing," said his wristwatch. "MGPS coordinates for your car are
displayed."
"Charlie!" Patti said. "Action in Tunis. Looks like a genuine outpost. Company is called
Sahara Sun, and they manufacture solar panels. Stats follow. Also rerouting on tomorrow's
schedule."
"Two minutes till landing."
Allan closed his eyes. But when the plane stopped, he was the first one to spring up, grab
his carry-on, deplane from the front row. In Jakarta.
No -- Sydney. Jakarta was tomorrow.
Or the next day?


Sydney was fiber-optics with increased carrying capacity due to smaller-grain alloys.
Jakarta was medical technology, an improved electrocardiograph that could predict
fibrillation by incorporating elements of chaos theory into the computer analysis of data.
Eighty-one-point-three success rate. So far.
Bombay was no good. Supposedly an important advance in holographic videoconferencing,
but actually old, old, old stuff. Jon had slipped up.
Berne was briefing and inspection tour of an ongoing investment, currently in beta-testing
phase. A Haller Ventures accountant and quality assurance expert met Allan there.
Milan was fascinating. The benchmark for parallel-systems processing was one trillion
operations per second. The Italian techies had achieved it with half the hardware previously
required. There was much noisy gesturing and an earthy Tuscany wine.
Tunis was robots in the desert. The entrepreneurs drove Allan onto the rim of the Sahara,
jouncing in Rovers over miles of rocky sand to a sun-drenched site where solar panels were
being assembled by simple robots. The bots also assembled more of themselves. They
separated ores from the desert sand for raw material, using solar power to create the high
temperatures to do it: a self-perpetuating mechanical kingdom slowly spreading over the
empty desert floor. The excess solar power was converted into electricity to sell, once cables
were in place. A solid, conservative strategy. Allan ordered a tech-consultant evaluation