"Allen Steele - Agape Among The Robots" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

I sat up quickly, glanced toward the window. "ItтАЩs okay, IтАЩm all right," I said. "IтАЩm unhurt. Just stay
where you are."

Even as I spoke, though, I heard the door open behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw
Keith just outside the room. The last thing I wanted was for him to barge in and start throwing
questions at Samson, so I waved him off. He hesitated, then he reluctantly shut the door, leaving
me alone with the robot.

I let out my breath, then I clambered to my feet, walked over to the sink, and wetted some paper
towels. There was a small bruise on my cheek, but I didnтАЩt find any blood mixed in with the
peanut butter and jelly; the shirt, though, would need a trip to the dry cleaner. Cleaning up gave
me a chance to calm down a little; when I returned to the table and picked up the chair, I was
ready to talk to Samson once more.

"Samson, come back on-line, please," I said as I sat down, and the тАЩbot gave me a single beep.
"Do you remember what you were doing before . . . uh, just before I gave you the Code B?"

"Yes, I do, Jerry. I gave you the sandwich you asked me to fix for you."



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So far, so good. His new usage of the word "fix" indicated that his short-term memory wasnтАЩt
impaired. The rest, though . . . "Samson, you didnтАЩt give me the sandwich. You hit me in the face
with it. Do you remember doing that?"

"Yes, I do, David."

"Why did you do that? Hit me in the face with the sandwich, I mean?"

"It seemed to be the right thing to do."

I expected to hear something from the booth; when I didnтАЩt, I touched my ear with my right hand,
found my earpiece missing. Sometime during the last few minutes, it had become dislodged,
probably while I was washing my face at the sink. But I didnтАЩt want to interrupt the conversation
to go searching for it, so I let it pass.

"That was the wrong thing to do, Samson," I said. "You could have hurt me."

"IтАЩm sorry, Jerry. Please forgive me."

Again, it may seem strange for a robot to ask a human for forgiveness, but this was another
aspect of SamsonтАЩs conditioning. For him, begging forgiveness was an acknowledgement that
he understood he had made an error and a tacit statement that he would never do it again. And
indeed, he never would, not in a thousand reiterations of the same sequence. Unlike humans,
robots donтАЩt make the same mistake twice.