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A SINGLE .'.'.*, ill. 1 SI CHALLENGING OUR r r.v ' « 3 -_j i.H OF INTELLIGENCE, EMOTION, AND INDIVIDUALITY. IT WILL CHANGE WE WORK AND THE WAYWE LIVE. THE MACHINE IS, OF COURSE, THE ROBOT A SPECIAL EDITION onnrui

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOH: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EXECUTIVE EDITOR: DICK TERESI GRAPHICS D RECTOR FRANK DEVINO ART DIRECTOR' ELIZABETH WOODSON

CONTENTS PAGE

OMNIBUS Contributors 10

COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence -.2 FORUM Dialogue U

EARTH Environment James Kilfield 18

LIFE Biomedicine Helen E. Fisher 20

SPACE Comment T. A. Heppenheimer 22 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Computers Phoebe Hoban 30

CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 SPECIAL ROBOTICS SECTION FIRST WORD Introduction Marvin Minsky 6

ROBO-PSYCHOLOGY Mind Michael Edelhart 26

ROBOTS AND OUR JOBS Opinion Stanley Poicyn 35

ROBO-SHOCK! Article Kathleen Stem 44

AT - = ROBOTS HOME : Richard Wolkomir 70 ROBOTS: FANTASIES AND 1 REALITIES : : : Michael Edelhart 80 — JOHN McCAR Interview Philip J. Hilts 100

RO BO-SCULPTURE The Arts Marjorie B, Mann 132 LAST WORD Humor Randy Cohen 154

BLIND SHEMMY Ficlion Jack Dann 52

GENE FIXERS Article Tabitha M. Powledge 92 THE END OF THE WORLD NEWS, Part II Fiction Anthony Burgess 108

ANTIMATTER UFOs. etc. 115 '-- h ::--.~:ons Travel Doug Garr 134

BOOKS The Arts Hans Fanlel 138

CREDITS 142

NEXT OMNI J46

VAPLE LEAF Phenomena R. Hamilton SmBti 148

STARS Astronomy Patrick Moc^e 150

GAMES Diversions Scot Moms 152

Car! Fiatow. a New York-based photographer, was inspired by Michelangelo's "The Creation of Man" to interpret tne re-creation oi mscnanoitis in '-nan's own image. This comment on the ert'erysnce o! rooois in our time was commissioned tor World magazine. 4 OMNI As the e:a of the robot approaches, Omni scraps—a^c utter netlc Common

r = . ';; s devoting much o: ib:s issue to the sense, for e.

" : to using automation in our science, an. they're too c z tc :: i" _ : sc~?cne sr-.c bus.nesses. Bui so lar -'machines nave else, or bite too hard) Ancfirinds must _ - :-.-, " :-e:ped us msTsiy with -ho things we hale also know abc„: : e " e : s now

;o do What then wil-i happen when we and when one should pas si subm r face new options m our work and homo, or balance between action and reflection. wnere mo'e nteiligoni machines, can Howbig are re. these ~_~a" webs

- " belter do ine things we iike 10 do? What or information and be e :: z.e:- a kinds ol minds and oersonalities should blltion links would more "~v ~;:~ "~e we- dispense to Ihsr" Whai kinds or mind ol any sage. A bilfion seconds gh'.s and privileges should we withhold stretches 30 years—anc no psychologist 1 " to ihom? A'c v»'c-! ^aady to face sucn has ever found a way to make a person : '-.. questions?; team something new each sees- : ; . . Today cu- robots arc -iko toys. Tney do any prolonged period. But a billion bytes only !he simple ih;ngs they're p'ogra~med of memory may soon be cheap. Today

to. But c:eady they're abou; to cross rre computer memories do single operations

edgetess line pas! wh ; ch they'll do tire at a-time; soon they'll do millions

things we are programmed '.<;. Akeady simultaneously. But let's face facts. We

there s so much power -r- :hosf; arcade just don't yet. know how to weave our chins thai one might minx the lovs knowledge webs into our new machines.

are playing wiih our kids. I see this as the most exciting research FIRST hf-ci-. robots celling around these .days problem of our time, how to pu! enough 'are- me re -fakes, 'emoto-controlied by mechanisms together in harrrtor He people hiding out of view. A tow. though. form minds of growing competence and

; .-- people siiil m.nk such IAJDRD do some thirr n real n ,.u breadth. Most : - _~ i !o do . louhds of erta n things must be impossible fJereland

By Marvi^ Minsky words and acting on these words and I think they're only ver , corap cated : mWhat kinds of minds ledge bet -: and personalities should we wai dispense to robots? machines, how will we then spend ou 7 What kinds pf rights and time Which entertainments will -we choose, what custom-programmed me privileges should stimuli? And what of Time itself—how we withhold from them? 5 long will we tolerate the meager years bodies last? Our mortal stay seems

fixed by makeshift engineering: Our fc cells, "controlled" by programmed suicide and war, degenerate and die

houghts. We'l- rnd help teaer

= nind. We!- : :

: e.e I . need reach, ". :.- friend strange I

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in Assoa&on lot Aiti&csl Mre%i NTRBUTORS QruiruiEus

I ^% I elcome to the Era of Robotics, superintelligerrf machines, shares his III I the focus of Enis issue of philosophical musings about the role of mm> U Omro. The pages ahead mechanoids. Cofounder, with McCarthy, of celebrate the arrival of a technology that MIT's Al laboratory, Minsky forecasts a promises to alter the next 100 years as world in which robots will be programmed surely as the steam engine transformed as we are programmed—that is. their the century before. But our reports of computer brains will be capable of the coming robotic revolution also carry common sense. a counterpoint: The growth of these At the same time robots stimulate humanlike machines has stirred sub- questions about human learning and stantial misgivings and even some development, the machines themselves primordial fears. are becoming more like people. On page Consider an obvious and immediate 26 freelance writer Michael Edelhart problem: the rapid robotization of industry describes a fledgling science, called robo- and the displacement of millions of psychology, that studies this .; phenomenon, h andiron ic :'. r i i macr.ine:; workers. ; A labor-and-technology analyst In researching his article Edelhart met or she ua.T9, this rnonlh we a so at MIT predicts that in the next ten Rover— the crude prototype of a "smart" salute the pas! ana uLLJfo;- achieve- years, General Motors alone will purchase robot—which can respond intelligently ments of 'ne Japanese esriior ol 20,000 robots that will disrupt the lives to novel situations and can sense and Qnv:i. The Obunsha Company of to 40,000 50,000 auto workers. But maneuver around obstacles without OLihlishers ol a wide assortment of according to Stanley Polcyn (page 35), preprogrammed instructions, be-ixs. educations 1 .'inference unless the United States introduces robots But as robots gain intelligence, they works, and magazines, launched iho into industry, it won't to be able compete also provoke more controversy. And. in Japanese version in May 1982 with foreign markets, and even more jobs fact, controversy spread even to the l he HdiTJon is our second nasive- will be lost. Polcyn is president of the Omni staff, specifically over the choice of arciuace entry into the international Robot Institute of America and senior vice- illustration for the story "Robots at Home" mar-.e; [the first s She iranan Omn:). president of Unimation, Inc., a leader in (page 70). Art director Elizabeth i draws 50 percent ot ;!.s rat.engl the of industrial construction robots. Woodson chose a painting of a female from the corcurent U.S. edition, Many other prominent, respected— humanoid with mechanical arms, for with she '-emairvng 50 percent and sometimes eccentric—authorities its beauty and for its synthesis of woman oenvoc !-om pas: U.S. editions anc have contributed to this issue. John and machine. But writer Richard Wolkomir indepencier Japanese sources McCarthy, the one of founding fathers of points out: "The robots in the article Our congratulations go to presidon; robotics and the man who coined the have male names, such as Isaac and Yoshio Akao exooL.tive oirectcr phrase artificial intelligence (Al), is the Bob. Anyway, in my house we divide the "skLJi Ishikawa. eanct in er e< subject of this month's Interview (see so-called woman's work." Tadashi Okada. and ire entire start page 100). And in First Word (page Overall 6) editor of our robotics section ii hiss ir.DQ Marvin Minsky, another pioneer of was senior editor Douglas Colligan. 10 OMNI KATHY KEETO'N LETTERS

OMNI PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD.

THE CORPORATION

r.t Bob Gucc.o^e < znatmm; *; no?"l) coruiruiuriJicMTioais -ailiy Kuh'l::-' i.,-):-e-!.'OS."ri Devia J. Myerson ich.a oj::,vhw;.; yfy.e". Anthony „ i.- ...-:. oris ijecrete/j^fisesuref)

EWonr.r,h.e/ Bos-Glji- ai; Man no ,-.:: rtfrc 1 D::u(ils=Co:icari Gui.'- Cloned Archaeologist explosive and violent sexuality of the

I have studied archaeoastronomy under female factory workers. Caught off guard

Anthony R Aveni at Colgate University he was emotionally, if not physically, located in Hamilton, New York. Some raped. This experience became the

years ago I heard a rumor that Mr. Aveni subject of his celebrated short story was cloned while on a field trip in "Tickets Please," and, according to a Mesoamerica. He is now supposed to be close friend, was the direct cause of able to do twice as much work as he Lawrence's well-known cynical attitude Farricl. Moars. Qifices: We* v.^;.-. 909 Tirrci Ave r could before. (York, NY. 10022 TBI ;21.?j 59j-;,30! c«No do toward women. I26; tonctan, 2 Bramber Hosrj Wns! Kensington To get to the point, in your September George Whitesel Jon WHBP8. England, Tet. (01] 385-6181. Teles 1982 issue, Robert Patton's article Jacksonville, AL "Ooparts" mentions an Anthony Avini. This Avini Is supposed lo be an Waiting forAsimov anthropologist at Cornell University. Since I truly appreciated the October 1982 Cornell is not very far from Colgate, anniversary issue. The excerpt from and both these researchers seem to be Foundation's Edge. Isaac Asimov's latest 'working on the same project of mapping entry in the field of SF was especially Nazcan lines, could this Avini be the welcome. Being but fifteen, I read the long sought-after clone of past rumors? I Foundation trilogy only three years ago, so called Cornell University information I cannot imagine the anguish of those and they told me that there is no Anthony who have wailed closer to three decades Avini teaching or working in the for this new book. anthropology department. The National Russell Paulsen Geographic Foundation informed me that Dixon, IL there is an Anthony Aveni who is doing a study funded by them. He is an Space Food astronomy professor at Colgate University. Noel Vietmeyer's pictorial "Seeds of a All this is very confusing. I thought New Eden." in the December 1982 issue, the clone rumor had ended, but now I'm was just great. It's good to know that not so sure. With all this detective work, I when NASA is finally ready to build their may need my own clone. Will the real space station, there will be technology Anthony Aveni please stand up? available for food production in space. The John Lam Sadiyat Island challenge that was New Haven, CT accepted by the University of Arizona

crew is a giant step in the right direction- We stand corrected. The real Anthony F feeding the masses. Aveni is, in tact, a professor of astronomy Keep up the fine reporting. It's great to at Colgate University. — Ed. see that there are some positive outlooks in this world or ours. Women in Love John Starr The news that women can be sexually Caldwell, IN aggressive to the point of savagery ["When Women Rape Men," The Body, Sakharov

December 1982] would have come as no I thoroughly enjoyed your article "Genius surprise to Euripides, author of The Hunting" [November 1982], especially Bacchae. As Freud often reminded us, the part about the Chudnovsky brothers.

the ancient Greek writers had seen it all. Omni readers might be interested in An attack by a group of women also knowing that Marcel Dekker has just played an important role in the life of published the Collected Scientific Works D.H. Lawrence. Employed in a factory of Andrei D. Sakharov, edited by David where he was one of only a few males, and Gregory Chudnovsky. Lawrence was popular with the girls. He Marlene Goldrich was, however, unprepared for the New York CON T INUFDON PAGE 144 a

DIAPGL1E FORUTU1

in which the readers, editors, and I have looked to Omni as an oasis of bravery. History and has proven this. I correspondents discuss theories and intelligence in the sterile desert of the would like to bring Kathy Keeton back to speculation arising out of Omni. Readers media. Mr. Cumings's "hardy-har" little- reality and prevent her and other women are encouraged to debate views and wifey humor is more fitting for a Sunday from being disappointed. pose guestions to Omni, the scientific supplement than a magazine of your Zenith R. D. Knight community, and the science-fiction caliber, I and can only wonder if it reflects Port Washington, NY establishment. The opinions published the sentiments of your editors, as well. are not necessarily editors. those of the Why else would you give two precious As the medical officer in charge of heat- pages of full color to this "cute" piece stress evaluation of the Mercury Astro- $65,000 Mother when you could have devoted the space naut Selection Program at Wright-Patter- It always seems to be a man who laments to one of your other excellent features. son Air Force Base during the late 1950s, the lower birth rates ["Baby I Makers am sure you realize that Omni readers I had the opportunity to become quite Inc.," Continuum, September 1982], and are a special group of people: unique, familiar with the physiological reactions to his solution is to have the government intelligent, and highly perceptive. But heat of astronaut candidates in top or a corporation use embryo implantation perhaps you don't realize that the female physical condition. During the course of or artificial insemination to make readership of your magazine is even the program some women (nonastronaut babies in test tubes. more unique— a technologically literate candidates and physically untrained) As a woman let me tell you that getting group of women who _ undoubtedly have were also tested. Their individual results

pregnant it (though can be life- better things to do than nag their hus- were far superior to those of the male endangering) is the least objection I have bands about taking out the garbage. astronauts as a whole; while the women

to making babies. I also do not mind Mama Kern absorbed heat faster from the environ-

being pregnant. I actually enjoy it and find Savannah, GA ment, their physiological reactions were it to be a very healthful, happy time. much milder than the men's, perhaps My contention is that producing babies Equality in Space indicating that Kathy Keeton's argument

is not the issue. There should be no It with was great amusement that I read has some basis. Although one cannot problem finding women who would, for a Kathy Keeton's First Word [December generalize on the basis of several indi- reasonable fee, be happy to a spend 1982] on women in space. In her naive vidual tests, it is my recollection that year being pregnant. It seems to me that article she states, "Women's superior these women who underwent heat tests $35,000 would reasonable be a price reflexes and endurance capabilities will also excelled in altitude, centrifuge, and for this service. give them the edge as the spaceship other stress tests. The real problem is finding enough drivers of the future. And they may fare Joseph Gold, M.D. people interested in devoting about 18 better in space itself." She also reports: Syracuse, NY years of their time toward socializing, "The results of a rigorous five-year study educating, and raising another human by NASA proved women superior to any No Women Allowed?

being. I haven't seen many willing men to group of men at adapting to the physical It is distressing to read in a purportedly give up nearly two decades of emotional and emotional challenges of space." progressive magazine like Omni an and physical freedom to do that. At twenty-two, I hold a master's in aer- article as blatantly sexist as "Tinkering If men, or their state, want more babies, onautical engineering, and a bachelor's With Utopia," by Michel Salomon [No- let them do the raising, feeding, in computer science. I'm in superb vember 1982], Is it not the central issue nurturing, and training. Or let them begin physical condition and am seriously con- of our times that women should enjoy to pay decent wages for such a job. It sidering joining NASA to become an a more important, decisive role in society seems that $65,000 is an excellent place astronaut. With all these credentials, I than they have in the past? Why does to start negotiating. know that there is no female who can Mr. Salomon find it unnecessary to include Ruth Austen even come close to me in any physical or the opinions of some of the eminent

Riverside, CA mental test. I don't care how many stud- women in our scientific community? By ies NASA conducts. excluding women from his article. Mr. Hardy-Har Men are superior to women and will Salomon has seriously weakened its Who do you think was amused by the fare better in space. This statement may credibility; he is omitting at least half of two pages devoted to Art Cumings's car- label me as the perfect male chauvinist, the knowledge and opinions available — toon ["The Artist"] in the November 1982 but I look at things realistically. serious oversight tor a supposedly issue? Your female readership? Let's face it, women just don't measure forward-looking piece of research.

I was surprised to find this cartoon in up to men in conditions that demand D. G. Anderson your magazine. Since your first issue, strength, ruggedness, endurance, speed. Ottawa. Ont., Canada DO 14 OMNI —

THE GREENING OF WEST GERMANY EARTH By James Kitfield

I ^^ I hen West German authorities and now, when the damage seemed in Offenbach's modern City Hall at the

I I began construction of irreversible, they gagged the harbor in a end of 1979, the connection belween such mm \a0 Frankfurt's new airport last act of defiance. Soon after the demonstrations was obvious. Each new runway, they expected a battle. They leader of the blockade loaded his family protest, they declared, was one more cry were not disappointed. Protesters bitterly aboard his boat and set sail for Ireland. heralding the noisy birth of Germany's opposed to the destruction of a forest new political force: the Green Party, in the runway's path raised flaming In America, the sight of knapsack- dedicated to nuclear disarmament and a roadblocks that strangled airport traffic. carrying youths hitchhiking for hundreds clean, uncluttered environment. Nearby, in the fashionable downtown of miles might have signaled a huge The roots of the Green Party can be shopping district, other demonstrators pop festival. But this was West Germany, traced to the years following World War II, challenged bands of riot police equipped and these were protesters heading for when the Germans were struggling to with armored trucks and water cannons. Bonn to greet President Ronald Reagan. reconstruct their society. Their factories The doomed forest itself, which The American President had come in desperately turned out automobiles and environmentalists had speni years trying hopes of persuading West German refrigerators, machine tools, and cameras to protect, was the scene of the worst leaders to aim Pershing II missiles at until, by the Sixties. Germany became fighting. In one day alone, more than 100 Easi Germany. To the demonstrators, who the world's fourth -largest industrial power policemen were injured —by angry numbered over 200.000. the problem This success, however, also made youths hurling steel balls and by elderly . was one of perception. When Ronald Germany one of the most polluted nations women throwing acorns and pinecones. Reagan looked over the wall to the east, on earth. Its affluent population soon he clearly saw the enemy. When young choked streets and highways with eight Supertanker crews and shipyard West Germans looked in the same times more automobiles per square mile workers watched first in curiosity, then in direction, they saw a welter of humanity than could be found in the United States. disbelief, as a ragtag flotilla of fishing and the other half of their country. Frenetic manufacturing plants produced boats lined up to block the mouth of some 450 million cubic yards of refuse Hamburg harbor. For years fishermen had West German politicians had long yearly —enough to form a mound as high complained of industrial pollutants believed these protests to be widely as the Zugspitze, the country's tallest poisoning the fish in Hamburg's Elbe River, disparate events. But to a group meeting peak. And though tons of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons spewed daily from a maze of factory smokestacks, the nation's avid industrialists were constantly clearing

land to make way for still bigger manufacturing plants. By the early Seventies, a generation of Germans bred on ecological devastation had come of age. And many of them despised what they saw. As one young woman who took part in the Frankfurt runway protests explains, "In a country like Germany, you come to see the futility of your life-style. We began to hate industry, consumption, and their poisonous by-products. Our parents' work seemed empty, even destructive. They went about their business without considering the damage they caused. That type of attitude was frightening to us. We had to find another way," That new way soon became apparent. In Ruhr City, a hazy wasteland of belching factories and fumes, walls were covered with a single, bold slogan: Pollution in We::; G «.-';> ,-;,-/ >-:ss sav.^ea a gGns-'HHon c; :'0::;h dedicated to the "Scbade das Beton nicht brennt" or "Too 18 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 121 — —

RELIGIOUS GENES

3y Helen E. Fisher

ieneath the quiet towns of central ancestral magicians carved a monstrous Explosion. As Pteiffer suggests, religious » France, the Pyrenees, and stone head, half man. half cat. leaders may have reserved the private I northern Spain, restless ancient In over 30 caves in France and Spain, sanctums for individual ordeals, torrents carved out a labyrinth ot caves. giant bison, reindeer, mammoths, ibex, confrontations, or communions with the Here, in the windless yawning chasms bears, and other beasts are outlined in red spirit world. For larger ceremonies, deep below the ground, stalagmites and or black, their fur and muscles filled in early masters of trickery and illusion may stalactites stand iike ivory soldiers with carefully placed strokes that use the have led their kin through convoluted dripping bullets of water that make metallic natural protrusions and lissures of the alleys, playing flutes, drums, xylophones, pings in the utter quiet. The sounds of walls themselves. And where real figures and castanets while they held lamps bats dance off craggy pits and hollows. give way to magical ones, headless beneath the paintings. The flickering And the roar of still-living rivers rushes up horses, duckbilled people, wolf-headed torchlight would have caught one image, through chutes, funnels', and "cat holes," bears, disembodied hands, floating arms and suddenly another. Then, after the then vanishes into total stillness at some and legs, snake patterns, and dots and tortuous trek, these first priests may have hairpin turn. dashes are portrayed. Some of these assembled their flocks in the grand What nature built, our ancestors came paintings appear in large central areas rotundas, where disoriented audiences, to decorate between 10.000 and 35,000 that could have housed over 100 their senses stripped of normal time years ago, leaving behind thousands spectators of— or actual participants in and place, were held in rapt attention. ol cave paintings and engravings ancient ceremonies. Others are carved But what were the shamans conveying mementos of their deepest beliefs. In the or painted in such inaccessible culs- during their cryptic rituals? What did giant underground rotundas at Lascaux de-sac that professional spelunkers have the paintings mean? Why this sudden first cave, in central France, someone painted fainted from claustrophobia trying to flowering of human art and ceremony? dozens of stampeding herd animals. In gain access to these remote passages. Pfeiffer's explanation is bound to ruffle the a recess ot Les Trois Freres cave in In these sunless tunnels, amid leathers of both creationists and the Pyrenees, another early artist incised heightened sounds and cool, stagnant antisociobiologists. for within his theory a magical beast—with the head of a air, something of significance was going lies the suggestion that religious fervor has man, the antlers of a stag, and the tail of on— or so theorizes anthropologist a biological component. a horse. And in La Juyo cave in Spain, John Pieifler in his new book. The Creative His controversial hypothesis is based on events that took place some 40,000 years ago. when irrevocable climatic changes were sweeping Europe and Africa. Glaciers to the north and desert to the south concentrated populations in France and Spain. At this time the Neanderthals, ancient racial variants of modern man, died out— replaced by today's human beings. These new individuals, the Cro-Magnons. began to make new tools out of such experimental materials as ivory, bone, and antler. Whereas the Neanderthals used only large

stone implements to fell their prey, tan their hides, and pound their seeds and berries, these modern people were much more innovative: They invented bracelets, pendants, and beads to adorn their bodies, and needles to sew man's first tailored clothing. For the hunt they fashioned lightweight harpoons and miniature projectile points, perhaps used in the first bows and arrows.

If so. now hunters could move off the high plateaus to pitch their skin tents Cave paintings ol at the fords of valley streams and shoot

20 OMNI CCNIINULDON PAGE 120 TARSHIP MAKERS

By T. A. Heppenheimer

Forget science-fiction starships. with magnetic fields, not ordinary metal job took him to MIT, where he and Hyde And lorget about the British or ceramic. This approach offers talked of future engines. Interplanetary Society's performance vastly better than that of Both scientists agreed that laser theoretical papers on interstellar travel; any rocket now in existence. microexplosions might be used to propel their Daedalus starca": probably won't fly, For years, tight security restrictions a starship. Wood arranged for Hyde to and if it did, would soon explode, kept the details of the work by Hyde, get the fellowship and visit Livermore for according lo some advanced compuler Wood, and their colleagues largely the summer. Without a security clearance studies in the United States. The most unknown oulside Lawrence Livermore Hyde couldn't work on the real problems, important siarship work in the world itself. Recently news of the starship plans which involveci o.assr en questions about takes place at the University of California's has begun to leak. the pellets and lasers. But he could study Lawrence livermore Laboratory, where The story begins in 1972. Rod Hyde other details, including Wood's notion the U.S. government has paid people like was just completing the requiremenls for of using magnetic fields to form a rocket-

Roderick Hyde and Lowell Wood to work his B.S. at MIT after little more than two exhaust nozzle. These fields would allow on the design oi starship engines. years. He was interested in astrodynamics, exploding pellets to blow out the craft's To. be fair, the Lawrence Livermore the science of orbits and trajectories back and produce thrust. Such a rocket ship has a few features in common with followed by spacecraft. He wondered could achieve performance a thousand the Britishers' Daedalus: wrrether some advanced, exotic engine times better than anyfhing yet flown,

• It is powered by microscopic hydrogen might not indeed turn interplanetary Hyde's work— most of it packed into bombs, each less than a millimeter flight paths into straight lines. four straight days and nights of calculating across, each detonating wilh the modest At the same time, Lowell Wood was and writing so that he could finish in force of a firecracker. one of Livermore's brash young leaders time to attend the world chess • These microexplosions will be set off in the new field of laser fusion. His work championship in Iceland—yielded an by intense laser beams now being called for preparing micropellets of fusion amazingly detailed approach to the developed at the laboratory for weapons fuel, then zapping them with powerful starship design. He presented his report simulation and fusion-power research, laser beams to produce tiny hydrogen- to the world of aerospace engineering • The hot exhaust that drives the rocket bomb explosions. In addition, he was at the Propulsion Specialist Conference, will be expelled from a nozzle formed a recruiter for a fellowship program; this in New Orleans, late in 1972. Hyde

laid it all out—the physics, the design concepts, the calculations, and the performance equations. Almost no one in the audience had the background to follow him. But soon hundreds of requests for copies of his

paper started to pour in. Even the National Security Council, under Henry Kissinger, and'the office of the President's science adviser at the White House asked for copies. Hyde was nineteen years old. Back at Livermore, security became even tighter, Laser fusion and its applications represented a highly classified area of work, and Wood and Hyde were forbidden to publish any more in this area, Hyde wrote a very lengthy report giving many more details. This report, UCRL-16556, has been updated

since with new material. Quite likely it

is the world's most authoritative reference

on starship-engine design. It has never been published, but enough is known to give a fairly clear picture of the current state of the Wood-Hyde starship plans.

3, set off by laser bear':* iv.o' newer iuiure starships. The most important part of the secret

CONTINUED ON PAGE 130 ROBO-PSOOLOGY ruiifUD By Michael Edelhart

Carefully Rover moves forward. He roboi to protect itself but never at the scientist Yutaka Kanayama's mobile in spots an obstacle his path cost of a human life. And while machines robot Yamabico uses some of these skills. and stops to examine it: friend or like Rover are not all that sophisticated, Early models of Yamabico could avoid foe? Satisfied it holds no danger for him, they have forced scientists to address obstacles and hazards only if the robot his he continues on way. the question of what to put in the souls of had been specifically programmed to An ordinary occurrence, certainly these new machines. respond to them beforehand. It could not nothing worth noting, except for the fact Already robots in industrial settings ail apply its programming to unforeseen that Rover is not a dog, but a robot: over the world are practicing the prime situations. If placed on a table, for an autonomous, moving, environment- law of never harming humans. Advanced example, it would simply roll off the edge evaluating machine created by robot- industrial robots, powerful enough to if not instructed to do otherwise. expert Hans Moravec, of Carnegie-Melion crush a man by accident, are now The new Yamabico will have more University, in Pittsburgh. What makes equipped with arrays of sensors backed complex software that allows the machine Rover so special is his ability to judge the by computer programs that are designed to react to obstacles as it meets them. state of the world around him and, in a to recognize human forms and motions. Special balance sensors and a vision sense, consider his interests. best If these patterns appear in the work- system enable it to look ahead, see an As variables in Rover's environment place, the robot will stop automatically: obstacle, or sense an impending edge so shift, Moravec notes, "The robot's behavior It "knows" that human safety is more that it can react in time. In other words, would change from its boldly pursuing important than any work it must do. the robot has an innate sense of self- main goal (whatever that may be) to Slightly more complex applications of preservation. The next step, says cautiously feeling its way around. We are robo-psychology are being built into Kanayama, is to teach Yamabico to tempted to give such variables names experimental mobile robots (see "Robo- recognize common, everyday objects and like ." 'fear' and 'enthusiasm'. . . Shockl," page 44) like Rover. These have an understanding of their uses. What Rover presages is the day when robots must be able to sense situations "Once we give him the ability to sense a robot will come equipped with its own and respond appropriately to his universe and then to function in it psychology. Such a machine would circumstances that their programmers independently," the scientist says of his adhere to Isaac Asimov's three laws of might never have anticipated. For example machine, "we can start to teach him robotics, essentially which instruct a at Tsukuba University, in Japan, robot ways of responding to it." Af the Tokyo Institute of Engineering, Professor Shigeo Hirose has already crafted a robot with responsive abilities. His creation is a four-legged, spiderlike machine (see "Robots: Fantasy Versus Reality," page 80) that can climb stairs ot any size without special instructions. A human says "go" and the robot manages the rest itself. The machine begins its climb down by feeling along the stair's edge using the tactile sensors in its pods the way a blind man uses his cane. These guide the legs down the back side of the stair while balance sensors in the squat robot body

keep it level horizontally. When a stair is too deep for a leg to touch bottom, the robot lowers its body to give the leg

more reach. If the leg still can't reach the

next step, the robot stops. It won't allow

itself to tip over. It protects itself by

responding in a flexible fashion to its environment— psychology at work.

Professor Hirose points out that this is not a state of mind within the machine so much as a way of acting that we

CONTINUED ON PAGE 143. DEEP-DISK STORAGE ARTIFICIAL IRJTELLIEEnJCE By Phoebe Hoban

^^^J y this lime next year, your In today's horizontal (or longitudinal) recording itself," says Chris Bajorek, ICSS personal computer may be able recording technique, these microscopic manager of IBM's Storage Systems and bi^v to store roughly five times more magnets are lined up end to end, like a Technology Research Division, in San

dala—even if you own last year's model. long row of straight pins. The trick to Jose, which is working on vertical The key to squeezing so much extra increasing data storage, however, is to technology. "The problem was finding mileage out of today's machines is a new pack the digital bits as closely as possible. the optimal medium." generation of "vertically recorded" disks. The horizontal format inherently limits The breakthrough came in the mid- In laboratories from Tokyo to San Jose the bit density, because when the north 1970s, when Shunichi Iwasaki, of Japan's to Minneapolis, computer engineers and the south poles of a magnet are Tohoku University, found that a chromium/ are racing to perfect a promising spinoff located too close together, they tend to cobalt mixture provided the perfect of conventional "horizontal" recording neutralize, causing the material storing columnar structure for vertical recording.

technology that could multiply the storage the data to demagnetize. "It has a lovely crystal—each one is

capacity of software by a factor of ten. But imagine if you turned these straight like a bunch of little pencils," says Clark "This technology could give home- pins on end, perpendicular rather than Johnson, president of Vertimag Systems computer users the storage capacity of an flat in. relation to the surface of the disk. Corporation, in Minneapolis. Johnson's IBM mainframe, at a cost per bit cheaper Many more pins could be packed much company has developed a working than today's software," claims Jack closer together, while the magnetic prototype of a 5.25-inch floppy disk that Taranto, president of Applied Information poles, located on either end of the holds 5 megabytes. The company's Memories, in Milpitas, California, which magnet's length, would remain the same pilot plant will begin producing the has developed a prototype system. distance apart no matter how tightly chromium/cobalt vertical disks, drives, As even children seem to know in the magnets are squeezed side by side. and recording heads early next year.

these dazzling days of computer literacy, It sounds like an obvious solution to Other companies have taken slightly it is the software that tells a computer a geometric puzzle. And, in fact, IBM first different approaches using the same how to function and serves as an started investigating the possibility of recording principle. Toshiba Corporation electronic filing system— automatically vertical recording as early as the 1950s. of Tokyo, for instance, has demonstrated storing and retrieving information. The "Vertical recording is almost as old as the prototype of a 3.5-inch floppy disk software contains the complex computer and drive system that holds 3 megabytes. instructions (or programs) and the And at least a dozen more computer characters oi stored data in the form of manufacturers, including giants like Sperry "bits," the binary one/zero digital code that Univac, Burroughs, Honeywell, Hewlett is the basis of all computer language. Packard, Control Data, Nippon Telegraph With the exception of those personal and Telephone, Olivetti, and Apple, are computers- small enough to fit in a also working on vertically recorded disks. briefcase, most home machines use Products are expected to reach the programs recorded on 5.25-rnch floppy market within the next 12 to 24 months. disks —thin Mylar platters a little smaller Exactly what does all this technical than 45-rpm records. With today's jargon mean to the consumer? Experts technology, a disk holds a maximum of say that a vertically recorded disk could roughly 850 kilobytes (850,000 characters) evertua ly contain 10 to 40 times as of information and sells for about $4. It much information as today's disks hold. is read by a disk drive—the computer While the vertical disks are expected equivalent of a tape deck. to sell for $15 to $25, the actual cost per Like ordinary audio tapes, computer bit will be dramatically cheaper; so the disks are coated with a film of magnetic consumer will get much more storage material —typically iron oxide. Information for his money. is recorded and read on the disk by Vertimag's Johnson foresees recording using an electromagnetic head to mailing lists, encyclopedias, even entire, magnetize the particles so that different libraries on single disks. And the smaller regions have different polarities —each 3.5-inch disks would be a handy way acting like a miniature permanent magnet to upgrade today's briefcase computers. that represents either a one or a zero in Vertical recording could also have a the binary code. Oose-i:p jrn-'ivs d^k's columnar structure. significant impact on digital audio and 30 OMNI COM"P\'UED ON PAGE 142 What do IBM people think about?

