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

hostility (hence the nickname). A pair of ├╝ber-geeks who couldnтАЩt have agreed on the proper
pronunciation of banana if someone threatened to take away their Usenet accounts.

Nonetheless, Lang was delighted that they already had a head-start, and asked them to show
him their work. However, Kathy was a little more reluctant than Phil to comply; in fact, rumor had
it that Jim had to memo Darth three times before she finally coughed up her notes and
blueprints, while Phil delivered his material almost immediately. The rest of us chalked up her
reticence to peer rivalry, never realizing that there was something else going on just under the
surface.



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Lang carefully studied their plans, talked to some of his other geeksтАУmyself includedтАУand
eventually reached the conclusion that, although each robot was designed differently, they were
so fundamentally similar that either could serve as LECтАЩs entry in the R3G race. However, since
the company didnтАЩt have the time, money or resources to manufacture two third-generation
тАЩbots, it was one or the other. To make matters worse, there was no accord among the brain
trust upon which robot should be chosen; KathyтАЩs people were solidly behind her Guardian IV
design, while PhilтАЩs group was equally convinced that Companion II was the superior system.

Jim Lang loved strategy games. He collected antique chess sets and backgammon boards, and
was renowned among Go enthusiasts as something of a master. Indeed, when LEC was a small
start-up company in the late тАЩ70s, its first major product had been a modular pocket game
system, the now-forgotten Lang Buddy. So it came as no great surprise that his solution took the
form of a competition.

Dr. BurtonтАЩs group and Dr. VederтАЩs group were divided into two teams, respectively code-named
Samson and Delilah, with Dr. Burton and Dr. Veder as their leaders. Each team was given a
substantial R&D budget and access to the same material resources, not the least of which were
copies of the Oz 3Meg chips. However, the members of each team would not be allowed to talk
to one another or share notes; only the team leaders were given that privilege, if they saw fit to
do so.

The objective of Slim JimтАЩs game was the fast-track development of a fully-operational, self-
learning universal robot within six months. At the end of this period, each team would let their
robots be testedтАУfirst by themselves, then interacting with each otherтАУin a series of
environments approximating real-world conditions. The team which produced the best robot
would not only see their system enter mass-production, but they would also be awarded large
bonuses, along with royalties from the sale of each unit. Indeed, the members of the winning
team could very well walk away with several hundred grand in their pockets.

It was a hell of an approach, to be sure, and over the course of the next six months I didnтАЩt get
much sleep, let alone very many free weekends or holidays. Yet Samson itself was built within
only three months, and we began installing and testing its conditioning modules shortly
thereafter. Although we knew that, on the other side of the quad, behind a pair of keycard-
access doors, Delilah Team spending an equal amount of effort on their own тАЩbot, we had little
doubt who would come out ahead. In fact, I was beginning to price Porsches.