I noticed then distributed about the room a great many transverse fractures of the ulna. "The devel?opment of the pseudo-ruminant stomach for under-developed peoples," he went on, "is one of our interesting things you should be interested in. With the pseudo-ruminant stomach they can chew cuds, that is to say, eat grass. Blue is the most popular color worldwide and for that reason we are work?ing with certain strains of your native Kentucky Poa pratensis, or bluegrass, as the staple input for the p/r stomach cycle, which would also give a shot in the arm to our balance-of-payments thing dont you know. . ." I noticed about me then a great number of metatarsal fractures in banjo splints. "The kangaroo initiative. . . eight hundred thou?sand harvested last year. . . highest percentage of edible protein of any herbivore yet studied. . ."
"Thats why --"
"Were not going to do it?"
"Software," I said. "In every sense. I am here representing a small group of interested parties. We are interested in your thing, which seems to be functioning. In the midst of so much dysfunction, function is interesting. Other peoples things dont seem to be working. The State Departments thing doesnt seem to be working. The U.N.s thing doesnt seem to be working. The democratic lefts thing doesnt seem to be working. Buddhas thing --"
"We could unleash all this technology at once. You can imagine what would happen then. But thats not the interesting thing."
"Ask us anything about our thing, which seems to be working," the chief engineer said. "We will open our hearts and heads to you, Software Man, because we want to be understood and loved by the great lay public, and have our marvels appre?ciated by that public, for which we daily unsung produce tons of new marvels each more life-en?hancing than the last. Ask us anything. Do you want to know about evaporated thin-film metal?lurgy? Monolithic and hybrid integrated-circuit processes? The algebra of inequalities? Optimiza?tion theory? Complex high-speed micro-miniature closed and open loop systems? Fixed variable mathematical cost searches? Epitaxial deposition of semi-conductor materials? Gross interfaced space gropes? We also have specialists in the cuckoo?flower, the doctorfish, and the dumdum bullet as these relate to aspects of todays expanding tech?nology, and they do in the damnedest ways."
The engineer looked at me.
"It considers all considerations in endless and subtle detail," he said. "It even quibbles. With this great new moral tool, how can we go wrong? I con?fidently predict that, although we could employ all this splendid new weaponry Ive been telling you about, were not going to do it."
"You recount these possibilities with uncommon relish."
"Have new kangaroos been planted?"
"Yes, yes," the chief engineer said, "there is doubtless much truth in what you say, but we cant possibly lose the war, can we? And stopping is los?ing, isnt it? The war regarded as a process, stop?ping regarded as an abort? We dont know how to lose a war. That skill is not among our skills. Our array smashes their array, that is what we know. That is the process. That is what is.
"But lets not have any more of this dispiriting downbeat counterproductive talk. I have a few new marvels here Id like to discuss with you just briefly. A few new marvels that are just about ready to be gaped at by the admiring layman. Consider for instance the area of realtime online computer-controlled wish evaporation. Wish evaporation is going to be crucial in meeting the rising expecta?tions of the worlds peoples, which are as you know rising entirely too fast."
"Yes I realize that there is too much relish here. But you must realize that these capabilities repre?sent in and of themselves highly technical and com?plex and interesting problems and hurdles on which our boys have expended many thousands of hours of hard work and brilliance. And that the effects are often grossly exaggerated by irrespon?sible victims. And that the whole thing represents a fantastic series of triumphs for the multi-disci?plined problem-solving team concept."
"The interesting thing is that we have a moral sense. It is on punched cards, perhaps the most advanced and sensitive moral sense the world has ever known."
"Because it is on punched cards?"
They were friendly. They were full of love and information. The chief engineer wore shades. Pa?tella in Monks traction, clamshell fracture by the look of it. He was standing in a slum of beer bottles and microphone cable. "Have some of this chicken a la Isambard Kingdom Brunei the Great Ingineer," he said. "And declare who you are and what we can do for you. What is your line, distinguished guest?"
"What is the interesting thing?"