Creating better computers takes a lot of different thinking from a lot of different people. At IBM, our scientists and engineers represent a wide range of disciplines. For example, IBM chemists are exploring the structure of ceramics and developing special polymers to make computers more compact. IBM physicists are studying how short light pulses travel IBM people are putting their minds to work on questions of science through optical fibers to build faster computer systems. and technology They're all part of a 50-year commitment to research There are IBM psychologists and human factors specialists and development— a continuing commitment that has totalled more who study how people interact with machines, so we can make them than $8 billion in the last six years alone. friendlier and easier to use. Because finding new ways to improve our computers is one thing In laboratories and plants all over the world, thousands of thats always on our minds. ==^= =• a

cofXJTinjuunn

"or the knee-jerk technophobes among us, robots welding, spray painting, die casting, materials handling, and _ must seem an easy target, Each robot on an assem- other brute-force tasks. As technology improves, robots will ac- bly line replaces, on average, two people, leaving a quire control and senses to match. These developments will be single human overseer tor every four or five ma- fueled by our need for greater efficiency to save lagging indus- chines. Although the need for productivity improvements in tries that robots have not yet entered. manufacturing is generally accepted, many members of the press, Robot vision is already well on its way. Soon robots will be academia, labor groups, and corporate management itself link used, say, to grade the quality of bacon by comparing the amount productivity gains — particularly those attributed to robots—with of dark meat and white fat. Later, 3-D vision will let robots rec- declining employment levels. ognize one part lying on others in a bin of many components. Yet when we look at the real causes of unemployment in Amer- Thus, they will learn to assemble intricate machinery without ica, it becomes clear that in the long run, robots will create jobs, having to be presented parts with special care. Already, they not destroy them. Consider a few facts: can assemble a few small electrical relays accurately and fast. • The steel and auto industries have already lost hundreds of The sense of touch will be cheaper and perhaps- more useful. thousands of jobs— far more than the current level of automation It will enable robots to check the parts they handle, making sure can account tor, that each is free of defects. Auto-engine valves will no longer • Even the highest estimates agree that annual robot sales will be about the right size; they will be exact. Quality will rise as a reach only £2 billion in the early 1990s, or 40,000 machines per result. Tomorrow's robots will also be able to handle items too year—and that is still ten years away. This is certainly amodestly delicate for today's models: A decade from now they may shear slow rate by most measurements. sheep, pick fruit, and package easily bruised foods. • Every new advanced technology developed has created em- Where most robots use grippers designed for a single job, ployment. Witness the computer and semiconductor industries soon they will carry the most versatile holding device of all— that were nonexistent not long ago, hand. Making it standard equipment will cut the cost of robots • While unemployment spread here, Japan's 1982 trade surplus so that small businesses will be able to automate their produc- with the United States totaled some $12 billion, equivalent to tion lines and compete with large manufacturers, 480,000 jobs lost by the Americans to the Japanese. The result will be high-quality products and new demand for Japan, a world leader in robot use, could achieve that surplus American goods and services. And as our industries recover, because their goods—particularly in the auto and electronics job opportunities will reappear. These new jobs may not be the industries — are sold cheaper, and are perceived by many to be same ones we have today: Assembly-line jobs will be replaced better, than ours. Unless we can change this, further loss of jobs by positions in quality control, robot repair, programming, and is inevitable. Bui if we regain our reputation for quality goods at service industries yet to be invented. This is no hardship; it is a low prices, an expanding job market is just as sure. rare factory worker who really enjoys tightening the same bolt Automation can help in this effort, but not single-purpose in the same car door for years on end. machines that churn out identical products in enormous volume. The issue is not whether robots and other technologies should

A recent Pentagon study found that the vast majority of items take over American industry. It is how to encourage the new purchased, even by the military, are made in lots of fewer than businesses they bring and how to train those with obsolete trades 100. What we need are machines that can turn out a few spe- to find roles in growth fieids desperate for skilled workers. cialized items, then be reprogrammed cheaply and accurately —STANLEY POLCYN to make a slightly different model, or another product altogether. We need robots to revive our markets and create new jobs. Robots have long had the brawn for machine loading, spot " "

CDruTiruuurm

GENDER TRANSPLANT talk. Infants are captivated by the high pitch and regular Tiny pieces of living brain beat found in all three. were recently transplanted In fact, auditory stimulation from newborn male rais into can start even in the womb. newborn females. The At the UCLA School of result: The females grew up Nursing, where Ludington believing themselves to conducts her research, be males, despite their expectant mothers place anatomy. earphones against their The object of the study, abdomens and play tapes according to neuroscientists of "Mommy and Daddy Gary Arendash and Roger talking." Babies stimulated Gorski, of the University this way prenatally have of California at Los Angeles, eagerly turned their heads was to determine whether in the direction ot their part of the brain could parents' voices right after survive and function when birth. As for music during transferred trom one animal If partial brain transplants Although that pink pastel pregnancy, Ludington to another. can be made to work in nursery filled with flowers recommends Vivaldi's ba- The dramatic behavior humans, it should be possi- and fluffy stuffed animals roque masterpiece The change in the female rats ble to replace the lost may please the parents, she Four Seasons (which now pursue other neurons and thus eliminate says, a newborn is com- —Marcia Barlusiak females in Irenzy) a has the disease.— Paul Raeburn pletely indifferent to such convinced Arendash and surroundings During Ihe first "/ am only a public enter- Gorski that brain tissue can "You cannot hold a man six months of life, babies tainer who has understood indeed survive such trans- down without staying down actually prefer sharp, htgh- his time. fer. This conclusion is with him. contrast color combina- —Pablo Picasso bolstered, they add, by —Booker T. Washington tions, especially black and autopsies showing that white. They stare with nerve cells from the trans- great concentration at mov- planted tissue had hooked ing dots, stripes, and bold up to the host brain. geometric patterns. And, Other researchers have says Ludington, "above all, shown that transplanted potential, put away that babies love eyes." brain tissue would connect teddy bear, paint the nursery Moreover, she notes, the with blood vessels and black and white, and talk traditional teddy bear can remain alive, but Arendash baby talk. That, at least, is overwhelm a newborn, who says he and Gorski are the advice of Susan Luding- would rather play with a among the first to show that ton. director of the Infant mobile composed of three- the neurons themselves Stimulation Education dimensional geometric would interconnect and the Association. shapes. Kicking and reach- transplanted brain part Ludington and other ing for the mobile greatly would function. members of the Los Ange- improve a baby's motor The research holds out les-based organization skills. The teddy should the promise of for 1 a cure a have spent the past ten come months later, to help variety of debilitating hu- years observing infants in foster emotional attach- man diseases, including hospitals labs . and across ments, Parkinson's disease, multiple the country. I Now, after To stimulate the right and sclerosis, Alzheimer's synthesizing much of the left hemispheres ot the disease, and others, all of research, Ludington has brain, Ludington and her which are caused by the come with a , up few unusual colleagues suggest three Ss; Grrrrrrri A teddy bear can loss of neurons in the brain. guidelines. Bach, Brahms, and baby overwhelm a newborn baby. 36 OMNi —

HEART-ATTACK JOBS MOONSHINE GASOLINE

Do you work in a highly Don't throw out grand- structured, fast-paced dad's old copper still. environment? Do you lack Chemists at Purdue's Labo- the opportunity to make ratory of Renewable Re- independent, on-the-job de- i sources Engineering say you to cisions? If so, you are a might soon be able use likely candidate for cardio- it to home-brew gasoline vascular disease and heart from grain alcohol. attack, according to re- Ethanol, or grain alcohol search conducted at Co- the kicker of moonshine lumbia University, in New whiskey— is not a good fuel. York City. Chemically speaking, To reach these conclu- burning a fuel adds oxygen Robert to it; it's that process that sions sociologist Illegal still seized by police during Prohibition: The backyard still releases energy. ethanol j But Karasek examined health may soon be enlisted in the effort to whip the energy shortage. of already contains oxygen; and occupational records [

effect, it men in the United States and phone-company cus- I resentative, for instance, in has already of nerve-racking been partially burned. and Sweden. His finding: tomer-service representa- | is the target sig- tives. People in such occu- abuse from complaining Removing the oxygen Occupation can be as | pations harmful customers; continuous from alcohol is a process nificant a factor in provok- experience | ing cardiovascular disease psychological strain, he psychological pressure Mobil Oil investigated | several years ago. Chemists as smoking or blood-cho- notes, because they don't I upsets the worker's hor- lesterol buildup. have the freedom to esse monal balance, which may there used a synthetic Among those at highest tension by establishing their eventually trigger a heart mineral called zeolite to risk, Karasek contends, own work pace or job attack. remove the oxygen from are assembly-line workers technique. The service rep- "The myth is that man- methanol—wood alcohol. agers run the highest risk of But when the researchers heart disease, but they tried the same process with really don't," Karasek says, ethanol, the reaction emit-

that it ! "That is because managers ted so much heat have optimal control over destroyed the zeolite, their jobs." Now Purdue's Martin Karasek recommends Chang, Allen Anderson, and that management solicit George Tsao have found worker suggestions on how a way to slow the process to to reduce on-the-job psy- safe speeds—by adding chological strain. He also water. By distilling fermented believes that a worker's corn or other grains, they

I schedule should be coordi- can produce the right nated with his biorhythm mixture of water and ethanol. Eric Just the hot chart.— Mishara I pass vapor the still into zeolite- I from a

"We expect rough treatment i filled chamber at about from our colleagues when- 400°C, and gasoline comes ever we produce something out the other end. Ethanol

shoddy. . . . The essential is still too expensive to factor which keeps the : compete with petroleum- scientific enterprise healthy based gasoline, Chang

I is a shared respect for notes, but dozens of scien-

Assembly line: Workers in last-paced environments with little quality." I tists are working to reduce

freedom in decision making run the greatest risk of. heart attack. —Freeman Dyson I the cost.— Robert L. Forward CDnjTiruuunn

half the suicides from the thriving on land in Louisiana, providing meat, milk, and East Bay actually cross the Florida, Texas, and Mis- work in exchange for forage Bay Bridge to reach the souri These "magnificent too coarse and poor for more famous landmark. In beasts," as one researcher cattle to eat. To take advan- contrast, not a single per- describes them, can work tage of that endurance. son from north of the city like horses, yield good red he imported some water has jumped from the Bay meat to rival the Angus buffaloes for development Bridge in almost 50 years. and Hereford in taste, and and selective breeding, 'A big part of the problem produce milk with more hoping to create "outstand-

is accessibility," Seiden butteriat and nonfat solids ing animals" for herds in says. "The Golden Gate than cow's milk. the United States and Bridge is open to pedestrian "The lirst thing most throughout the world. traffic. The Bay Bridge Americans think of when "Water buffaloes are not isn't." Yet, when the pedes- Ihey hear water buffalo is a going to replace cattle in trian traffic is eliminated mean, vicious creature the United States," con- from the analysis, the Golden running and roaring through cedes Wyland Gripe, of the Gate still has three times Africa," notes Tony Leon- College of Veterinary Medi- as many suicides. ards, of Lake Charles cine at the University of The-"power of sugges- Louisiana, who is the only Florida, who is performing tion," Seiden contends, is in commercial breeder of basic research in hematol- large part responsible for water buffaloes in the United ogy, nutrition, and repro- the Golden Gate's allure. States. "No one thinks duction on Leonards's herds. Tourist agencies, for In- about a beautitul animal with "But they can supplement stance, are constantly glori- a show ribbon on him." cattle, particularly on mar- Golden Gate: The bridge of fying the suicide statistics Leonards is working to make ginal, swampy land." choics for the graceful dead. of the bridge, turning it that vision a reality. Cripe is trying to transfer into a kind of suicide Leonards became a embryos among water A SUICIDE OF QUALITY shrine—a place where water-buffalo enthusiast after buffaloes and between water

"people can end their lives a United Nations report buffaloes and cattle. If the A desire to "go out with a with a sense of beauty." documented how well the experiments are successful, sense of grace" may be "Suicide from the Golden animals fare under adverse embryos from either animal reason one many suicides Gate has become romanti- conditions in hot climates, might one day be exported choose to leap off the cized as aesthetically Golden Gale Bridge instead pleasing," Seiden con- of the nearby San Fran- cludes, "while jumping cisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. from the Bay Bridge is That's the conclusion of considered 'tacky' and 'de- " University of California at classe.' Berkeley suicide specialist —Marc McCutcheon Richard Seiden, who has found that five times as "Truth comes out of error many people jump from the more readily than out of famed Golden Gate. confusion." The Golden Gate Bridge —Francis Bacon joins San Francisco and the counties of northern GIT ALONG, U'L WATER California, and the Bay BUFFALO Bridge connects San Fran- cisco with the cities of the Imported with great East Bay. Yel, according to difficulty from Trinidad and Seiden, the romanticized Guam by an American appeal of the Golden Gate rancher with big ideas, some Bridge is so strong that 150 water buffalo are now 33 OMNI —

lo undergo birth in another To date, the Food and sive than the real country. Since embryos Drug Administration has in- While pure cocair do not normally carry hoof- vestigated three deaths it sell for $2,000 an and-mouth disease, their suspects are linked to ounce of material use would eliminate the the use of these commer- with lidocaine or procaine hassle of quarantine now cially available drugs. All the sells for as little as $140. complicating the importation victims succumbed to — Pablo Fenjves procedure.— Dava Sobel cardiorespiratory arrest after exposure to a combination "If Jesus Christ were to "The reasonable man adapts of three local anesthetics come today, people would himself to the world; the lidocaine, procaine, and not even cruelty him. They unreasonable one persists tetracaine. would ash him to dinner, in trying to adapt the world Pharmacologist Marian and hear what he had to say, to himself. Therefore, all W. Fischman, who has been and make fun of it." progress depends on the comparing the effects of —Thomas Cariyle unreasonable man." cocaine and anesthetics on —George Bernard Shaw human subjects at the PRODIGY BURNOUT University of Chicago, notes POOR MAN'S COKE that, although the products He was a young violinist aren't stimulants, they do on his way to a brilliant Synthetically manufactured "cause the person to feel career. Then one day he anesthetics with names high or mildly euphoric." quit— put down his violin and like Toots, Ultracaine, and Since the anesthetics are never picked it up again, Florida Snow, packaged so often used to activate nerves He's a high achiever in they seem almost indistin- that stimulate the heart, medical school now, but he guishable from cocaine, are Fischman adds, "anyone nurses a sense of failure being sold openly in head using these products runs that may haunt him for life. shops across the country. To the risk of bringing about What stopped him from tured, analytic style that kids, these products are undesired changes." becoming a Perlman or typifies adull thought. Many low-cost substitutes for real According to experts, Paganini? A midlife crisis at successful musicians say coke. Unfortunately, they head-shop coke is, under- age fifteen, something they have weathered this can be fatal. standably, far less expen- ihat can affect prodigies in change. But some children or the quit and never play again.

,u setts How prodigies learn }logy re- is largely unstudied; scien- amberger. tists are reluctant to inter- iianist fere with the delicate proc- herself, says gifted children ess that makes genius. uniformly seem to go So Bamberger is proceeding through a period in their slowly—first getting to teens when the music that know gifted children, and once came so naturally then testing them on com- no longer seems to flow. The puters and musical bells problem occurs because to see how they organize the way children learn is notes. She's also helped or- different from the way adults ganize a network of behav- do. Like children with less ioral scientists who will developed talents, the child hold two conferences this prodigy learns much of year on how gifted children his music intuitively. But as learn. The results may he enters adulthood he explain why some prodigies must relearn his skills, fitting fail so painfully. them into the more struc- — Douglas Starr "

CDRJTIRJUUrUl

POLYESTER DIET of sucrose and eight fatty acids. In one recent trial ten The shortcomings of a obese volunteers lost an

die! become apparent average of eight pounds in at breakfast, when the 20 days. morning allotment of dry, The calorie-free food unbuffered toast is served. substitute blends into a tasty As the day painfully pro- 155-calorie shake with ice gresses, visions of frosted milk (270 calories less than milk shakes and scrumptious the real thing), says Glueck, cookies sap willpower. By and can be baked in cook- midnight, the craven dieter ies that have 30 calories surrenders to temptation less than normal. Although

and dashes for the kitchen. it lowers vitamin A and E

Wouldn't it be terrific if levels in the body, that someone discovered a way deficiency can be compen- to take the calories out of sated" for with vitamin sup- fattening foods? Now an plements. The compound is indigestible substitute for currently undergoing Food Belter-fed children were more expressive, less anx/oi culinary fat and oil called and Drug Administration readily involved in group activities, and more open to r sucrose polyester just about review, and, Glueck sug-

does this. "It allows you gests, it may eventually be UNDERNOURISHED activities, and more willing to to ingest what seems to be sold as a prescription EMOTIONS pursue a frustrating task a conventional high-fat, product, in the form of a or explore a new situation, high-cholesterol American food dressing or spread. Emotional health may such as playing with diet," says University of — Eric Mishara depend upon how well an strange toys." Cincinnati internist Charles individual eats during the Other researchers had

Glueck, "but it lacks most "The brute curiosity of an first years of life, according assessed the home situation of the calories, because the angel's stare/ to psychologist David of each child: the size and body's digestive enzymes Turns you like them to stone." Barrett of the Children's condition of the house, just can't break it down." —Allen Tate Hospital Medical Center, in the availability of warm More than 400 of Glueck's Boston. clothing, and the amount of patients have already "There is precious little in Barrett reached this teaching provided by the dieted on foods made with civilization to appeal to conclusion after studying mother. These elements sucrose polyester, a syn- a yeti. 138 Guatemalan young- turned out to be reliable thetic compound composed —Sir Edmund Hillary sters. Some of the children predictors of intelligence-test had received a high-calorie performance, Barrett said, protein and carbohydrate but generally did not influ- nutritional supplement from ence social and emotional birth, while others just behavior. The findings received a low-calorie sup- suggest that intellectual and plement without the protein. emotional development To see how nutrition af- may be affected by different fected development, Barrett physiological and environ- tested both groups at age mental influences. six and found behavioral Coinvestigalors in the differences between study were Marian Radke- them. Yarrow, of the National Insti- 'The better-supplemented tute of Mental Health, and children were more expres- Robert E. Klein, of the sive," Barrett said. "They Institute of Nutrition of Cen- The heartbreak of a diet breakfast: Now a substitute for fat were less anxious, more tral America and and oil, made from sucrose polyester, can make dieting livable. readily involved in group Panama.—Dava Sobel 40 OMNI fl FOAM HOME heating bill of $100, versus the nearly $800 that the A new kind of house, owners of a comparably made of the same material sized conventional dwelling as disposable coffee cups, would pay. Peterson tested could provide a strong, the strength of another energy-efficient shelter from foam home he built by hoist- the cold, even for residents ing a Mack truck onto the of the northern United roof; later he ignited all States. In fact, one such the furniture inside. Firemen house has proved far more who entered the structure energy-efficient than con- after the blaze detected ventionally built homes, and neither structural damage just as fire-resistant and nor toxic fumes emanating strong. from the walls. Designed by Wisconsin The home comes in nearly entrepreneur Don Peterson, two dozen models, ranging the house resembles a from cottage-sized to a standard adobe home, but roomy, four-bedroom split- Men like Howard Hughes have inspired the myth that it helps to consists of foot-thick blocks level. The cost: about the be neurotic to get rich. Now, it appears, the myth may be true. of expanded polystyrene, same as a comparable brick RICH NEUROTICS some 30 years later. Of also used to make Styro- or wood home. Provisionally the 434 white males re- foam. The walls are coated approved in Wisconsin, Neurotics may have the viewed, 25 percent were with an acrylic, fire-resistant the design is awaiting fed- inside track on making regarded as mentally cement, then anchored to eral building-code ap- money after all. healthy, 56 percent as the foundation with reinforc- proval, which may come Men with neurotic symp- neurotic, 19 percent as so- ing iron bars. this spring. After that, says toms ranging from anxiety ciopathic, and 10 percent All this makes the struc- Peterson, you'll be able and mild depression to as psychotic. The neurotics, ture so energy-tight that, to buy kits with all the foam occasional fits of panic earn researchers learned, earned theoretically, it could be blocks you need, color- more than men diagnosed 23 percent more than those warmed with human body and number-coded for as- as mentally fit, according to considered totally healthy. heat, says Peterson. One sembly—Douglas Starr a new study linking psychi- If neurotics really do earn house near Madison, where atric condition to earning more, does neurosis cause temperatures routinely "The moon is the mother of capacity. the higher income, or vice drop below 0°F in the winter, pathos and pity." The study also found that versa? Lee Benham theo- is expected to have a —Wallace Stevens neurotics were generally rizes that compulsive be- higher in native intelligence, haviors such as extreme at- better educated, and more tention to detail often likely to be employed full develop into successful time than men untouched business tools. "My best by neurosis. guess," he notes, "is that the To conduct the study, disorder causes the income economist Lee Benham and differential." mathematician Alexandra He adds, however, "We're Benham, both from Wash- not recommending that ington University, in St. people go nuts to get Louis, traced the psycho- rich."— Robert Brody logical and financial profiles of 434 elementary-school "The civilization of one children diagnosed at mental epoch becomes the manure clinics in the late 1920s of the next." Polystyrene house: Fire-resistant, strong enough to hold a Mack right through to adulthood —Cyril Connolly truck, and so energy-tight it could be warmed by body heat. coruTiruuuon

where he can predict with tics of several species. certainty which children will Electricity may also be become schizophrenic used to split red blood cells without treatment. He sus- for a second, just long

pects that it might be im- enough for drugs to be possible to do this by popped inside without studying brain waves alone, letting the contents of the though, because schizo- ceil spew out. When the

phrenia is such a complex researchers used this

malady. And even if he method to inject drugs into does learn to predict schiz- mice, they found that the

ophrenia, he will still face drug-laden blood cells an even more vexing prob- traveled through the blood- lem: what to do to prevent stream normally When it,— Paul Raeburn the abnormal cells reached the liver or spleen, they "Universities are of course were attacked, as expected, hostile to geniuses." and the drugs poured out. —Ralph Waldo Emerson And the possibilities do not end there. If electro- ELECTROCUTED cuted cells are kept alive CELLS longer, enzymes or hor- mones could be wrapped When living cells are up and released into the electrocuted, they spin, body bit by bit over several burst, stick together, or open weeks or months. Such a PREDICTING time they detected a and close according to technique might help scien- SCHIZOPHRENIA change. the frequency of the current tists obliterate the ravages of Friedman and his col- passed through them. diabetes or hemophilia, The child of a schizo- leagues, L. Erlenmeyer- West German scientists, led caused by the absence of phrenic has a good chance Kimiing and Barbara Corn- by Ulrich Zimmerman, at of becoming schizophrenic, blatt, measured a surge the Institute for Chemistry, in too. If psychologists could of brain-wave activity when- Julich, just west of Cologne, just identify the most vulner- ever the children heard a have perfected electrocu- able offspring, they might change in the tones. But the tion techniques so exquis- be able to treat them early brain-wave pulse was itely that they can choreo- and head off the disorder. much weaker in the children graph plant or animal cells Now researchers may of schizophrenics than in into a balletic dance. be on the verge of doing just the normal children. The At one frequency, for that, according to psycholo- researchers also found example, the cells "line up gist David Friedman, of weakened brain-wave re- between the electrodes the New York State Psychi- sponse in adult schizo- like a pear] necklace." At atric Institute, phrenics, another frequency, the To see whether he could The findings are puzzling, necklace of cells merges, weed out potential schizo- but Friedman thinks they thereby forming a grotesque phrenics, Friedman played might reflect the inability of "supercell" hybrid. a steady series of tones schizophrenics —and po- According to Zimmerman, for normal children and the tential schizophrenics—to the ability to fuse different children of schizophrenic respond properly to kinds of cells with electricity parents. Occasionally .changes in their social and may be crucial io genetic he'd interrupt the tone or physical environment. engineers who want to alter its pitch. The children Friedman would like to create hybrid organisms were asked to signal every refine his tests to the point containing the characteris- 42 OMNI ^ m

II II 1 I

«"• " 'r~,-~*:irv 1 . ; para.noa lust thai humans in- Melinda and Kirk and Mike and Mark are to compete, and even more jobs will be love, hate, — that's argument. It doesn't flict on one another? Probably. And what making a robot. They call it R202, the name lost. Bui half an

it That remains to be seen. of the building they work in at a company tell us who will lose their jobs. For workers, will do to us? McLaughlin, an actor renowned called TRW. "R202's purpose in life will be robots or foreign'competition is merely a But Tom for his robot roles (he taught Woody Allen's to move around the office and look at choice between hanging and the electric Sleeper), tells us he thinks things," says Michael Jamgochian, one of chair. And that's the bind we, as a society, robot-actors in humans might get a little bored and fa- its four systems-engineer creators, "to ex- have to break out of." Others argue that the loss of jobs is not tigued with being surrounded by inorganic plore . . . lo go from Mark Thomsen's desk zombies that are relentlessly precise, log- to Melinda Sherbring's desk when we tell the most difficult economic challenge robots. "Retraining is the major ical, and tireless —even in their mistakes— it to and to avoid obstacles and people." posed by rapid roboti- never acting on a hunch, intuition, or im- Eventually "it will enter, deliver one-liners, social problem created by and leave," adds Kirk Moody. zation," says industrial-robot expert Eli pulse of fantasy. Yorkpsychologist Diane Connors Although the TRW group is trying to keep Lustgarten, of Paine, Webber, Mitchell, New problem if robots the design simple and modular, building Hutchins, Inc., "not unemployment. Mas- thinks there could be a

' to over too many human endeavors. an adaptive, autonomous robot is an am- sive retraining programs will be needed take errors then fixing them bitious project—perhaps never really done prevent the creation of an oversupply of "Experiencing and creative process." she says. before —fraught with major problems on workers whose skills have become obso- is part of the sometimes becomes purposefully every level. The biggest hurdle facing the lete," And at the moment very little is being "Error in objects, and that's often what TRW quartet, however, is not technologi- done to create retraining programs, much embedded shorter gives them their richness." cal. It's financial. Employed by TRW, one less to draw up strategies such as And of course, there are the more pri- of the biggest high-tech companies in the work hours or longer-range plans for the people believe dev- United States, the robot's makers aren't robotized economy as a whole. mordial fears. "Some dwell robots, and con- getting a nickel from the firm for research "Robots have an extraordinary potential ils could come to in says. Another and development. R202's gestation and to be beneficial," Shaiken continues. "Ro- trol them and us," McLaughlin cites apprehension over "robo-ter- birth must take place after the working day. expert rorism," scenario in which a mad elec- Melinda, Kirk, Mike, and Mark have a bright a trician seizes a centralized computerized idea, and they have to moonlight it. control system and marshals all the me- In a sense, robotics can be seen as a into squadrons of killer symbol of American technology today, a chanical rovers workers, robots central processor. And bellwether indicating the direction of in- ^For troops guided by a the time-honored Sorcerer's dustry, employment, electronic intelli- or foreign competition is then there's echoed by the Isley gence, and the human use of human Apprentice theme, merely a choice Brothers' "l-turned-you-on-and-now-l-can't- beings. And in a sense, the boxlike, rolling turn-you-off" concept. R202 is a symbol of robotics. Its creators, between hanging and the But more pervasive today is a kind of like hopeful parents, want it to win friends, electric chain anxiety; fear mediated by vague, move freely in high circles, and learn mixed we, as a society, quasimystical longings for a corporeal ma- steadily. But R202 faces growing pains. Al- And chine/man union such as portrayed in The though TRW is supplying some hardware, will have to movie, Julie R202 hasn't yet been given the dowry of Demon Seed. In this grade-B out of that bind3 break Christie is trapped in her own home by her corporate support it needs to enter the scientist-husband's intelligent computer. American workforce. Some people, in fact, itself robot, which are blatantly terrified of such machines. The computer builds a to rape and impregnate her. Robots make news. The silly slave-crea- proceeds Eventually she gives birth to a golden- tures in the movies generate a huge new metallic baby-thing. toy industry, while the giant praying man- botics is a teen no logy :hat could enhance scaled, both for those tis-type assembly-line robot steadily dis- the quality of life. But the technology will Robo-shock is here today— lives are dominated by the intrica- places blue-collar workers in the mid- not do that automatically. If robots are used whose lands, When Isaac Asimov recently without regard for how humans are af- cies of actually designing the things, and per- for those in whose imaginations sleek little quipped, "Robots don't kill people, robots fected, then their promise will be their in the mechanoids already serve, obey, and mix kill jobs," he was only half right. In 1982 verted; to talk about promise Actor McLaughlin notes that the Japanese disclosed information they'd abstract tells us very little." the drinks. plays 'bot, even a robot dandy been hiding: A robot had fatally crushed a Could robots determine Ronald Rea- when he a velvet suit, "people come up to me worker who had strayed into its personal gan's future? Shaiken thinks so. Robots will in a if I'm real. Real Mc- zone. The Japanese supposedly welcome be an issue in the 1984 presidential elec- and ask me what?" such robots each new robot with a Shinto ceremony tions, he says, popping up in debates about Laughlin laughs. "They think job security, the future are already here, and they want to know if when it is installed. Yet behind the scenes employment, and or one." Japanese labor unions are beginning to of American technology. I'm impersonating one, am express deep concern about the security Robots trigger some odd anxieties. Look When will shock be surpassed by real- ity'' Not for a at least, say most of their rank and file. at the letters to the Mego Corporation, in decade artificial-intelligence (Al) "Four million Americans out of a job by New York, which makes a robotlike toy experts, .and McCarthy (see this 1990," blares one forecast. And according called the Mego 2-XL. "I apologize for nearly leaders such as John Interview) think it will take a con- to Harley Shaiken, labor and technology denying my son the opportunity to be- month's wildest theories analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of friend a 2-XL because of my prejudice," ceptual leap beyond our creation of truly intelli Technology, in the next ten years General one letter says. Another; "I'm sure Wayne to accomplish the : devices smart enough to Motors alone will purchase 20,000 robots. would rather have a 2-XL help him with his gent machines— These machines could displace another homework than me." Or, "Our friends play challenge their makers. is this immense contrast be- 40,000 to 50,000 auto workers besides the with 2-XL more than with us." Is this the "There notion of what will thousands, already laid off directly and in- pattern of the future— robots replacing tween some people's realities what is directly by automation. parents, friends, and teachers in people's happen and the harsh of actually here now," explains David Gross- "The argument is often raised," Shaiken affections? When homebots are a ubiqui- automation research at says, "that unless we introduce robots, in- tous presence in the social fabric, will they man, manager of

.; Watson Research Center, dustries in the United States will not be able be treated to the whole emotional gamut- IBM's Thomas 46 OMNI in Yorklown Heights, York. it New "When to give the capability to make these value set of Polaroid sonic range finders, similar you're in the area of speculative mobile ro- judgments by itself." to the ones on the camera. Mounted on the hols—androids you have left the field — of What will be the robots biggest prob- robot, the sensors bounce sound off things what might go wrong and have entered lem? "People coming up and staring at it," to determine their distance from the rover. . areas where nothing has its gone right yet." designers are quick to say. "It's going 'A major problem here," explains Thom- Indeed, Al and robotics types don't hide to be surrounded by people all the time. sen, "is that flat surfaces produce rico- the fact that today, most robots' is It's vision programmed not to move when it's close chets and confusing signals, which some- dim. They can hardly hear and to barely use people; so it won't"— a sell-protective times don't indicate a true distance to the a natural language. They don't have the strategy. The robot is dimly aware of peo- robot." Also, says Sherbring, "if you ex- dexterity of a six-month-old baby. ple, having been programmed by its mak- pect to perceive a wail five feet away, and It is much easier to get a so-called ex- ers to "notice" anything that moves and the sensors suddenly tell you there's noth- pert system computer to play psychiatrist appears vaguely human-sized. ing in front for lifty feet, what does the robot or diagnose a physical ailment than it is to "Imagine yourself," says Jamgochian, "as do? Do you believe your 'internal world' or get a robot to solve the most trivial prob- a robot. All you can do is find out distance your sensors?" lem—one thai a dog might find simple. Like measurements with your little ultrasonic The other two sensors are "curb feel- severely retarded children, require who sensor. You know how far you've gone in .a ers," which order the robot to stop imme- continuous attention from their parents, to- certain direction, but you're moving on roller diately if they touch anything, and "encod- day's most advanced robots are doted on, skates; so you don't know where you're ers" on the wheel shafts, which measure second to second, by their creators. "In a going. Your eyes are closed. the angular distance [raveled by the wheels. robot the interaction with the real is world "Imagine you have to go down a hallway This figure can be translated into distance very difficult." says Michael senior Brady, from room A to room B, People are coming moved in a direction. "That's how R202 can research scienlist at MIT's Robotics Lab- to you, up and jabbing you. and saying. figure oui how far it's gone." Thomsen says. oratory. "You can't form artificial models of 'Hey, you're i.he wrong gong way." Or, 'You're "Then it double-checks against what its in- the real world with all its warts, wrinkles, starling to get false readings.' We have to ternal map says should be around it, and and bumps. Still, that's what we're trying either updates the map or updates the po- to do," he says, laughing.- sition, depending on where the error is." If Thomsen of TRW talks realism about there is an error in the integration of these backlash: "First everyone had the SF idea three sense-data systems, R202 might go that a robot could do anything. Then the spinning away into a deaf, dumb, sightless industrial-automation people came out W think we're void of disorientation, or at least bump into saying that's a pipe dream and began cut- fighting an uphill battle somebody's desk. ting expectations. back Right now we're While the TRW group struggles in trying to make with these swimming against that. We are atthe stage problems of mobile robots, scientists at the where we can start working on a couple of computers control robot MIT Robotics Laboratory are confronting those pipe dreams." ' - limbs. Scientists the challenges ol the disembodied robotic Marvin Minsky, of MIT's Al lab, has said arms, hands, fingers, and eyes. Scientists that robot makers should could find ways of making be designing the at the lab contend with problems crucial flimsiest of automatons — robots that shake, biological machines to robot development— accuracy, speed, rattle, shudder, experience gear backlash, and tactility, to do the gripper among others. Mi- and droop. And then, he says, we should same thing$ chael Brady, who claims his is the biggest create sophisticated software to compen- robotic-research enclave in the United sate for all the mechanical faults. States, with about 30 researchers, told us The TRW quartet is doing something like about the current limits ol mechanoid limbs. that. They will be able —through high-level The standard industrial-robot arm moves software and fairly simple hardware— to put ourselves in the robot's shoes." about one meter a second, he says, which demonstrate exactly what can with be done Right now the TRW group is integrating is only about the speed of an average per- the remote sensing rover today, the They are software and hardware, and encoun- son reaching from the stove to the refrig- in the vanguard. But where is that? tering many additional subtle and complex erator while cooking dinner at a leisurely For one thing, even at the forefront of problems. "If the wheels spin on an un- pace. The MIT group is working hard to robot research, most machines don't walk. even surface like a carpet or the joints be- break this speed limit. Plans for R202 call for it to roll through an tween rooms, and the fells program the "When I say fast" Brady says about MIT's office on three sets of wheels, navigating robot to navigate a straight line, it'll have a arm, "I mean on the order of five meters a on its own, past clutter moving people, and problem," Thomsen says. "What the robot second"— faster than a short-order cook. at record-breaking speeds of up to one thinks is a straight line might be something MIT's arm also accelerates and deceler- foot per second. else. The robot will have to correct for that, ates with great bursts of speed. "That's This activity, simple enough for the of- first by measuring with its sensors the dis- where all the arm's effort is expended," he fice gofer— or even a centipede pre- — tance from walls. Then it will have to keep explains. "We're developing an arm with sents the challenge of a dragon for track it hunt a of how far has deviated from its about three-g acceleration ... an arm that robot. The most complex problem lacing intended path. You have to be certain can deliver something on the order of fif- the creators of R202 is designing a pro- everything within the robot's internal pro- teen pounds at these speeds and torques. gram that will continuously update the in- gramming and hardware is precise, be- So it wouldn't be a good idea to put your formation the robot receives on its daily cause there will be pleniy of external de- head in the way of this robot." rounds and make predictions based on that viations and quirks." Velocity alone isn't enough. "You don't constant flow of sensory data. The pro- "Here's another problem for you," Moody just want fhe arm to move at a hell of a gram will give the machine, among other adds. "Say the robot is to move down the speed," Brady continues. things, an internal representation of the ro- hallway in a straight line, but its orientation "I mean, if you're reaching like crazy to bot's immediate environment. Without this is off by half a degree. That doesn't sound pluck a glass of wine from a tray before "internal world" in its memory, the machine like much, does it? But move one hundred someone else snatches it, you want to make couldn't move an "inch. "It has to be adap- feet and see how much half a degree sure you don't whack all the other glasses tive," Moody says. Sherbring adds; "Up to' your robot causes to deviate." off the tray while you're at it." now humans would make decisions about R202 will be equipped with- three types An even greater challenge is mimicking where the machine would go. We're trying of sensors,' the long-distance one being a the vast range of molions that is child's 48 OMNI "

play for hands. "The human human hand a limited number o' no n;y oer square cen- the wine decanter or your mother-in-law, it has not one, but twenty-two degrees of timeter. Or if they give you lots of points, has to come fortified with extraordinary motion," Brady says. "It's not powered by you can't distinguish the characteristics of amounts of data on the space occupied one motor, but by forty-eight. Can we build one material being sensed from another," by that particular teapot and on the swept a machine that has such dexterity? Machine vision is Brady's specialty, and volume as the robot moves through space. "You've only got to look at the structure it's an area that has seen some of the most To build such a comprehensive data bank of the hand tendon to realize how remark- intensive research in the course of a dec- the robot designer must analyze reality on ably complex it is," he continues. ade. Still, there have been no solid results. its most primitive geometric level. "Suppose you construct a multifingered Right now industrial-robot optics are. so "How do I represent free space?" Brady robotic hand: You've got to control the in- primitive a machine couldn't tell whether a asks. "The space not occupied by things— dividual tendons; a bunch of tendons act- humble kitchen fork was lying prong side this particular object that is not an object

ing together to control a single finger; and up or down. And that's simple all, a problem. at but is actually full of air? I have to a bunch of fingers working together to "The key lo making robots more flexible is represent that free space and also repre- control an entire hand!" to provide them with some understanding sent the movement of that much more rare- What kind of program would you need of, say, where to put down the coffee cup," fied object— namely, the robot—through to have a robot play something simple like Brady continues. "Not on the edge of the it." Ultimately the designer has to consider "Chopsficks"? "I wouldn't say as simple as table; not in the soup. We don't want to every contingency one could encounter 'Chopsticks,' he responds. " "I'd be quite have to say every time: 'Move the jar to anywhere, anytime, in the given space and happy if we could get a hand to twirl a position X equals twenty-seven, Y equals then integrate the reasoning, the vision, and baton, or roll ball in a around its fingers, or thirty-two, 2 equals something else.' We the movements into one machine. There is able to figure be out how to pick up a Coke want the robot to know teapots have spouts, a model for such a device. "It's called a can as opposed to a tennis ball. That's the and cups have handles." human being." Brady says gleefully. level we're hoping to achieve in the next Removing the scales from a robot's eyes From Frankenstein to The Stepford Wives, of years." couple requires extraordinary vision from its cre- people seem to want to create artificial Most contemporary robots are numb. ator. If the programmer makes a mistake versions of themselves—to play God. But They grope for parts, and if they don't grasp and the robot's model for "wrenches" isn't today complex android-mechanoid crea- flap them they happily their grippers around complete enough, it will view bad wrenches tures exist only in books and movies wherein in the air anyway. As Brady says, there's as good and discard the good one. "If you they tend to exhibit the rankest forms of no point in having a if don't don't it hand you put present with enough information," egotism and idiosyncrasy. It is as if the me- tactile sensors on it. Brady explains, "it won't understand the chanical-man concept gives a novelist carte 'There is little experience in building concept of 'wrench.' blanche to twist human traits to new and good, tactile, sensing materials," he says. Paradoxically, designers must store data bizarre configurations. The crab-shaped "The technology is preliminary and the in- about emptiness as well as the hard sur- robot in Gravity's Rainbow makes only a formation it yields is fairly coarse—gar- faces of things. For a robot to move a tea- cameo appearance. But in that time the bage. Current tactile sensors give you only pot ^through space and not whack either boorish machine continuously smacks gum made of a malleable variation on polyvinyl chloride that sends out detachable mole- cules transmitting a "damn fair imitation of Beeman's licorice flavor, to the robot's crab brain," writes Thomas Pynchon. In the auto- cities of Philip K, Dick's Game Players of Titan, homeostatic maintenance vehicles collect trash and check lawn growth. Twenty-legged mechanical repair vehicles propel themselves through the streets, "hot on the scent of decay." Today, only in our fantasies do we play out robot soap operas in which the entire household is held hostage when the an- droid maid and the Naugahyde butler mu- tiny and decide to run the house their way, How can we have a mechanical Upstairs/ Downstairs when there is nary a robot able to negotiate a single step?

'A robot that does all the work in the house is at least twenty years off," according to Kevin Dowling, a researcher at Carnegie- Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. "The home, figuratively speaking, is a very dirty envi- ronment. Objects are complexly arranged and constantly being changed." But an even bigger problem, Dowling says, will be to find enough work to keep the home robot busy. "Since a domestic robot will be

expensive, having it lying around idle would not be cost-effective, You'd probably give

it every conceivable task, but if you were gone the whole day the machine would fin- ish in about two hours. And of course there are some complicated legal implications.

