"Joan D. Vinge - Fireship" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Joan D)

was not, the things his programmers had never told him, the
potential that they had left unfulfilledтАж the possibility of taking all
of that out of the hapless human mind heтАЩd been given access to.
Yarrow had been gaping and glassy-eyed for an entire day, while
his own mind and the computerтАЩs emerging sentience went at each
other in a dogfight. And at the end of that time, fused out of the
dust of exhaustion and compromise, a star was born: Ethan RingтАж
myself.
The researchers should have aborted me then and there; but they
left Yarrow and ETHANAC together, out of curiosity. And so the
two wary combatants learned enough about each other to see for
themselves that each had what the other lackedтАж and that when
they were together, I had it all: the intelligence and access to data
of a brilliantly programmed computer, and the sound, socialized
body of an amiably inoffensive human being. They became the
closest, most unlikely of friends, two mismatched strangers who for
their different reasons had never really livedтАФand who wanted the
chance now to try their wings in freedom. And as my own
personality began to assert itself, and I got attached to my own
reality, I wanted to live, in a deeper and more profoundly literal
sense.
But the researchers didnтАЩt appreciate any of those philosophical
niceties, including my sense of identity. My days were officially
numbered, and trapped in the prison that a top-security
government installation is, there wasnтАЩt a hell of a lot I could do
about it. But I, we, had one extraordinary talent, and on the night
before my executionтАФwhen they had gone so far as to introduce me
to the тАЬsuperior mind,тАЭ the snide and bloody-minded fanatic who
was YarrowтАЩs replacementтАФI decided to use it. So Michael Yarrow
had made a phone callтАж
тАЬHow could one man, even specially equipped, possibly penetrate
and disrupt the entire American defense network and get away
with it, Yarrow?тАЭ Ntebe said to me.
I was silent for a moment, watching the tourists dancing and the
rain sluicing off of my suit, while I tried to determine whether IтАЩd
been mumbling my life history out loud.
тАЬDonтАЩt tell me itтАЩs a trade secret among traitors,тАЭ Kraus said.
I made a rude remark in Arabic before I looked back at Ntebe;
and at Hana, out of the corner of my eye. тАЬIt was an accident, and
you can believe that or not. I invaded Big Brother because I wanted
to get out of the research center, and its security was part of the
supervisor system. I just succeeded too well: ThatтАЩs one of the most
complicated operating systems on Earth, and one of the most
sensitiveтАж and it had a nervous breakdown.тАЭ I remembered the
mental shock the feedback had given me, which hadnтАЩt been
anything compared to the shock it had given the governmentтАж
тАЬThey claimed it was a defense mechanism against tampering or
sabotage; but I donтАЩt believe that. Big Brother attained sentience, it
became aware, on contact with my mindтАФand so, unintentionally, I
fed it my own panic and persecution feelings, and made it paranoid.