Our group is against the war. But the war goes on. I was sent to Cleveland to talk to the engineers. The engineers were meeting in Cleveland. I was supposed to persuade them not to do what they are going to do. I took Uniteds 4:45 from LaGuardia arriving in Cleveland at 6:13. Cleveland is dark blue at that hour.I went directly to the motel, where the engineers were meeting. Hundreds of engineers attended the Cleveland meeting. I no?ticed many fractures among the engineers, ban?dages, traction. I noticed what appeared to be frac?ture of the carpal scaphoid in six examples. I noticed numerous fractures of the humeral shaft, of the oscalcis, of the pelvic girdle. I noticed a high incidence of clay-shovellers fracture. I could not account for these fractures. The engineers were making calculations, taking measurements, sketch?ing on the blackboard, drinking beer, throwing bread, buttonholing employers, hurling glasses into the fireplace. They were friendly.
"I appreciate that."
I took Uniteds 5:44 from Cleveland arriving at Newark at 7:19. New Jersey is bright pink at that hour. Living things move about the surface of New Jersey at that hour molesting each other only in traditional ways. I made my report to the group. I stressed the friendliness of the engineers. I said, Its all right. I said, We have a moral sense. I said, Were not going to do it. They didnt believe me.
"I intuit your hatred and jealousy of our thing," he said. "The ineffectual always hate our thing and speak of it as anti-human, which is not at all a meaningful way to speak of our thing.Nothing mechanical is alien to me," he said (amber spots making bursts of light in his shades), "because I am human, in a sense, and if I think it up, then it is human too, whatever it may be. Let me tell you, Software Man, we have been damned forbearing in the matter of this little war you declare yourself to be interested in. Function is the cry, and our thing is functioning like crazy. There are things we could do that we have not done. Steps we could take that we have not taken. These steps are, regarded in a certain light, the light of our enlightened self-inter?est, quite justifiable steps. We could, of course, get irritated. We could, of course, lose patience.
I spoke to him then about the war. I said the same things people always say when they speak against the war. I said that the war was wrong. I said that large countries should not burn down small countries. I said that the government had made a series of errors. I said that these errors once small and forgivable were now immense and unforgivable. I said that the government was at?tempting to conceal its original errors under layers of new errors. I said that the government was sick with error, giddy with it. I said that ten thousand of our soldiershad already been killed in pursuit of the governments errors. I said that tens of thou?sands of the enemys soldiers and civilians had been killed because of various errors, ours and theirs. I said that we are responsible for errors made in our name. I said that the government should not be allowed to make additional errors.
"Yes. Some damned fool couldnt keep his mouth shut. The point is that the whole structure of enemy life is within our power to rend, vitiate, devour, and crush. But thats not the interesting thing."
"We could, of course, release thousands upon thousands of self-powered crawling-along-the-ground lengths of titanium wire eighteen inches long with a diameter of .0005 centimetres (that is to say, invisible) which, scenting an enemy, climb up his trouser leg and wrap themselves around his neck. We have developed those. They are within our capabilities. We could, of course, release in the arena of the upper air our new improved pufferfish toxin which precipitates an identitycrisis. No spe?cial technical problems there. That is almost laugh?ably easy. We could, of course, place up to two million maggots in their rice within twenty-four hours. The maggots are ready, massed in secret staging areas in Alabama. We have hypodermic darts capable of piebalding the enemys pigmenta?tion. We have rots, blights, and rusts capable of attacking his alphabet. Those are dandies. We have a hut-shrinking chemical which penetrates the fibres of the bamboo, causing it, the hut, to strangle its occupants. This operates only after 10 P.M., when people are sleeping. Then: mathematics are at the mercy of a suppurating surd we have in?vented. We have a family of fishes trained to attack their fishes. We have the deadly testicle-destroying telegram. The cable companies are cooperating. We have a green substance that, well, Id rather not talk about. We have a secret word that, if pro?nounced, produces multiple fractures in all living things in an area the size of four football fields."