What if the 'bot baby-sitter throws the baby out the window?"(For a contrasting view on the future of homebots, see "Robots at Home," on page 70.) "There's an alternative to haying a house- cleaning machine," offers IBM's David Grossman. "It's called 'design for auto- mation.' Instead of having a robot smart enough to run around vacuuming up your wallet with the dust and throwing the baby out with the garbage, build your house so

that it iooks like McDonald's, where all the tables are attached to the wall and have only one leg, and the chairs are attached

to the table. Then it's easy to mop. Maybe you'd have hich-oressi.re hoses along one side of the wall: Everybody out of the room,

1 turn on the hoses, and all the dirt is sprayed

automatically to the other side, where it collects and runs off." The mention of McDonald's reminds Grossman of an incident related to him by a former robotics colleague. A conglom- erate we'll call Rarnjac Inc. was consider- ing a completely roboticized version of a fast-food restaurant. Customers couid or- der burgers, shakes, fries, fried shrimp, and so on by punching a set of buttons. With each order received, refrigerator doors would swing open deep in the bowels of the earth, and robot arms would grab hamburgers, throw them onto skillets, and grab and move milk shakes. Rarnjac built a prototype of this culinary wizardry on Long Island, and Grossman's colleague paid a

visit to watch it work. Everything was indeed roboticized ex- cept for the final step—putting the food in the bags. That was—and still is —beyond the capability of robots. So at the end of- ihe process stood a human, being —with food chutes aimed at him from all direc- tions, and a giant display' board, that told him what combinations to put in each bag. Everything went well for a couple of min-, utes. Then he dropped a chocolate shake.

He still needed that chocolate, but the next - three milk shakes in the shake line were vanilla. He reached around them to get at a chocolate, and in doing so, knocked some french fries on the floor "Within an hour," concluded Grossman, "he was knee-deep in garbage." The robot-human connection also went awry at a major New York bank. In learning to love their robo-mailcarts, employees at Citicorp, in New York City, were forced to make major psychological adjustments. Previously, human mailpeople had made one-and-a-half-hour pickup circuits. The robo-carts made Ihe round trip in ten min- utes. According to computer expert Ran- dolph Long, a former Citicorp employee, the carts conditioned the people to set up "internal clocks" in their minds. 'After about nine and a half minutes," he remembers,

"you began to steel yourself for it—the in- cessant warning beeps and the heavy rat- tling." The human carriers were a great source of interoffice news and gossip, too, and were. sorely missed for that reason. The robo-carts followed tracks sprayed on the carpet, and Long remembers he fre- quently considered getting a can of the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 90 A man could

lose his heart in Paris if he can't play the game BLIND SHEMMY

BY JACK DANN

After covering the burning and sacking of the Via Roma in Naples. Carl Pfeifler, a famous newsfax reporter, could not resist his compulsion to gamble. He telephoned Joan Otur, one of his few friends, and insisted that she accompany him 10 Paris. Organ-gambling was legal in France. They dropped from the sky in a transparent Plasticine egg, and Pans opened up below them, Paris and the gtittering chip of diamond that was the Casino Beliecour. Except for the dymaxion dome of the Right Bank. Joan would not have been able to distinguish Paris from the suburbs beyond. A city had grown over the city: The grid of Ihe ever-expanding slung city had its own constellations of light and hid Haussmann's ruler-straight boulevards, the ancient. architeclural wonders, even the black, sour-stenched Seine, which was an hourglass curve dividing the oid city. Their transpod settled to the ground like a dirty snowllake and splil silently open, letting in the chill night air with its acrid smells oi mudflats and cinders and clogged drains. Joan and Pfeitfer hurried across the Iranspad toward the high oaken doors of the casino: All around Ihem stretched the bleak, PAINTING BYARMODIO brick-and-concrete wastelands of the pie, the captains of the ways. Here was a bloody block, he thought. "How the hell do city's ruined districts, pertect replica of the fetid warrens on a street casino, but per- I get out of here?" the dome's peripheries, which were inhab- , fectly safe. This was a street casino, at least Before Joan could respond, Johnny ap- ited by skinheads and Screamers who ex- to Pfeiffer, whowas swept up in the noise peared, as if out of nowhere, and said, isted outside the tightly controlled struc- and bustle, as he whetted his appetite for "Monsieur Pfeiffer may take any one of the ture of Uptown life. Now, as Pfeiffer touched the dangerous pleasures of the top level. ascenseurs, or, if he would care for the view his hand to a palm-plate sensor, the door Ancient iron bandits whispered "chinka- of our palace, he could take (he staircase opened and admilled them into the casino chinka" and rolled their picture-frame eyes to heaven." He smiled, baring even teeth, itself. The precarious outside world was in promise of a jackpot, which was imme- and curtsied to Pfeiffer, who was blushing. closed out and left behind. diately transferred to the winner's account The boy certainly knows his man, Joan A young man, who reminded Joan of an by magnetic sleight of hand. The ampli- thought sourly. upright (if possible) Bedlington terrier, led fied, high-pitched voices of pinball com- Am I jealous? she asked herself. She Ihem through the courtyard. He spoke with puters on the walls called out winning hands cared for Pfeiffer, but didn't love him— at a clipped English accent and had tufts of of poker and blackjack. A simulated stab- least she didn't think she did. woolly, bluish-white hair implanted all over bing drew nothing more than a few glances. "Shall I attend you?" Johnny asked Pfeif- his head, face, and body. Only his hands Tombstone booths were filled with figures fer. ignoring Joan. and genitals were hairless. working through their own Stations of the "No," said Pfeiffer. "Now please leave us "He has tobe working off an indenture," Cross. Hooked-in winners were rewarded alone."

Pfeiffer said sharply as he repressed a with bursts of eiec: ricaily induced ecstasy; "Well, which is it?" asked Joan. "The el- sexual urge. losers writhed m pain arcl suffered through evator would be quickest, zoom you right "Shush," Joan said, as the boy gave fhe brain-crushing aftershock of week-long to the organ room." Pfeiffer a brief, contemptuous look— in Pa- migraines, "We can take the stairs," Pfeiffer said, a risian culture, you were paying only for the And, of course, battered robots clat- touch of blush still in his cheeks. But he service, not for the smile. tered around with the traditional comple- would say nothing about the furry boy. 'Je-

led it They were into a simple, but formal, sus, seems that every time I blink my eye, entry lounge, which was crowded, but not the stairway disappears." uncomfortable. The floor was marbled; a "I'll show you the way," Joan said, taking few pornographic icons were discreelly his arm.

situated around the carefully laid-out com- 'Just what I need." Pfeiffer said, smiling, fort niches. The room reminded Joan of a tive amplified, eliminating one small barrier between them. chapel with arcades, figures, and stone high-pitched voices of "I think your rush is over, isn't it? You courts. Above was a dome, from which ra- don't really want to gamble out your guts.." pinbali computers diated a reddish, suffusing light, lending "I came to do something, and I'll follow the room an expansiveness of height rather on the walls called out it through." than breadth. winning hands The stairwell was empty, and, like an ob- 1 it But was mostly holographic illusion. ject conceived in Alices Wonderland, it of They were directed to wait a moment and blackjack. A simulated appeared to disappear behind them. then presented to the purser, an over- stabbing drew no "Cheap tricks," Pfeiffer said. weighl, balding man who sat behind a small "Why are intent this?" more than a few glances.^ you so on Joan desk. He was dressed in a blue camise asked. "If you lose, which you most prob- shirt and matching caftan, which was but- ably will, you'll never have a day's peace. toned across his wide- chest and closed They can call in your heart, or liver, or—" with a red scarf. He was obviously, and "I can buy out, if that should happen." uncornforlably, dressed in the colors of the Pfeiffer reddened, but it had nothing to do establishment. ment of drugs, drink, and food. The only with his conversation with Joan, to which

'And good evening, Monsieur Pfeiffer and incongruity was a perfecfly dressed geisha, he was hardly paying attention; he was .still Mademoiselle Otur. We are honored to have who quickly disappeared info one of the thinking about the furry boy. such an important guest, or guests, I should iris-doors on the far wall. "You wouldn't gamble them, if you thought say." The purser slipped two cards into a "Do you want to play the one-armed you could buy out. That's bunk." small console. "Your identification cards will bandits?" Joan asked, fighting her grow- "Then I'd get artificials." be returned to you when you leave." After ing claustrophobia, wishing only to escape "You'd be taking another chance, with a pause he asked, "Ah, does Monsieur into quiet; but she was determined to try the quotas—thanks to your right-wing Pfeiffer wish the lady to be credited on his to keep Pfeiffer from going upstairs. Yet, friends in power." card?" The purser lowered his eyes, indi- ironically—all her emotions seemed to be Pfeiffer didn't take the bait. "I admit de- cating embarrassment. Quite simply, Joan simultaneously yin and yang—she also feat," he said. Again he thought of the furry did not have enough credit to be received wanted him to gamble away his organs. boy's naked, hairless genitals. And with thai into the more sophisticated games, She knew that she would feel a guilty thrill came the thought of death.

"Yes, of course," Pfeiffer said absently. if he lost his heart. Then she pulled down The next level was less crowded and

He felt guilty and anxious about feeling a the lever of the one-armed bandit; it would more subdued. There were few electronic thrill of desire lor thai grotesque boy. read her finger- and odor-prints and trans- games to -be seen on the floor. A man "Well, then," said the purser, folding his fer or deduct the proper amount to or from passed dressed in medical white, which hands on the desk, "we are at your dis- Pfeiffer's account. The eyes rolled and indicated that deformation games were posal for as long as you wish to stay with clicked and one hundred international credit being played. On each floor the stakes be- us." He gestured toward the terrier and said, dollars was lost. "Easy come, easy go. At came increasingly higher; fortunes were 'Johnny will give you the tour," but Pfeiffer least, this is a safe way to go. But you didn't lost, people were disfigured, or ruined, politely declined. Johnny ushered them into come here to be safe, right?" Joan asked but—-with the exception of the top floor, a central room, which was anything but mockingly. which had dangerous games other than quiet, and after — a wink at Pfeiffer—dis- "You can remain down here, if you like," organ-gambling— at least no one died. creetly disappeared. Pfeiffer said, looking about the room for an They might need a face and body job after The room was as crowded as trie city exit, noticing that iris doors were spaced too many deformations, but those were ways. It was filled with what looked to be every few meters on the nearest wall to his easily obtained, although one had to have the ragtag, the bums and the street peo- left, The casino must take up the whole very good credit to ensure a proper job. 54 OMNI "

On each ascending level, the house appointed home. The high walls were ward her. Caught by the intensity of his whores, both male and female, became stucco and the floor was inlaid parquet. A stare, she could only nod. "Then I'm sorry. more exotic, erotic, grotesque, and abun- small Dehaj rug was placed neatly before I'm not a window for you to stare through." dant. There were birdmen with feathers like a desk, behind which beamed a man of That stung her, and she retorted, "Have flamingos, children peacocks and with dyed about fifty dressed in camise and caftan. you ever done it with your wife?" She im- skin and overly large, implanted male and He had a flat face, a large nose that was mediately regretted her words, iemale genitalia, machines that spoke the wide, but had narrow nostrils, and close- The man at the desk cleared his throat language of love and exposed soft, fleshy set eyes roofed with bushy, brown eye- politely. "Excuse me, monsieur, but are you organs, amputees and cripples, various brows, the color his hair would have been, aware thai only games organs are played drag queens and kings, natural andro- had he had any. in these rooms?" gynes and mutants,- cyborgs, and an in- Actually, the room was quite small, which "Yes, that's why I've come to your house." teresting, titillating array of genetically en- made the rug look larger and gave the man "Then, you are perhaps not aware that gineered mooncalves. a commanding position. all our games are conducted with psycon- But none disturbed Pfeiffer as had that "Do .you wish to watch or participate, ductors on this floor." silly furry boy. He wondered if, indeed, the Monsieur Pfeiffer?" he asked, seeming to Pfeiffer, looking perplexed, said, "Per- still following him. boy was rise an inch from the chair as he spoke. haps you had better explain it to me." "Come on, Joan" Pfeiffer said impa- "I wish to play," Pfeiffer said, standing "Of course, ot course," the. man said, tiently. "I really don't to want waste any more upon the rug as if he had to be positioned beaming, as if he had just won the battle time down here." just right to make it fly. and a fortune. "There are, of course, many

"But I always thought it was the expec- "And does your friend wish to to play. and. if watch?" ways you like, I can give you tation that's so exciting to seasoned gam- the man asked, as Joan crossed the room the address of a very nice house nearby biers," Joan said, to stand beside Pfeiffer. "Or will you give where you can play a fair, safe game with- "Not to me," Pfeiffer said, ignoring the for your permission Miz Otur. to become out hook-ins. Shall I make a reservation for

sarcasm. "I want to get it over with," With telepathically connected to you." His voice you there?" that, he left the room. didn't rise as he asked the question. "Not just yet," Pfeiffer said, resting his Then why bother at all? Joan asked her- "I beg your pardon?" hands, knuckles down, upon the flat-top self, wondering why she had let Pfeiffer talk "A psyconnection, sir. With a psycon- Louis XVI desk. her into coming here. He doesn't need me. ductor"— a note of condescension crept His feet seemed to be swallowed by the Damn him, she thought, ignoring a skinny, into his voice. floral patterns of the rug, and Joan thought .white-haired piebald, and "I I man a doggie know what it is, and don't want it," it an optical illusion, this effect of being mooncalf coupling beside her in an up- Pfeiffer snapped and then moved away from caught before the desk of the casino cap- right position. Joan. But a cerebral hook-in was, in fact, tain. She felt the urge to grab Pfeiffer and She took a lift to the top level to catch just what Joan had hoped for. take him out of this suffocating place, up with Pfeiffer. "Oh, come on," Joan said. "Let me in." Instead, she walked over to him. Per- It was like walking into the foyer of a well- "Are you serious?" he asked, turning to- haps he would relent just a littleand let her slide into his mind. "It is one of our house rules, however," said the man at the desk, "that you and your opponent, or opponents, must be physically in the same room." "Why is that?" Joan asked, feeling Pfeif- fer scowling at her for intruding, "Well," he said, "it has never happened to us, of course, but cheating has occurred on a few long-distance transactions. Or- gans have been wrongly lost. So we don't take any chances. None at all." He looked at Pfeiffer as he spoke, obviously sizing him up, watching for reactions. But Pfeiffer had composed himself, and Joan knew that he had made up his mind. "Why must the game be played with psyconductors?" Pfeitfer asked.

"That is the way we do it," said the cap- tain, Then, after an embarrassing pause, he said, "We have our own games and rules. And our games, we think, are the most in- teresting. And we make the games as safe as we can for all parties involved." "What do you mean?" "We—the house—will be observing you. Our gamesmaster will be telepathically

hooked, in, but, I assure you, you will not

sense his presence in the least. It anything

^^Vprty should go wrong, or look as if it might go wrong, then pfft, we intercede. O! course, we make no promises, and there have been cases where— "But anything that could go wrong would

"I'm . . . here it . because well, . you must, know . actually . . . I meat be because of the cerebral hook-in." because I kept the king hanging too long with the punch line-" "Perhaps this /sn'fthe game for you, sir." "You must have enough privileged in- formation on everyone who has ever played prove of- this particular form of gambling. "Well," Joan said, "we can easily call off here to book," Pfeiffer make said. Then the furry boy appeared like an ap- the game. Our first connection is just prac- "The hook-in doesn't work that way at all. parition to take them to their room where tice—" And besides, we are contract-bound to they would be given time to practice and "I don't mean the game. I mean the psy- protect our clients." become acquainted. connection." 'And yourselves." The boy's member was slightly en- Joan remained silent. Dammit, she told "Most certainly." The casino captain gorged, Pfeiffer and now became fright- herself. I should have looked away when looked impatient. ened. He suddenly thought of his mother Pfeiffer's furry pet made a pass at him. "If both players can read each other's and the obligatory hook-in service at her "I was crazy to agree to such a thing in mind," Pfeiffer said to -the captain, "then funeral. His skin crawled as he remem- the first place." there can be no blind cards." bered her last filthy thoughts. ..." "Shall 1 leave?" Joan asked. "It was you

'Aha, now you have it, monsieur." At that, who insisted that I come along, remem- the tension between Pfeiffer and the desk The furry boy led Joan and Pfeiffer into ber?" She stood up, but did not judge the captain seemed to dissolve. 'And, in- the game room, which smelled of oiled distance of the cowl/console connections the captain continued, deed," '''we have a wood, spices, traditional tobacco, and accurately, and the cowl was pulled for- modified version of chemin de fer. which perfume. There were no holos or decora- ward, bending the silvery mask. we call blind shemmy. All' the cards are tion on the walls. Everything., with the ex- "I think you're as nervous as I am," Pfeif- played facedown. It is a game of control ception of the felt top of the gaming table, fer said appeasingly. (and, of course, for chance), you must block cards, thick natural carpet, computer con- "Make the connection, right now. Or let's out certain thoughts from your mind, while, soles, and cowls, was made of precious get out of here." Joan was suddenly angry at the same time, tricking your opponent woods: oak, elm, cedar, teak, walnut, ma- and frustrated. Do it, she thought to her- into revealing his cards. And that is why it hogany, redwood, ebony. The long, half- self, and for once she was not passive. would be advantageous for you to let your oval gaming table, which met the sliding Certainly not passive. Damn him and his friend here connect with you." partition wall, was made of satinwood, as furry boy! She snapped the wooden tog- Pfeiffer glanced toward Joan and said, gle switch, activating both psyconductors, "Please clarify that." and was thrust into vertiginous light. It sur- "Quite simply, while you are- playing, your rounded her, as if she could see in all di- friend could help block yourthoughts from rections at once. But she was simply seeing your opponent with her own," said the cap- through Pfeiffer's eyes. Seeing herself, tain. "But it » She was looking does take some practice. Per- small, even in his eyes, small.

haps, it would better if be you tried a hook- for any blister, crack, any After the initial shock, she realized that in in of one our other rooms, where the the light was not brilliant: anomaly in the on the contrary, stakes are not quite high." so Then the it was soft and diffused.

captain lowered his eyes, if - surface. as in defer- smooth He would But this was no connection at all: Pfeiffer ence, but in actuality he was looking at the gamble his body was trying to close his mind to her. He ap- screen CeeR of the terminal set into the peared before her as a smooth, perfect, antique desk. away without her, unless huge, sphere. It slowly rotated, a grim, gray Joan could see Pfeiffer's nostrils flare ' planet, she was able to closed to her, forever closed. . . . slightly. The poor sonofabitch is caught, break through his defenses* Are you happy now? asked Pfeiffer; as she thought. "Come on, Carl, let's : get out if from somewhere deep n$;de the sphere. of here now." It was so smooth, seamless. He really "Perhaps you should listen to Miss Otur," doesn't need me, she thought, and she felt the. captain said, but the man must have as if she were flying above the surface of that he known had Pfeiffer. his closed mind, a winged thing looking for "I wish to play blind shemmy," Pfeiffer were the two delicate, but uncomfortable, any discontinuity, any fault in his defenses. said, turning toward Joan, glaring at her high-backed chairs placed side by side. So you see, Pfeiffer said, exulting in She caught her breath: If he lost, then she On the table before each chair was a psy- imagined victory, / don't need you. The knew he would certain make that Joan lost conductor cowl, each one sheathed in a words came wreathed in an image of a something, too. light, silvery mask. storm rolling angrily over the planet. "I have a of in game nine progress," the "We call them poker-faces," the boy said She flew, in sudden panic, around his captain said. are "There nine people play- to Pfeiffer, as he placed the cowl over Joan's thoughts, like an insect circling a source ing and nine others playing interference. head. He explained how the psyconductor of light. She was looking for any blister or But you'll have to wait for a space. It will mechanism worked, then asked Pfeiffer if crack, any anomaly in the smooth surface. quite be expensive, as the players are tired he wished him to stay. He would gamble his body away without and will demand of your some points for "Why should I want you to stay?" Pfeiffer her, that she knew, unless she could break themselves above the casino charge for asked, but the sexual tension between them through his defenses, prove to him how the play." was unmistakable. vulnerable he really was.

"How long will I have to wait?" "I'm adept at games of chance. I can So you couldn't resist the lurry boy, could The captain then shrugged, said, "I have redirect your thoughts —without a psycon- you? Joan asked, her thoughts like smooth waiting, another man who is ahead of you. ductor" He looked at Joan and smiled. sharks swimming through icy water. Does He would be willing lo play a game of dou- "Put the mechanism on my head and he, then, remind you of yourself, or do I bles. I would recommend you play him then please leave us," Pfeiffer said. remind you of your mother? rather than wait. Like you, he is an amateur, "Do you wish me to return when you're His anger and exposed misery were like but his wife, will who be connected with finished?" flares on the surface of the sun. In their him, is not. Of course, if you wish to wait "If you wish," Pfeiffer replied stiffly, and place remained an eruption on Pfeiffer's for the other ..." Joan watched his discomfort. Without say- smooth protective surface. A crack in the Pfeiffer accepted, and while he and Joan ing a word, she had won a small victory. cerebral egg. gave their prints to the various forms, the The boy lowered the cowl over Pfeiffer's Joan dove toward the fissure, and then captain explained that there was no stat- head, made some unnecessary adjust- she was inside Pfeiffer— not the outside of ute of limitations on the contract signed by ments, and left reluctantly. his senses where he could verbalize a all parties, and that it would be honored not "I'm at all sure that I want to do this," thought,, see a face, but in the dark, pre- even by those governments that disap- Pfeiffer mumbled, faltering. historic places where he dreamed, con- 60 OMNI ceptualized, where he floated in and out game. He explained the rules, activated She also had' the well-developed con- mystical liberal, and she was of memory, where the eyeless creatures of the psyconductors, and the game began. science of a him. that or his soul dwelled. Joan and Pfeiffer were once again hooked in love with He had seen — contact, yet, with thought he had. It was a sliding, a slipping in, as if one in, but there was no as had turned over inside oneself; and Joan the man and woman across the table. She would not expose him to danger. congratulated himself for being was sliding, slipping on ice. She found her- Pfeiffer cleared his mind, just as if he Pfeiffer which reinforced his calmness. Per- self in a dark world of grotesque and geo- were before lasers or giving an interview. calm, metric shapes, an arctic world of huge ice- He had learned to cover his thoughts, for. haps it was Joan's presence. Perhaps it bergs floating on a falhomless sea. somehow, he had always felt they could be was. the mnemonic. But perhaps not. He willpower; this just another test. And for an instant, "Joan sensed Pfeif- seen, especially by those who wanted to had the was to all the others, fer's terrible fear of the world. hurt him politically and on the job. He had managed survive himself. Mindfucker! Pfeiffer screamed, project- White thought, he called it, because it he told rained him, indicating her pres- ing the word in a hundred filthy, sickening was similar to white noise. Joan on images: and then he smashed through Pfeiffer could teel Joan circling around ence, and they practiced talking within Joan's defenses and rushed into the deep him like the wind. Although he couldn't geometric shapes as a protective de- literally raining recesses of her mind. He found her soft conceal everything, he could hide from her. vice— it was geodesic cats places and took what he could, He could use her, just as she could use and dogs. ' gamesmaster opened the . . reached the All that before the psyconnection was him . had used him. They had When psyconductor to all involved, Joan and broken. Before the real game began. As if an accord via mutual blackmail. Somehow, nothing had happened. during their practice hook-in, Joan had Pfeiffer were ready. forced herself into Pfeiffer's mind; shocked, But they were not ready to find exact A man and woman, wearing identical he attacked her. duplicates of themselves facing them cowled masks, sat across from Joan and So now they knew each other better. across the table. The doppelgangers, of wearing cowls. Pfeiffer. The partition wall had been slid They built a simple symbol structure: He course, were not back, revealing the oval shape of the gam- was the world, a perfect sphere without messieurs, ing table and doubling the size of the wood- blemish, made by God's own hands, a "First, mesdames and we paneled room. The dealer and the games- world as strong and divine as thought; and draw the wager," said the dealer, who was master sat on each side of the long table she was his atmosphere. She contained all not hooked in. The gamesmaster's thoughts organ between the opponents. The dealer was a the elements that could not exist on his were a neutral presence. "For each con- young man with an intense, roundish face featureless surface. She was the protec- pledged, there will be three games game." contin- and straight black hair cut at the shoul- tive cloak of his world. sisting of three hands to a that a player ders; he was most likely in training to be- They built a mnemonic in which to hide, ued the dealer. "In the event in the third hand or come a games master. yet they were still vulnerable to each other. wins twice succession, The gamesmaster's face was hidden by But Pfeiffer guessed that Joan would re- game will not be played." His voice was

it harsh and cold and a black cowl; he would be hooked in to the main passive— after all, she always had. an intrusion: was came from the outside where everything was hard and intractable. How do they know what we look like? Pfeiffer asked, shaken by the hallucination induced by his opponents. But before Joan could reply, he an- swered his own question, They must be picking up subliminal stuff. The way we perceive ourselves, Joan said. The doppelgangers became hard and

ugly, as if they were being eroded by time. And Joan's double was becoming smaller, insignificant.

If we can't cover up, we won'! have a chance. You can't cover everything, but neither can they, Joan said, ttcuts both ways. She noticed a fissure in the otherwise perfect sphere below, and she became black fog, miasma, protective covering. Pteiffer was afraid, and vulnerable. But she had to give

him credit: He was not hiding it from her, at least. That was a beginning. Didyou pick up anything from them, an image, anything 7 Pfeiffer asked. We've been too busy with ourselves. We'll just wait and be ready when they let some- thing slip out. Which they will, Pfeiffer said, suddenly confident again. From deep inside their interior, symbol- ized world, Joan and Pfeiffer could look into the external world of croupier, felt-top table, cards, wood-covered walls, and masked creatures. This room was simply a stage for the play of thought and image. Pfeiffer was well acquainted with this —

sensation of perceiving two worlds, iwo opponent. Pfeiffer was Monsieur Un and knot of anxiety that seemed to be pulling levels: inside and outside. He oiten awak- his opponent Monsieur Deux only be- at his groin. ened from a nightmare and found himself cause of their positions at the table. "Cartes," said the dealer, dealing two in his living room or library. He knew thai A hell of a way to star!, Pfeiffer said. cards Irom the shoe, facedown, one for he was wide awake, and yet he could still Keep yourself closed, Joan said, turning Pfeiffer, the other for his opponent. Another see the dream unfurl before him. watch the into mist, then dark rain, pure sunlight and two cards, and then a palpable silence; creatures of his nightmare stalk about ihe rainbows, a perceptual kaleidoscope to not even thoughts seemed to cut the air. It room the interior let loose into Ihe Pfeiffer — beasts conceal from his enemies. Look now, was an unnatural waiting. . . . familiar, comforting confines of his waking he'H be more vulnerable when he speaks. Pfeiffer had a natural nine, a winning hand worid. Those were always moments of ter- I'll cover you. (a queen and a nine of diamonds), and he ror, for surely he was near the edge then Your choice, said the gamesmaster. The looked up, about to turn over his cards,

. . . and could fall. thought was directed to Pfeiffer's oppo- when he saw the furry boy sitting across The dealer combined two decks of cards nent, who was staring intently at Pfeiffer. the table from him. and placed them in a shoe, a box from Look now, Joan said to Pfeiffer. What the hell- which the cards could be slid out one by "Since we both turned up hearts, per- Call your hand, Joan said, feeling his one. 'He discarded three cards: the tradi- haps that is where we should begin," Pfeif- glands open up, a warm waterfall of fear. tional burning of the deck. fer's opponent said, speaking for the ben- But before Pfeiffer could speak, his op- Then he dealt a card to Pfeiffer and one efit of the dealer. His words felt like shards ponent said, "My friend across the table to his opponent. Both cards landed fa- of glass to Pfeiffer. "They're the seats of has a natural nine. A queen and a nine, ceup. A queen of hearts for Pfeiffer. A nine our emotions: so we'd best dispose of Ihem both diamonds. Since I called his hand ." of hearts for his opponent. quickly." Pfeiffer felt the man smile. "Do and I believe I am correct, then . . So Pfeiffer lost the r'ghi to call the wager. you assent?" The dealer turned Pfeiffer's cards over

Just as the object of blackjack was to "It's your choice," Pfeiffer said to the and said, "Monsieur Deux is correct, and draw cards that add up to twenty-one, or dealer tonelessly. wins by call." If Pfeiffer's opponent had as near to that figure as possible, the ob- Don't let -anything out, .Joan said. been mistaken about the hand, Pfeiffer ject of blind shemmy was to draw cards Pfeifier couldn't pick up anything from would have won automatically, even if his that add up to nine. Thus, face cards, which his opponent and the woman with him; they opponent held better cards. would normally be counted as ten, were were both empty doppelgangers of him- The dealer then dealt iwo more cards counted as zero. Aces, normally counted self and Joan. Pretend that nothing mat- from the shoe. as eleven, became one; and all other cards ters, she said. If you expect to see his cards You're supposed to be covering my had their normal pip (or face) value, with and look inside nun 'cr weakness, you must thoughts, Pfeiffer said, but he was com- the exception of tens, which, like aces, were be removed. posed, thinking wniie noughts again, counted as one. She's right, Pfeiffer thought, He tried to I'm trying, Joan said. But you won'! trust "Monsieur Deux wins, nine over zero," relax, smooth himself down: he thought in- me; you're trying to cover yourself from me said the dealer, looking now at Pfeiffer's nocuous white thoughts and ignored the as well as your opponent. What the hell am

' supposed do? I'm sorry. Pfeiffer thought.

Are you realty so afraid that I'll see your true feelings? This is neither the time nor the place, His rhythm of white thought was broken; Joan became a snowstorm, aiding him, lulling

him back to white blindness. / think the gamesmaster is making me nervous, hav- ing him hooked in. privy to all our thoughts. ...

. forger the gamesmaster . . and for

God's sake, stop worrying about what I'll see. I'm on your side. "Monsieur Un, will you please claim your cards," said the dealer. The gamesmaster nodded at Pfeiffer and thought neutral, papery 'thoughts. Pfeiffer turned up the edges of his cards. He had a jack of diamonds—which counted as zero —and a two of spades. He would need another card. Don't think about your cards, Joan ex- claimed. Are you picking up anything from the other side of the table?

Pfeiffer listened, as if to his own thoughts. He didn't raise his head to look at his op- ponent, for seeing his own face — or that of the furry boy's— staring back at him from across the table was disconcerting, and fascinating. An image of an empty, hollow woman without any organs formed in his mind. He imagined her as a bag somehow formed into human shape. Keep that, Joan said. It might be usable.

But I can't see his cards. Just wait awhile. Keep calm. "Does Monsieur wish anolher card?" the result, the young Pfeiffer had recurrent dealer asked Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer took another nightmares that he was sucking off his fa- card, and so did his opponent. Pfeiffer was no longer isolated; he was ther. Those nightmares began again after Pfeiffer had no idea what cards his op- protected, yet dangerously exposed. In- his mother died: She had seen that ho- ponent was holding; it promised to be a side him, in the human, moist dark. Joan mosexual fantasy when Pfeiffer hooked in blind play. When the cards were turned promised not to take advantage of him. She to her on her deathbed. over, the dealer announced, "Monsieur caught a fleeting thought of Pfeiifer's dead Pfeiffer still had those nightmares. Deux wins, six over five." Pfeiffer had lost mother, who had been afleshy, big-boned, And now, against-his will, the image of again. flat-faced woman. She also saw that Pfeif- him sucking off the furry boy passed I'm piaying biino ^fnffer said anxiously fer hated his mother, as much now as.when through his mind, drawing its train of guilt to Joan. she was alive. and revulsion. The boy and his father, He couldn't see your cards, either, she In the next hand— the opening hand of somehow one and the same. replied. the second game— Pfeiffer held a five of You're leaking, Joan said, her thoughts But that gave him little satisfaction, for clubs and a two of spades, a total of seven an icestorm. She could see her way into by [osing the first two hands, he had lost points. He would not take another card un- Pfeiffer now, into those rooms of buried the first game. less he could see his opponent's. But when memories. Rather than rooms, she thought

And if he lost the next game, he would he looked up, Pfeiffer saw the furry boy, of them as subterranean caverns; every- lose his heart, which, white thought or not, who blew him a kiss. thing inside them was intact, perfect, hid- seemed to Pfeiffer to be beating in his You're exposed again, Joan said, and den from the harmful light and atmosphere

throat. they thought themselves inside their world, of consciousness. Now she knew him. . . . Try to calm yourself, Joan said, or you'll thought protective darkness around them- Pfeiffer collected himself and peered into let everything out. If you trust me, and stop selves, except for one tiny opening through his opponent's mind. He thrust the image throwing up your defenses, maybe I can which to see into their enemies. of the organless woman at the man. help you. But you've got to let me in; as it Concentrate on that image of the empty It was like tearing a spiderweb. is, you're giving our friends quite the edge. woman, Joan said to Pfeiffer. She has to Pfeiffer felt the man's pain as a feather

Lei's make a merger ... a marriage. Bui be Monsieur Deux's wife or woman. I can't touching flesh: The organless woman was

Pfeiffer was in no mood for irony. His fear quite visualize it as you did. But Pfeiffer Monsieur Deux's permanent wife. Pfeiffer was building, steadily, slowly. was trying to smooth down his emotions had broken through and into his thoughts; You can fold the game, Joan said. That and the dark, dangerous demon that was he could feel his opponent's name, some- is an alternative. his memory. The image of the furry boy thing like Gayah. Gahai, Gayet, that was it,

And give up organs I haven't yet played sparked memories, fears, guilts, Pfeiffer and his wife was used up. Gayet saw her, for! The smooth surface of Pfeiifer's sphere remembered his father, who had been a in the darkness of his unconscious, as an cracked, and Joan let herself be swal- doctor. There was always enough money, empty bag. She was a compulsive gam- lowed into it. The surface of the sphere but his father extracted emotional dues for bler, who had spent her organs; and Gayet changed, grew mountain chains, lush veg- every dollar he gave his son. And, as a hated gambling, but she possessed him, and he hated her and loved her, and was just beginning his self-destructive slide. Now she was using him up. She was gambling his organs. She's used up, Pfeiffer thought at Gayet. But Pfeiffer could only glimpse Gayet's thoughts. His wife was not exposed, Nor was she defenseless. She thrust the image of the furry boy at Pfeiffer, and Pfeiffer felt his head being forced down upon the furry boy's lap. But

it suddenly wasn't the furry boy anymore.

It was Pfeiffer's father! There was no distance now. Pfeifferwas caught, tiny and vulnerable. Gayet and his wife were swallowing him. thoughts and all.

It was Joan who saved him. She pulled him away, and he became the world again, wrapped in snow, in whiteness. He was safe

again, as if inside Joan's cold womb. Looknow. Joan said an instant later, and like a revelation. Pfeiffer saw Gayet's cards, saw them buried in Gayet's eyes with the image of his aging wife. In that instant, Pfeiffer saw into Gayet and forgot himself. Gayet's wife was named Grace, and she had been eroded from too many surgeries, too many deformation games. She was his Blue Angel (yes. he had seen the ancient film) and Gayet the fool. -yt*t

him; it was a familiar sensation for gam-

. na\>. ,'f— iw/n iho side of the and U'humun news." blers, a sense of harmony, of being a be- nevolent extension of the cards. No anger, no fear, no haie, just victory. Pfeiffer called Gayet's hand, thereby preventing Gayet from drawing another card, such as a lucky ¥>u never forget three, which would have given him a couni of nine. Pfeiffer won the hand, and he thanked Joan. His thoughts were of love, but his yourfirstGirl. repertoire of images was limited. Joan was V now part of his rhythm and harmony, a constant presence; and she dreamed of the victorious cats that padded so grace- fully through the lush vegetation of Pfeif- fer's sphere—the cats that rutted, then devoured one another.

Pfeiffer won the next hand to take the second game. Pfeiffer and his opponent were now even. The next game would de- termine Ihe outcome. Pfeiffer felt that calm, cold certainty that he would take Gayet's heart. The obsession to expose and ruin his opponent became more important than winning or losing organs; it was bright and fast flowing, refreshing as water. He was in a better world now, a more complete, fulfilling plane of reality, All gam- blers dreamed of this: losing or winning everything, but being inside the game. Even Joan was carried away by the game. She. too, wanted to rend —to whittle away at the couple across the table, take their priva- cies, turn over their humiliations like worry-

beads. They were Pfeiffer's enemies . . . and his enemies were her own. Everyone was exposed now, battle- weary, mentally and physically exhausted, yet lost in play, lost in perfect, concen- trated time. Pfeiffer could see Gayet's face, both as Gayet saw himself and as Grace saw him. A wide nose, dark complexion, low forehead, large ears; yet it was a strong face, and handsome in a feral, almost frightening way— or so Grace thought. Gayet saw himself as weak; the flesh on his face was too loose. Gayet was a failure, although he had made his career and fortune in the Ex- change. He had wanted to be a mathe- matician, but he was lazy and lost the "knack" by twenty-five. Gayet would have made a brilliant math- ematician, and he knew it. And Grace was a whore, using herself and everyone else. Here was a woman with great religious yearnings, who had wanted to join a religious order, but was black- balled by the cults because of her obses- sion for gambling and psyconductors. But

Pfeiffer could see into her only a little. She was a cold bitch and, more than any of the others, had reserves of strength. This last game would be psychological surgery. Tearing with the knife, pulping with the bludgeon. Pfeiffer won the first hand. This was joy; so many organs to win or lose, so little time. Pfeiffer lost the next hand. Gayet ex- posed Joan, who revealed Pfeiffer's cards without realizing it. Gayet had opened her up, penetrated all that efficiency and order to expose anger and lust and uncontrolled oceanic pity. Joan's emotions writhed and .

