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

late twenties; neither of them much to look at, and hardly the type youтАЩd imagine prancing hand-
in-hand through the lily fields, but hey, love isnтАЩt only blind, but itтАЩs also got a bizarre sense of
humor. They found each other, they worked together for a time as colleagues, then close
friends, then . . . well, you get the picture.

But it didnтАЩt take. ThatтАЩs the problem with romances among highly intelligent people; they think
too much about what theyтАЩre doing, instead of just letting their cojones go their own merry way.
They were a mismatched couple, or at least so they told themselves, prone to argue about every
little detail, whether it was about the theories of Norbert Wiener or what kind of pizza to order
tonight. Late one evening, after the latest tiff, she stormed out of his Cambridge apartment, and
he retaliated by throwing her books into the street, and that was pretty much the end of that.
They both received their MIT doctorates only a few months later, and since each of them already
had jobs awaiting them on opposite sides of the country, they left Massachusetts with scarcely a
final goodbye.

But every great affair has a touch of irony. A decade went by, during which time LEC decided to
diversify into consumer robotics. Jim Lang hired corporate headhunters to recruit the best
cybernetics talent available, and as fortuitous circumstances would have it, the two former lovers
were lured back to Massachusetts. Imagine their surprise when they discovered that they were
now working for the same company. Different divisions, perhaps, but the same company
nonetheless.

So now itтАЩs twelve years later, and they were still trying to iron out their relationship. Only this
time, theyтАЩd built robots which program themselves by observing human behavior and imitating
it.



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"Keith, Donna," I asked, "would you mind excusing us for a moment?"

Keith stared at me before he realized that I wanted him to leave, then he shrugged and rose
from his chair. Donna gave me a quizzical look, but didnтАЩt say anything as Keith closed the door
behind them.

Phil waited until we were alone before he spoke. "Whu-whu-whu-what d-d-d-do you w-w-wa-wa-
want t-t-t-to. . . ?"

"Phil, sit down and count to ten." He glared at me but took my advice anyway, taking the seat
Keith had just vacated. While he was counting, I crept to the door, put my hand on the knob,
waited a couple of seconds, then yanked it open. Keith stood just outside, pretending to scratch
his nose. He mumbled something about getting a cup of coffee and scurried down the hall. I shut
the door again just as Phil had reached ten. "Okay now?" I asked.

"Sure." He let out his breath. "All right, Jerry, what do you want to talk about?"

"Okay, just between you and me . . . are you seeing Kathy again?" PhilтАЩs mouth dropped open,