‘I’m busy,’ said Dr. Richter to Eradani. He was in his office, typing something into his computer, one-fingered as usual.
As far as physicists went, he was perhaps a bit of an oddity. He looked quite normal, and was quite young for a professional physicist, being in his late thirties rather than his late fifties. He was fairly tall and slim, had neat, well-combed black hair and always wore a fashionable jumper underneath a long, imposing black coat. He had no beard and not even the faintest trace of East European in his inflection. Consequently, he was the least known member of staff in the department.
‘Doing what?’ asked Eradani, hovering behind him.
‘Work,’ said Dr. Richter.
‘Can’t you do it later?’ she pushed.
‘No I can’t,’ he said, getting a bit tetchy. ‘Leave me alone.’
Eradani didn’t move. Although Dr. Richter was her tutor, and along with it her superior, she knew he was a bit soft and could be pushed around a bit. His greatest weakness was his unbending trust in people and his default assumption that they always told the truth. Eradani knew exactly how to exploit this flaw and was more than capable of manipulating him in any way she chose. She didn’t like doing this of course, it wasn’t really in her nature, but sometimes you just have to put your feelings to one side and do what needs to be done.
‘But this is important,’ she continued steadily. ‘Please, I need to speak to you. You’re my tutor. You’re supposed to put me first.’
Dr. Richter paused. He looked round at Eradani for the first time since she had come in, then back at his computer. She could sense him struggling with himself trying to come to a decision. Eventually, he grabbed his mouse and saved whatever he was doing. He turned round to Eradani. ‘You’re right, of course,’ he said. ‘Now, what’s the matter?’
‘Nothing,’ said Eradani as she grabbed one of the plastic red chairs piled up at the side of the room. ‘I just want you to look at this for me.’
‘What is it?’ said Dr. Richter looking at the crimson-covered booklet Eradani was frantically shoving at him.
‘It’s a booklet,’ said Eradani. ‘Read it.’
‘Yes, but what’s it about?’
‘Read it, and you’ll find out.’
Dr Richter desperately wanted to say no, but he also didn’t want to let down one of his students. He didn’t really have time for this. There was so much work to finish. But then again he did have a professional obligation to his tutees...
‘Okay,’ he found himself saying. He took the red booklet from Eradani’s grasp.
She sat there expectantly. Dr. Richter looked at her and said, ‘You want me to read this now?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said plainly.
‘Oh, right,’ said Dr. Richter. He looked down at the cover. The name of the author had been inked out. ‘Who wrote it?’ he said.
‘Nobody,’ said Eradani. She had come prepared with a plan. A silly plan, a plan with little consideration for potential consequences and fraught with danger, but a plan nonetheless.
‘Nobody? What do you mean?’
‘They’ve been running this project over at the school of computer science. They kept it quiet, but it was just amazing, mindblowing stuff. You see, that document, it was... it was actually written by a computer. The whole thing, from start to finish.’ She was impressed how easily lying came to her. And perhaps slightly concerned.
Dr. Richter’s face lit up. ‘It was?’ he said excitedly.
‘Yup,’ said Eradani. ‘It seems they made some kind of major breakthrough in artificial intelligence a few months ago. A friend of mine was one of the lead programmers, and he let me have that copy.’
‘Really? That’s genuinely very very interesting indeed,’ said Dr. Richter. A buzz of excitement welled up inside him which he completely failed to conceal. Artificial Intelligence was one of his pet interests, and he’d often dreamed of the day when he could have a real, thinking machine sitting on top of his desk that he could talk to and collaborate with. It would be a parsec and a half more reliable than his human colleagues who spent more time drinking coffee and eating biscuits than actually doing any science. He flipped over the front cover. ‘I think I might be able spare a few minutes to look through it.’
<=> <=> <=>
Eradani waited patiently as he eased his way through the pages. She could see him frowning occasionally, sometimes looking a bit bewildered, sometimes looking quite amused. If she’d had the presence of mind to bring a video camera with her, she could have made the very first documentary that featured every expression the human face was capable of generating. There were certain institutes around the country that would have paid rather a large sum of money for footage like that. Would have gone down well on the internet too.
Dr. Richter continued reading the notes, utterly and totally enthralled. That was probably a good thing as far as Eradani was concerned. She’d expected him to throw the booklet in the bin, shout something about not questioning the unavoidable truth that is modern science and then throw her out of the room.
Instead, he read right through the notes and finished with a smile.
‘Well I never,’ he said.
‘What do you think, then?’ asked Eradani.
‘Frankly, I’m astonished.’
‘I thought you might be,’ she said with a shrug.
Dr. Richter folded the booklet closed and placed it beside his computer. He was one of the tidier physicists in the place, there actually being some free space on his desk. Even more remarkably, there was some free space on his floor. Your average member of staff in the department had so much rubbish on the carpet (books, journals, bits of paper, stained coffee mugs, banana skins, old, out-of date computers that they hadn’t the heart to throw out after twelve years of faithful service and, occasionally, students) that you had to come equipped with a map or, preferably, your own team of sherpas, just to find your way to a chair.
Dr. Richter turned to Eradani, his face flush with enthusiasm. ‘It’s, how shall I put this... it’s almost as though the computer is taking its first faltering steps in trying to work out how the world works,’ he said. ‘It’s remarkable, truly remarkable.’ He smiled at her and put his hand on her arm. ‘Thanks for sharing it with me,’ he said.
Eradani thought he sounded a little like a therapist. She plucked up the courage to push him a bit further and bring her dastardly plan to fruition.
‘Well, there’s a bit more,’ she ventured carefully. ‘I was wondering if it would be possible to take all this to the next level.’
‘How do you mean?’ he asked.
‘I thought we could perform a simple experiment. Nothing complicated, nothing too serious, just for a bit of fun,’ she said. ‘A good-natured attempt to try and prove one of the theory’s predictions?’
‘An experiment? How interesting. Do you think computer science would mind?’
‘No,’ she said automatically. ‘I think my contact was hinting at the idea himself when he gave me the report in the first place.’
‘You think so?’ said Dr. Richter, his interest becoming more aroused by the minute.
‘Oh, definitely. There were obvious intimations. And a wink.’
Dr. Richter looked at the red booklet on his desk. ‘I tell you what,’ he said. ‘Leave it with me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.’
‘Can’t you give me an answer now?’ she asked.
‘No can do, I’m afraid. I need permission to do something like this. And I also need to devise a suitable experiment, of course. I’ll contact you tomorrow. Okay? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a report to finish.’
<=> <=> <=>
The next day, Eradani found a little slip of paper in her departmental pigeon hole. She unrolled it and deciphered the scrawly handwriting.
A physicist walking past stroked his beard in curiosity as he saw her stuff the note into her pocket and amble off down the corridor muttering about some experiment or other that she’d got to try and fit into her busy schedule. Oh, the students of today, he thought. They have no idea how to be proper scientists. He let his hand drop to his side and carried on his way towards the tea room for his mid-hour coffee break.