Joan had like beautifully colored, This was love, she thought. ered: A sexual miasma. Being brutally ever imagined Joan was trapped sel that might rupture in crawled over her . . his head . As if cornered, as if she were back in the couldn't cards and raped as a child. After a riot in Manosque. inside Grace's mind: and Grace, who could slippery snakes. Pfeiifer had been too Pfeiffer see Gayet's Joan tried to pull herself away from the closet with her rapist, she attacked Gayet. in closet, for God's sake. The not face what Joan had found, denied it. preoccupied to protect her. nervously asked Joan to do something. Raped a man pain, from the concrete weight crushing Only now she had a weapon. She thought And snapped. Joan's first uncontrolled thought to Gayet Was playing calmly, well covered by tore her open with a rifle barrel, then in- 'her. Ironically, if was she wondered thought had him dead, trapped him in a scream, and, revenge herself on Pfeiffer, expose him; but Grace, who simply hid him. No extrava- serted himself. Taking her, piece by bloody In that instant, Joan felt that she was mass. What a stupid thought to die with, as if he were being squeezed from the in- piece, just as she was taking Gayet. Just Grace. She felt all of Grace's pain and the he opened up to her, buried her in white gance there. she told herself, and she suddenly remem- sides, his blood pressure rose. She had cold and numbing Joan emptied her mind, became neu- as others had taken her in rooms like this. choking weight of memory, as souls and bered a story her thought, which was as father had told her about found a weakened blood vessel in his head, tral; needle of cold, coherent in this casino, in this closet. selves incandescently merged. But before a dying as ice, and apologized without words, but yet she was a rabbi who was annoyed at the rnin- and it rupturefl. And now Joan could see him Joan and Grace could fuse inescapably, with the soft, rounded, comforting thoughts thought. She prodded, probed, touched her Gayet. yan praying around him because he was The effort weakened Grace, and a few recoiled, realizing It like swimming through Grace, unperturbable Gayet, who Joan that she was fight- trying to listen he equated with love. She couldn't trust opponents' thoughts. was to two washerwomen gos- seconds later the gamesmaster was able of and little life, who ing for her life. She screamed for him, nor could she expose him. Right now, through an ever-changing world dots and had so much money so the siping outside. to regain control and disconnect every- gamesmaster to bars, tangible as iron, fluid as water. It was was so afraid of his wife's past, of her lov- deactivate the game. But Many years later, she could only accept him. her father confessed one. Gayet was immediately hooked in to liberations he called perversions. her screams were lost as Grace instantly to The dealer gave Pfeiffer a three of dia- as if Gayet's and Grace's thoughts were ers and her that it wasn't really a Jewish story ai a life-support unit which applied CPR called everything perversion. slipped into the gamesmaster's it monds and an ace ot clubs. That gave him luminous points on a fluorescent screen. But he a mind and all; was Buddhist. She held on to that techniques to keep his heart beating. caught him, only four points: he would have to draw And still she went unnoticed. How she hated him beneath what she too. She had the psychotic's thought, remembered how her father had But he was dead. . . for like Pfeiffer, thought. called love. strength of desperation, and Joan realized laughed after his again. He kept his thoughts from Joan, Gayet was Joan confession. There would be some rather sticky 'ec-ai controlled, But he looked just like the man who had that Grace would kill them all rather than The she was covering him. She could attack Seemingly placid, but that was pain eased as she followed her complications, but by surviving, Pfeiffer had face for their all gingerbread to hide weak He raped her in that closet so long ago. She the truth about herself and Gayet. thoughts: If a house. though! . . Gayet and his whore, expose them had mass . won the game, had indeed beaten Grace could remember the man's face— so Furiously Grace went after Pfeiffer. To kill cards. Gayet's heart was not simply his was so much weaker than Grace, who was not She was thinking herself free, escaping and won all of Gayet's organs. him. effectively she blocked it out of her She blamed him for Joan's presence, Grace organ— not now. not to Pfeitfer. It was his supporting and cloaking him. But Grace had by finding the proper angle, as if she was stunned she first and Joan felt crushing pain, as if she were thought whole life, life itselt. To rip it away from him was concentrating her energies on Gayet; mind—yet when and emotion and pain were purely As Pfeiffer gazed through the transpar- being if met Gayet. She telt attracted to him, but buried alive in the dirt of Grace's maihematical. would be to conquer life, if only for a mo- and she had the fever, as she were gam- ent walls of the transpod that whisked him mind She tried to wrench herself ment. It life affirming, it being alive. bling her own organs once again. also repelled; she was in love. away Irom That done in instant. was was an and Joan out of Paris, away from its dan- Grace's his father. Undoubtedly, Grace expected Joan and thoughts, lest they intertwine with, But if Suddenly he thought of she were to save Pfeiffer's life, and gers and sordid delights, he felt something and become, her own. Close yourself up, Joan said. You're Pfeiffer to go straight for Gayet, who had Through Joan, Pfeiffer saw Gayet's cards: her own, she would have to do something new and delicate toward Joan. did not try to his read the cards. a deuce and a six of clubs. He could call She felt Grace's bloodlust ... her need immediately. bleeding. She penetrate She showed Grace her past. If was newfound intimacy and gratitude thoughts; that Pfeiffer Joan went for Grace, who was in the his hand, but he wasn't sure of the deuce. to kill Pfeiffer. Showed her that have . would exposed So she had . married Gayet . and. love. Grace gambler's frenzy as the hand being It looked like a heart, but it could just as grasped Pfeiffer with a thought, because he had the even more dangerously. was face of the man who Joan, however, still carried the echoes wound dark filaments Pfeiffer Joan. This hand played. Joan slipped past Grace's thoughts, easily be a diamond. If he called it wrong, around him that could had raped her as a child. Help me, asked of Grace's thoughts, as if a part of her had whether would win or worked her way into the woman's mind, he would lose the hand, and his heart. not be turned away by white thought or Gayet, seeing this too, would determine he screamed. How irreversibly fused with Grace. She too felt / Pfeiffer said Joan, ex- anything else. he . labyrinths can't sure, to lose the game . . and his heart. through the dark and channels be loathed Grace, but not nearly as much something new for Pfeiffer. Perhaps it was help. And like a spider, she wrapped her Once again she became his cloak, his of her memory, and into the dangerous pecting prey as she loathed herself. He had tried io stop renewal, an evolution of her love. in country of the unconscious. Invisible as air, But Joan was in trouble. Grace had dis- darkness and looked for physiological Grace, but he atmosphere, and she weaved her icy was too weak. He. too, had They were in love ... yet even now Joan she listened to Grace, read her. discov- covered her, and she was stronger than weakness, any flaw, perhaps a blood ves- been caught. threads of white thought into his. felt the compulsion to gamble again. DO

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HIGH TECH IMPORTS

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ROBOTS AT HOME

Mechanical majordomos and butlerbots are at your threshold

BY RICHARD WOLKOMIR

Ever wish you had a slave? With him was a Unimation robot, an arm. The Think of it—a serf to vacuum your intellectually feeble articulated floors, cook duck a I'orange for you and robol stood in front of a conventional your friends, serve, clear the table, household window, complete with and wash the dishes. After the party, curtains. When Engelberger pressed your slave would help you relax with a button, the robot opened the curtains,

a game of backgammon. And if your picked up a squeegee, washed the

slave had the audacity to win, you window, dried it, and put down the

''^t^K*™^^* could administer a punitive kick. squeegee. Then it unlatched and •fin Disgusting? Abhorrent? opened the window, picked up a What if the price were right? What if watering can. watered the petunias in

everybody had one? And what if this their sill-top flower box, pul down slave were a thing of aluminum, plastic, the watering can, and closed the and integrated circuits? window and curtains. Eventually, we all will have robot "The point," says Engelberger, "is

slaves. So inexorable is the evolution that it has become exceptionally of industrial robots, say the experts, difficult these days to find a human that household spin-offs are virtually housekeeper who'll do windows." inevitable. In fact, robotic majordomos Lest anyone think the president of are almost among us. Unimation is kidding, at one end of his Joseph Engelberger, president of office in a white colonial house in Unimation, Inc., the leading robot Danbury, Connecticut, he recently manufacturer, recently appeared on installed a kitchen. "Within the next few

the Merv Griffin television talk show. years, I will have a robot in a closet PAINTING BY ICHIRO TSURUTA next io that kitchen," he says. The robot drobot. Inc.. is markeling two home ro- for domestic robots. In a dining room at will be called Isaac, in honor of Isaac As- bots. One is the Androbot, a radio-con- the prestigious think tank's Cambridge, imov. However, [he robot will not write trolled automaton that dances and sings Massachusetts, headquarters, over turkey

books. It will be a domestic thrall. under instructions of. a home computer. The salad, fruit, and sherry (served by hu- Isaac, an articulated arm on wheels, is second is BOB, a self-contained model with mans), the consultants analyzed house-

already in training at Unimation's research its own "brain on-board." Hence BOB, And hold robots as a potential product. They

facility in California. It can roll 40 feet across the Heath Company recently introduced disagreed, often sharply, on exactly how

a floor, find an assigned spot, and carry Hero I, a $2,495 robot ($1,500 in kit form) robots would fit into the home-appliances out programmed iasks. In one test at En- that carries up to a pound in its metal claw, market. But they agreed on one important gelberger's office, Isaac opened a cabi- "sees" (dimly), and performs such chores point: Developing Iho necessary technol- net, pulled out a mug. poured coffee into as delivering dr nks and panelling for bur- ogies is not only feasible, but virtually in-

it, and then fang a bell to inform its boss glars (see "Heath's Hero," Breakthroughs, evitable. As eroires's steadi'y boost the that his coffee was ready. But Engelberger January 1983). Encountering an intruder, IQs of industrial robots, they are creating

1 says that Isaac is still primilive and will re- Hero will raise Is grippe- and announce the technological bits and pieces that

quire much tinkering before it takes its sta- that it is calling the police, which should eventually will feed your Siamese, rake your tion in his office closet. be sufficiently slating "0 straighten the hair leaves, and knot your cravat.

"In just three years, this will not neces- of most prowlers. On the other hand, Hero's It will not be easy He jsoho d robots must sarily entirely practical, useful repertoire of tricks is limited. In (act, not drop the glasses or try to leave . be an de- one rooms

vice, but it will do enough to spark imagi- of -the 33 phrases it intones is; "I do not do through the wall; so they will require sen- nation," Engelberger says. "It will be under windows!" Heath expects Hero to be used ses and abilities thai today's industrial ro-

voice command, and it will take orders for chiefly as a teaching device for robotics bots lack. To see how difficult it will be to

coffee and Danish. It will be. able to heat students and experimenters. develop those technologies, consider just

the Danish, get :he cuo; and saucers, make "I don't think anything is now being done cno sense organ, the eye.

the coffee, and serve it to my guests. And specifically to address the household ro- Donald L. Sullivan, an Arthur D. Little

it will clean up afterward and put the dishes bot market," says Joseph Engelberger. But computer expert, is developing a robot in- in the dishwasher on command." No tip- Elliott Wilbur, an expert on housing and a spector for industry. His machine looks at ping, of course. No need for a thank-you vice-presideni at Arthur D. Little. Inc.. the a product, such as a slice of bacon, sees or other pleasantries. international consulting company, says that the darker strips of meat and the lighter Isaac will not be the first domeslic robot. although he cannot reveal the details, one strips of fat. computes the fat percentage, An Urbana, Ohio, computer engineer of his firm's big-corporation clients is cur- and then either oasses the slice along or

,'- named Charles Balmer already has built rently experimenting in domestic robots, tosses it in the reject bin. "Producing a dig- Avatar. Resembling a cross between R2D2 Wilbur was one of nine Arthur D. Little ital image of merely a slice of bacon takes and a dental chair, Avatar is one of many experts in fields ranging from electronics about sevenly-s x thousand numbers," he homemades now clanking about in U.S. to home appliances who met recently at says. Sullivan's laboratory is a creative homes. Atari-founder \ok-:n Bushnell's An- Qjnnf-s behest to consider the prospects jumble of video cameras, microproces- sors, and— a Salvador Dali touch —as- sorted slices of meat, pouches of sweet- and-sour pork, and crackers. Robot vision, he explains, works by translating a video image nto numerical values that a computer can understand. The system assigns a number to each shade of gray between black and white— the lighter the shade, the higher the num-

ber. To interpret a picture, it breaks down the image into dots, assigning an appro- priate number to each dot. For the image of a bacon slice, for instance, the com- puter identities all dots with values below a certain number as the dark background and those above a certain number as white fat. All of the numbers in between are seen as red meat. Compared to wending its way, bump- free, through a house and cleaning the

bathtub, it is simple for a robot to inspect bacon for fat, crackers for burns, or food pouches for leaky seals. Yet developing just one experimental inspection robot, Sullivan says, has cost about $70,000 in hardware anc $300,000 n engineering time. He says that the far more sophisticated vi- sion a household robot needs is four to nine years in the future.

Touch, too, is on its way. Researchers in Japan are developing hospital robots that can gently hoist a patient off his sickbed, deposit him in the bathtub, fish him out, and return him to bed. Within about three years Australian engineers expect to have robots sufficiently sensitive to shear sheep, no Band-Aids needed. Robots also must understand spoken littered with stumps. And at Carnegie-Mel- responds Martin Ernst, a vice-president at opera- commands. That technology is inevitable lon University's Robotics Institute, visiting the consulting company and an is developing a tions-research expert who believes drop- because it means a jumbo payoff in the scientist Ivan Sutherland : of office-automation field. IBM researchers, six legged robot vehicle. Carnegie-Mellon ping birth rates will reduce the supply among others, have already developed a professors have even choreographed a casual labor. He also believes that fewer will in drudge work; typewriter that takes dictation. It is s-l-o-w: dance for a robot and a woman. adults be interested trip the Netherlands, he found Its computer requires 100 minutes to tran- Still, the first domestic robots are unlikely on a recent to scribe a sentence that took only 30 sec- to lurch through your house on metal legs. that the entire country has only two com- mercial laundries so few Dutch onds to speak. Bu! IBM's engineers pre- "The wheel was one hell of an invention," because jobs. dict they will have a practical prototype in says Engelberger. "There's a lot.of fun in workers are willing to take such a few years. According to David Lee, an making walking machines, and they may And according to one authority, we are Electronics engi- Arthur . Little expert on consumer prod- be useful for going over rough terrain. But buying robots aplenty. ucts and appliances, "Voice recognition is a house is not rough terrain." neer Stuart Lipoff told the Cambridge already have programmable well on its way, and that will help open up He points out that Unimation's Isaac will meeting: "We the domestic-robot market." roll through his office on three wheels with microwave ovens, dishwashers, and A household robot should speak, as well tires that swivel. These will enable the ro- swimming-pool cleaners. These devices as hear. Already the "operator" giving New bot to move horizontally in any direction are all robots of a sort, even if they don't York City pay-phone users such messages without turning its body. "It's as if a car have eyeballs." Arthur D. Little was as "Sixty cents, please" is a computer with could park by moving sideways," he says, The consensus at a 70-word vocabulary. A decade or two adding that Isaac occupies no more floor that robots will develop along two tracks. hence, say robotics experts, when you tell space than Larry Csonka. First, our appliances will get smarter and your household Isaac to change the bulb When will all these components come smarter, "The cost of braininess is so low," out Ernst, "that eventually the smart in the bathroom lamp, it will answer, "Right together? "My own conjecture." Engelber- pointed merge." on!" or, "At once, Your Magnificence!" or ger says, "is that it will make economic appliances will begin to whatever response you have programmed sense for the luxury market by 1990," At "You might end up with a unit that com- refrigerator an oven," agreed into its memory, But don't expect Isaac to their session on domestic robots, the Ar- bines a and that appliances engineer David Lee. At a pre- run off to perform its humble chore. It is thur D. Little consultants predicted time, freezer would pop the more apt to roll. commercial models will make their debut set the section in for tonight into the A walking robot is possible, however, a bit later, about the year 2000. dinner you punched according to Robert B. McGhee. an Ohio But the $64-billion question is this: Will microwave section, which would turn itself according State University electrical engineer, who has anyone buy the things? As housing spe- on and off. The next step, So built a six-legged walking machine. With cialist Elliott Wilbur asks. "Why not just hire Lee, will be an automated menu—choos- for the month, per- sensors in each foot, this metal cucumber a kid to cut your grass?" ing your dinners next automatic inventory beetle can even pick its way along a path "Because there will be fewer kids to hire," haps—coupled with

"This is going to sound a little paranoid, I know, but has anyone ever noticed the striking resemblance between Santa Ciaus and Karl Marx?" .

control based on robot readings of super- market package codes. Donald Sullivan foresees a clutterless household in which the robot will store in- frequently used gadgets in a central area. "Let's say one night you come home in the mood to whip up a gourmet meal. You could

tell your kitchen, 'Hey, forget that frozen

dinner I programmed for tonighl and get

me the Cuisinart.' It goes 'rumble, rumble, ptooey,' and up pops your Cuisinart." Sul- livan even envisions a box of basic com- ponents that the robot might draw upon to assemble household mechanisms as re-

- quired for different domestic jobs. On robot evolution's second track, en- gineers will be developing a stand-alone automaton to handle such odious chores as raking the lawn, cleaning the bathtub, or reading a toddler's favorite story over and over, Ultimately the stand-alone robot and the smart appliances might share a central brain that controls everything. "You'll have the mechanical peripherals, with modest intelligence, and a basic comput- ing engine that ties everything together." says Gordon Richardson, an Arthur D. Lit- tle robotics consultant. Someday your en- tire house itself may be an intelligent robot that, cares for its inhabitants. "Remember, the brain doesn't have to

reside in the robot: it might even be shared by all the houses on a block," Engelberger notes. He compares tomorrow's robot house to HAL, the unseen computer that controlled the spaceship in 2001: A Space

Odyssey. But he says it also will be nec- essary to have a stand-alone robot, like C-3PO in Star Wars, to handle chores like cleaning and to give people something to relate to. However, while the robot is stack- ing dishes in the kitchen dishwasher, its "brain" may be humming in the basement.

And its "eyes" may be mounted in the ceil- ing of each room. Eventually, says Engelberger, in its ser- vant's' quarters, the household robot will

have spare parts for all the appliances ii the house, with a collection of tapes giving maintenance instructions. "Al night you'll tell the robot, The range isn't working; so

please fix it by morning.' "While you sleep, the robot is awake. It is alert for intruders

and fires, of course, but it is also operating on your range. "If it gets stuck, it calls the factory and talks to a smarter robot to find out what to do, "says Engelberger. If it lacks apart, it orders it. By the time robots have advanced to this stage, they also will keep your larder stocked, ordering replacement items from the supermarket to match your family's consumption. The repertoire of skills such a robot might master seems unlimited. Wilbur suggests that robots will be even more salable if they replace skilled workers as well as low- "Chivas Regal! . . priced laborers. "For instance, your robot Where do you think you are, heaven?" should be able to cut your hair to any style you like," he suggests. Whatever form the robot takes, buili-ir safety is critical: "You'd hate to have a two- ChivasRegal • 12 Years Old Worldwide . Blended Scorch Whisky • 86 Proof. General WineS. Spiri thousand-pound robot go berserk In y living room," says robotics expert Richard- "The milkman just ran along behind the cart, many of us in the future may buy robots to son. Household robots will have to be at carrying the bottles to his customers' be our simulated sympathetic friends and least as safe as highly trained guard dogs, doors," Langley explains. companions.

observes Engelberger: "They might have Researchers at the Tufts-New England "I think the first commercially viable item a magnetic radiation aura around them, or Medical Center Hospital, in Boston, work- may turn out to be a robot pet, eventually some sort of sensor to detect a baby in ing under a National Science Foundation even a robot lover. Don't forget the orgas- their path." Domestic robots, he adds, will grant, are training monkeys to perform ser- matron in Woody Allen's movie Sleeper," certainly include in their programming the vices for paralyzed people. The monkeys' says engineer Stuart Lipoff. Three Laws of Robotics, propounded dec- chores include fetching food from the re- "But the first models would be fairly sim- ades ago by Isaac Asimov: A robot must frigerator, opening or locking a door with ple, with some artificial vision, some arti- not harm a human being, nor through in- a key, removing a record from its album ficial voice, the ability to understand speech,

action allow one to come to harm; a robot cover and placing it on the turntable, and and some movement. The robot wouldn't must always obey human beings, unless brushing their owners' hair. have to do much more than move around, that is in conflict with the first law; a robot The first household robots may also de- blink its lights, respond in a playful way, must protect itself from harm, unless self- but as caretakers for invalids. Unimalion, and maybe wag a tail." protection undermines the intent of the first working with researchers at Stanford Uni- Soft and fuzzy, they could have built-in or second laws. versity, is attempting to modify a Puma ro- heating units, making them warm to the

- But will tomorrow's household slave ac- bot, one of the company's standard models, touch. Such robots might have therapeutic tually be a machine? "The ultimate an- to understand simple spoken commands value in nursing homes, where patients are swer," says Wilbur, "may be to implant this so it can aid paraplegics. Martin Ernst not permitted to have pets. intelligence in an animal, like a monkey." points out that as the population ages, such Will people really choose machines to He suggests that a microprocessor collar services will be in growing demand. An- be their buddies? "Go back to Star Wars," might pulse out signals to guide the beast other Arthur D. Little engineer, Richard suggests Lipoff. "What were those two ro- through chores that require more-than- Whelan, notes that nurse-robots could re- bot creatures really doing? They were not simian brainpower. Nor is the idea of zo- mind elderly patients to take their pills, so much utilitarian machines as they were ological slaves farfetched, considering that monitor their masters' life signs, and alert companions, friends." for eons mankind has exploited the mus- medical services in emergencies. "Ma- You could do many things with your ro- cles and brains of beasts from llamas to chines like this would allow people to re- bot friend. Certainly you could play chess sheep dogs. At the Arthur D. Little meet- main independent and function on their own or checkers. Marvin Minsky, head of arti- ing, computer expert John Langley cited much longer," he says. ficial-intelligence research at MIT, years ago the example of his milkman, who recently But robots may turn out to be more than created a robot deft enough to catch a switched from a horse-drawn wagon to a mere workhorses. Psychologists and so- baseball. And, as with any friend, you could truck and found that the animal was much ciologists have been tracking what ap- have long, rambling personal dialogues with more efficient because it directed itself pears to be a growing epidemic of loneli- your robot; people were delighted to dis- down the street and knew all the stops. ness i'n Western society. They suspect that cuss their intimate problems with a com- puter "psychologist" program created at MIT not long ago.

"If people already have trouble differ- entiating between their relationships with people and a machine, over the next dec- ade or so, as we develop computers with ultrahigh-speed parallel processing, peo- ple may find conversations with a robot in- distinguishable from talks with people, "says Ernst. "They may even find the machines to be preferable." Here we are, hardly settled into our elec- tronic cottages, and already the age of electronic pals is upon us. Androbot's No- lan Bushnell painted a comforting picture of future friendships when he introduced his diminutive (three-foot-tall) home robot. While you wiggle a video-game joystick, making your aluminum sidekick dance a

jig, it will speak to you, sing your favorite songs, or whisper Shakespearean sonnets in your ear—the. very model of a learned and entertaining soul mate. As Bushneil told reporters when he an- ' nounced his new robot protege: "We're talking about a someone, not a some- thing—a friend that would greet you after a long day at the office." What next? Bushnell predicts synthetic

travel. You entera controLmodule in Duluth

and take command of a robot in Rome, peering through its eyes, listening to live

street sounds through its ears, as you send

it lurching down the Via Veneto. (See "Travel "Twelve years of coltege'and it never occurred to r by Proxy," Antimatter.) that I'd have to work the night shift!" "It's a wonderlul business," says En- gelberger. 'All things are possible. "DO w

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One revered tradition, the robot as pseudohuman—an electfomechai ... copy of the human form—has been partially realized. The opening pages o( this story

tors to Walt Disney Enterprises* EPCOT Center. The Disney performer tells stories and makes gestures with uncanny '" " rs more than a passing resemblance to the Yul Brynner the SF film Wes tworld (inset photo), re equally popular in Japan, where eerily P maSSBt figures perform in large department stores. Some are Orienta garbed in traditional costume, while others assume Western id'

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— , — — i gyrate and slither very much like their reptilian counter- : - .".'". ,'. : ::. parts. Roboticists . , : in the United States have been working < V" of mobile robots that employ a rudimentary sense of touch and vision to negotiate the clutter of the real world with an unmachinelike ingenuity, "any of the components needed to build the robot of our dreams al .„!. What remains is the challenge of assembling the disparate par intelligent entity. The end product of a"

:. In many ways the robot of reality has turned out to be a ...... , ...id intelligent entity than the creature foreseen in robot my- thology. At the same time, this machine is less friendly, less innately human in form and function, than any of our imaginings. Although born of human ingenuity, the robot already shows distinct signs of becoming an alien being:

may always view it with some degree of ui ^mmmmgmmmm "Diagnosis of robot problems should be that the average robot has 400 hours mean the nearest thing to medical diagnosis," time between failures. "Some problems are ROBO-SHOGK! Grossman thinks. "Some doctors are good, akin to human ills," says Brownstein, "but CONTINUED FROM P) some bad. The tirst thihg a bad doctor does others are very different. You can't open spray and laying down an enticing trail is run a zillion tests just for a start, when it up a person and implant health monitors leading directly to the stairwell. might be something as simple as your everywhere. And you can't put too many Formanagement, psychological disrup- necktie being too tight. It's the same with of them in robots either, because the rea- tion was the least of the problems caused robot difficulties: The toughest thing is son a lot of machinery goes down is sensor by the robo-carts. Without learning the knowing in which subsystem to look for the failure." Some robots have sensors for the ropes by delivering the mail, "raw" clerical trouble: electrical, electronic, hydraulic, sensors, a design idea that could, if car- help now required months of training at high software, mechanical, sensors." IBM's 7565 ried far enough, compound the problems pay levels to learn what they previously "robotics system," he tells us, monitors its infinitely— loops within loops. are picked up on the mail routes. Problems like entire state every 20 milliseconds. And if Brownstein and company designing these in the workplace probably indicate the self-examination finds anything abnor- robot -to -human communication systems so lunar, undersea, nuclear- that it will be a while before robots win a mal the machine shuts itself down and logs that remote— permanent place in the home. On the do- the problem. plant— robots could report what is wrong mestic-robot scene, some experts predict Grossman remembers a test robot that with them to the guys back home; and the we will see little more than robot guards fooled everyone for months. It kept turning humans could respond with suggestions for a tew years. These will be fairly dumb itself off tor no discernible reason. Finally for compensating tor the robots' problems. is rovers; they'll have all they can do to figure someone received an electrical shock from This design principle, says Brownstein, graceful degradation. In alien en- out where they're going. They will be able it and realized there was a clogged hy- called believe, to detect the presence of people, but un- draulic filter that someone had forgotten to vironments, most robotics experts able to distinguish between friend or foe. replace. "It was trivial," Grossman says, the robots will have to be designed with One robo-guard offered by Robotics In- "but when you pump hydraulic fluid through self-repair and compensation components ternational, Inc., of Jackson, Michigan, is a filter at high speed it generates static for breakdowns—or they will have to be based on the classic "motivated" rover electricity; the static electricity built up a designed to be thrown away, principle. That is, this robot has only one charge and the charge shut off the com- "If robots are to expand beyond fairly objective — to move down hallways in puter." Robo-shock indeed. focused applications," Brownstein contin- to improve reli- search of electrical sockets. When it finds At Batielle Memorial Institute, in Colum- ues, "much must be done ability to involve relatively unskilled one, it recharges itself and trundles on to bus, Ohio, experts specialize in self-di- and in maintenance. want the next plug. For a sentry, it seems slightly agnostic systems applicable to robots. "It's people care and We self-preoccupied. not as spacey as it sounds," says Barry these machines suitable for people al- But several other robots today appear Brownstein, manager of the digital sys- ready in the environment, instead ot frying section, there's to superclass of robot doctors." equally egocentric— if not hypochondria- tems and technology "and make a mechanoid mainte- cal — in monitoring the state of their health. lots o'f motivation for it." Reports indicate When it comes to nance, John Hall, of Hall Enterprises, in Pittsburgh, thinks he's got a head start. Al- though few robots exist in his part of the

country. Hall is sure they will proliferate and will need maintenance. "When a robot mal- functions, "he says, "the cost is enormous.

It can stop your whole system. Preventive maintenance is going to be increasingly important—we anticipate problems with mechanical wear, wiring, dirt, and smoke. In chemical plants there's corrosion. In painting operations, paint globulars. In welding, there's smoke, dirt, and oil. The price for breakdown is so high you can

afford to spend some portion of it as pre- ventive medicine and beat the cost." in the long run, the robots that will take over the world will probably not be any- thing like the tin men we see in the movies, They may not even look much like R202. They'll probably be much like us— but bet- "1 ter. Grossman on the future of robots: think we're fighting an uphill battle in trying

to make computers control robot limbs. I think there's another potential solution: The molecular biologists can find ways of ma- nipulating genes. And they could make bi- ological machines that can do the same thing. In the long run I'd put my money on

them, if ethical concerns don't prevent that line of research." At the Center For Adaptive Systems, at Boston University, a group directed by mathematician and interdisciplinary sci- entist Stephen Grossberg is studying the neuromechanisms of learning, perception, and motor control— for robotics. "In the course o! brain research we are led to mathematical models of a number of neural processes." Grossberg says. "Our goal is to use the designs that come out of our times offer: of to Good direct study behavior suggest de- signs for new types of machines." Fourteen oz. glass mug for Grossberg thinks a natural counterpoint sale. It's the two-fisted way to drink to good times and to computer-based intelligent machines is v\\ salute your great taste in to use the brain's .extraordinary learning ;\V\ drinks. Why not start a properties as a model. One reason there %V;>\ collection? Please :;end. relatively progress in has been such slow this coupon, along with a questions of machine learning, he tells us, check or money order is that the architecture of the brain is so :)} for S4.95 per rv'ug (no different from that of computers. Since the m cash please) to; brain is organized primarily for adaptation Seagram's 7 Crown Mug Offer, to uncertainty, a new artificial intelligence P.O. Box 1622, New York, N.Y, 10152 based on the brain's "self-organization," its adaptive nature, should be a major motif of artificial intelligence, "not a peripheral theme you tack on later, as people in Al have done with great ingenuity." But not enough ingenuity. Grossberg gives us an example of self- organization: "How do the eyes react to motions of the head when you're running?

Your head is bobbing along — it has noth- ing to do with your planned motion. How do the eyes know to move in compensa- Specify quantity Amount enclosed S . tory motion? God doesn't go in and say, Offer eipires January 31, 1361. No purchase nasssarj. 0HC43 'Eyes, I'm going to tell you all there is to know about the parameters of the head, because they are always changing.' No one Seagram's ever tells us what the rules of the environ- ment are. In fact, there are probably no rules at all in the traditional sense of that word. And this is the critical dilemma for machine intelligence." As often, it's a dilemma that won't be resolved without more funding! More money Not Just Another goes into funding research in conventional Al, because the computer companies be- Summer Camp. hind if hope for the big payoff in applica- tions. "These people don't study the brain and its structure," Grossberg points out. 'And yet, the study of the brain could lead to new architecture, new computers, new machines, new generations of machines in which the goal is not to mimic a computer. So much is known about these future ma- chines that it is very clear to me they will be built." The quality of excitement Grossberg feels is common among robotic scientists. "I don't think any of it's easy," says MIT's Michael Brady. "There are thousands of wonderful is the fun. problems and every time we're arrogant Learning part of • 10-16 • 2. 4, week enough to believe we've solved one, what Coed, ages or 8 • Convenient locations we've really done is created three more. sessions • skills And anyone who has tried to do anything With or without computer • Traditional camp activities as mundane as get a robot to wave its arm • Professional Directors around, a TV camera lo see, or a computer Camp to understand a natural language will be filled with awe at the effortless behavior of A an average three-year-old child. In work- ATARI ing on these automatons, researchers are COMPUTER CAMPS really discovering everything about the human being." CALL TOLL FREE 800/84Z-4180 "There are wonderful stories to be writ- ten on every level about the nature of ro-

botics," Grossberg says. "After all, if you take it from the highest point of view, we're talking about self-knowledge. "DO GENE FIXERS

BY TAB1THA M. POWLEDG!

fly embryos—each step takes closer to redesigning man —

Like so many reports ol genetic research these organs, other methods are needed. Other defects present even more diffi- these days, this item was big enough to One hope is to inserl the desired gene cult problems. Down's syndrome, the most share the network newscasts last fall with into a virus thai would infect the afflicted common cause of severe mental retarda- the economy, the Middle East, and the fate tissue and use the- virus to get the gene to tion, is genetic, but it is not caused by a of the MX missile. Researchers had trans- its target— cells with defective genes. Sci- single gene. Instead, Down's patients carry planted genes governing rat growth into, entists call this viral transduction. an entire extra chromosome, a package of mice, and the mice grew bigger than nor- Among researchers pursuing this blue- DNA comprising several thousand genes. mal, in one case, almost twice as big, The sky scheme is C. Thomas Caskey, profes- No one has been able to devise a way to report followed by only a tew weeks the sor of medicine and biochemistry at Baylor remove thai extra chromosome from every disclosure that, for the first time, scientists College of Medicine. He'd like to develop cell in a child's body, or to undo the dam- had cured a hereditary disorder by trans- a genetic cure for Lesch-Nyhan disease, age it wreaks in the brain. ferring norma genetic male-pal into defec- a ghastly genetic disorder of the central Nor will gene therapy avert such disor- tive fruit-fly embryos. nervous system. Lesch-Nyhan children ders as diabetes, heart disease, and high

Such dramatic achievements are rap- compulsively chew their lips and fingers blood pressure. These are all produced in jdly revealing the secrets of how genes and otherwise mutilate themselves de- large part by environmental factors, but they work. Some researchers are looking to- spile the pain these behaviors cause. develop most often in people genetically ward the social and economic benefits from, The disease results from lack of a brain predisposed to them, These conditions, too, say, genetically engineering cattle to pro- enzyme with the mouth-filling name of hy- probably involve more than one gene, duce more meat and milk. And today's ad- poxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl medical geneticists believe. vances bring medicine closer to curing he- transferase, usually known as HPRT. But Getting foreign genetic material into a reditary illness in humans, instead of merely figuring out a way to use a virus to transfer complex organism is no easy task. Most treating its symptoms, as physicians now the HPRT gene into the brain is, Caskey scientists have simply injected the new are restricted to doing. acknowledges, a pretty tough problem. A genes into a fertilized egg through a glass But with each advance, we may be drift- few viruses do enter the brain, but what needle finer than a hair. They call this tech- ing inevitably toward a development that nique microinjection. The process is trau- unnerves most of us —and terrifies many matic, and many of the eggs die. But some of us: the genetic engineering of human survive, and when transferred into the beings. Neither society nor the scientists uterus of a host mother, they can live out themselves have yet faced up to this lives that appear otherwise normal. scientists in alarming but very real possibility. Qf The first success of this kind was re- Just how close are these miracles? Sci- Europe succeed in an ported by three Yale scientists who were entists quite reasonably point out that hu- able to identify foreign genes in one, or area so exciting man genetic engineering still faces im- perhaps two, of 150 newborn mice grown mense technical obsi.acloa. Getting a new and Nobei-worthy, the halls from microinjected eggs. Of crucial im- gene into a cell is just the first of many giant of Congress portance for the future of embryo genetic steps that are required. Like NASA engi- engineering, those m:ce passed the gene will neers sending a space probe to another ring with cries to along to their children and grandchildren. planet, researchers musl not only deliver close the But it is not enough simply to get the a gene to their target, but then turn it on genetic-engineering gap3 genes into the animal. Once there, they must and gel it to work properly. behave normally, and this involves two more

It was just these problems that thwarted problems, One, scientists call gene ex- the controversial work of UCLA's Dr. Martin pression; a gene "expresses" itself by

Cline. (See "Spare Genes," by Yvonne making the protein it is supposed to make,

Baskin, March 1982.) In July 1980. working The other problem is gene regulation: a in Italy and Israel, he tinkered with the bone they do there is devastating. Among the gene must not only make the right protein, marrow of two young women suffering from candidate viruses are the encephalitis and but turn It out at the right place and time, thalassemia, a fatal defect in hemoglobin Coxsackie viruses: They cause severe in- and in the right amount. production. The idea was to give a few of flammation, brain damage, and often death. If putting a foreign gene into an embry- their marrow cells normal hemoglobin "The problem," as Caskey sees it, "is to onic mouse is no easy task, getting the genes in hopes that the repaired cells would engineer a virus so that it will be defective, gene to express itself is far more challeng-

1 multiply and cure the inborn defect, It does that is, will not cause disease, yet will carry ing. Unlike NASA engineers, geneticists not appear to have worked. the gene into a certain tissue and repro- have found it difficult to find the biological

When the foreign experiments came to duce it just as disease caus ng viruses re- equivalent for radioing a command to their light the following autumn, Cline was asked produce their own genes. This is a formi- cellular probes. Since the Yale announce- to resign his post as head of his division, The dable task, but not insurmountable." ment, a number of research groups have following year the National Institutes of Perhaps not, but all forms of gene ther- reported successful gene insertion, and Health stripped him of two federal grants apy now being explored present problems even inheritance, But only three have he had four—worth more than $190,000. The that will keep them from being widely used. claimed that the foreign genes in their en- unprecedented punishment was a stern "People have gotten the impression that gineered rodents were expressed. warning to researchers to move slowly in this work is going to lead to miraculous The first report of success came in 1981 testing gene therapy on people. cures," Caskey says, "but it is really going from the laboratory of Beatrice Mintz, at Unlike space scientists, geneticists have to be applicable only to a small category the institute for Cancer Research, Fox several ways to get their probes to Iheir ot patients with rare diseases." Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia. Her destinaiions. Cline's approach is sadly lim- The trouble is that the gene therapies group's foreign gene was manufactured ited, because it can apply only to tissues now under development can work only with from two snippets of natural DNA. One part whose cells, like those of bone marrow, inherited diseases limited to a single tis- was a human gene that makes a section continue to divide throughout life, so that sue. There are relatively few of them, Most of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying pro- the genetically engineered cells can even- genetic disorders have far wider effects. tein of red blood cells. The rest came from tually replace the natural, defective ones. Cystic fibrosis, for example, affects the the herpes simplex virus, where it makes Many organs produce cells only intermit- lungs, intestinal tract, pancreas, and sex an enzyme called thymidine kinase (tk). tently or, like the brain, stop altogether once organs. So far, there is no way to deliver a Scientists use the herpes tk gene for in- they are fully developed. For defects in "good" gene lo all these tissues at once. sertion experiments because it is a useful 94 OMNI —

marker. If they can find tk in the cells after ulates production of an interes'.ing pro

Brinsterand Howard Y. Chen, of the School versity of California and the Salk Institute the normal amount of growth hormone. of Veterinary Medicine, at the Universily of and dramatically topped even that Most important, though, the researchers

Pennsylvania. It stunned their peers. achievement. This time they hooked Ihe think they may have found a surefire way Their method is intricate and clever, and metallothionein gene to mammalian DNA, "to stimulate rapid growth of commercially it holds great promise for future triumphs. a gene for constructing the hormone that valuable animals." Cattle, pigs, sheep, and Palmiter also started with the herpes tk governs growth in rats. even chickens may soon grow bigger and gene; the rest of the team's composite came Twenty-one mice developed from eggs faster than today's livestock. They may from a mouse, where it promotes and reg- injected with the fusion gene (the name metabolize their food more efficiently, sav- ing money on feed. They could produce more meat. Cows might yield more milk as well. All this would be accomplished sim- " ply by adding zinc to the drinking water of genetically engineered animals. Brinster speculates that eventually genes from the immune system might be used to help animals resist disease. "We don't know much about this now," he concedes, "but we're moving ahead. In three to five' years, we'll know more about the genes involved

in disease. It's possible an animal could develop its own immunity."

