cannot claim exclusivity to New Eden without creating a military zone, and that requires not merely machines there but people. There is a great deal of evidence that they are rushing to get at least a ship, any ship, out there ahead of us. Since it's our computers, we, of course, will have solid claims, but it will make it impossible to deny them equal colonization rights with us and we'll wind up with another Titan on our hands."
"Intolerable!" sniffed Harold Itutu, the West African representative. "They cannot be handed over our fruits!" There were murmurs all around.
"I agree," van Haas responded, "but in order to stop it we will have to be there first. We must not only be installed there when they come, we must be so prepared and in control of the Gate and Anchor areas that they are left no openings. We have already located three other potential colonies further up the line—resources we could ill afford, but which were essential as a carrot if our plans work. Needless to say, our own backers are bled dry at this point as well, and there is unrest and there has even been some rioting in areas where critical shortages have developed due to us. Their own conclusion is simple. Time has run out. We either go as quickly as everything is ready, all or nothing, or we will be terminated as a project, with all our work and all the people's suffering going for nothing."
"Impossible!" Watanabe exclaimed. "Don't those ignorant assholes realize what's at stake here?"
Van Haas looked her squarely in the eye. "No. If a vote had been taken on whether or not to ship Columbus off to the New World, the people would have voted it a waste of money. The masses are simplistic in their vision, but it's difficult to be cosmic when you're undergoing food rationing and watching jobs vanish as prices skyrocket. People have always fought tooth and nail against progress. The Luddites rose up to destroy the automated machinery that made pins, putting many of them out of business. Before that, pins had been a luxury item. In the long term, automation gave new technology to the lowest of the low and created progress—but it wasn't progress to the Luddite who was thrown out of work right then and there due to the machines. We saw the same thing with the introduction of robots and computers. There were demands by labor organizations to make the machines illegal, and brutal strikes to destroy the new technology or fight against the closing of obsolete mines and factories. It's always been that way. It's that way again."
"But, surely," someone said, "they can be sold on the importance of our work here."
Rembrandt van Haas laughed. "Sold? The popular conception of a scientist has always been either a bald old fellow living in his own little world with no concept of what the real world was like—or Dr. Frankenstein, meddling in forces best left to God. More than one scientist has been burned at the stake by the mob, and many a program to save lives and open up humanity's horizons has crashed and burned in the no less real fires called political expediency. Never even mind the Russians and Chinese and Hispanics and the Franco-Brazilians. For domestic reasons alone we've been ordered to either go now or they will be forced to shut us down before the new rulers of our home nations, having shot the present ones, do it less gently."
They were all aghast at this prospect, but reluctant to accept it. Risks were one thing, but careful control minimized them.
"We haven't even tested the 7800's!" protested Carlotta Schwartzman, the head of the master computer project. "You know the risks they pose even as they are!"
"I know, but I can do nothing about it. One 7800 has been installed and tested by the Operations Board at a remote satellite station kept for things like this. So far they've found it faster, quicker, and easier, and far more versatile, but not operationally very different from our 7240's. I'd say it's worth the risk, considering that the
"Intolerable!" sniffed Harold Itutu, the West African representative. "They cannot be handed over our fruits!" There were murmurs all around.
"I agree," van Haas responded, "but in order to stop it we will have to be there first. We must not only be installed there when they come, we must be so prepared and in control of the Gate and Anchor areas that they are left no openings. We have already located three other potential colonies further up the line—resources we could ill afford, but which were essential as a carrot if our plans work. Needless to say, our own backers are bled dry at this point as well, and there is unrest and there has even been some rioting in areas where critical shortages have developed due to us. Their own conclusion is simple. Time has run out. We either go as quickly as everything is ready, all or nothing, or we will be terminated as a project, with all our work and all the people's suffering going for nothing."
"Impossible!" Watanabe exclaimed. "Don't those ignorant assholes realize what's at stake here?"
Van Haas looked her squarely in the eye. "No. If a vote had been taken on whether or not to ship Columbus off to the New World, the people would have voted it a waste of money. The masses are simplistic in their vision, but it's difficult to be cosmic when you're undergoing food rationing and watching jobs vanish as prices skyrocket. People have always fought tooth and nail against progress. The Luddites rose up to destroy the automated machinery that made pins, putting many of them out of business. Before that, pins had been a luxury item. In the long term, automation gave new technology to the lowest of the low and created progress—but it wasn't progress to the Luddite who was thrown out of work right then and there due to the machines. We saw the same thing with the introduction of robots and computers. There were demands by labor organizations to make the machines illegal, and brutal strikes to destroy the new technology or fight against the closing of obsolete mines and factories. It's always been that way. It's that way again."
"But, surely," someone said, "they can be sold on the importance of our work here."
Rembrandt van Haas laughed. "Sold? The popular conception of a scientist has always been either a bald old fellow living in his own little world with no concept of what the real world was like—or Dr. Frankenstein, meddling in forces best left to God. More than one scientist has been burned at the stake by the mob, and many a program to save lives and open up humanity's horizons has crashed and burned in the no less real fires called political expediency. Never even mind the Russians and Chinese and Hispanics and the Franco-Brazilians. For domestic reasons alone we've been ordered to either go now or they will be forced to shut us down before the new rulers of our home nations, having shot the present ones, do it less gently."
They were all aghast at this prospect, but reluctant to accept it. Risks were one thing, but careful control minimized them.
"We haven't even tested the 7800's!" protested Carlotta Schwartzman, the head of the master computer project. "You know the risks they pose even as they are!"
"I know, but I can do nothing about it. One 7800 has been installed and tested by the Operations Board at a remote satellite station kept for things like this. So far they've found it faster, quicker, and easier, and far more versatile, but not operationally very different from our 7240's. I'd say it's worth the risk, considering that the
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