"Scott Westerfield - The Movements Of Her Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westerfeld Scott)

fierce,glacial battles, of betrayal on the mating trail, of the creatures'
slowintrigues against the human colonists of Petraveil, millennia-long plots
ofwhich every chapter lasted centuries.At first, the AI gently interrupted her
to explain the facts: the limits ofscientific understanding. The lithomorphs
were removed through too many ordersof magnitude in time, too distant on that
single axis ever to be comprehended.The four decades they'd been studied were
mere seconds of their history. ButRathere ignored the machine. She named the
creatures, inventing secret missionsfor them that unfolded while the human
population slept, like statues springingto life when no one was
watching.Ultimately, the AI was won over by Rathere's stories, her insistence
that thecreatures were knowable. Her words painted expressions, names, and
passions uponthem; she made them live by flat. The AI's pedagological software
did not objectto storytelling, so it began to participate in Rathere's
fantasies. It nuturedthat invisibly slow world, kept order and consistency,
remembering names, plots,places. And slowly, it began to give the stories
credence, suspending disbelief.Finally, the stories' truth was as integral to
the AI as the harm-preventionprotocols or logical axioms deepwired in its
code.For Isaah, however, there was no scoop here on Petraveil. The
lithomorphscontinued their immortal dance in silence. And elections were
approaching in anearby system, a situation which always created sudden,
unexpected cargos ofinformation.The night that Rathere and Isaah left the
planet, the AI hushed her crying withtales of how her invented narratives had
unfolded, as if the statues had sprungto human-speed life once left behind. As
it navigated her father's small ship,the AI offered this vision to Rathere:
she had been a visitor to a frozenmoment, but the story continued.In high
orbit above the next planet on their route, a customs sweep revealedthat the
starship's AI had improved its Turing Quotient to 0.37. Isaah raised awary
eyebrow. The AI's close bond with his daughter had accelerated itsdevelopment.
The increased Turing Quotient showed that the device was performingwell as
tutor and companion. But Isaah would have to get its intelligencedowngraded
when they returned to the Local Cluster. If the machine's TuringQuotient were
allowed to reach 1.0, it would be a person--no longer legally hisproperty.
Isaah turned pale at the thought. The cost of replacing the AI unitwould wipe
out his profits for the entire trip.He made a mental note to record the Turing
Quotient at every customs point.Isaah was impressed, though, with how the AI
handled entry into the planet'salmost liquid atmosphere. It designed a new
landing configuration, modifying thehydroplanar shape that the craft assumed
for gas giant descents. Its piloting asthey plunged through successive layers
of pressure-dense gasses was particularlyelegant; it made adjustments at every
stage, subtle changes to the craft thatsaved precious time. The elections were
only days away.It was strange, Isaah pondered as the ship neared the
high-pressure domes of thetrade port, that the companionship of a
fourteen-year-old girl would improve amachine's piloting skills. The thought
brought a smile of fatherly pride to hislips, but he soon turned his mind to
politics.THEY WERE going swimming.As Rathere slipped out of her clothes, the
AI implemented its safety protocols.The minder distributed itself across her
body, becoming a layer of black laceagainst her white flesh. It carefully
inspected the pressure suit as Rathererolled the garment onto her limbs. There
were no signs of damage, no telltalefissures of a repaired seam."You said the
atmosphere could crush a human to jelly," Rathere said. "How canthis little