With all this flashy success, it is easy to forget that the genetic engineers really don't have a handle on gene expression or reg- ulation yet. Gcrctical y engineered mice and their offspring may possess a foreign

gene and even produce the substance it

dictates, but they still don't produce it in any orderly, predictable way. The pituitary gland normally makes the body's growth hormone; in the mouse experiments the

liver, and perhaps other tissues as well,

poured it out. "We are still a long way from controlling ihe gene," Brinster admits. In fruit-fly embryos, by contrast, scien- tists at the Carnegie Institution, in Balti- more, have been much more successful. Their work is based on so-called "jumping genes," or transposons— pieces of DNA that move around within the chromosome and even hop from one chromosome to another. Genet cisl Baccara McClintock, of the Carnegie Institution, discovered trans- posons in corn more than 30 years ago, but the idea sounded so bizarre that few of her colleagues believed it. Today some tilized human eggs in such numbers, even ally, all their children will also be afflicted scientists suspect that all life forms carry at the one-cell stage. with the disease. jumping genes, though the function of True, not many fertilized eggs survive They can, of course, adopt children in- transposons has not yet been settled. microinjection and develop into normal an- stead. Or they can have children and put

Fruit flies.' possess transposons, and imals. But how important that is depends them on the special diet. But if some ge- Carnegie scientists Gerald M. Rubin and on the society. In the United States right netic engineer finds a way to transfer a Allan C. Spradling have been able io use now, destruction of fertilized eggs would working anti-PKU gene into an embryo, he them to ferry genes into fruit-fly embryos. certainly provoke howls of protest from the will be sorely tempted to cure the couple's For the first time, researchers achieved right-to-life lobby. But in the rest of the world fertilized egg. And what couple would re-

slable gene expression, in the process this group's power is virtually nil. There are fuse the chance to have a child of their own curing a genetic defect. plenty of labs in western Europe capable who was free of the disease? Fruil Hies normally have brick.-red eyes, of embryo engineering. Some of the work Treatment for sickle-cell anemia, thal- courtesy of a gene scientists have dubbed on mice has been done there. If scientists assemia; and cystic fibrosis has also im- rosy. This gene produces an enzyme called in Europe or anywhere else succeed in an proved so that some patients can consider xanthine dehydrogenase; fruil flies without area so exciting and Nobe worthy, the halls parenthood. Here, too. it is inevitable that

it h'ave boring brown eyes. Using standard of Congress will ring with cries to close the occasionally two people with the same gene-splicing techniques, Rubin and genetic-engineering gap— especially when disability will want children. Given better Spradling insinuated the rosy gene into a American scien-iElK slarl liiisatening to lake medical care, other diseases will join the fruit-fly transposon and microinjected the their test tubes elsewhere. The clamor will list, and marriages like these will become piggyback DNA into embryos lacking the drown out the right-to-iife contingent. more common. So will sick kids. gene. For technical reasons the piggyback There are simpler ways to deal with bur- The humane wish to give such couples DNA had no effect on (he embryos them- densome genetic defects. normal children —and the woeful limits of selves. They grew up to be. brown-eyed This is the most cogent argument against today's gene therapy—will finally open the flies. But the rosy gene did fit itself into the embryo engineering. Current medical Pandora's box of embryo tampering. Two eggs and sperm of up to half of those flies, other arguments will help override objec- and their children grew up with the flashing tions to human genetic engineering. red eyes of true-blue fruit flies. Curing an affected fetus is preferable to In the world of biology, where startling ending its existence by abortion. revelations have come along daily for sev- Where there is no good treatment for a eral years, Rubin and Spradling have cre- mt is hard to genetic disorder, prenatal diagnosis and ated a mighty flap. In addition to achieving deny that healing such abortion are now our only defense. An ex- the first real cure for a genetic defect, they ample is Tay-Sachs disease. Found mostly children is better brought scientists a giant step closer to among Jews with eastern European roots, adequate control of gene expression. than ending their lives. the condition is an implacable destroyer of

Of course fruit flies are not people; they infants, It is hard to deny that healing such - . Embryos will be are not even mice. Bui Rubin and Sprad- children is better than ending their lives. ling are confident that transposons will lost in early research, but Embryos will be lost in the early experi- lifesaving eventually make it possible to modify the this can be seen ments, but this can be seen as a genes of many plants and animals. And sacrifice in the long run. as a lifesaving sacrificed the limits? No one is willing to say that there Embryo engineering will prevent dis- are any presently in view. ease in future generations. These successes in engineering other Since the person who grows from a ge- species force us to wonder about the ge- netically repaired embryo will pass along netic manipulation of Homo sapiens. For the "good" gene to all descendants, their example, since today's methods of gene techniques will remain the first line of de- progeny will be cured as well, Who is cur- therapy are so limited, should we abandon fense against disorders caused by single mudgeon enough to reject such a benefit? the idea of repairing specific tissues ge- genes. And when scientists learn to read Once we have bought these arguments, netically and work only with embryos early the genes in reproductive cells removed though, we may buy others. If cattle are in their development? This would cure any from the body, rather than performing gene given the ability to resist disease, will we genetic disease in them throughout the therapy, it will make more sense to discard deny the same ability to people? And why body. The technique could be used in any defective embryos and implant a good .one should we confine genetic engineering to condition where a "good" gene could be in the mother-to-be. disease? If zinc can be used to regulate identified and inserted. Since the good Yet a few would-be parents have no bovine growth hormone, why not human gene would be passed on in the eggs or chance at all of producing a normal child, hormones as well? Sex hormones, say: Pop sperm, it would also cure those ills in all and their numbers are growing as medi- ten milligrams of zinc gluconate for an in- the patient's descendants. cine learns to treat ills that were once crip- stant aphrodisiac. Scientists insist that genetic engineering pling or fatal. Take, for example, phenyl- Perhaps that is only a fantasy. So, per- of human embryos will never happen. Let's ketonuria (PK'Uj. a gonciic d'sease in which haps, is the idea of being able to alter in- examine their arguments. the body fails to break down phenylala- telligence and other complex, poorly The technica! barriers are immense. nine, an amino acid found in meat and milk. understood traits. But we should remem- Yes, but most will yield in time. The re- PKU patients were once condemned to ber thai genetic engineering has, from the cent experiments with mice and fruit' flies severe mental retardation, but today the first, been unpredictable. have begun to unravel even the knotty condition can be detected shortly alter birth. We should also understand that be- problem of controlling gene expression. So PKU sufferers can be placed on diets low cause we want to heal hereditary illness, far there is no reason to doubt that these in phenylalanine for a few years and after we are slipping toward the genetic engi- methods can be applied' to our own spe- that, live essentially normal lives. neering of human beings almost without cies. In short, we can be reasonably sure In the United States, screening for PKU realizing it. Genetic engineering will not be that technical barriers will crumble, and in has been routine, olten by law. for the past forced upon us, as a few social forecasters genetic engineering they have tended to 20 years. So a growing number of other- have led us to believe, by a new Hitler crumble extremely quickly. wise healthy adults have PKU. When two wishing a mindlessly obedient populace.

The failure rate is too high and society of these people meet, marry, and start a We will seek if out. applaud its humane would never tolerate the destruction of fer- family, which is bound to happen eventu- goals, and espouse it eagerly. OQ 93 OMNI Robots may bring on a new Victorian Age, complete with wealth, leisure, and personal goods delivered by gibbonlike automatons, says the high prophet of artificial intelligence irUTERV/IEUU

John McCarthy, the fifty-five-year-old director of Stanford also created the computer language LISP (List Processing Lan- University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is, in a sense, guage)—the successor to the mathematical language of FOR- the father of all close relations between humans and com- TRAN— in which most "intelligent" computer programs have been puters. It was McCarthy who, while organizing the first conference written. He founded a subbranch of mathematics called "the se- on the subject at Dartmouth in the summer of 1956, invented the mantics of compulation." and solved its first significant problems, term "artificial intelligence" to describe the then-emerging field. such as how to test certain classes of complicated computer

McCarthy also has the distinction of having founded two of the programs to see if they were correcl, and how to "crunch down." world's three great laboratories of artificial intelligence: the MIT or simplify, the number of steps involved in certain very complex laboratory, in 1957 with Marvin Minsky; and the Stanford labora- computer operations. Over the past twenty-five years McCarlhy tory, in 1963. (The fhird is part of Carnegie-Mellon University.) has created a continuing succession of ideas that have been While at MIT, McCarthy also invented a kind of computer time- turned into computer hardware or programs. sharing, called interactive computing, in which a central com- Last summer, at the annual meeting of the National Conference puter was connected to multiple terminals—the first practical one- on Artificial Intelligence. McCarthy and Minsky— the two founders to-one relation between a computer and its many users, each of of the field— confronted one another publicly, as they have pri- whom could feel he had the machine all to himself. In 1958, he vately over the years, on the real problem ot artificial intelligence: PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK O'REAR — — 3

how to give machir that can tolerate ambiguity without losing ligions to embrace atheism and Marxism. There now exist industrial robots with lim- the rigorousness of mathematical reason- Thrown out of Cal Tech for refusing to at- ited abilities, and so-called "expert sys- ing. In mathematical logic it is easy to make tend physical-education classes, Mc- tems"—computer programs that can mimic the statement, "A boat can cross a river." Carthy was among the last Americans the analytical procedures a doctor per- In the real world this may be true, but boats drafted into World War II. After the war he forms in diagnosing disease, or that a ge- may also leak or be missing oars. In logic returned to Cal Tech to earn his bachelor's ologist follows in deciding where to dig to these conditions might be accounted for degree, then went on to earn his Ph.D. at strike a mineral. And an endless variety of simply by tacking them onto the first state- Princeton. In 1956 he-was offered his first "smart" devices, such as self-regulating ment: "And there must be no leak and there teaching position, in the mathematics de- thermostats and automobile rotor sensors, must be oars." But there are bound to be partment at Dartmouth. In 1957 he moved are now being developed that are based additional unanticipated disasters await- to MIT, and in 1963 accepted an offer to on the decision-trees that can be built into ing boaters. McCarthy's solution is to say: head his own department at Stanford. microchips. But all of this, says McCarthy, "The boat may be used as a vehicle for A widower and father of two daughters doesn't address the real issue. These sys- crossing a body of water, unless some- (his second wife Vera died in a climbing tems are useful and clever, but are no real thing prevents it." In ordinary mathemati- accident during the 1980 all-women as- match for human intelligence. What is sim- cal logic this would not suffice, because cent of Annapurna), McCarthy is a bit awk- ple for a computer is difficult for human every exception must be laid out item by ward socially, sometimes ignoring the usual beings: chess, mathematics, and. expert item, But McCarthy's approach provides conventions. But though he may appear knowledge. And what is simple for human a way of going ahead with incomplete in- absentminded and distant, his interior life beings is difficult for computers: common- formation. If, for example, the computer hits seems to be one continuous stream of sense thinking. the phrase, "unless something prevents it," ideas — not only in the fields of mathemat- To illustrate the problem Minsky and and finds nothing entered beneath that ics and computing, but also in politics, lit- avid McCarthy offer the statement, "Birds can phrase—no leaks, no lost oars— it will erature, music, or plumbing. An reader

it is also the author of fly." It is clear that this statement is usually continue on. If, on the other hand, en- of science fiction, he of stories that, thus far, remain true — but not in all circumstances. The os- a number trich and the penguin can't fly. Dead birds unpublished. When his home thermostat can't fly. Birds held down by their feet can't malfunctioned some years ago, causing the of fly. These exceptions seem obvious to hu- temperature in some rooms his house mans, but to a computer that has been to climb above 80°F, McCarthy was in- bWhat I would given "Birds can fly" as a statement of fact, spired to write an unpublished philosoph- such exceptions can wreak havoc. The like is to extend the ical treatise— available to anyone who cares to call it up on Stanford's computerized study of artificial intelligence has stalled at power of the this juncture. "memo system"—on the subject of whether The problem, according to McCarthy individual through these it is proper to say that thermostats "be- lieve" and can have "mistaken beliefs." He and it is at the heart of all questions of automatic means intelligence — is one of organization. A ma- once had to struggle with moving a piano so that one man could chine might be stuffed with the same bil- up a flight of stairs. Soon afterward he was lions of bits of information contained in a build a car deep into the problem of transporting heavy human brain. But recalling any one bit from objects over difficult and uneven terrain. or house all by himself memory— an operation that the brain can His answer: a cleverly designed, six-legged usually perform in milliseconds—cannot mechanism that could carry a piano up be done simply by sifting through a heap. and down stairs.

If the job were done that way, it would take In this interview, conducted at Mc- days for a human to move from the living Carthy's Stanford home and in a local res- room to the bathroom, because each bit counters "leak in the boat," it will turn down taurant by Philip J. Hilts, national staff writer of information What is a bathroom? Is there a new path dealing with leaks, water, and for The Washington Post and author of Sci- in one nearby? How can I transport my anx- repair. Using such a chain of interrelated entific Temperaments: Three Lives Con- ious self there?—would require a full search logical statements it is not necessary—as temporary Science, McCarthy leaps from fantastical of the brain's contents. So the challenge is it is in Minsky's system—for one concept mundane questions to propos- to organize huge amounts of knowledge in to dominate. als, calculations, and other oddities. This a way that permits humans, or computers, McCarthy admits that this is probably not is John McCarthy. His mind does not re- this is Al, main on factual, earthly matters for more to retrieve it at will —to mix and match pieces how the human brain works, "but of knowledge and to establish permanent so we don't care if it is psychologically real." than a tew seconds before it is again tak- links between them so one will bring up Minsky's frames come no closer to mod- ing off into another fanciful possibility- the other. eling the power and flexibility of human some of which he has thought about a great McCarthy offers one approach to the thought. And neither method has proved deal. What follows may not be the conven- problem, Minsky another. In Minsky's practical so far in building intelligent pro- tional interview, but then, McCarthy is not scheme, information stored by the com- grams. But then, neither man believes that the conventional scientist. puter or brain is handled in "frames." A machines will achieve anything approach-

"frame" is something like a context or ing human intelligence any time soon. Omni: I want to ask you first of all about dominant idea in an argument— a concept- Meanwhile, McCarthy allows his thoughts the robotic arms and eyes coming into use ("bird") with many other related concepts to roam freely. A rather shy man, he pos- in industry, So far the main application of or bits of information ("feather," "flight," sesses an extraordinary ability to concen- these things is in the assembly line.

"egg-laying") attached to it in slots, or trate his mind on a single idea—to step McCarthy: Yes, so far this is the main ap-

"subframes." Each frame, of course, is wholly into it. "A large part of his creativity," plication of robotics. One of the things that connected: Calling up one may lead to says one colleague, "comes from his abil- has happened recently is a great prolifer- calling up another, and soon. Thus, in Min- ity to focus on one thing. The hazard of ation of little devices of different costs; you sky's frames, knowledge is linked in chains that is, everything else gets screwed up." can buy something for as little as 1,500 of association, but is always dominated by Born to an Irish Catholic father and a dollars that can move its hands around and the frame. Lithuanian Jewish mother, McCarthy was pick up things —a sort of toy for hobbyists. McCarthy's approach is to create a new raised, along with his younger brother Pat- It's controlled by a microprocessor. I'm not form of logic, called nonmonotonic logic, rick, by parents who abandoned their re- sure what its limitations are. It's not very 102 OMNI —

strong, however, and it may not be very have to see or have lull recognition of three- because the problems are very hard and reliable. If you tried to run it all day it might dimensional objects as a human does. as people have begun to-work on the very break down. Like almost all robotics in use There are many problems that can be hard problems of vision and manipulation, today, it does not have a mind. Because of solved' by using plane views; so you have they've identified easier subproblems. In this, what we have is very limited. only a two-dimensional problem to worry the beginning people said, "I want my ro- Omni: But there has been some progress about, rather than a three-dimensional one. bot to do what a human does." But part of toward making mechanical arms and ro- Omni: Give me an example. the progress has consisled of identifying bots smarter? McCarthy: Suppose you have flat parts easier subproblems, the solutions to which McCarthy: There are iwo directions in which moving on a belt. A part may be in one are nonetheless useful in themselves. things are advancing: force-sensing for the position or it may be rotated, but the.robot Specific factory-automation devices are one mechanical hands, and specialized sys- can use a template to identify it and its set of easier things that don't go a long way tems of vision. The original robots had no orientation. You can have a fixed camera toward solving the real problem of how vi- mechanism for sensing how much force up above, looking straight down, and the sion works. Another system that has been their hands were exerting; so the com- program can rotate a template until it worked on here at Slantord is one that can mands were simply commands for spe- matches the shape o! the object in its cur- look at an aerial photograph of San Fran- cific motions. Now that meant most things rent orientation. cisco Airport and pick out the airplanes did not quite fit. There had to be sufficient Another specialized vision problem is distinguish them from buildings and vehi- give in the object being picked up to make flight simulation. It's fairly complicated to cles, and see airplanes that are partly ob- up for the limitations of the robot arm. More represent the moving landscape ahead of, scured or hidden. recently the arms have been fitted with force and under, an airplane, chiefly because Omni: This is from an aerial photograph? sensors so that the servoing, or servo- parts of objects are always hidden from It could pick out certain objects, such as mechanism—the program that controls the any particular view of a scene— the far side missiles on the ground? arm—actually measures force, In other of hills and so on. Well, there are now pro- McCarthy: Yes, it could. The Detense De- words, suppose you want the robot to put grams for simulating the continually partment is paying for its development. But a slightly tapered peg in a hole. The robot changing views and conditions o! flight. it's also a good scientific problem— being hand would move the peg downward and Omni: How much specialized program- able to take a whole scene and find all the begin to sense a force on one side of the ming has found its way into industry? similar objects in it, peg, which would tell the machine it hasn't McCarthy: These things aren't in industry, Omni: What's the chief problem to over- got the peg quite centered; so the hand except for the computer simulation being come here?

would move the peg over a little bit. used in movies and so on. In general I think McCarthy: I don't know. It always seems to Omni: And in the area of vision? people are far less ambitious about get- me we ought to make faster progress in

McCarthy: There are several things being ting vision and manipulation into industry robotics than we do, When I first started done. One is to seek out special cases in than they were, say, fifteen years ago. on robotics in 1965 or so, we stated in our which you don't have to solve the whole Omni: Really? Why? first proposal that we would get a robot to vision problem— in which the robot doesn't McCarthy: Well, I'm not sure. Mainly, I think, assemble a Heathkit (a build-it-yourselt electronics kit]. It's still not entirely clear to me why that proved impossible. Omni: You actually got a kit and tried it? McCarthy: No. The robot arms were never flexible enough to do the mechanical mo- tions, nor did we have programs lo control them. The old-fashioned Heathkits in- volved threading, bending, cutting, and

soldering wires. It required considerable dexterity and sophistication to know where

and how much force to apply; I don't think

we were even close to it. Omni: Are we getting closer now?

McCarthy: No. I think everyone's working on the easier problems. In my view, what everyone wants eventually is not only a ro- bot that will take its place in the assembly line, but a "universal manufacturing ma- chine.." This would be more like one robot that could make a whole TV set, a whole camera, or a whole car. The robot might have several arms and a collection of tools.

But it would be interesting if you could sell

the thing, if you could go to your neigh- borhood assembly shop and say, "Well, I'd like that TV from the catalog, but with this additional feature." The TV would be made by one machine. So you could retain the low cost of mass production, but still get ' individuality and custom design, as il it were

handmade. What I would like with these automated means is to extend the power of an individual, so that one man could build a house or car for himself. "Now this isn't for poblic consumption, but that? " Omni: How would you do every often find it helpful sacrifice of it. so we to a couple white mice to McCarthy: Well, rent a gang of robots, as

it were. As it is now, whenever you see a construction site, none of the cranes and bulldozers bear the name of the company that's doing the construction. They bear the name of the company from which the equipment is rented. So first you'd design the house or car, and the design would go through a lot of computer testing; you'd simulate the construction before you be- The CrownJewel ofEngland. gan and the computer would tell you ex- actly what equipment to rent. You'd rent the

robot equipment and it would build the house or car. Let's not imagine this is something the average person would do. The Rockefeller .Foundation had a slogan around 1910, largely forgotten now, which was "Make

the peaks higher," It meant take the best existing research institutions and make

them still better— the direct opposite of equality. And from the point of view of in- creasing what a particular individual could Pi 13 do versus what everybody could do, one would also like to make the peaks higher. And what can be done by one person, or a small group of people, has increased as

technology has advanced. I believe ro- botics can advance that a lot more.

Omni: I hear many inventors complaining that they have no way of approaching cor- porations — that they'd like to do some-

thing but they can't. I guess being able to rent robots would help. McCarthy: Yes, right. But of course, half of the inventors are crackpots. As for the other half—even the guys who aren't crack- pots —90 percent of their inventions aren't

going to make it. an i had an experience trying to market

idea, In fact, I'm still convinced the idea is practical.

Omni: Can you tell me what it is?

McCarthy: I suppose so. Since I can't make

money out of it I've recently been trying to

give it away. It's a computer mail terminal. You could buy this thing from a department

store, and then you could type on it: mail

this message to so-and-so. It would be con- nected to the telephone system, and one computer would call up another terminal

and deliver the message. It seems to me that inventing the thing itself was easy enough, but to persuade some company

to make it was harder. My partner and I had a lot of contacts and interviews with prominent companies; so we didn't have any problems getting attention, Neverthe- less, not one of them decided to produce the terminal,

Omni: Would it be cheaper, than a home computer?

McCarthy; It would be more expensive than some home computers and less expen- sive than others. Something like the Sin-

clair couldn't do it. It wouldn't be enough

computer. It doesn't have enough storage

: to store messages or enough display to '-^&w%&SSS£ permit you to conveniently compose mes-

sages and so forth. So it would be a spe- cialized home, computer. Now, programs for that purpose and* the necessary equipment to attach to the phone system are probably being developed for home computers. But no universal con- objects, and they require an expensive that would bring about a return to the Vic- vention exists lhat would permit any home redesign of the whole city, My current torian Age, in a certain respect. If you had this to hours day, computer anywhere in the world to send scheme is as follows: There's a nineteenth- robot work twenty-four a things messages to any other home computer centliry version and a twentieth-century you would think of more and more version, or eco-version. The nineteenth- for it to do. This would bring about an elab- anywhere in the world. I think there's a good century version involves cables strung on oration in standards of decoration, style, chance IBM will develop orie. At least, I tried to give Ihem the idea. poles, like the cables at ski resorts. The and service. For example, what you would Omni: What do you think will ultimately be carriers are two-armed robots, except that regard as an acceptably set dinner table made possible through robotics, and what they've got one arm like a gibbon and they would correspond to the standards of the forms will robots eventually take? hang on to the cable wilh one arm. They fanciest restaurant, or to the old-fashioned another one. nineteenth-century standards of some- McCarthy: It seems to me that what can be can switch cables by grabbing done and what will be done don't exactly Omni: And these things somehow carry the body who was very rich. Standards would coincide. There's an enormous variety of objects being moved, and then swing like conform to what we imagined to be those things that can be done. The extreme ex- monkeys across these cables? of the British anslo-cracy, because they had ample would be machines built along the McCarthy: Right. Now, the other thing that servants. People ask, "Well, what will hap- lines of the science-fiction-story robots. they can do is climb the oulside of a build- pen when we have robots?" And there is Omni: Humanlike things that walk around? ing on handholds that have been built into a very good example of historical parallel. McCarthy; Yeah. the building. They deliver things to a box, Mamely, what did the rich do when they the size of air had lots of servants? Omni: Is that practical? I mean, is there any maybe and shape an con- use for something like that? ditioner, which is built into an outside wall. Omni: How many years must we wait?

McCarthy: In some sense science fiction's And after a while you hear these clanking McCarthy: I don't know. It's not a devel- portrayal of robots involves a kind of so- noises, and what you've ordered appears opment question. It requires some funda- ciological imaginalion. During the Twen- in this box. mental conceptual advances on the order ties and Thirties robots were depicted in Now, in the eco-version, which is much of the discovery of DNA's structure. Maybe films and stories as an enemy tribe that once these advances are made, progress attempted to conquer the world, and our will be straightlorward. hero wiped them out. By the Fifties robots Omni: Would robot intelligence and human had become an oppressed minority and intelligence be alike? Humans are moti- our hero sympalhized with them. But those vated by anger, jealousy, ambition, sensi- ^Making robots of ideas had little to do with human needs. tivity, And in literature robots are portrayed They had to do with literary needs. Now. human size and shape is as possessing these same motivations.

it our Isaac Asimov, who is the most popular writer McCarthy: I don't think would be to least likely. lo write about robots, has formulated these advantage to make robots whose moods In fact, laws of robotics in which he almost inten- More practical would be a are affected by their chemical state.

it would be a greater chore to simulate the tionally confuses natural laws — laws of • , robot much bigger motion —with legislated laws. He implies chemical state. And it would probably also or smaller than humans. Then that his legislated laws —that a robot should be a mistake to make robots in which not harm a human being, for example- the robot could subgoals would interfere with the main are in some sense natural laws of robotics. goals. For example, according to Freudian do things humans can't do3 And then he writes these almost Talrnudic theory we develop our ideas of morality in stories in which the robots argue about order to please our parents. But then even- whether something is or is not permissible tually we will pursue these concepts even according to the law Well, that, of course, in opposition to our parents. The general is is also literary. human instinct to assert independence Now, what shall we want? One thing thai more expensive, these things are in tun- something that would require some effort

It doesn't to our seems reasonably clear to me is thai mak- nels under the streets, so you don't have to build into robots. seem effort, ing robots of human size and shape is the them clanking around overhead. But the advantage to make that least likely. Rather more practical would be idea that they would either come down from Omni: What about Ihe possible disrup- could a robot that is much smaller or much big- their poles' or come out from underground tion — the unemployment (hat be ger than a human and could do things hu- and climb oulside the building strikes me caused by robots? mans cannot do because of their size or as essential in order to make them com- McCarthy; Well, there are two questions to do shape. It would seem to me the first win- patible with present buildings. that have to be answered. One has ners would be robots quite different from Omni: We could have a little tube running with superrobots. In other words, what will that are a human. There is, however, one advan- up the side of the building. happen when we have robots as tage io robots of human shape and size; McCarthy: Yes, but remember, not every- intelligent as people, which is a long way They could use facilities that were de- body would subscribe to the service al firsl. off. The other has to do with simple auto- signed for human beings. Not many of us are of the generation lhat mation, which is similar to the advances in One of my ideas along these lines that remembers the msta latior ol electricity. Just productivity that have already occurred, is ultimately possible— and I've been consider what an enormous amount of work The United States and other countries have gone through various economic cycles thinking about it for many years—is the au- that was. You look at old buildings and say, tomatic-delivery system. I'd like to be able "How did they ever install electricity in that of unemployment and full employment. to turn to my computer terminal, type into house?" They had to tear up bits of the These countries have also gone through walls to run the wires through. The other various periods of rapid or slow techno- it that I wanl a hall-gallon of milk or a new gadget and, twenty minutes later, the milk possibility— or the other extreme possibil- logical development. No one has ever at-

ihcsolnhgs. I or gadget would appear automatically. ity, is a walking robot lhat, after it comes tempted to correct! But think Omni: By what system? down from the cables or up from under- what would be observed is that there is no McCarthy: The first system one thinks of ground, simply walks over and knocks on correlation— that periods of high unem- especially correlated with as a child is. of course, little trains that run your door. In some sense that would be ployment are not along in tunnels, under the streets and so more flexible. Something could be deliv- periods of rapid technological advance. In forth. What's wrong with that idea as* it ered to someone who wasn't a subscriber. fact, on ihe average, more advanced lower unem- stands? Well, the little trains are expensive Whal I envision, actually, with regard to countries have somewhat and not very fast. They can't carry very big robots, are some fairly large social changes ployment than do the less technologically 106 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 1E2 THE END OFTHE WORLD NEWS BY ANTHONY BURGESS

In Part One, Brodie and ^99 Wilhtt left New York City, which was devas- tated by tides roused by the planet Lynx. Meanwhile, scientists in a small Kansas town work feverishly to complete a spaceship de- signed to save the cream of American intel- lects from the impending collision with the wayward planet. There's dissatisfaction brew- ing among the scientists; outsiders (including Brodie and Willett) are converging on the proj- ect center; and Lynx temporarily becomes a new heavenly body around which Earth will \ orbit until the two planets collide. "As they used to say in vaudeville.'' Willett grunted, "this must be the place." He made certain adjustments to Ihe controls that kept the thing hovering in the hostile winds—hos- tile to one another as well as to their craft. Val I could still not get over his surprise that Willett, actor, eater, swiller, and praiser o! the past,

This is the second part of a two-part excerpt. w PAINTING BY *2d JEAN-MARIE POUMEYROL 3

truth of it, said. "You folks for the big rally? Well should be so skillful with a helicopter. "You know the friends," he come

nigh marching to it, That They had picked up this particular heli- "The earth," he said prosaically, "has had on two hundred said or Curly. copter near Sedalia. Missouri. Land trans- a long run for its money. It had to be fin- right, boy?" he to Jack, Joe, port had by now been thoroughly ob- ished off someday, and it's going to end "What's this?" asked Dashiel sharply. rally. Not of structed by broken roads, folds of upturned as it began, with capitalists on top and "Big Commie seen one them earth, perpetual jolting tremors. They had workingmen ground info the dirt beneath. afore in these parts. No call for commu- nism this part of the world. at the camp been astonished, near Sedalia, to see in Make no mistake about it, sisters and Up the road. This English feller was here broad midday a patch ot air wholly taken brothers. At that camp up there, with its up

all it talking about the workers and the caplists. up by helicopters engaged in crashing into electrical wires around to keep people

I meant. One of my own each other in individual suicide combat. out, is a ship that's going off into. space, knew what he Madness, Lyncstatic madness. There was loaded with the wealthy, being served boys—young Charlie it was—went that way

I noth- a metal notice, twisted, battered, lying on champagne and caviar. And where are they after he'd been in the army. ain't got

ing against it mind." scorched grass, which said helibase as, going? you may ask. Well, I'll tell you, friends deep down, Over an excessively amplified loud- and comrades. They're not going any- "Is that that speaker system joyful, simple music was where except into space up there, far away The earth hiccupped. what being discoursed. from that horrible planet and our moon that helicopter was about?" O'Grady asked. "Earlier chopper. Looking at our Val and Willed went cautiously closer to it stole to bang at us like a big white rock. on. that the thick net periphery. A tipsy sergeant Well, I'll tell you what's happening tonight, defenses?" there," Bartlett said. "As had welcomed them in to the funeral games. brothers and mothers and dads and sis- "No problem up What had apparently begun as a helicop- ters. They're not going. The scientists that long as our magnetized cover holds." far trust them with weap- ter square dance had turned into a dodg- run it are going to be in the service of the "How can you

workers, whether they like it or not. If ons?" O'Grady meant the cat team, himself em course. Now it was rank joyful suicide. we Could anybody play? Well, said the ser- don't go, nobody goes." excluded. geant, Val and Willett were civilians, not The crowd cheered. A one-eyed man at They'll never get in," Bartlett said. Still, hipman, really eligible. On furlough, Willett said, both. he gave O'Grady a Hutchinson Meet Colonel Allnut and Major Catastro- with three ammogiros, and took one for phe. No trouble then. And they were zig- himself. He also wound about his torso a zaggedly escorted to the helicopter park. casing of gas bomblets. bottles of scotch thrust into their hands by 'And the troops?" said O'Grady. QThe platoon a singing corporal. Then they were off and 'Johnson's issuing them rifles. Blanks, of up, not really playing the game. sergeant, at a nod from course. Can't risk giving them lives." outside Topeka, Kansas, "But they're supposed to be here to pro- They put down his lieutenant, at a big mess hall that was full of grumbling tect us. Aren't they?" military. ordered the opening of fire. "We protect ourselves, O'Grady." Val asked about the cat camp. Nobody There was a Illuminated' solely by absurdly amplified moonlight, Lynx being temporarily oc- knew it, Wait, how about Shorty? Shorty's fine chorus of bangs, a outfit had broken up. cluded by its stolen satellite, the two of them Shorty had been posted to this clean- bacon smell, but went to meet ihe mob, first looking in on longer laughing, and up battalion, grousing and even tearful nobody dropped down dead the cat team, now no about being cut off from his old buddies telling them to await instructions. There were for and full of unbelievable stories about a instructions, for the moment, only Haz- moonship and a guy in charge called Boss ard and Vanessa. taken outside Cat, in a dump called Sloansville. The two of them were and respectively, hipman and a Les- Up in the air, Willett said, "You were right, given, a you see, Your book probably gave those the front said, "Who shoots first?" caz pistol, They handled them unhandily,

"I it would nonfictitious scientific bastards the idea." "Nobody shoots if it can be avoided, wide-eyed both. never thought friends and comrades. Violence was al- come to this," said Bartlett. Val woke from unpleasant dreams, out ways the way of the capitalists, they having A group was concentrating on cutting at of which he was, anyway, lucky to be able the money for the weapons. Those of you the electrified perimeter, one place only, all British to wake. He looked down and saw a great carrying guns, don't fire till the word's given. no wasteful hacking over. A lower- neat square, impeccably right-angled, huts, Those of you with insulating gloves and class voice came with high-pitched clarity "In of huts, huts, and in the middle if, the thing, cutters, don't be afraid of the hard work of over a loudspeaker. the name the to the end of the known road, big and squat cutting their fences down—an outer one oppressed." it said, "we order you hand and beautiful. His heart dropped to his and an inner one, as you'll know. The cut- over your spacecraft to the workers. We gross, muddy, worn work boots. "What do ting party goes first." The earfh hic- want no violence. Drop your weapons. Open we do now?" Willett asked. "Land by it? cupped; the crowd roared. that gate. Let us in. We come in peace, All is Open its door? Walk in and take a seat?" we ask is what we want, that being what "Wait," said Val, with the caution of a Evangelist Calvin Gropius, his son the workers' rights." The platoon sergeant, science-fiction writer, "We'll wait. Land, Dashiel, and the strange girl Edwina, who at a nod from his lieutenant, ordered the Behind that clump of elms there." was now very near her time, drove wearily opening of fire. There was a fine ragged

into the town of Sloansville. It was intact chorus of bangs, a fried-bacon smell,, but, The earth hiccupped. Just south of but deserted, except for a small coffee shop although the members of the crowd near-

Sloansville an Englishman named Elias with the legend jack joe a curly above. It est the wire rushed back, sending those Howe addressed a crowd through a loud- was lighted by a couple of oil lamps, and tottering and falling, nobody dropped down speaker. The crowd was about two hundred a man who could not be Curly because of dead. Lieutenant Johnson looked round strong —men, women, children, cripples, his baldness or perhaps was Curly be- curiously at his civilian masters. The ser- ancients, frightened Kansans all of them. cause of it was playing checkers calmly geant gave the firing order again, and again with an old man. They did not at first look there was a blind hash of harmless bang- From The End of the World News, by Anthony up when Gropius's party wearily shambled ing, As in rebuke of such kid's play, growl- Burgess. Copyright c- 1963. by Liana Burgess. crashing from all over the horizon, Reprinted by permission ot McGraw-Hill Book in. The old man finished fhe game with a ing and falling, Company. Published in the United Kingdom by leaping and demolishing king, then looked the adult stuff of real killing, hills Hutchinson Publishers. up in toothless triumph. "Gotyou there, boy." cities crashing, resounded crisply.

