"George Zebrowski - Augie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zebrowski George)

was maybe his problem, you know. He didn't get out enough. Don't you think so?тАЭ

Jimmy was silent as he turned away from her, thinking that Augie would bust out after all. Might be a good
thing, too.

But then he imagined Augie in his prosthetic body, soft and cuddly, molded from designer materials to look
just like the visualization, running around the house.

He felt Mira's hand slip into his, but he couldn't look at her. Her hand was warm. She was alive, telling him to
stay with her.

тАЬI'm feeling so much better now, darling,тАЭ she said.

When finally he looked at her, he saw her composed and radiant as she gazed at the face over the hearth,
and he knew that he would not have the courage to pull her down from the peak she had climbed. She stood
at the summit, her face to the world again.

It was the face of an unstoppable Mom.

Augie beamed down at them, but Jimmy felt a chill, as if the boy's voice were asking, тАЬYou won't kill me this
time, will you?тАЭ

But no voice spoke, Augie was not a boy, and the smiling face was a mask for something that lived in a
labyrinth, and as yet did not know itself too well.

тАЬBy the way,тАЭ Mira asked, тАЬwho's Cupid?тАЭ

Still holding her warm hand in his, fearful that Augie would take her away from him again, Jimmy began to
hope that the boy would run away from home.



Author Notes to Augie

My original title was тАЬThe Deaths of Artificial Intelligences,тАЭ and that is the title under which the story was published in Japan and
Poland. But later I decided that the first name of the major character makes for a more intimate title.

Many researchers in AI have concluded that we will have to тАЬraiseтАЭ an AI. When they come amongst us, these тАЬmind childrenтАЭ will
grow and learn, and they will do so not as we do, but as they can among the givens of our world. That is not terribly different from
what happens to human generations, as each is confronted with a world that is тАЬnot of their making,тАЭ and a self that may be as
strange to them as the world outside.