"Ralph Williams - Business as Usual, During Allterations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Ralph)

RALPH WILLIAMS

Business as Usual, During Alterations

Throughout most of recorded history mankind has lived within an economy of scarcity. Only in the last half-century have technological developments made an economy of abundance possible, at least in the West and Japan. The costs involved in this process were high, not only in terms of human exploitation but also in more subtle ways. For example, the explosion of available consumer goods has produced considerable confusion, part of the "future shock" phenomenon of being surrounded by so much diversity that it is difficult to enjoy any of it.
Because technological change has been so rapid, entire industries have been created and wiped out almost overnight. The resourcefulness often shown by the businessman to these developments has been little short of amazing-the transition from a literally "horse-powered" transportation system to the automobile and from the blacksmith to the mechanic are but examples.
"Business as Usual, During Alterations" presents members of the business community facing the greatest crisis in the history of economic relationships. Competition is supposed to be the essence of the Free Enterprise System (at least on paper)-but it was never supposed to be like this.

The Sector Coordinator frowned, studying the report on his desk. In the concise symbology of sociodynamic calculus, it still covered several pages. "Preposterous!" he said. "Utterly preposterous!"
The Chief of the Observation Team nodded. "Quite," he agreed. "Valid, though."
"But it's ridiculous. Your prognosis indicates complete self-extermination by the natives of this planet . . . uh Earth, in less than one Galactic quarter. It's . . . well, preposterous!"
"Exactly," the observer said.
"But we can't have it. We need this planet. The only inhabited system in fifty light-years, a civilization just on the verge of technological

expansion, young, vigorous-and now, this. We'll have to assume direct control, move in a full administrative staff . . . why, it will cost billions, we could set up a colony of our own almost as cheaply. There must be a mistake. " The Coordinator flipped back through the pages.
"Ah," he exclaimed. "Thought so. Here, this intergroup belligerence function, a purely inductive generalization which you apply in an unprecedented situation. Not valid. In effect, you are saying these people cannot adjust. Why, their whole history is one of adaptation-they take anything, absolutely anything, according to your observational data, and adapt it to their ends."
The Chief Observer nodded. "Individual ends, though, not social ends. That's the crux. Me first, to hell with the other guy. Works well enough when one man can't reach much farther than he can throw a rock, or shout orders more than a few hundred yards. Not so well, though, when you can say 'jump, frog,' to a whole continent at once, and back it up with hydrogen bombs. To control that level of power, you need cultural adaptability, instinctive or reasoned. These people don't have either." He paused and scratched thoughtfully at his chin, or what would have been his chin, if he had been human.
"I will admit, though, the math is a little shaky. So, we've prepared a check. With your approval, we intend to introduce a gadget to these people. Nonlethal, individually desirable, but culturally deadly-so presented that they can accept or reject it, with the choice spelled out for them. The beauty of it is, we kill two birds with one stone. If they accept-blooey goes their civilization; all we have to do is move in and fill the vacuum. If they reject, we don't have to move in, I'm wrong. "
"What kind of gadget?"

"Well, what kind of gadget would do it? Remember, a highly competitive culture, based on economy of scarcity; things-property, or its use--exchanged for services on an individual basis
"The matter duplicator!"
"Exactly.

It was about midmorning, I suppose, when we began to hear the first rumors of the duplicator at Brown's.
One of the account clerks came running over to tell me about it during the morning coffee break. The story was that someone had in-

vented a machine which could reproduce instantly, out of thin air, any physical object. She had it from one of the other girls, who got it from an elevator operator, who got it from a customer.
In a big store like Brown's,, with so many women working, you hear all kinds of rumor. "Well, that's certainly very interesting," I told her. "What won't they think of next! I'll have to be sure to catch the eleven o'clock news."
A few minutes later, however, Pete Martens in Appliances called up to tell me it was on TV. "You'd better take a look, Mr. Thomas," he said. "If this isn't a gag, it's something pretty big."
"Thank you, Pete," I said. "I'll be right down." I don't keep a TV in my office; it's a bad example to set for executive personnel, I feel.
There were several knots of customers and salespeople clustered around the demonstrators in Appliances. Pete saw me step out of the elevator and opened up a place. "Right here, Mr. Thomas," he said.
I nodded thanks and looked at the screen. A man sat behind a desk, talking. On the desk was a black box, a cube about ten inches on a side, with two pans, side by side, on top-something like a kitchen .scales. A red button was set in the face of the cube. Below it was a plate with some printing.
Anything small enough to place on the pan,", the man was saying, "absolutely anything." He picked up a pair of desk shears, tossed them on one pan, pushed the button. An identical pair instantly appeared on the other pan. He rummaged in his pocket, brought out a key ring, duiplicated that. He took off his glasses, duplicated them.
"Or," he said, "you can do this. Hand me that other duplicator, please." A hand came into the picture, holding a contraption similar to the one the demonstrator had been using. He placed it on one pan, pushed the button, removed it and the duplicate. With a careless gesture, he swept the original machine off the desk. It crashed when it hit the floor. He smiled and looked into the camera.
"Don't worry, folks," he said. "There's plenty more where that came from." With the machine he had just made he duplicated another, another, another, until the desk was covered with them.
"How do they work?" I asked Martens.
He strugged. "Nobody knows. There were a couple of them sitting on the city hall steps this morning. No name plates, no identification, just a tag telling how to work them and something about chipping foundations. They had the back off one just before you came down; it

looks like some sort of electronic gadget, but the studio engineers couldn't figure it out, so they sent a couple over to the university, Stumped them, too." He laughed nervously. "Maybe the brownies left them .
. . . Just one thing to remember, folks," the TV was saying. I looked back at the screen. The duplicators had been removed, except for one, and the man was holding a hamster in the palm of one hand. "Don't try to duplicate little Johnny because he's so cute you'd like a dozen of him."
He placed the hamster on one pan, pushed the button. The duplicated hamster jumped high in the air at the moment of materialization and fell to the desk, jerking violently for a moment before it was still. The original crept to the edge of the pan and stared at it, nose twitching.
"Do you think it could be a hoax?" I asked Martens. "You know, trick photography, something like that?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. It's on the other channels too, this fellow's putting on the best show, but they're all full of it. Radio, too. "
"He's putting on a good show, all right." I looked at the customers around me, all hanging pop-eyed on the demonstrator's slightest move. "If we just had a few thousand of those things here in the store right now, with all this buildup--
"Well, yes," Martens said. "It kind of scares me, though. You know, all those things, just make anything you want,, as many as you want, zip, zip, zip, like that. What I mean, my brother works in a place where they make things like scissors. What about him?"
I nodded thoughtfully. "I see what you mean. That duplicator, it could be a whole factory in itself, no materials costs, no labor costs - why, it'll wreck the whole price structure. No buying; we can set up a few duplicators and make our own merchandise. No inventory; we stock just one of everything. Receiving? We wipe out the whole department. Warehousing? Ditto." I began really to see possibilities. "Pete," I said, "you're right, this is big, really big." I looked around for a phone. "I'd better call Mr. Brown right now."
Mr. Brown must have been watching the same program at home. I could hear it in the background, something about bigger duplicators now.
"Yes, I know, John." His voice sounded dead.