11Q OMNI " " "

A voice that disdained the use of an "Let them die. Why should they live? What scamperers quite likely to take off from the ot it. electronic prosthesis was now heard, its right to live do they have, the bastards?" carnage and the end the world with of possessor unseen. "This is Calvin Gro- Willett fired a couple stray shots and shivering oak, out in saw people stumble, howling, scattering. pius," it cried. "I demand the right to bear Behind a stretched for time, Dashiel said, "Gropius is my name. I'd the Word of the Lord into the wide universe the warm night asleep, were, a Val — that that is the Lord's own creation. Open your and Willett. They had eaten and drunk suggest heartily; they were very weary after their "You're too young for Gropius." Val gates. I demand it. God demands it." The voice of the workers loud-hailed in adventures. They did not respond to noise. frowned, looking puzzled. Calvin protest: "The God that's the creation of the They had finally learned to sleep through "Dashiel Gropius. My father, Gro- bloody capitalists. Open up for the prole- noise. They had had nothing but npise'since pius, is over there, demanding enlrance in lady's near her time, tariat. Space for the workers." their journey began. It was almost by God's name. Look, this with a chance that Dashiel Gropius dragged Ed- as you can see. There must be doctors "Wow, I think," said Bartlett, and, — good round aim, he sent a gas bomb flying wina Goya to protection behind that same inside that place toward the spot where the cutters had cut tree. There were not, in fact, many trees "It's all doctors," Edwina winced, her face away, lighted goldenly by high-voltage around. "Good God," said Edwina, for- clenching on her pain like a fist. sparks. There was a sudden cloud of im- getting her pains, "it can't be. It's Dr. Bra- "The only way in," Dashiel said, "would air. know mense dirtiness and a loud chorus of curses die." She shook him. "Dr. Brodie, wake up. be from the I'm assuming— you and desperate coughing. The earth hic- There's terrible danger." how to drive that thing said, "Let's get in up. At least cupped. The earth went into spasm. But it was Willett who woke first, grunt- Willett and From the same invisible spot as before ing, groaning, smacking, very bleary. He we can get away from that bastard who's whoever is." Gropius resumed: "I demand that the bearer did not know these two, and he quickly spreading death, he of brothers. He of the Lord's Truth be admitted. I demand." grasped the pistol at his belt. The girl was "One the Tagliaferro

the Florentine Hotel, where I As if to back that up, the nervous spatter- pregnant, he noticed. Jesus, this was no owned ing of what seemed to be autogun bullets time for getting pregnant. worked," Dashiel said. "He's gone mad. started well behind him. And now some ot "Edwina," said Val, now awake, "what Lost his wife and kids and so has gone the workers began to go down, many the hell are you doing here?" He had seen mad." Meanwhile they made their way to screaming. Others ran. The loudspeaker her last in the departmental library of the the helicopter and got in, Edwina in pain cried, "You see what the capitalists are university, glooming over a huge variorum and with difficulty. doing, you— scientists? Scientists, fellow edition of John Donne. workers " There was no more from him, "This," said Edwina, "is the end of the Inside the camp most of the cat team, in." orders, had come out to see except a howl, a gurgling, a choking, par- world. I presume anybody can join disobeying tially amplified. "What a lot of people!" Willett said in what was happening. Bartlett was concen- The Tagliaferros, owners of the Floren- wonder, seeing shrieking Kansans running trating on his oificial protectors. "Out," he tine Hotel, were pumping out death into the everywhere. "The chopper." he said. "It's told Lieutenant Johnson, "Your work's fin- workers, farmers really, gritting in Sicilian, safe?" It was not safe, not with maddened ished in here. Get your men out." Mean- while Gianni's bullets glanced whining off the tough metal of the perimeter. "Out to be killed by that bastard'' We're staying with you." The platoon sergeant came puffing to- ward them. "For Christ's sake, we need ammo. Those was blanks. Some stupid bastard made a mistake." He looked back sweatily at the writhing bodies felled by Gianni, their lethal car, driven by Salvatore, getting nearer the camp's main gate, Gianni bursting away. "Ammunition's no good to you," said

Bartlett. "It won't get through that fence either way. You're safe from that gun."

"Not if we have to go out," said Lieuten- ant Johnson reasonably. "This mad bas- tard here," he told his sergeant, pointing at Bartlett. "wants us to take the men away. Christ knows where to." "Get your men to the transport lines," said Bartlett. "See here, mister," the sergeant said. "We don't obey no civilian orders. We're staying right where we are." "You're not," Bartlett said. "You pretending to give me a fucking order, mister?" "Not you personally," Bartlett said. "Not from now on." He stepped back live paces, put his Hutchinson hipman to his hip, and then fired a brief burst. The sergeant, with a look of utter amazement on his honest broad face, went down. The ground, like a 'We do have a 'hire-the-handicapped policy,' Mr. Norton. sprung mattress, bounced him up an in- atrald that it doesn't apply if you're dimensional." but I'm two stant. Then he lay as still as could be ex- pected. The lieutenant and O'Grady looked on Bartleti in awe. Bartlett said, "I'll shoot

your entire platoon, man by man, if I have to. Get them out of this camp." 'And let the fucking invaders in?" O'Grady asked in disbelief. "One thing at a time," Bartlett said calmly. "You're mad, Bartlett. You're just plain fucking mad."

"Insubordination. I'll have to rehabilitate you myself, won't I? Later, of course, Lieu-

tenant, you heard what I said." Johnson looked again at the corpse of

his sergeant. He couldn't believe it. "That corporal of yours would make a reason- able target," said Bartlett, readying his gun. 'The lieutenant blew a shrill whistle, again, again, again. Raggedly his men got into three ranks, corporal as marker. Johnson marched them, giving shaky orders. Gianni had apparently finished blasting for a time. Beyond the gate Calvin Gropius could be seen. Gropius tried again: "I'm not con- doning this man's acts of violence. These two men are not with me. I'm asking you in the name of the Lord to allow only his mes- senger to enter." Gianni, of course, heard that very clearly. "The bastard," he said in English. "After

what I done for him, killing those guys. You mean you don't want us in there with you. reverend?" "Be reasonable," Gropius said. "For God's sake, think. I'm not trying to save people. I'm trying to save the Word of the Lord."

"Protestante ."1 Gianni grinned terribly. Two trucks appeared: closed, tough- plated monsters with soldiers inside them.

They lumbered, nervously it seemed, to- ward the gate. The gate, however, was electronically locked. Lieutenant Johnson looked nervously out SOME DAYS, visitors to Jack Daniel's are of the passenger seat of the cab of the leading vehicle, making a key-turning ges- surprised to hear they're in a dry county. ture, with some diffidence. "Unlock that gate right now, O'Grady," It's "dry" because we aren't allowed to sell Bartlett ordered. "And let those bastards in?" (or drink) our -whiskey here. But as everyone "Unlock it. You know the code. Dolphin E4, night." knows, we make a good deal of it. And we "You're mad," said O'Grady scowling. But

he took out his pocket activator and set it enjoy taking folks from one end of our to 7388026. The gate slowly swung open. The trucks started to move out. Some of hollow to the other to the troops let out a feeble soldier's cheer. Calvin Gropius, who had always kept him- show them how it's H self fit, sprinted to the opening and, crying "in the Name of the Lord," tried to squeeze done. Of course, there's ID charcoal himself in. Hipfire resumed on the bas- MEL " OUEn no guaranteeing perfect tardo. —He went down, sobbing "In the Mame /aSm of the " The first truck went heedlessly weather. But if you visit over him. then the second. The helicopter llSP drop hovered very low. It, too, gave off rapid fire our distillery sometime 6 in a blast of filial vengeance. Gianni, J3~£s8' screaming, dropped his gun, clutched his BY DROP soon, we're certain I ruined face, and at once knew whether there was a hell or not. Another burst to finish you'll have a nice day. him, quite supererogatory, got Salvatore, SkS^ who looked up as at the sudden fall of gentle rain. He went down very quietly. Tennessee Whiskey • 90 Proof • Distilled and Bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery

An amplified actor's voice came from the Lem Motlow, Prop., Inc., Route 1, tynchbnrg (Pop. 361), Tennessee 37352 skies: "How does the damned thing Ah. — | Placed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Government. CONTINUED ON PAGE 128 ^Something spectacular will happen in 1982, and Minnesota will be the placeB

Leaving his compan- car. The battery oied. ion Laverne Landis andthevehiclecouid behind in his car, provide no heat to electrician Gerald (end off the subzero Flach crawled off temperatures The through the snow- couple began fading bound Minnesota in and out of con- pine forest. He n sciousness. "Don't aged to reach the worry," Landis would highway, only to moan, "they won't let sprawl unconscious us die. " But when alongside the road. Flach awoke, he "We were waiting for looked down lo see aUFO." he mumbled his friend's face puffy to Ihe Incredulous and blue. He made motorist who found his way to the high- htm. "I think my friend way, where Ihe help- might be dead." ful motorist found him

flach 's bizarre ad- and look him to venture began in nearby Cook County June 19B2- Al trie Hospiial. There, Dr time, he was vice- Michael DeBevec president of a St broke the news Lan- Paul fvhr esota dis was dead She group called Search had succumbed to and Prove, whose UPDATE starvation and cold. i UFD to ^imed to When asked carry on telepathic discussions with aliens from space. comment, Jerry Gross, president of Search and Prove, Flach was sitting through a peaceful Search and Prove said thai his iiiends' strange escapade was "truly mirac- meeting when comsmber Landis, a registered nurse, told ulous. Gross claims that when the pair left town, "every- him she'd heard from extraterrestrials who promised to one just assumed that they were lovers and that they'd save mankind— if she agreed to meetthem in the wilder- be back when they cooled off." But now Gross is con- ness for a ride aboard their ship. Landis asked Flach lo vinced [hat Flach did meet up with the aliens, learning join her, and he quickly agreed. enough to save humanity To meet up with the UFO, Landis said, they'd have to Back in St. Paul, however, some people say that Gross lollow the aliens' instructions, no questions asked. Thus brainwashed Ihe pair into going on their tragic mission. began their six-month journey. While Landis spewed in- They believe that the group is a crazy cult, and Gross a structions allegedly emanating from space, the two trav- kind of Reverend Moon or Charles Manson. And they cite eled to countless rendezvous sites throughout the Mid- a 1978 article in the Minnesota Dispatch. "Something west and Canada. Alter months of dead-end instructions. spectacular is going to happen in 1983," Gross is quoted Landis finally received what would be her last commu- as saying, 'and Minnesota will be the place." nique: Go to Minnesota's Loon Lake, and stop eating The mystery will go unsolved unlil Flach himself speaks The two mads their way to [he muddy shore, subsisting up. Bui as a young boy who answered his home telephone

pi is, if on vitamins and lake water for a month. Then, on the night it il "We don'i know where he and even we did. we of November 14. an unexpected snowstorm pounded their ain't telling you:—PETER RONDINONE 115 " "

designed to prepare hair- readily available sources. dressers for those situations One woman that Wilson that never pop up with live studied, for instance, re- Noella Popagno, ot Holly- subjects. Take the case membered being tried wood, Florida, has written of a customer who's had a for witchcraft in sixteenth- the world's first and only cranial autopsy. In that century Chelmsford, Eng- textbook on desairology— instance, the subject has a land. Her story and the the art of hairdressing for the horseshoe incision cut historical information were deceased. along the crest of the scalp impressive enough. But she

"In the past," Popagno and from ear to ear. Since said her trial took place in explains, "funeral directors the scalp may be sewn 1556, although the real gave the task of hairstyling back so that hairs mix with Chelmstord trials were held to their untrained wives the thread, Popagno warns in 1566. A seemingly trivial or daughters So accidents "it's advisable to hold error, perhaps, but Wiison would happen. One woman, tresses in place while subsequently learned for instance, ironed a combing, rolling, and styling. that the chronicle upon corpse's hair until it turned Otherwise you might see which most contemporary yellow and fell out, Now the entire scalp fall oif. authors base their informa- tion dated the Chelmsford trials in 1556 as well. In another Instance, Wilson studied an Englishwoman who had recalled an entire When regressed back to series of past lives under childhood and beyond, hypnosis, including one in hypnotic subjects often "re- the Roman Britain of the call" previous lives in dis- fourth century a.d. Wilson tant eras and cultures. traced much of her informa- Sometimes the subjects tion, including fictitious even come up with uncannily names, to a historical novel accurate historical informa- by Louis deWohl. tion, But according to All in Though there are some the Mind, a new book by people who may be disap- British author Ian Wilson, pointed to see reincarnation imagine how the family felt "Families need an ac- many of the most highly undermined, Wilson be- at the wake when they ceptable last image of the touted reincarnation claims lieves that his tindings are approached the casket." deceased to help them get can be explained by hidden all tor the good They prove To avoid of such disasters, over the shock death," memories based on the that we all hold within Popagno tries to get profes- Popagno says. "And the subject's present-life reading ourselves "a dynamic, ever- sional beauticians involved desairologist is a crucial part and experience. restless kaleidoscope ol by dispelling their overrid- of that process," Anyone Wilson did his research images," he says, "the ing fear: that the dead interested in entering the by attending regression complexity of which we have " will move about. The de- field, she adds, can get a sessions and listening to scarcely begun to grasp ceased, Popagno admits, do copy of Desairology from numerous tape recordings — D, Scott Rogo flinch or twitch from time J J Publishing. 1312 Arthur allegedly describing prior to time, whenever embalm- Street, Hollywood, FL existences. Then, ferreting "There are a few billion ing fluids make their mus- 33109 The price: $13.95. out historical facts, he planets, and among these a cles contract. "But," she — Peter Ron di none read dozens of books and few million no doubt have adds, "in thirty-five years of traveled thousands of civilizations more advanced working with the dead, "Castles in the air are all miles to check the evidence. than our own. They will I've never seen anybody sit right until we try to move into In case after case he found have a different concept up and crack a joke." them. that subjects had drawn of reality. Popagno's manual Is —Anonymous their detailed stories from —Arthur Koestler 116 OMNI '

punishment will lead to an ever- increasing prison population in facilities al-

The first wave Of settlers ready at maximum capacity in space is bound to be Fattah explores this explorers, adventurers; and thesis fully in his forthcoming scientists. But the second book. Are Prisons Neces- wave could well consist sary?, in which he also of murderers, rapists, and discusses other technologi- terrorists, a Canadian cal alternatives to incarcer- criminologist contends. ation. "It will be possible Overcrowding in prisons in the near future to control is worsening as prospects movement without immobili- for space colonies improve, zation," Fattah says, "to observes Ezzat Faltah, of curb violence without seg-

Simon Fraser University, in regation, and to. protect British Columbia, and society without incarcera- these trends support the tion." For example, surgically

of building the pyramids seemed the most obvious j8 1 Not by myriad slaves, nor parallel, Bush says. So 'aBJa^BBBB by divine or UFO interven- he looked up texts about tion, were the Egyptian ancient Egyptian masonry > pyramids built, a Boston and found a device called . engineer asserts, but with a "cradle" that was a dead jut 9K.J tf\-Vl forethought, diligence, ringer for his makeshift and an Ingenious contraption contraption. But the archae- known as the wheel ologist authors guessed Pir^jjBL The secret of assembling that the cradle had been the great royal tombs came used as a wedge; "II never |K to John D. Bush soon after occurred to them that you he bought an abandoned need a set of four cradles to establishment of extrater- implanted radio devices granite quarry near get anywhere," Bush as- restrial jails. could be used to monitor the Gloucester, Massachusetts. serts. "But then they were "This is not something I'd location of a prisoner; if Struggling fruitlessly to sitting down with an artifact, ike to see happen," Fattah the prisoner stepped beyond nudge a 16-ton block with trying to figure out its use. says. "It is a prediction a certain geographic limit, wedges and Jacks. Bush hit I was trying to move stone." based on a historical reading guards could instantly on the idea of making the At an outdoor demonstra- Df social control." In the track him down and return block the axle of a giant tion Bush staged last year eighteenth century, Fattah him to justice. wheel. He built four pieces in Boston, crews of six -eports, the British solved Fattah predicts that only of curved wood and to ten out-of-shape volun- :he problems of crowded, the fiercest criminals will strapped each one to a teers found they could haul expensive- to-maintain inhabit jails in space; after different corner of the block; 2.5-ton concrete blocks

3nsons and the need for all, il would be most eco- creating the configuration up a steep ramp almost ef- cheap labor In the new nomical to send those con- pictured above. He was fortlessly on the cradle colonies by transporting victs with life sentences. then able to roll the boulder principle. With the help of a ;nminals to America and —Dava Sobel with relative ease. The similar device, Bush con- Australia. In the twenty-first technique worked so well, cludes, a few thousand century, history will repeat "Hitch your wagon to a he felt somebody must Egyptian laborers could

tself, especially since star. have thought ot it before. have built a pyramid in 20 the likely abolition of capital —Ralph Waldo Emerson The engineering problems years.— Dava Sobel 117 —

Club Med membership, at least not yet The high

It's a rainy Sunday You cost of a proxy's sophisti- call the foreign city of your cated equipment, Yates

choice and order a proxy: admits, will make il una'f- a small robot equipped with fordable to the average TV cameras, audio inter- consumer for years And coms, artificial arms, and even when the price comes wheels. Then, with your down, critics will have lo home TV hooked !o the ro- be appeased After all, bot by satellite, you're set as they legitimately note, for a day along the Champs criminate might steal the Elysees or Oxford Street— proxies and use them without ever leaving your to mug the elderly, rob living room banks, or murder Just flick on your TV set, Once perfected, however, says David Yates, the proxies will provide a mind- London computer scientist broadening alternative who thought up this to travel, "in much the same scheme, and city streets way," Yates says, "that ins—spiritual saviors who Montgomery says, Orten- instant!/ appear on the oars provided a new and take over the bodies of heim IS refining Einstein's screen, Since your set (s exciting alternative to walk- lackluster people on the theory ol relativity. (He's 5 equipped with a steering ing "—Peter Rondinone brink ol physical or emo- already changed E^rnc to J wheel, you might begin tional collapse. E=mc .) driving your proxy toward "The divine an of miracles Communicating by means Anothe' walk-in is the late the City's marketplace. is not an art of suspending of the typewriter, Montgom- Egyptian president Anwar Once there, you could in- the pattern to which events ery's supernatural infor- Sadat (above, right). During struct it to pick out souvenirs, conform, but of feeding new mants have revealed the World War II Sadat was bargain with shop owners, events into that pattern." names of numerous people an angry, dispirited revolu- and have the purchases —C. S. Lewis possessed by walk-In tionary languishing in a sent to your home. spirits throughout history, prison cell. Then, Montgom- While early-model proxies including Jesus Christ, ery contends, "a great might provide only visual Christopher Columbus, and Egyptian soul" walked into and auditory information, Every morning author Charles Colson. Montgom- his body, creating the Yates speculates, later Ruth Montgomery places her ery, who has spent weeks powerful head of state models would give their fingers over the typewriter studying these individuals. Sadats soul, she adds, may owners a complete sensory keys and meditates. Then reporlsthat each and very well return lo help experience. You'll actually presto: Words tumble onto every one had experienced solve the Mideast crisis taste that frothy cappuccino the page, dictated straight inexplicable personality this time with a new name from the cafe in Rome and from the mouths of spirits. In changes after a devastating and appearance. feel that luxurious Japanese tact Montgomery says illness or psychic trauma. Montgomery's claims silk. "Scientists have al- that's how she's written all The lives of 17 living may seem spurious to some. ready electronically linked her books, including her walk-ins have become the But at least her publisher, an amputee's nervous sys- best seller about psychic subject of Montgomery's G P Putnam's Sons, in tem to an artificial limb, Jeane Dixon new book, Threshold to To- New York, is convinced making it possible for him to One day recently the morrow, She writes, for Threshold lo Tomorrow, the reel what his limb feels." spirits startled Montgomery instance, about Swedish company declares, Is a Yates explains "So perhaps with a prediction. In the scientist Bjorn Ortenheim, "survival manual to the new a technological advance year 2000, the earth will shift who was sitting on a wind- age."—Kathrme Jason will make a similar !mk off its axis, unleashing swept beach plotting sui- between a traveler and a quakes and tidal waves. cide when the brilliant soul "We are the mimics. Clouds proxy—without amputation." But the human race will of Albert Einstein {above, are pedagogues." But don't throw Out that persevere, thanks to walk- left) entered his body. Today, —Wallace Stevens 118 OMNI "

The aborigines also use art in ceremony. On cave walls, on tools, and on them- LIFE selves, they paint series of dots and dashes GMfUlES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 1MES (PAGE 162) — to depict the wanderings of supernatural the helpless swimming beasts from afar beings. These serve as mnemonic de- 1. CAPITAL. Pierre, South Dakota. a much less dangerous and considerably vices to recall important episodes— as well 2. CAPITAL, polish. more productive hunting strategy than as essential facts about the landscape. But 3. ANYTHING? The items indeed have

' stalking them with spears at close range. the aborigines are not the only people who nothing in common. Clocks are tradition- Moreover, with fishhooks they could catch store data in art forms. Just a glance at a ally absent from casinos, as are public the teeming salmon in the estuaries almost cross could elicit from any American telephones from racetracks; rats don't vomit without effort. And at. the height of cave Christian the story of the Christ child, the (that's why rat poison works); the mayfly art, some 15, 000 years ago, there was also trials of the Crusaders, the code of the has a life span of only seven or eight hours, of larger, virtual infor- evidence long-distance trade, Sunday service— reams of during which it doesn't eat; and Founda-

sedentary communities, and the first signs mation about the history, beliefs, and prac- tion's Edge is Asimov's first certified best of rank and status in what had been, from tices of those of the Christian faith. seller.

time' immemorial, egalitarian societies. Could the art drawn and ceremonies 4. TROUNCE. The final score is 16 to 9, not Pfeiffer thinks these people experi- performed in the caves of France and Spain 18 to 9. The home team doesn't bat in the served enced an "information explosion" due to have the same function as the des- ninth inning if it is winning.

vast changes in technology and social ert rituals of the aborigines? Were young 5. STREET. The logical answer is that man- structure. And because the footprints of initiates left in isolated tombs in the bowels hole covers are circular so that they cannot

children are so prevalent in many of these of the earth until their psyches gave way fall into holes, regardless of their orienta- caves, he theorizes thai ancient cave cer- to unreality, then told valuable myths as tion, The April Fools' Day extra-credit an- emonies were initiation rituals, rites of in- they were escorted past paintings of dots, swer to this question is because manholes doctrination designed to teach the young hands, mystical figures/and charging are circular. huge quantities of new information that they beasts that cued and jogged their mem- 6. CUT. Because the barber would make needed to remember in order to survive. ories? And, finally, were they led to large twice as much money. It is curious how you can make a human subterranean galleries, filled with their rel- 7. DRIVE. Drive backward.

being effectively remember complicated atives, where they underwent excruciating 8. CLASSIC. The portrait is of the man's data: First you make the recipient open to ordeals that permanently etched these son. Many people mistakenly argue that your information. This is done surprisingly stories in their minds? The cave art may the man is looking at a picture of himself. easily stripping the individual of his nor- what remains of visual aids part ". by be used as . If he had said, . that man is my father's

mal sensory world and replacing it with of a "survival course" given to the children son," then this solution would be correct, isolation and monotony—two elements the during an era of social turmoil not unlike but he said, "... that man's father is my human brain cannot withstand. Apparently our Computer Age. father's son." One way out of the confusion in less than a day, the displacement and This theory of Pfeiffer's is an ingenious is to substitute the word "me" for the more dissociation put the average person in a explanation for the blossoming of the first cumbersome phrase, "my father's son." trance, a dreamlike state in which he is human art. But even more exciting is Pfeif- Then the statement becomes, "that man's susceptible to indoctrination and sugges- fer's final point: He notes that through iso- father is me." tion. Then, after you tell him what you want lation, monotony, and rhythm —particu- 9. TIMELY. The letter n. him to remember, you reinforce the mes- larly drumbeats — the human brain 10. TRIALOG. Of the possible combina- sage by frightening him. becomes very susceptible to trance. And tions of true and false statements (TFF, FTF, The Australian aborigines are masters of this trance state leaves the individual ready and FFT), the only one that doesn't lead to memory, and until quite recently, they used to follow a leader and to believe what the a contradiction is FTF, which means that this method at their puberty ceremonies. leader says. This observation, in turn, be- Feldman owns no video games at all. This rite of passage began when the male comes Pfeiffer's springboard into a far more 11. OUTSTANDING. The goats are already initiates were removed from home and dangerous theoretical realm. "If the pres- facing each other. family, taken to secret places in the desert, sures of the Upper Paleolithic demanded 12. MARATHON. No difference—90 min- denied food and clothing, and told the tribal fervid belief and the following of leaders utes is an hour and a half. myths. Then, on the last night of the ritual, for survival's sake," he writes, "then indi- 13. ELEVATOR. Among several plausible the youngsters were concealed under viduals endowed with such qualities, with answers, the neatest is this: The man is a blankets beside a roaring bonfire. And after a capacity to fall readily into trances, would midget and can't reach the top buttons on the chanting, darkness, isolation, fear, and outreproduce more resistant individuals." the self-service elevator. disorientation engulfed them, they were led (Emphasis mine.] And, of course, the cor- 14 JUSTICE. The man was one of a pair before their eiders where their penises were ollary to this theory is equally provocative, of Siamese twins. slit if from tip to base. for trances are found in biology, subject 15. TOAST. Ninety-one breakfasts. If this A horrible ordeal, to be sure, yet it serves to selection, and easily elicited in human had been a leap year, today would be March an essential purpose. These aborigines live beings, it follows that the predisposition to 31, not April 1. in the world's most barren desert, a place "believe" is rooted in our genes. 16 & 17. (LOONY QUESTION and TWO almost as uniform as the Pacific Ocean. Pfeiffer is not proposing that the procliv- VIEWS). We're saving the answers to these And if they are to find water regularly, they ity for human worship is a biological im- two until next month, because some mull- are obliged to remember every rise, every perative—that one must believe. Although ing over is good for you. Answering Num- dip, every tree, rock, and hole within an behaviors like the human smile are inher- ber 16 requires knowledge of how moon- area of several hundred miles. So every ited (even blind babies smile), most hu- rise varies from day to day. [Outrageous physical feature of the land is woven into man actions are the result of myriad forces. extra-credit question: Whose face will most elaborate tales of mythical ancestral beings. And for a specific behavioral pattern to be likely be seen on TV today within an hour

And as one memorizes the escapades of elicited, cultural training and cultural stim- after moonrise? 1 . Carl Sagan's, 2. Alan Al- the gods, the smallest details of the desert uli musl be present. Picture your brain as da's, 3. Lucille Ball's, 4. Reggie Jackson's, become committed to memory, too. Thus, a Stradivarius violin, designed to play in a 5. AndyRooney's.] Ifyoucan'twaitamonth, the myths are maps of the outback, and broad but discrete range. Let culture take send a self-addressed, stamped envelope the graduates of the puberty ceremonies up the bow and, with ease, certain notes to Games Answers, Omni, 909 Third Ave- have acquired information that will forever ring out. If Pfeiffer is correct, religious be- nue. New York, NY 10022, and we'll let you guide them from one water hole to the next. lief may be a very simple tune. DO have an early look. DO 120 OMNI pecially apparent last winter, when hundreds of thousands of Germans braved EMRTH bitter cold and snow to attend a Green Party What's demonstration against the Pershing nu- bad cement doesn't burn." In the northern district of Niedersachsen, citizens pro- With a strong stance against nuclear tested establishment of a regional nuclear- weapons and nuclear energy, Green Party aRustyNail? waste dump and construction of a street membership has recently grown to 25,000. that would have destroyed a small forest. Millions more voted for the Greens in local (The construction at the street and the dig- and federal elections, making _the group ging of the dump were delayed but not the first truly powerful environment-based called off.) To the south, in the lush moun- party in the Western world. tain region of Vogelsberg, residents de- The party has already captured 48 seats cried a plan to divert water to the nearby .in Germany's state parliaments, and both Frankfurt. (Because the cries went Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former Chan- _ city of unheeded, the people of Vogelsberg to- cellor Helmut Schmidt admit thai the Greens day face serious ecological problems.) constitute the country's fourth-largest po-' Throughout the country, members of these litical force. If the most recent polls are various groups tried to win elections at the correct, the Greens will overtake the slate and national level, but without a po- unpopular Federal Democratic Party and litical party to back them up, they had trou- become the nation's third most important ble gaining seats or effecting true change. political group. This would be the first ma- Then more than 500 activists assembled jor change in the character of West Ger- at Offenbach. Led by journalist August man politics since the- end of World War II. Haussleiter and parliament member Her- Once the Greens make these gains, ex- bert Gruhl, the group lay the foundation for plains University of Berlin political scientist the Greens. A month later, at the city hall Theo Pinker, they might well have a dra- offi- matic impact on Germany's national pol- in Karlsruhe, the fledgling party was a) that thing in the living cially announced, icy. For example, if the two primary parties room that holds up To Manon Maren-Grisebach, a profes- stood deadlocked on an issue, with 45 Grandpa Kelly's picture. sor at the University of Heidelberg and one percent of the vote each, and the final 10 of eleven members in the Green Party's percent rested with the Greens, the Greens

national committee, the scene was sheer would cast the deciding vote. Even if the jubilation. "There were eight hundred or Greens refused to vote along with either of nine hundred people in the main hall," she the major political parties, their "voice of recalls, "and TV screens were broadcast- "opposition" would sound far and wide. ing the ceremony for hundreds more wait- Some experts believe the Greens may ing outside. Afterwards there was a huge eventually gain enough popularity to festival. We were totally overjoyed." abandon their opposition role, becoming a When the first rapture subsided, the fully contributing third political partner. If Greens soberly set out to reconcile differ- that happers acccc ng lo Eugene Odum, ences among themselves. Some party director of the University of Georgia's In- members were concerned mostly with pol- stitute of Ecology, the Green movement lution and nuclear disarmament. Other, might spread around the world. more radical groups wanted to work for "The problems that gave rise to the Green reform. Since change could result Party are common to industrial nations socialist b) shortstop for the 1958 only from strength, however, the two fac- everywhere," Odum explains. "What many Kansas City Athletics. tions soon decided to stand by each other: people seem to forget is that you need clean Socialists would fight for forests and rivers, water, forests, and open space to provide while environmentalists would support a your life-support system. We in the United more egalitarian distribution of Germany's States haven't yet faced enough destruc- enormous wealth. tion to see a clear danger, but that point

Now working together, some 3,000 will come. And when it does, you might see Greens began to broaden their power base, all sorts of Americans joining forces to form drawing support from disenchanted youth a party like the Greens. and senior citizens alike. Party leaders sent "Industrial growth," he concludes, "is like representatives throughout the nation's a little kid. Everyone likes to see him get cities and towns to communicate with peo- taller and put on weight; that kind of growth ple on a grass-roots level, Wherever the is fine. But Germany is grown-up, and any environment was threatened, the Greens more growth is cancer." organized marches and rallies. In the world according to the Greens, One of the party's first acts was to de- each dead river, vanished forest, and new clare a three-day festival protesting a nu- construction site is one more symptom of clear-power plant to be built along the malignancy. Party leaders admit that their Rhine. Thousands came. By the middle of ideas are new and their means untested, established national but with no known cure, they feel radical 1980, the party had a c) the delicious combination peace week, with members distributing treatment is justified. of equal parts of Drambuie nuclear-disarmament literature and spon- "The next step leads to an uncertain fu- scotch ice. soring workshops across the country. And ture," says Maren-Grisebach. "It's like going and over

in the next couple of years, the Greens be- into a dark forest. But if we're not sure where came a driving force behind the nuclear- we're going, of one thing we're positive. freeze movement. Their success was es- We know where we've been." DO —

"A MAJOR STEP FORWARD appropriate. That is pure projection. Of IfUTERWIELAJ course, with regard to computers, lhat pro- INTO THE EXPLORATION OF jection takes place. But there's also the ap- THE WAYS WE ARE ALL propriate use. and eventually the pure pro- advanced counlries. We have unemploy- jection and the appropriate use will be GOING TO LIVE WITH ment, bul Mexico has vastly higher un- inexiricably entwined. MICRO CHIPS." employment. Omni: Do you think as we move toward - To take ihe extreme example, the aver- more automation that we are going through ; .'>?.'.; Daniel Dennetl , Co-, .-i age productivity of a worker in the United a period of Luddism— revolt against the

It if Stales has increased five times since, I don't coming of robots? seemed as we were Musician and sociologist David Sudnow know, 1920 or something like that" So you doing that for a while in the Sixties. But that has written the first book to define the would expect that four-fifths of the popu- seems to have subsided now. essence of video skill—not to how mas- lation would be out of work. McCarthy: It seems to me that the cause ter, but what mastery is. "Inthis worthy Omni: But obviously when automation of those incidents had nothing to do with sequel to [Ways of the Hand,] his tract comes in, people are out of work tempo- computers. It was a social phenomenon of tin mastery of music -craft, Sudnow rarily, and then go to something else. some kind that we don't clearly under- once again explores a lot of worlds at McCarthy: That's right. Now there is an stand. If computers were the cause, the economic malfunction that causes unem- cause hasn't gone away. The impact of once—the real one, the one in the ployment—that causes this interaction be- computers on daily life was much more machine, and all the myriad ones inside tween unemployment and inflation and so profound during the Seventies than it was the self. It may not show us how to coax forth. But it seems to me thai this malfunc- during the Sixties. the children home, but this book gives tion has little, if anything, to do with tech- Omni: What about the predictions of mil- us good ideas of where they go" f Marvin nology. What seems clear is that nobody lions of people suddenly being put out of Minskv. Department of Artificial knows how to deal with unemployment. work by automation? Intelligence, MIT). Omni; Thai's taking automation only up to McCarthy: That's by no means a predic-

a certain level. But if we go up to the next tion. That's merely a speculation as fo what could substantial scale, mm® ^pygmya level and have smart robots, I would imag- cause Luddism on a ine there would be a fairly major shift in and I don't think people would be quite so

people's ways of life. dumb as to do it. To say something else, it si* ..«».<. *.*-. s ;..i McCarthy: There was a soap opera of the seems to me that if we are all to be rich Thirties in which a giri from the hills of Ken- there has to be a lot more progress in au- tucky married an English lord. The ques- tomating office work. More than half the ill! ITflic tion was, "Can a young girl from poverty- U.S. population now works in services of stricken Kentucky adjust to life among the one kind or another, and we won't be rich English aristocracy, with dozens of ser- unless we succeed in automating those. vants and so forth?" And the answer was Let me repeal a story someone told me MMM)- in that one has a real hard time adjusting about his vision of the future. A clerk

sometimes it takes all of len minutes. So it Company A hears a beep. She turns to her PiMMLID seems to me that what we would have to terminal and reads on the screen we need adjust to is being rich. It could take all of 5 OCC PENCILS ORDER THEM Fl ten minuies. So she turns from her ferminal fo her type- EYE, MIND, AND THE Omni: What about the psychological ben- writer, types out a purchase order, and ESSENCE OF VIDEO SKILL efits of being rich? If everyone had chauf- sends it to Company B. where another clerk . feurs, maids, and servants . . reads Ihe order, turns to her terminal, and

McCarthy: I don't think that's really impor- types in send 5,000 pencils to company a,

"An intriguing account of the break- tant. If you read runc-iec nth -century litera- The person who related the story told it, as throughs and breakdowns of the adult ture, you don'tfind any indication of people far as I could tell, with a totally straight lace. relative mind as it plunges into the advancing taking pleasure in their position fo But what do we need those two clerks for? microworld. Sudnow shows us an excit- their servants. As far as ihey were con- Why don't those two computers talk to each cerned, servants were part of the machin- other? Interorganizational communication ing way to relate to approaching com- ery. It doesn't seem to me that you will lose by computers is something that's hardly puter technology." a very large part of the psychological ben- started. -Tim Gallwev, Author of The Inner Game of Tennis efits of being rich merely because other Omni: We're getting to the point where we people are rich. As the saying goes, "Any- have terminals that do communicate with "Sudnow has made a breakthrough in ." . body who is anybody . each other, Of course, they don't commu- assessing the two-dimensional 'world' of Omni: That raises another question: How nicate much. ihe computer and the sort of body and do we deal with machines? People who McCarthy: My main complaint about tech- mind it creates in us," work wiih home computers have a funny nology has been the slowness with which - Huj'jnD'-sviMa.A. tl-.;ini ,.1-., -=.';.':.jm(JU(eraCan'/Do way of talking about them. "It likes" and it is developing. My impression is that the that sort of thing. rate of technological innovation, so far as

McCarthy: In my view, verbs like believes, it affects daily life, has been slower, say,

knows, or doesn't know, can do, can't do, between 1940 and 1980 than it was be- o understands, or didn't understand are ap- tween 1880 and 1920. So people who W«NER propriately used with many present com- complain about technological change BOOKS puter programs. And such language will going faster and faster are simply wrong. oecorr.e increasingly appropriate. A lot of the complaints are in a sense com- Now at Bookstores Omni: There's a certain amount of humor plaints that technology is advancing too

~t: .:,::; order. -:.c"'d Sit: :C ; uc uJW |.;o->! ;.in<: handing) ' involved when people use personal terms slowly, thai the individual doesn't see nearly :o:Deu1PAA( o iij 445-5-JCI-3 Wg-nsr Hc-c!<;,. to refer to machines. enough improvement in his own lifetime. i ;. - 666l-itiliAv'.riu£.' Jfi,,v.'-rir| i .Mv r OJ C-ieck omoney McCarthy: Yes, there's also a lot of purely Some important improvements are not order only. Allow four 10 sx weeks for del-very meiaphoric use of these phrases, even in appreciated. You don't spend five minutes

relation to old machinery, which is not really a day fhanking technological improve- must because it is, in some merits in sanitation and housing tor the fact frame with subframes and so forth can be view, that be others. that you and your children don't have TB. contrasted with the notion that information important way, different from the that isn't quite the frame. The normal attitude is to take health for from a variety of sources interacts to de- And caught by fine situation. In is sit- Shank, who writes a lot of computer granted until you don't have it anymore, the other words, the Now

is it programs, seems to be finding that in or- and then you complain. The same is prob- uation always dominant, or dominated needs "pack- ably true of wealth, insofar as technology by a frame? der to make things work he interact with one has really contributed to your getting a Here you are, interviewing me. That is a ets" of information thai higher salary than you would earn other- frame. One could put some slots into that. another, no one of which is dominant. And

details point of view, I would say, 'Ah, yes, wise. But you don't see the contribution that But if we actually tried following the from my of logic." some specific invention has made lo your of the conversation, would the trame con- Shank is moving in the direction

I know. increased salary. cept allow for that? It works fairly well at But how that'll come out. don't of are all approaches to the same It's interesting to look at what inventions the top level, You have a collection Omni: These represent could have been introduced thirty or fifty questions that you want to discuss; so at problem—how to knowledge?

Well, yes. Minsky and I have years before they actually were—the that level it works quite nicely. This inter- McCarthy: is com- missed opportunities where the technol- view with me is, in that respect, very similar come to agree that the key thing ogy was available to build them. And there to the interview we did for your book [Sci- monsense knowledge. definition of common- are a fair number of them. entific Temperaments]. Or from my point Omni: Give me a Omni: Name one. of view, being interviewed by you is similar sense knowledge. to being interviewed by someone else. But McCarthy: Well, compared to scientific McCarthy: Well, I have a white-disc push- knowledge, might define it as events button combination lock on my front door. if you're not bored by this particular inter- one

I I can open it much faster lhan could a key lock, especially in the dark. Mechani- your computer talks to the outside world, the electronic trans- cally it's no more complicated than a key When lator it and your phone line is a modern And the quality lock. It could have been invented one between hundred years ago. of that modem is just as critical as you might imagine. It's no place to

Another is the pulse jet engine. Are you compromise and slip in a weak link. 7 familiar with it Its only application was the With Novation Cat® modems you don't. Our Cat line is a full one. German V-1 rocket during World War II. It It purrs at 300 bps, excellent At one end—our small, handy J -Cat.™ along Gasoline is squirted is a very simple engine. for home use. At the other end, with all the features and conveniences in and the jet explodes out the back end. you want for business—our full blown smart, automatic communication The momentum as it goes up creates a systems that can roar along at 1200 bps. vacuum that sucks air in the front, so that All have one thing in common— unique, highly advanced LSI chips. the thing goes "phutt-phutt-phutt-phutt." engineers have designed these little marvels, eliminating the com- There is nothing in the technology of that Our typical and producing instead modems ele- engine that would have prevented its being plexity and costs of modems, state-of-the-art reliability built in 1890, and it's vastly simpler than a gantly simple in execution with absolutely piston engine. and features. Omni: You and Marvin Minsky propose dif- There's nothing quite like working with the latest and the best. ferent solutions to the question of artificial Come see. The Cats are at leading computer stores. intelligence and common sense. Can you give me a brief description of the two dif- ferent points of view? Novation McCarthy: Minsky is skeptical —one could say more than skeptical about the use of — Tarzana, 91356 Novation, Inc. , 18664 Oxnard Street, CA logic in artificial intelligence. But I and some (800) 423-5419 *In California: (213) 996-5060 others are optimistic about the use of logic to express what a computer can know about the world. What's clear is that some mod- ifications are required, and I expect to make How to get the best out of progress using various forms of formal- ized, nonmonotonic reasoning. And Min- sky is skeptical about whether that will work. (and into) your computer. But actually that's not quite the whole story, because in addition to his skepti- cism about what won't work, Minsky has positive ideas about what will work. Omni: Can you describe his ideas in sim- ple terms?

I McCarthy: Maybe he can! I can't. can mention an idea of his that I'm skeptical about. This is the notion that in any partic- ular situation, there is a dominant "frame." Minsky and Roger Shank, of Yale Univer- sity, have pursued this idea. The restau- rant frame, for example. Omni: Meaning that when you walk into a restaurant, you enter a context in which you speak, act, and understand things in a certain way that would make no sense if you were, say, in a skating rink? McCarthy: Right. Put that way it's almost a truism. But the notion of a single dominant taking place in lime and space, and knowl- system might operate within the brain? we have MYCIN, which is useful, although knowledge things like that. edge about — McCarthy: What operates in the brain, I very limited.

If I ask you, "Is Andropov standing or sit- thtnk, got to different. I don't has be But Still, I take a more basic research-ori- ting at this moment?" you will say, "I don't have a clear picture of it. ented point of view. These people make

know." And if I say, "Think harder," you'll Omni: So the idea is that regardless of what their very ad hoc useful systems and that's say, "That won't help." question is, actually The how functions inside the brain, these fine. But I think the fundamental advances do you know it won't help to think harder? things can be done logically in com- in artificial intelligence will be made by

if And I ask you, "Does Andropov know puters? Do they have to be done logically? people looking at the fundamental prob- whether you are standing or sitting?" the McCarthy: No, they don't have to. You can lems. Now. for some reason, artificial in- answer certainly can't be determined by design a computer program that-will make telligence is the subject of a great deal of

inspecting any model of Andropov's mind. logical mistakes. impatience. When it had existed only for Omni: I'm trying to get a sense of the dif- Omni: is an expert system a good example five years people were saying, "Yeah, yeah, ference between a logical approach and that demonstrates Minsky's idea? you've been unsuccessful." But when we

(his frame approach to representing McCarthy: Some of the expert systems work compare it to, say, genetics, in which just .knowledge. according to still a third ideological basis. about one hundred years passed from the

McCarthy: From a logical point of view, the It's a belief that if you just pile things on time of Mendel to the cracking of the ge- ideal I'm not purist and a that of another, this . — —would be top one knowledge can be netic code . , Now, there may have been general, commonsense knowledge can be directed — that no theory is required. periods when people thought they would represented by a collection of sentences The expert systems lack common sense. be able to create life in a test tube by 1910 in a logical language, and that your goals The example I usually give is MYCIN, which or something like that, but we don't re- can also be represented by such a collec- is a Stanford system that gives advice on member that today. tion of sentences. bacterial diseases. It has no concept of Omni: Why do you suppose there is this

If is x a bird, and birds can fly, then x events occurring in time. It has no concept unwarranted excitement and anticipation? can fly— that's one argument. I've been of "patient," "doctor," "hospital," "life," or McCarthy: Well, there's always been un- using that sentence because Minsky gave warranted anticipation in science on the it as an example of how little logic is good part of some people, t think some of the for. His argument had to do with the fact expressions of disappointment are disin- that there are many exceptions. pen- A genuous—people taking the fact that it guin, an ostrich, or a dead bird can't nec- hasn't succeeded so far as evidence that essarily fly. But in

But if 1 added the fact that Tweetie is an cause it eliminates the notion of common Omni: Why? ostrich, you would no longer make that in- sense, which most people automatically McCarthy: To some extent they pandered ference. So this requires some modifica- assume is there when they see a machine to superstition —the superstition that peo- tion of the reasoning structure of ordinary making a diagnosis. ple can and will harm you on the basis of logic in order to get this nonmonotonic McCarthy: MYCIN is a particularly limited trivial information. For example,- Princeton character. But those of us who like logic system. The interesting thing similar to is — University worrying about whether my . think we can modify logic to I accommo- what was saying about robotics— is that privacy would be violated if they release a date the problems of the real world. That people are discovering how to get around photograph of me to Psychology Today. something of the kind was required has the unsolved problems and make systems It's a little bit like some primitive supersti- been known for time. a long Ideas on how that are useful, even though these systems tion that if you have a person's nail clip- to it formally do and still preserve the for- can't do some of the things that are ulti- pings and a few locks of hair you can cast mal character of logic were first being de- mately fundamental to intelligence. I talked a spell on him, or that if you know some- veloped from the middle to late Seventies. before about the usefulness of some of one's true name you can harm him. Omni: imagine Do you some such logical these very limited vision systems, and here Omni: Don't you think there is some value m OMNI to personal privacy for its own sake? able to go to the IRS and take a look at McCarthy; They might have forgotten some very important things. Or they might have McCarthy: Yes, I suppose so. But it has their files? been taken to extremes in Europe, espe- McCarthy: No. Not exactly. Take another gotten them wrong and some poor fellow entirely cially Sweden. They have all these flaps view of it: There is privacy, and there is whose actual offense was unre- about transnational flows of data. It's non- privacy. In order to be sure that you aren't lated was confused with somebody else. calculation I've sense. I'd rather build a legal fence around violating my privacy, I have to violate yours. Let me tell you about a

I interested in the question of actions than around information. How do I know what information about me made. got Omni: What do you mean by that? you have stored in the data bank of The how much a safety -measure can cost be- actually lose lives by spending McCarthy; Certain actions might be illegal, Washington Post, unless I gel the chance fore you

it. is fol- like discriminatory denial of credit or to inspect the data bank, in which case I'll money on The estimate made the something. But from all thiscaginessit has find out all sorts of things about you and lowing way: Take the statistical abstract of resulted now that people think they have a The Washington Post? the United States and the annual death rate right to see their letters of recommendation Omni: And you ought to have that right? by states and the income by states, and and so forth. McCarthy: No. In order to cut off these re- draw a regression line through that. You'll

get the result that if you spend more than Omni: I hadn't heard of that. verberating violations of privacy, rules McCarthy: Oh, there's a big flap in the uni- should be enforced at the level of action 2,3 million dollars for every life saved, you versities. But they've reached a reason- and not at the level of information slorage. are in fact losing lives. Because if thai same able compromise here at Stanford: A stu- Omni: So, for example, Ihe FBI may have money were randomly sprinkled through dent can waive his right to inspect his a long file on you, but unless they use it to the economy by reducing taxes or some- recommendation. Of course nobody's harass, arrest, or convict you, then nothing thing, people who received that money going to believe a recommendation unless happens? would, on the average, take better care of that right has been waived. Inother words, McCarthy: That's my current view of it. The themselves. Their lives would be happier.

if 2.3 million if for cost of looking at information and deciding But a state spends more than I write a recommendation somebody life saved through a safety and it says on the form that he has the right what is valid and so forth is enormous. dollars per then that state is reducing the to look at it, the person to whom I'm writing measure, In is going to say, "Well, this isn't worth any- disposable income of its citizens. the

it is killing more people thing, because it McCarthy knows any ad- long run actually verse information he won't mention it." than it saves. And then you get busybodies getting in- Now take the Tylenol thing. Johnson & / proposed that a volved in inspecting databases to be sure 4 Johnson has already spent more than 100 they don't contain any information that person had a right to know million dollars withdrawing Tylenol from the market. Okay. According to my calcula- shouldn't be there. Stanford has this rule what information that any questionnaire must be cleared with tions they must save forty lives by doing the Committee on Experiments with Hu- about him was in the data so before they reach the break-even point. the packaging's going to cost 2.4 man Subjects unless it's specially exempt. ' And new < banks. He could I'm supposed to get approval on all ques- cents a bottle. Now if you newsmen had for I'm tionnaires because, who knows, one of my sue privacy. Now just shut up, then we wouldn't have had questions mighl offend somebody. So I've beginning to think these imitation crimes, at least, and one been able to say, "The poison- told committee I am going to send out would have the my proposals were a mistake.^ a questionnaire and not tell them about it. ing of drugs is a rare event and it's not likely to occur more frequently in the I haven't got around to it yet— I haven't fig- any future than it has in the past. will save ured out what I want to do a questionnaire We on. But somebody has to defy them. more lives by not spending the money on Omni: Well, there's a point in there some- safety caps." where, isn't there? Your brother Patrick was Normally it's done only when something is Omni: That's assuming you don't report the thrown out of the army for admitting to being really important. In other words, if you take original crime? a Communist, and then later in the Sev- the Tylenol poisonings, all sorts of random McCarthy: That's right. Or you minimize enties he was dismissed from a post office company records that normally are not publicity on the original crime. Merely re-

porting, it less effect than job for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. I would looked at are going to be scrutinized ex- probably has think that your family's history and expe- tremely carefully for whatever clues they pounding away at it in the newspapers for rience would lead you. to fear the misuse might provide— at an enormous cost. If you days and days. Because psychotics prob- of data banks and information. wanted to examine police files to find out ably are not regular newspaper readers, vi- furthermore, because of their concen- McCarthy: But I think that the legitimate whether they contained information that and protection against misuse of information is olated somebody's privacy, it would be al- tration- on their problems, the notion has to at the level of action. In other words, the most as expensive. So what you get is be pounded into them a bit more before it post office shouldn't have been allowed to something more informal. occurs to them to go and do likewise. would supported by fire my brother. I assume thalil's standard procedure for Omni: That theory be

Omni: But they still should be allowed to policemen to call each other up and say, the time gap between the reporting of the have access to various kinds of informa- "Well, we didn't dare put the information in original crime and the beginning of the wave tion about people? the files, but while we had this guy in jail of other poisonings. McCarthy: What goes into data banks he was talking to this other fellow who was McCarthy: Now here was a latent disaster, should be a matter of judgment, but I've involved in drug smuggling." or at least latent harm, that's been sitting or become convinced that there should be no Omni: I covered the Tylenol story and that around for fifty years more. Presumably restrictions on the storage and exchange is exactly what happened, because al one the psychotics who might be inclined to do of information. time the police had to rid their files of cer- that sort of thing have existed for a long

Omni: Between, say. the FBI and the IRS? tain information. So what they did instead time, but nothing triggered them. I once McCarthy: Between anybody. Even private was to get the older members of the in- thought about what would happen to our individuals should be allowed to keep rec- vestigative force together and say. "Let's society if there really were a lot of poison- ers people trying to poison water sup- ords. If you Want to be sure nobody has go back and try to remember these files — files that he shouldn't, then you have to be we had to get rid of." And they did; they plies. Society would manage to survive, able to snoop in his files. remembered the guys, went out, rounded but we might spend ten percent of our GNP Omni: So private individuals ought to be them up, and questioned them. on security measures. OO 126 OMNI '

meters in front of his left boot. "Are you, O'Grady?" WORLD NEWS O'Grady grinned sheepishly and shrugged. Then he threw his weapon down.

yes, thank you. My name is Willett." The It was a heavy weapon. "Not too good." team, including its leader, looked up in he said, "that pacifier.''

wonder. It was all over the camp, that con- 'Alcohol, laughter—those help," Dr. Ad- fident histrionic voice, buoyed by the elec- ams said. 'And the odd dose of animal fear." tromagnetic barrier. 'An actor, now resting The earth moved rather urgently. The moon

indefinitely. I have with me here -Dr. Val- seemed to be breathing on them. entine Brodie. late in reporting for duty but "He was mad," said O'Grady, looking better late than never. Mr Dashiel Gropius. down on dead Bartlett. "Clever but mad, and Mrs. Edwina Goya, who is about to, Who takes over?" ah, parturiate and urgently requires the help "Here he comes now," Vanessa said. The ot an accoucheur or -euse. Let us come piecrust was off. She ran toward where the down and land. Remove your piecrust," helicopter was preparing to touch ground. DISCOVER SELF MASTERY Bartlett said to O'Grady, them Val, dirty, leaner than he had been, mon- WITHOUT SELF SACRIFICE "Let stay out there." strously unshorn, went straight to her. They Stop Unwanted Habits Lose Weight Enjoy Better Health Vanessa stood, unable to think, even to embraced, at first awkwardly, then not so With SCWL Subliminal Tschniquas you can breathe. Dr. Adams was near her, Gentiy, awkwardly. Edwina, groaning, appeared, go beyand your greatest expectations. like taking a toy from a child who has just upheld by Dashiel Gropius, at the top of and simply when you learn ihe truly remark- dropped off. Dr. Adams unfolded Vanes- the ladder. A storm seemed to be blowing able principle ot these new Behavioral Science sa's fingers and let the warm little gun plop in from the moon. The ground felt like a Techniques. SCWL has now become the choice of Doctors, Professional Athletes and gently into her own hand. She released the ship's deck in storm birth, Hecate, matron men and woman from all walks of life. Why? safety catch. Vanessa came to, shivering. of women in childbed, looked down in

"Did you hear what I heard?" menace. "The ship," said Vanessa. "The

"It's your husband, Vanessa. It's Dr. Val- ship from now on." entine Brodie." "Transportation?" "My husband. How did you know?" "A dickeybird hop," said Willett. "Back "You've talked of your husband often on board, Edwina. Up and in, ladies. I've enough— before correcting yourself, of always wanted io be in a spaceship." And

SCWL TECHNIQUES course. I think everybody will be delighted so he se! the olades wh.rring again. YOUR KEY TO PERFECT MEMORY .to see your husband. Better than being Dashiel G'cpius looked cown at dead lis SCWL Technique alone could pro* mated to Bartlett, Head of Enterprise." Bartlett and said, "Who did that?" ".lean see him — he's waving." And then, Everybody looked at Dr. Adams. fearful, knowing there was much instability "Thank you," said Dashiel. "I didn't really about, perhaps even in seemingly sane want— to do it. I'd promised Edwina, but Maude Adams, Vanessa asked, "Why do still " The corpse heaved gently on its GAIN TOTAL CONTROL you want that gun?" unquiet bed. "I didn't know him, you see." iliaue Stress - Overcame Narvoume O'Grady said to Bartlett, "You heard what "Yes. of course," said Dr, Adams. "You Become Mors Sell- Confidant he said. There's a woman up there who have to know him. Have known him." she needs help." corrected herself.

"She won't get it from us. This isn't a ma- ternity hospital." "Ah," Val said, eyes on the wall chronom- "Deactivate the barrier," said Dr, Ad- eter in the viewing room. "It's the moment." ams, pointing the gun at O'Grady. O'Grady, The crew, or citizens, of America were only too glad to obey, did a clumsy have- hardly aware of the blastoff. The magnetic to-don'M gesture at Bartlett and loped off gravitation surrogate of the great ship kept toward the concrete block that bore the steady even the beaker of water that Ed-

symbol of a sitting cat, back view, with a wina Gropius put to her lips. It was a three- single thunderbolt at which, as at a fire, the day trip to growling Lynx, The beast was

animal seemed to warm itself. bellowing, trembling, rippling at the pros- Bartlett pointed his hipgun directly at pect of soon leaping on ,ls prey. What the O'Grady and shouted, "I'm warning you. hell-was the thing made of? Pure iron ore?

do you hear me?" The mass tugged at the craft as it became OUR BOOK IS FREE "Best get it over," said Dr. Adams. "We're a new, if diminutive, satellite, circling the short of time," And she very neatly shot hydrogen-misty planet in ninety minutes flat. Bartlett. Bartlett spun howling, mad eyes The crew, or citizens, saw on ihe great looking for something, somebody, then just screen a moon lacking all the features that staring, holding huge twin gibbous moons. every schoolboy was familiar with, the 1

He went down very heavily, and the earth, seismic disasters having ravaged it like I flridllHft MMtMffiiliit in temporary repose, did not bounce him. some dreadful disease. O'Grady saw, coming back, agape, going Meanwhile work went on in Dr. Jumel's into an ape droop, unable to believe. He laboratory. She, a pretty, fair girl, flushed saw Dr. Adams's smoking gun. with effort, her attractive low brow corru- Instinctively he went for his own, cold, gated with thought, worked on the epsilon- as yet unused. link equations. Cybernetics and automa- Dr. Adams said, "Are you going to be a tion cooperated in turning out successive good boy, Dr. O'Grady?" versions of the tiny complex artifact that O'Grady licked his lips nervously, His would provide the clue to more thrust. The hand moved toward his hipgun. Dr. Adams calendar said cat 10. shot very neatly at a point just five centi- The calendar clicked, at artificial mid- —

night, to. cat 9; then cat 8 followed. Artificial MOST MEN FJ^^ ASBiE dawns, artificial noons, artilicial nights- tOQG their ingenious lighting system clung, des- perately to the only temporal pattern they Advance knew. Bui that must change; there must be lets you no buffers against -eai iv. Meanwhile Earth Yomi* grew closer, the moon was huge and in blinding, but not so blinding as Lynx, They Career shave closer drank the sun like- some strength-giving Robotics. potion, for attack, tor resistance.lt was hard, especially for Mr. and Mrs. Gropius, lo be- than lieve that a terrible cosmic drama was in progress outside the tough walls of their foam world. These two cooed at the baby, who

' yelled in sell-centered vigor, He had a name now: Joshua.

cat 7. Val refused to be desperate. If the

job could be done, it could be done by

Lilian Jumei. If the job could not be done, then they would all perish. Nobody had any

right to life. Life was a free bestowal. Still, as they sailed between the Scylla of moon and the Charybdis of Lynx, between the ROBOTICS IS PLAVING an important role steam of one and the ravaged face of the in the productivity improvement nf many other, animal panic grew in those few of industries and offers rewarding career

them who saw the movement toward cat- opportunities and challenges. If you are aclysm on the ploiarchal screens. Val now in robotics, or planning to enter the dredged desperately info memories of field, Robotics International of the Society (RI/SME) can books he had written. He found nothing. of Manufacturing Engineers help you. Then, on cat 6, Lilian Jumei collapsed

overworked, lacking sleep, full of despair. RI/SME IS AN INDIVIDUAL member She had colleagues, of course, compe- association dedicated to the advancement tent, but mere journeymen compared with f robotics technology. Its wide-ranging educational programs cover all phases of her. The megaproagon was her brainchild. industrial robots including research, design, O'Grady, guieter than he had been, diffi- installation, maintenance, operations, dently suggested a pacifier. Val said no— human factors and much more. a mild hypnotic only. And then he thought, Why use drugs? The book he had written FOUNDED IN 1SB0, RI/SME has grown to so many eons ago. The White and the Walk a membership of over 6.0DD with local OMNI chapters in many cities in the U.S. and of the Morning, had an amateur hypnotist Canada. in it: Jess Hartford or Harvey or somebody. TIME CAPSULES Val had done his homework: he always had. While Jumei writhed on her bed, in the in- tervals of waking hysteria, Val brought calm educa s the ROBOTS 7 Confer- to her bedside, also a swinging gold watch ence and Exposition. RI/SME publications borrowed from Dashiel Gropius, his and certification are other benefits. The ther's gift to him o.n graduation. He calmed certification program allows individuals to her with the rhythm of gentle light and in- become Certified Manufacturing Engineers

cantation. He got her into deep sleep. He or Technologists in robotics, based on their spoke to her mind, calmly, always calmly. technical knowledge and on-the-job experi- He said, "There are many ways out of the

problem. very of Lynx as it The bounce TODAY, a SME ALSO pubtoshesROBOT/CS Now the magazine of the future eats the earth may provide the jolt needed, monthly journal addressing the latest hi can be kept for the future. Sioreyour

the extra split-second boost. There are ap- - -ii i . As i Issues of OMNI in a new number of asteroids spin- TODAY, you are kept informed parently a great ROBOTICS Custom Bound Library Case made ning whether the pull of ft new -obol applications, equipment, about. Who knows of black si mulafed leather It's iclrolnpy and education. To find out more one of them, infinitesimal though it may be. built lo last, and if will keep 12 issues about 'obotrcs, check the appropriate boxes may not ease ".he gravitatona: problem that in mint condition indefinitely. -i the rnuron below. faces us? The spine is embossed with a gold "There is nothing to worry about. You OMNI logo, and in each case there is a gold transfer for recording have all the time in the world. Things are (he date. not really so desperate. Nothing is all that important. We have all known the rich life m Send your check or of Earth. This new space life is a mere bo- money order (S5.95 each; nus, a discardable extra. Rest, dear Lilian. 3forS17;6forS30) postpaid. USA orders only. Foreign Rest as long as you will. Everything is being CDMPAWV _ orders add S2.50 for taken care of." ADDRESS _ postage and handling per case) On cat 4 she rase from her bed without to; OMNI Library Case, a word to anyone, except a demand for PO. Box 5120, Philadelphia, PA 19141, surrogate orange juice and cotiee. She 4-6 for delivery. showered, washed her hair, dressed. She Allow weeks walked calmly to her laboratory, when — —

Durante, Lopez, and Boudinot were knot- the citizenry looked puzzled, even af- ted over equations. "All right," she said, fronted. "I mean that all we can reasonably and they went to work. salvage from our past is the game of skiil On cat 3, having achieved a velocity that or chance, which is based on the abstrac- kept the cratt continuously relreating from tion of number. All else— literature, meta- report is the data on fusion micropellets. the impending point of collision, Jumel physics, music—must be accounted mere Like many of today's breakthroughs, work

spoke hopefully. And then all work stopped nostalgia, nothing more. What have we to on starship fuel depended on help from a as they went to the great screen to see the do with poems about love under the syca- computer. The computer program, called end of the moon. mores under the moon?" LASNEX, was the creation of another of The moon had been circling its new host "Music," said Dr. Adams, "We abso- Wood's young geniuses, George Zimmer- in a regular satellite rhythm. But Earth was lutely must have music." mann. Zirnmerman.n was nev.ly graduated eventually going to be in the way of one "Only if we learn to make it ourselves. from Harvey Mudd College, in Clarernoni,

arc of its revolution. This, had always been What right have we to listen to instruments California, and was wondering how to avoid evident, and there had been distracted long dead, scraped or blown in the service being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Wood .speculation as to what the moon would do of the glorification of a world that no longer hired him, got him a draft deferment, and wobble out of its course, be hurled to the exists? No, we must learn to make our own." Zimmerrnann proceeded to turn out a pro- condition of a solar satellite. But what hap- Vanessa saw a hardness in him that res- gram that is the world's best at predicling pened now, the obvious, the banal, had urrected the lineaments of Bartlett. But he the energy released by micropellets of a always been the expectation of most of the was a more reasonable. Bartlett. specific design when zapped with a laser American team. They saw the moon come "Let us at least, before Earth ends," said beam of given characteristics.

gracefully wheeling, approach the Earth, Dr. Adams, "hear some of Earth's music;" At Livermore it is routine to use LASNEX and then, not brutally, not even rapidly, She took from her shoulder bag a musi- to predict what will happen in laser-fusion in- shatter to fragments against it. The point cassette. Val smiled with un-Bartlettian experiments, then to run the experiments

of impact, they adjudged, was the dead dulgence. "All I have," she said. "And after and find close agreement. Hyde has used

heart of- Europe. The moon shattered, and this performance you're at liberty to liqui- LASNEX to test the designs set forth in the they gasped. Little Joshua Gropius howled, date it forever." British Interplanetary Society's Project but not for the moon. The moon broke and "What is it?" Daedalus report, proposed as a possible went into gracefully sailing fragments that "Mozart's Jupiter Symphony." starship design. His conclusion: "Either their

slowly changed to sunlit dust and, most "The last movement, then. Take this, la- pellets won't ignite, or if they do, they'll pro- beautifully, tried to become a dust-ring dies and gentlemen, as a' demonstration duce so many neutrons as to burn up their around Lynx. But Earth was in the way. A of our power, our very human power to ship." In the LASNEX simulations, by con- ring spun, of most lovely pearly configu- enclose through intelligence and skill the trast, his lasers and pellets work. ration, but, at the point of impact with Earth, huge but crass and stupid events that are Another thing that's known is Hyde's shattered to amorphous dust, only to re- the result of sheer, blind celestial mechan- choice of laser. He prefers a krypton-fluor- form when free of that gross body. ics-. The earth is dead, or nearly, Long live ide excimer device, one of a class of high- On cat 2, with no large fanfares of the human world." performance lasers being studied inten- triumph, Jumel announced that they were The musicassette was inserted in one of sively at Livermore and elsewhere. The

ready to blast off. the recording machines. Vanessa's finger same type of unit is now being tested for And so, with a desperate-seeming pressed a golden lozenge on an instru- use in simulating the physics of hydrogen- wrenching that even caused a brief dys- ment panel inlaid in the salon wall. From bomb explosions, as well as the effects of function of the magnetic gravitator, the the four corners of the ceiling music such explosions on missile nose cones. spaceship America broke free of the pull poured— the essence of human divinity or Hyde has also been simplifying the of Lynx and soared into free space, head- divine humanity made manifest through the magnetic rocket nozzle, though he doesn't ing in the direction of Mars. gross accidenls ci bowcc catgut and blown have a. final design yet. Again, he has so- What they all had to see now, and yet 'reeds. And on the screen they saw what phisticated coirputcr orcgrams :o help him. did not wish to see, was the end of their that music diminished and made seem re- One shows the details of how the magnetic own planet. As they sped away from Lynx, mote, even trivial, or else take on the pat- nozzle producec by specie magnetic coils they saw on the big screen the great hump tern of choreography—cosmic indeed but acts in response to a microexplosion. The of the predator, with its ring satellite that seemingly humanly contrived. They saw magnetic field lines blow up like a balloon had once been the moon of Shakespeare Lynx and Earth meet, and the first patch as the explosion progresses, then bulge and Shelley and a million banal songs. of Earth to catch the blow was the northern rearward, permitting the products of the growing ever more disjunct, ever more Rockies, which must already be leaping explosion to escape. something-out-there. Val assembled the with stupid love to the claws of Lynx. They Most important for the future is Liver- team in the salon. He had never yet worn tasted the heartening fire of gin, its little more's progress in building big lasers. The the black gear that was the uniform of the benignant brutality, as Earth shattered lab leads the world in this area, which is citizens of this new America, and he came core of dancing water, crust of dust—and no small claim. Lowell Wood says: "There

in, looking, if anything, scruffier than he at once formed an outer ring satellite of its are three kinds of liars: liars, damn liars. had ever been— clad in the worn trousers successor in the dizzying annals of the sun and laser builders. A guy will build a laser

and sports coat and torn boots of his, and dance. The moon was a ring, and, a greater and claim it has fantastic energy in its beam. Willett's, anabasis, ring, pulverized Earth spun already in per- But then you ask him: Can you produce

He said, "We are, as you know, about to fect concentricity, luminous dust made of the energy again, or did you do it only once

witness the end of the earth. It seems to the dust of Bartlett and the Tagiiaferro and blow up your laser in the process?" me that we ought to drink to something— brothers and Calvin Gropius and his cat The Soviets, Wood recalls, once claimed

ourselves, our future, perhaps not our past. and millions and millions more, all, indeed, to have the world's most powerful laser. It ' We have no past, but our future is limit- who had scratched that fertile surface and turned out that the report was based on a less." Dashiel Gropius wheeled in a port- watched the wonders of mind rear them- single test that burned up all the lenses.

able cocktail bar that had glasses and ice. selves upon it. Mozart, too, .was part of that At Livermore the claims are legitimate. "Mr. Gropius," Vai said, "will soon be the dusty ring, but, miracle, Mozart was also And one thing is sure. When starships most important man in America or on here, tender, triumphant, drowning even the are built, they will be built according to Rod America. We must agree sometime as to howling of a child. The rhythms of Mozart Hyde's basic designs. Aboard the first ships the more fitting preposition. In his hands bore them on into space, the beginnings carrying humans toward the stars, his name will be the organization of games." Most of of their, our, journey. OO will be a household word. DO IN THIS WORLD, PRECIOUS THINGS.

I —

ULPTURE THE ARTS ByMarjorie B. Mann

^^^obots are very much alive in the point for her investigation of figurative representative of high-tech in its primitive |^^*New York Cily studio of form as, ironically, robotic constructions mythical stage. The dolls are concerned 1^^^ Catherine Field. Two life-size frequently are based on intensive with the creation myth of artificial man. forms ignore you at the door, while a cabal imitation of human form. "They are a means of recording and of mechanical masks stare sightlessly Field finds much of her material on the participating in this mechanical birth," from the floor. The walls are hung with street and in junk shops. In her studio she maintains. "But on the other hand, robot drawings and a large mural it steadily grows into collections that are technology has also acquired negative depicting an automa passeggiata, a transformed into sculptures. Having mythical connotations. There are constant Felliniesque street parade of homunculi. worked On construction sites with sheet fears about whether we can control it.

Mechanical beings in various stages metal, she finds this medium comfortable It has been prophesied since the of construction casually occupy for her. "I was influenced," she says, fourteenth century that machines are worktables, bookcases, and partitions. "by a series of servile jobs that made me destined to supplant the human race, Most interesting is a "first generation" of consider the existence of mechanical although more immediate concern entails about 25 robot sculptures, approximately entities. And an investigation of robot- whether robots and machines will 1.5 feet high. These creatures, endowed figurative mergers became inevitable." displace humans in the labor force." with human gestures, jump, prance, But enough of the word robot Field Field examines robot replacement and wave, mocking the more serious prefers to call her creations "Data Dolls," paranoia in a series of drawings. In these devices that constitute contemporary explaining that even inanimate objects collages, angry robots — made from robots. Hung individually on their own have a spiritual nature. The Data Dolls, newspaper want ads and employment stark white wall, this group "collectively then, have ceremonial significance. listings, oil-slick paints and glitter— stalk forms a spiral, symbolizing its own "Sometimes I see them as part of my like bad dreams across a paper grid ascent into life," says artist Field. shamanistic dreams," she confides. The as though they were about to take The structural parts of Field's sculptural Dolls are also a "form of revenge on a over your job. robots are largely sheet metal, aluminum, one-shot manufacturing ideology." Continuing her investigation of the colored cable wire, and screen. One While Field views part of contemporary mystical forces of technology, Field has sculpture is made almost entirely from culture as having elevated technology completed a series of "Data Masks." sheet-metal shavings. Put together with to a godlike status, her Data Dolls are One mask is composed of nearly 100 rivets or nuts and bolts, many of the computer chips, with empty voids for sculptures have movable parts and can its eyes and mouth; another is a take different positions, depending on nightmarish Medusa tangle of electrical the artist's mood. Other materials, wire. These masks are to be worn by composing the torso and features of humans, she says, when they address these saucy characters, include computer themselves to the spirit of technology. A chips, circuit boards, filters, calculators, person dons the mask and is endowed temperature dials, numbers, springs, with the power of the computer just as chains, even some crab claws. earlier peoples put on the masks of Field cites Mary Shelley's Frankenstein powerful animals, lightning, and thunder, as her primary liierary influence. Shelley's and gained the animistic power of Romantic portrayal of the Prometheus these natural forces. myth inspired Field's exploration of the Meanwhile she has also begun relationship between the creator and construction on larger robots that deal her defiant creation. The myth of humans with specific sculptural concerns, stressing stealing fire from the gods could become their formal qualities—scale, weight, a reality, she says, with the continuing mass, position in space, dimensionality development of artificial intelligence. as compared with the Data Dolls, which Fernand Leger was another influence. were dominated by their subject. While In the Twenties, the French painter Field imbues robots with mystical envisioned a new civilization whose core energies, one piece in particular speaks was the machine. Field's work focuses loudly of her view of their ultimate on our cultural- infatuation with new endurance. It is the only drawing she has technology, the computer, and the done on the concept of nuclear holocaust: proliferation of information. In an aesthetic a portrait entitled "And We Survived." Its sense, the robot becomes a starting Data Mask: :o ev;;^s ;hs ±p:r:i o: [echnO'Ogy subjects — a robot and a cockroach. DO I3S OMNI DMPUTER CAMP! EXPLORMTIOrUS By Doug Garr

14 students intently study colors begins to pulsate through it. Pennsylvania. Atari has four camps, in

The It fs one of those brutal Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, their work sheets, entitled summer "Lo-Res Graphics Aid for the mornings when the air is so hot and and southern California. differ Apple II," while the instructor. Bob DuPree, dense that it slows you down. But these Though the curricula from camp switches on the computer. After he kids, aged ten to seventeen, are in an to camp, the idea is basically the same: punches a few commands into its air-conditioned classroom at a computer to expose youngsters to computer keyboard, an illustration of a spigot camp, which is run by Maris! College, programming. At Marist, the kids learn pouring a yellow liquid into a beer mug a small private school specializing BASIC and APL. PILOT, among other appears. The word bud lights up under the in computer science. The college is languages, is taught at Computer Camp picture. The students smile. located in Poughkeepsie, New York, on International. Other camps offer healthy "Now this is a very professional an idyllic 100 acres overlooking the doses of FORTRAN, PASCAL, and program; you're not going to be able to Hudson River midway between New York assembly language. Six- and seven-year- do this in two weeks," warns DuPree. But City and Albany. The morning class is olds can begin on LOGO, a language he quickly adds that they should have a sort of crash course in low-resolution that features symbols and a "turtle" that no trouble learning how to draw primitive color graphics. In the afternoon the kids allows kids to draw pictures. LOGO is objects — squares, triangles, and other will_be in the lab. where they can put what even taught to children who haven't yet geometric figures—on the computer. they've learned to practical use on IBM, learned how to read. A few minutes later DuPree is teaching Commodore Pet, and TRS-80 computers. Most camps integrate three to five the kids how to draw a line. Computer camps are now enjoying hours a day of classroom and hands-on instruction with the usual array of summer "Now that I have my special random the vogue that summer tennis clinics did color and my special random number, in the early 1970s. Since Denison Bollay, activities: volleyball, softball. Ping-Pong, game of what do I want to do?" DuPree asks. a thirty-year-old computer consultant, swimming, and the apparent "Plot," calls out a boy wearing a blue founded the first one near Santa Barbara choice for young computerphiles, Ultimate Bruce Springsteen T-shirt. in 1980, dozens of similar camps have Frisbee. Camp directors everywhere

"Right," says DuPree. It isn't long before emerged all over the country. Ohio State complain that the kids don't get enough there's a rectangle on the screen, and University has begun a program and sun and sports —they're too attached shortly thereafter a rainbow of vibrant so has the Hill School in Pottstown, to their computer terminals. Clark Adams, the director of Computer Camp International, in Moodus, Connecticut, says the counselors have to demand that the students turn in their diskettes and jump into the pool. Computer camps employ a corps of two to four main teachers, computer professionals who usually teach on the college level. They're assisted by several counselors, men and women in their early twenties who are computer-science majors in college or graduate school. Camp fees are quite high, averaging around $800 for two weeks. Atari runs the longest sessions— month-long affairs that cost almost $1,600. Marist College, at $750, offers scholarships for all or part of the tuition, based on merit and need. The steep price has naturally given the camps a somewhat elitist complexion. The noted French author Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber sent his son to computer camp, and Edson de Castro, the founder of Data General, the giant minicomputer company, sent his kids. There are few

becoming fhe v;x;i;r. m swnrnei ie minority kids and the boys outnumber the CONTINUED ON PAGE14C1 © ART CUMINGS Anyone who can't understand that doesn't deserve to share it's joy / <£>

Can I help ? What's the catch?

The creative process is as dependent As it is on my ability

on your ability "to comprehend i"t "to create it

J knew there was a catch

Vfaam&L THE ART By Hans Fantel

mood in the United States at warned of dangers, pointed to faulty which limited the liability of power

The II calculations, testing companies for nuclear accidents. the end of World War was and urged expanded jubilant. Hitler lay vanquished, programs and accident simulation on To anyone following Ford's account, and even the uncomprehended terror let small-scale models. Stephen Hanauer, a the only surprising thing about nuclear loose over Hiroshima and Nagasaki member of the Advisory Committee on accidents is that there aren't more of seemed to hold a bright promise: the Reactor Safeguards, noted in a memo in them. His narrative, which amounts to an limitless power of the atom. Like the 1971 that "not a day goes by without accusation of willful negligence on the Allied victory itself, the atom was to be one or more mishaps at an operating part of the AEC and the Nuclear the foundation of a future world peace, reactor," but no system was ever Regulatory Commission, is full of made lasting by an inexhaustible supply established to look into these problems. documented evidence of dangerous of energy that would soon abolish all The villain of the book is the Atomic errors in judgment, horror stories that forms of material want. Energy Commission (AEC), which might even be entertaining if the subject Now, with dozens of nuclear-power repeatedly covered up for the weren't so grim. For example, we are plants running in the United States—two incompetence and sloppiness of its major told that the explosion of a test reactor in of them perilously close to New York contractors. Since its creation by Idaho on January 3, 1961, was who City and Chicago— it is somewhat difficult President Truman in 1946, the commission deliberately triggered by a man to see our situation clearly. In his sober has been curiously subservient to private suspected that his wife was sleeping with and meticulously documented book industry. According to Ford it has "issued a fellow worker at the reactor. Both men The Cull ol the Atom (Simon & Schuster), licenses to build commercial nuclear were killed, along with an innocent Daniel Ford, formerly the executive plants ... as routinely as the State bystander, at great risk to the environment. director of the Union of Concerned Department issues passports to travelers." In another incident, at the Brown's Scientists, traces our path from the high When scientists began to realize possible Ferry Plant, near Decatur, Alabama, an hopes of the 1950s to the fearful pitfalls in the design of fission reactors electrician's aide, with only one day on the disillusion of the 1980s. in the 1950s, the AEC looked the other job, set a fire that burned for seven and The story told in The Cult of the Atom way. Rather than address the technical a half hours; he was searching for air leaks has its heroes and villains. The heroes problems, !he commission passed with a lighted candle. are the people who blew the whistle, legislation like the Price-Anderson Act, These are not the kind of stories that the government likes to have reported. The papers of the AEC lay buried until Ford cracked open the archives with a lawsuit brought under the Freedom of Information Act. The information clearly indicates that under prevailing conditions and policies, no nuclear-power plant is safe. What's more, with the high cost of fuels, nuclear power isn't even cheap.

It wouldn't be fair to ascribe this nuclear debacle to sheer greed, though large sums of money were at stake. The real culprit is the leniency shown by the government's supervisory agencies toward private corporations. This fateful laxness is at least partly attributable to an inappropriate idealism. But those good intentions don't make the present situation any less frightening. So, in the fourth decade of the Atomic Age, the dream of nuclear peace and plenty has faded. Hope for cheap and safe atomic energy may have to be deferred until the time when nuclear fusion—as distinct tram nuclear fission- The secret paper', of ;he Atomic Energy Comn becomes a practical power source. OO 136 OMNI NEW NATIONAL BESTSELLER EXPI_DRMTIOnJ5 girls by about five or ten to one. By and "Wonderful adventure, great large the campers are highly motivated, spurred on by a keen awareness of the characters—a masterpiec need to become computer-literate. - -writer from Suzanne Busby.'a fifth-grader, said she wanted to come because "I want to be fa- miliar with computer languages." Her friend and fellow camper, Sybil Cafiero, also a

;

,:.: . fifth-grader, has her own Apple II. Suzanne H became interested when Sybil got her ma- chine. Sybil explained thai her aunt, in her twenties, was too old for computer camp.

"So I'll be able to teach her when I'm fin-

' • ished," Sybil said proudly. '"h . .:.4 Kelly Anson, sixleen, has already taught himself BASIC on his TRS-80. "I've written

* '": a couple of music programs," he said. 'And * '^ ?* 5 t1 Iff I&1 I'm pretty sure I want to make a career in

computers. But I wanted to learn how some other computers work." EARTn Marist campers are expected to com- /IsajjjofrJifKar.Wfl plete a term project on the computer, which

can be either frivolous or serious. "But I L. Ron Hubbard always emphasize to the kids that this is not school." insists Dr. Lawrence Mena- pace, the program director. "They're sup- posed to have fun. There are some rules. though. No stereos or TV sets. Lights out at eleven. We do not allow packaged video

games. You can play a game only if you

create it yourself." While most summer camps divide up their groups according to age, computer camps seem to bunk kids with similar computer experience together. Marist has three lev- els of classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Computer Camp International has a five-level breakdown. At the Hill School, each week-long camp session features a specific, in-depth program (either advanced or beginner) in a given lan- guage. Many campers already own their own computers, and while they're not encour- aged to bring them along to Marist (the point is to learn how to use a machine you don't own, according to the director), they are welcomed at other camps. Children can be seen lugging their Apple lis and Ataris at the beginning of a session at Computer Camp International. The computer lab here

is an inadequately cooled, rickely-framed one-story wooden building. But the kids don't seem to feel uncomfortable. Their last hour of lab is "free" time, and (hat's when they're allowed to play Raster Blaster, Jaw Breaker, and electronic poker.

And it seems healthy to report that com- puter campers don't differ much from or- dinary summer campers. They're con- stantly complaining aboul the awful food; they cheer delightedly when a waiter drops a plate; they call fruit drinks "bug juice";

and the boys still raid the girls' bunks after the counselors fall asleep. But that's where the resemblance to or- dinary camp ends. The instructors may wear tank tops and shorts to class, but they take their work seriously and expect the kids to do so, too. Lenny Huber, an instruc- tor at Computer Camp International, says.

"I don't think of it in terms of summer camp:

I it in HALF think of It's PRICE terms of school. work, SALE and they're expected to work hard." Director Clark Adams, however, poinls FOR THE out that the kids might even be more at- NEXT tentive and faster learners than their el- 30 DAYS ders. "When the machine says syntax er- ONLY! ror, fhe kids know they made a mistake," Adams says. 'Adults don't believe the ma- chines. They kick Ihe computer when they MINTED make mistakes. They act out their anxieties on the machines." ABOUT 100 The rush to teach kids about computers YEARS AGO may be causing at least one potential problem. Some children are under the mis- FIVE MORGAN SILVER DOLLAR SET taken notion that knowing how to run a piece of prepackaged software is all there is to ORIGINAL U.S. GOVERNMENT MINT ISSUE

operating a computer. rt 30 days only. Numismatic Collectors Guild l! NUMISMATIC r offering ihc b;:<:.: ,v Slim M raan Dollar In Trea- COLLECTORS Gl "Some of the kids are hardware- rich and sury SbIs of five for the unheard of law price af just 3125.00 ' imagination-poor," said David Yukol, an in- Previously we had been selling our five Morgan Silver

: ' ' DoUai ;^5250.00persel,b. ' ' ia recent discovery structor who works for Clark Adams. "They

think they can program, and they can't. I

: R'.-r .J3I ar •,'.50 ; I Msrjjsn s--Kt had a kid last week who told me he knew is: 'or S:2i 00 iiiJS p, these silver dollars 'of 412.5 gi all but really BASIC. He needed a strong silver, .77344 ou :_.2 'HE Mcrosr 5 !i*r CO -it selS (Or t240!00 plus S10.00 p.| os. md: . SavB £15.00. dose of LOGO. He didn't understand the corns ever minted in the UnlterJ States. Dated from 1876 to " - 1904, they hove became so popular thot collectors ana i '.3 Morcan s Ivei n.-. isi =Mls It SrJiS.OC iSl/.'jlip.; difference between following tindl., ins. Save- S50.0G. someone Investors have been hoarding Ittem far years. As a result, --:"'. .'..... else's rules and making his own. That's a there are no longer any Morgan S;:) i Each Treasury Collector's set in Itils special offering Is in whole other level. That's what computing Address fine condition and mounted 1110 protect « (assentation cose is all about." And, presumably, that's, what accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity Mokes an Fdeal City stale Zip., gift tor special occasions to be passed from generation ro computer camp is all about. CHARGE MY; D VISA U DIN EDS CLUB generation. 1 D AMERICAN EXPRESS I MASTERCARD ' il satisfied for any reason, you may return your '" CREDITCARDND. EXP. DATE; :; )0 CAMP GUIDE DELIVERY _. EST I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

There are over two dozen computer • 1-800-847-4100 SIGNATUHE > :'N Sis;- r,!;iiij:iti ai 2- 2 -SM 7-7022 camps in the United States, and some of the most popular include:

Marist C c/o Dr. Lawrence Menapace Poughkeepsie. NY 12601 FOR 914-471-3240, ext. 345

Computer Camp International Dr. Arthur Michals. Administrative Director FUTURE REFERENCE 310 Hartford Tpke., Suite D Vernon, CT 06066 Moving? We need 4-6 weeks 203-871-9227 annrui notice of a change of address. Fill RO, Box 5700, Bergenfield, N J. 07621 Computer Camp Inc. in fhe attached form. 1235 Coast Village Road, Pease -hec< Ihe appropriate bo* .lelow. Suite G New Subscription or Renewal? Santa Barbara. CA 93108 Payment must accompany order One year of Ornni is$24 in the U.S. 800-235-6965 U Nev, ouosoTiphon Renewal S34 in Canada and overseas. Please mailing hs: Ohio State University Computer Camp enclose a check or money I -us. is n chang s of address, my nt Office of Continuing Education order for the appropriate amount orJdros.- is '+ •'. 2400 Olentangy River Road and allow 6-8' weeks for delivery Columbus, OH 43210 Listing/Unlisting Service? Omni 614-422-8571 makes the names and addresses of Compucamp its subscribers available to other publications and outside P.O. Box 20141 com- Santa Barbara, CA 93120 panies. The pubiications and 805-963-5936 companies selected are carefully screened for their acceptability

The Hill School Computer Camp and quality of their offers. If you c/o John E. Parneli would like, your nome removed Pottstown, PA-19464 from this mailing list please check the appropriate box on the Atari Computer Camps coupon. 800-847-4180 DO : lOITELLIEEfUCE (RAM) can be expanded to 36.2K bytes. puter data, and transmit electronic memos (From Texas Instruments, Inc., Box 22574, simultaneously. Its telephone handset is CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 Dallas, TX 75265.) perched atop a display monitor. The unit video discs, providing higher fidelity in includes an electronic date book that shows smaller packages— an area the Japanese Artificial intelligence, like the human va- the time, date, and up to 80 appointments. are already investigating. riety, can be quirky. Sometimes eliciting The DataVoice plugs into standard tele- "Mass storage has been called the specific information from a personal com- phone lines. ($2,495, from Basic Telecom- mother's milk of computing," says John puter requires nothing less than a seman- munications Corp.; 4414 East Harmony

Klonick, of Dataquest, a California con- . tic argument, and it may take several time- Road, Fort Collins, CO 80525. )OQ sulting firm. 'A device that is so cheap and consuming attempts before the computer offers such a dramatic increase in capac- will respond to your command. But the CREDITS ity should permit wonderful things at Savvy system is designed to give Apple II Page 10, riionar;: homnnl R-ioda \a home—from more sophisticated pro- computers a little more human under- grams to much bigger databases for all standing. The device is half-hardware, half- kinds of applications." software. It consists of a circuit board and that into accompanying disks plug the Ap- Corp. page 36 top, Ft A. Gwski id J. E Sliryne: paga ple. Savvy's secret is program NEW WARES: HARD AND SOFT a that en- ables it to recognize arbitrary groups or Sinclair, beware. Texas Instruments has patterns of about 100 words. Now, instead

G:qa iciece . page 40 (op, Mas a come up with some competition for that of composing codes to your computer, you i-.fj'-rrar. page 40 bottom. Gigs inexpensive computer marketed by Ti- can come right out and ask it direct, simply Word: page « top, Qga Sjia;;e: surutaJCA:pageB0, mex. Tl's machine also sells for less than put questions, like "How much money do .';.: -!... ;: rh.:v.- page 81, vi:

$100 and is designed to be a powerful per- I make?" or "Can I see the inventory?" ;-,: sonal computer for beginners. The TI-99/2 ($950, from Savvy Marketing International, •<:i. page 82 bottom right, D ver Pictures- page 83, has a 16-bit microprocessor and uses soft- 100 South Ellsworth Street, Ninth Floor, San 85 top left, Mc-.'!0 :;i:: V05 p ware on cartridges or cassettes. In addi- Mateo, CA 94401.) page 86 top left, Ma coin-, Mch Eijir page 100, O.jw O'Rsh page 115, UPI page novice computer programmers: "Learn To puter-data terminal combined into a single 116 top. .".;:> '>;?:& pace 116 i Program" and "Learn to Program BASIC." unit the size of a typewriter. This "com-

The new computer's 4.2K bytes (4,200 munication workstation" makes it possible .er Ou:ih«- page 150, Helmut Wim characfers) ot random-access memory "to communicate by phone, review com- only make requests of its human paiionl developed within five years or less. Al-

,: ruiiruD Further in the future, robot visionaries ke ready there are mobile microprocessors Richard Gregory, of Bristol University, in powerful enough to allow robots sufficient ;: '-i p-^l England, believe that differences in robot physical freedom to interact with their sur- humans would characterize as thought- behavior may give rise to various species roundings. And there are computer-soft- Different will called thai like. "When. I first began to work with my of robots. breeds have differ- ware structures expert systems robots," he admits, "their movements ent patterns of response depending on how allow computers to process information seemed so controlled, so intelligent; it they process information and the kinds oi much in the same way as human experts looked as though they were alive, even decisions they are designed to make. These do, learning from past actions and storing for future though I knew they weren't. A's we become robots will be as different from one another the newly gained knowledge use. more sophisticated at giving robots free- as priests, generals, and advertising ex- Less well developed is pattern-recog- dom to operate, their reactions will appear ecutives are among humans. nition software, the key to letting a robot even more alive to us. We will begin to see Right now there are three distinct obsta- see the world as humans can. Still, the basic a psychology behind their actions." cles that stand in the way of building ro- principles are already known and a few

.This perceived psychology is expected bots with psychological potential. First, years of experimentation with video-sen- to become more rich and varied. As robots powerful computers must be reduced to a sor equipment on robots should produce move from factories to settings where they small enough size to fit inside a robot's machines that have enormously increased interact more often with humans, the gra- body. Second, artificial-intelligence soft- vision capabilities. dations and complexities ol robo-psych will ware will have to be improved so that a Robot hardware is under intense study increase. With this in mind, Koto Matu- computer can evaluate and act on the flow as well. There are robot legs walking at shima, dean of engineering at Tsukuba of information from its sensors, internal- Waseda University, in Tokyo, and at Ohio University, has already analyzed the be- solving abilities, pattern-recognition sys- State University laboratories. Robot arms havioral differences that would exist be- tems, and locomotion —all at the same time; are flexing at Tokyo University and at NASA's tween an industrial robot and a robot nurse. the software must also help the machine Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Robots are al-

In the factory a robot would merely have learn from its past actions. Third, the robot ready putting their primitive hardware to to work hard to be accepted, A robot nurse, hardware must do more than satisfy the work in factories around the world. however, "would have to project an air of basic needs of locomotion and balance As Tsukuba University's Yutaka Kana- calm, and competence, and friendliness," maintenance: it must elevate the ma- yama observes: "We are solving the he says, "or the human patient wouldn't chine's skills to a higher level of coordi- mechanical problems quickly. When the trust it, follow its instructions, or let it care nation to interact more freely and fully with computer engineers perfect their artificial- for him." To establish such a relationship, its environment intelligence systems we will be ready to says Matushima. would be simple; The hu- When will all this happen? At the rate create truly intelligent robots. Then we will man would communicate with the robot by computers are shrinking, a tiny mighty-mi- have true robot psychology, We are not issuing commands, while the robot would cro powerful enough for a robot could be there yet, but we are very close. "OO caruinjiuruicMTiorus circular because these witnesses actually the popular media. I intend to cite this ar- remember themselves at the dawn of their ticle in future lectures as an example of the consgiousness— as little round, fertilized "my mind is made up, so don't confuse me Mixmasters eggs. When the UFO occupants are de- with the facts" school of pseudoscience. The December 1982 Games column refers scribed as wearing backpack-type equip- Norman Hal! to a game called Armatron as 'Arthur C. ment, the witness is simply recalling him- San Diego, CA

self as fetus. If believe this, you'll Clarke's Waldo . . . come io life." a you Unfortunately, you have mixed your believe anything. Praise for the Educators masters. "Waldo" was conceived by Rob- The problems with Lawson's theory are I read with interest Joel Davis's article ert A. Heinlein, rather than the sage of Sri manifold. He seizes upon hypnosis—fre- "Olympics of the Mind" [Mind, December

Lanka. It's enough to give credit to Clarke quently employed to retrieve abduction 1982]. As an educator whose students have for his own remarkable ideas without steal- memories— as providing a plausible con- participated in the program since its sec- ing Heinlein's rightful thunder. text in which birth traumas can hypotheti- ond year, and as the person who serves C. Kevin McCabe cally float into consciousness, disguised, on the OM organizing committee for New

Chicago for some unexplained reason, as UFO ex- Jersey, I feel qualified to supplement the periences. The fact is that dozens of Ihese article with additional comments. No Place for a Pessimist similarly described UFO abductions are Dr. Gourley and Micklus, the program's originators, have served education, par- I read the interview with Theodore H. White remembered without hypnosis. ticularly gifted children's well. [November 1982] with great interest and I Most abduction reports have a solidly education, agreed with everything he said until he re- physical side. Abductees are often missed No program is perfect, however, and sev- for; turn eral of require clarification. sponded to the last question. I am out- and searched when they suddenly OM's aspects raged that a man with such insight would up, they often bear virtually identical phys- Mr. Davis's article implies, and OM officials say something so archaic as, "In space ical marks. Jungian archetypes, as far as tend to foster the impression, that the ac-

I not leave scars. tivity is appropriately geared to stu- exploration, I can't see any other nation silly know, do most enough to waste so much money on a wild To say that Lawson's theory is inade- dents already identified for formal pro- idea that may not actually pay off." quate is not to say that someday, some- grams tor the talented and gifted (TAG). for demonstrates this is I couldn't believe it. And as if that com- how, a mundane explanation the ab- My experience that ment weren't bad enough, his next remark duction phenomenon might not appear. No not the case. We have always opened par- was inexcusable. "There won't be any col- one can be comfortable with the implica- ticipation to anyone who wished to take onization of space. Nobody wants to go tions of these seemingly unbelievable ac- part. As a result, in addition to a high par- there." counts. Who would not want to wish away ticipation rate, we have sent winning teams terrifying notion of learning-dis- As a member of the Planetary Society, I the that men and women made up average and would love to volunteer to work and live in are being-used as involuntary laboratory abled students to the national tournament. space. I'm sure the other 1 11,000 members subjects tor some unknown alien purpose? A second clarification concerns the of the society would gladly join me. , ' Budd Hopkins statement that problems offered are varied Our greatest accomplishment will be the New York to suit the participants' ages. This is not expansion info space. Anyone who reads always so. Omni will agree that there are unlimited ad- Psychic Satire For example, one of this year's problems vantages in this venture. We must not give It is sometimes difficult to tell just how an required students to read sections of The up space exploration; we must increase it. article in Omni is intended to be taken. Odyssey and rewrite them in a humorous Cheryl Glasser Usually the fiction is labeled as such, and vein. There was some concern over the Apollo, PA an experienced reader expects to find appropriateness of some sections of The oddball items in the Antimatter pages, and Odyssey for younger students. By using satire material, the invites crit- I am sure that Theodore H. White knows on the Last Word page. But the "Psi- inappropriate OM more about politics in America than I'll ever Q Report," by Stephan A. Schwartz and icism and undermines an otherwise worth- know. But as a woman, a philanthropist, Rand De Mattei [Mind, November 1982], while activity.

and a believer in the value of space explo- while apparently intended as a serious' In summary, I have written this letter to ration, all I can say is: Thank God Mr. White analysis of an experiment on "psychic salute two educators who have developed only writes about the nation's politics and powers," has the potential to be one of the a solid vehicle to tap students' creative tal- doesn't actually determine them. most amusing satires you have ever pub- ents that schools and society often ignore

Sharon Holland lished. The only thing not funny about it is in this era of fiscal restraint.

Glastonbury, CT that it is sadly typical of the uncritical anal- Robert Ginsberg ysis this field usually produces. After stat- Coordinator/Supervisor UFO Abductions ing that statistical analysis predicts that the .Programs for the Gifted and Talented The October 1982 issue contains a UFO success rate they achieved could be ex- East Brunswick, NJ Update [Antimatter] by Ah/in Lawson in pected by sheer chance at least once in which he dismisses UFO abduction ac- sixteen trials^Schwartz and De Mattei pro- Is It Alive? counts as being only a kind of universal, ceed to characterize their results as "bet- In their article "Hidden Monsters" [January Jungian "birth trauma" memory. He falsely ter than chance." The similar self-contra- 1983], Karen Ehrlich and E. Lee Speigel describes my book on the abduction phe- dictory analysis of the "creativity test," quote my estimate of the size of "Champ, nomenon, Missing Time, as supporting this topped off by a plea tor governmental or the infamous monster of Lake Champlain." outlandish theory. industrial funding for research into what is Details of the calculation, based on esti- Lawson apparently believes that super- clearly more a popular religious belief than mates of the length of the waves near ficial resemblances here and there prove a relevant scientific hypothesis, makes this Champ, will appear in the first issue of the a cause-and-effect relationship. He sees report a true gem. Journal of Cryptozoology. As to the con- the quasi-laboratory setting in most UFO As a scientist (biochemist), I am con- tention that these waves indicate that

abduction accounts as being a misre- cerned about the sorry state of the Amer- Champ was alive, however, I must confess membered hospital obstetrics room; any ican public's understanding of science. I that I do not possess the ability to discern kind of hallway becomes the birth canal, have given lectures in the philosophy of between the animate and inanimate from and so forth. Elsewhere he has taken his science in an attempt to educate some wave patterns alone. theory to more extreme lengths. He has small part of the public, which is being so Paul H. LeBlond written that abductees describe UFOs as poorly served by the schools and most of Vancouver, B.C., CanadaOO 144 OMNI EXPAND THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE join onnrui magazine in MARCH OF DIMES WALKAMERICA '83 \ \ SUNDAY, APRli 24 7 /• / --/ \ * ' / Y- | T / / \ \ **':'/ ,*> V.* /• . : / /

:«

^ " Every step ye>u takejpa /- 30 kilometer walk brings us

closer to discovering- /

the causes of birth d^fecjs . /. in " Walk New York, . , / New Jersey or Conneetteuf? * , and raise-mor%y with every kilometer you complete. To register call: (212)922-1460 or \.-« f your local March of Dimes Chapter. \ *1 *„ v March of Dimes 4 * «WakAmerica ruEXT Dfinrui

the perfect characterization of a certain type of

— 3 striking thing is that this nasty written before "Valley girl" be-

1 to most Americans. Our other

digan's first appea

in real life writes greeting i

' slick, predatory barflies we all

TollyaPrigoginet .....

and he has directed his life toward an under- liverse. The Belgian

chemist \ ory of "dissipative structures," which describes the workings of open systems— chemical re tions, cities, ecosystems— maintained by fit of energy so intense that the system reorgan again and ; 1§wmm nothing stands still for llya Prigogn

in the pred; mmSmSSmm ferent to sheep rancher Kern Bulloch. The ground

mushroom cloud soared, fiery

edy that would span three decades, wi

sounding in Hollywood, Washington, D.C., throughout the land. "The Day We Bi

is not only the harrowing saga of ho™ u , c /ii_i_- a nuclear-testing program shattered hundreds of Jf% : jf| lives in two rustic Utah towns: it is also a timely

1 ' ' ' X'tf WJTi W. ,

"Mill is of Hiroshima and Nagasaki into our

nding account of this major gov- :

PHErunruiEfUM

i of light. Photogr Smith made this portrait as part ol his lifelong fascination with the world of

is it opens up to him. "I I to get inside something and photograph it so that it and allows the imagination literal style of nature photography,

;ts nothing more than a simple copy of the original. Instead he works an eyelash distance away from his subjects, exploring new perspectives, like this

' ' act of color and shape. Hamilton took

I attaching a reversing ring to a Nikkor 55mm lens and placing "" ! photo was 1 i.QQ "HE COSMIC SERPENT TAR5 By Patrick Moore

in diameter and moves in an orbit simitar are very much in the news orbit closest to the sun, some of the Comets Encke's Comet. It also has these days. For one thing, Halley's ice in its nucleus evaporates and the to that of slightly in size. As much the same orbit as that of the Beta Comet is on its way back and it comet diminishes short-lived a Taurid meteors, and some time ago should have much to tell us. For another, a result comets are on Harvard astronomer Fred W, Whipple an astounding new comet theory has cosmic scale, with fife spans oi a few all of them— Hephaistos, been proposed by two highly respected million years. suggested that that Encke, and the Beta Taurids —were the astronomers at the Royal Observatory It has also been assumed comets of system result of a breakup of a larger body some in Edinburgh, Victor Clube and Bill Napier. are genuine members the solar tims back in the third millennium e.c. They believe that the earth periodically and have remained in the Oort Cloud Astronomers now believe that these goes through epochs of heavy cometary for billions of years. Clube and Napier, Apollo-type objects can sometimes collide bombardment and that during one oi however, think differently. They theorize with Earth. In fact, one such collision these periods, a spectacular comet, which that the original comets of the Oort Cloud that the may have occurred 65 million years ago, they call the Cosmic Serpent, swung have long been depleted and the perhaps causing the abrupt extinction by. Many of our mythical (ears and supply is replenished when sun of the dinosaurs. superstitions about comets as omens of periodically passes through one of the galaxy. the next few With all this in mind, Clube and Napier disaster, they claim, can be traced to it. spiral arms of our For and look at Astronomers generally have supposed million years after such a pass, the turn to the near-present comets in mythology and history. Men that comets come from the Oort Cloud, supply of comets is plentiful and comet have always been afraid of comets, and a comet reservoir located about one activity is particularly high. die, say and the two astronomers suggest there may light-year from the sun. (It was named after Also, when comets Clube have a historical basis for this. They the Dutch astronomer, Jan Oort. who Napier, they become Apollo-type been that suggest that in near-historical times a first suggested its existence.) When a asteroids—that is. small bodies larger very large comet, the Cosmic Serpent, comet in the cloud is perturbed —by follow orbits different from the forced into an Apollo-type orbit. the gravitational tug of massive Jupiter, regular asteroids restricted to the region was approaches Mars and Jupiter. One such It would have made close for example— it moves toward the center between to the earth periodically and would have of the solar system. And each time a object, Hephaistos, was discovered in six miles been brighter than a full moon. More comet passes perihelion, the point in its 1979. It is estimated to be about important, it would have been accompanied by debris hitting the earth, making natural disasters more likely. in time the Serpent faded from view and the meteors decreased. The period of disastrous impacts passed—for a while. And what happened to the Cosmic Serpent? Clube and Napier think that it became what we now call Hephaistos. a dark remnant of its former self.

That, in brief, is the theory. It is

revolutionary and unorthodox, but it is being taken very seriously as an honest effort to link astronomy with archaeology, paleontology, geology, history, and even

mythology. And if Clube and Napier are correct, at the moment we are at a fairly safe period in astronomical history, and the chance of a major Apollo-object

strike is small, Eventually, however, the

sun will again traverse one of the galaxy's spiral arms; the Oort Cloud will be replenished, and there could be more Cosmic Serpents, When the next one appears, the results should be least. ol prehistory may rt spectacular, to say the OO A comet primeval: It two astronomers fight, the supercomets 150 OMNI .

Campfire logic, fast knots, and other miracles

By Scot Morris

8. RHYMING CLASSIC. This riddle, one says. "This is the strangest case I have

of the world's oldest, is still good for ever seen. By all the evidence you are starting arguments. A man is looking at a guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, yet the

This month we presenl a potpourri of portrait. "Whose picture is that?" someone law requires that I set you free." perplexities and head-scratchers. asks, and the man replies: "Brothers and What is the reason for the judge's decision? Solve them by applying logic, general sisters have I none, but that man's lather information, insight, cunning, or is my father's son." Whose picture is quizmanship; and avoid beaten paths. the man looking at? 15. TALLYING TOAST. Today, April 1,

important do; so I Some items require a serious working 1983, I have nothing to second, decide to total the number of breakfasts through— others will reward deviousness. 9. TIMELY What occurs once in a year I have had since the beginning of the A score of ten .or above. is excellent, once in a month, once in a century, but 31 in January, 28 in February, eight or nine is good, five to seven is fair; not at all in a week or a year? That's days

31 in March, plus one in April makes . . if you score four or below you're either too intelligent or too stupid to be taking 10. TRIALOG. "Feldman owns more than a totai of 91 breakfasts.

would I have tests like this— take your pick. five hundred video games," says Anne. How many breakfasts "Oh, no. Feldman owns fewer video had if this had been a leap year?

1. CAPITAL LETTER (Geography). There games than that," says Bruce. " moon takes ' 16. QUESTION. The is only one state in the United States "One thing's for sure," says Carson, LOONY to around the earth. that shares no letters with its own capital. "Feldman owns at least one video game." 27.322 days go

Last night I the moon rise at 7. Tonight Name the city and state. If only one statement is true, how saw

many video games does Feldman own? it came up at 7:04 I was in the same both nights. The year is 1983. 2. CAPITAL LETTER (Logology). A certain spot on six-letter word changes its pronunciation 11. OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD. Two What is today's date? is when it is capitalized. Its initial letter is p. goats are grazing in a meadow. One What's the word? facing due north and the other is facing 17. TWO VIEWS. Shown below are two due south. How can they see each other different perspectives of the same three- dimensional object one from the front 3. ANYTHING IN COMMON? What, if without turning around? — is the anything, do the following have in and one from the side. What three-dimensional shape that common; the location of clocks in a 12. MARATHON MAN. Alfred can jog simplest Sketch it. casino and of public telephones at a counterclockwise. around Central Park in would produce these views? racetrack, rat vomit, a mayfly's diet, .and 90 minutes. When he jogs clockwise Numbers 16 and 17 will books by Isaac Asimov that have along the same route, it takes him an hour Answers to tricks they can reached the best-seller list before his and a half. Why the difference? appear next month. No — current Foundation's Edge? both be solved—though they may seem 13. ELEVATOR. This question and the beyond reason. All other answers may 4. TROUNCE. In a regulation nine-inning next are classic campfire logic problems. be found on page 120. baseball game the home team scores They work best when you present the two runs in each inning and the visitors puzzle and have other people ask yes-or- score one run each inning. What is the no questions until they get the answer. final score of the game? A man lives on the twentieth floor of a high-rise apartment building. Every

5. STREET SCENE. Why are manhole weekday morning he gets in the elevator, covers circular rather than square? rides to the ground floor, and goes to work. Every weekday evening he enters

6. PRIME CUT. Why would a barber in the elevator and, if there is another Paris rather cut the hair of two Italians than passenger, rides to the twentieth floor. If one American? he's alone, however, he gets off at the sixteenth floor and climbs four flights of

7. STRANGE-DRIVE. How could you stairs to his apartment. What is the head your car north on a straight road, ' reason for his behavior? drive for a hundred yards, and find yourself a hundred yards south of where 14. JUSTICE. A man is tried for the crime you started? of murder and found guilty The judge

152 OMNI Tips: In step 2, move your right hand COMPETITION #28: VIDEO GAMES forward, palm down, and pause at that point so people can clearly see how the Tired of Frogger. Fast Food, and move starts. In step 3 you move your Communist Mutants from Outer Space? hand backward, palm up, briefly, which You won't have to wait long for these: is the opposite of the suggestion you planted in step 2. Most people won't notice "Deadline! Finish your copy by the date the important difference. circled on the calendar, but not before. Deal with emergencies as they arise: the TIE TWO. In a fancy men's clothing store, "pencil-needs-sharpening" buzzer, the a salesman may try to show you how a "out-of-coffee" alarm, and the "what's-on-

necktie will look with a knot in it by literally TV" diversion. At random intervals you and laboriously tying a knot for your get paid on time and earn bonus points. inspection. The Amazing Randi preys on "Laundromat. Get as many clothes such people in order to demonstrate done in the shortest time for the least his original "necktie-salesman's move," money. Washing machines and dryers in which he knots a tie with one quick become available at one- and two-minute flick of the wrist. Hold the tie as shown intervals, on average; a dryer can hold below, left, with the larger end draped 1.5 washer loads. Dry more than that and over your right hand-, your little finger in the towels and jeans will need to go in front. Concentrate on point A (on the. for part of another cycle. Penalties for small end of the tie) and the pincer formed putting whites with colored fabrics, using by your index and middle In TIE ONE ON fingers. a the wrong temperature, adding softener sudden move, reach forward and down to in the wrong cycle, or running out of This do-as-l-do challenge is not a trick. grab point A between these two fingers quarters and having to go to the

it nice April What makes a Fools' stunt (2). Snap the tie off your wrist and hold it newsstand and buy something. is the extreme difficulty most people will up by the loop (3). "Pack Man. How long can you last as have in duplicating your childishly Tips: Think of the trick as three s manager of the New York Yankees? The simple actions. motions: first down to grasp point A, object is to boost ticket sales by any Place- a necktie flat on a table as shown then up to pull A through the loop, and means possible: Do beer commercials, above (1). Seat your spectator on the finishing with a downward flourish to make a fool of yourself kicking dirt on other side of the table and ask him or her tighten the knot: "Monsieur, your tie wiz umpires, call press conferences, or win to watch carefully. Ihe Describe steps zee knot in it." baseball games. If ticket sales go as you perform them slowly and down— pack, man. deliberately: "Lay the tie on the table like "Valley Girl. Object: Throw a bitchin' this, big end on the left, little end' on party, meet guys that are tubular to the the right (1). Pick up the big end with your max, and clean up before your parents get left hand, then reach under with your back from Palm Springs. And don't get right hand (2). Cross over the tie with your gagged by the spoons. righl hand, pick up the other end (3), "Video Game. Put out a virtual replica of and tie a knot in it." Follow these steps as someone else's video game and make illustrated, separate your hands, and as much money as you can before you are there will be a knot in the tie. hit with a restraining order. Most people have a very hard time repeating this simple action, if especially Send us your proposal, on a card, for a - they have viewed it from across the next-generation video game, 100 words table. they When try to cross over with maximum. Our grand prize-winner will the right hand (step 3), they move the receive $100; runners-up'(two through hand directly across—forward and to the nine) will receive $25 each. All entries right—which, of course, yields no knot. become the property of Omni; none will You can often demonstrate the move be returned. Send entry, postmarked several times, and spectators still may be by May 15, to: Omni Competition #28, 909 unable to repeal it. Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022.DO ' a

" *av Every emerging technology, trorn steam m.:^:. -.-;::: every sortot groresqu « lechery. jet- power to genetic engineering, has automated Jaded human r 1b provoked anxious rumors. And as robots setters have even been frequenting' the V high-techuthrill w increasingly 'hey loo robot bordello's, seeking become common,

vl : its m wi i inspire if en;: specui-aliou To help • Lassie? The dog never did own ed

you got tne .jumo on robot hysteria, here skints; everyone Knows that. Mr. EcP l-l are ;en impending robot rumors: real name is Mr. Edeistein. He changed

• A national hamburger chain is entirely . it when he went, into show business, ^ > !•* v w^B fust jewisn horse V^^t - owned and operated by McRobots H becommg the to have began when a few experimental models his own prime-time sit-com. Similar i S -r will cemmi ^^K^^tr were' brought Into the. business; fry- cr-snt-she speculation ho ^uB^^^^. droids. grill-tomatons and rib-robots. By to celebritv robot rumors, as stars buy

^^^^^^ shrewdly investing [heir tip money . robot stand-ins to handle their public Th;s will zest to The J^^^H^^, according io a. financial strategy plotted appearances. add -, ^^^m ^^| ^H^' by their friends- (computers at a Murv Gnfiin Show as hewers io fiou ^j 1 ^^^B prominent brokerage house), the robots whsch, if any, ot Vle-v's nightly guests Ik ^tHl» 1^^^ managed io engineer an unfriendly are actually human beings. Li,:a Minne ^B JkT' ^^^hi corporate takeover. Who knows what: ZsaZsaGa-bor7.Gh.aro?' ^^E$^k ^H they'll add to the special sauce? Will they * Certain powerful congressmen are

'0- ihey r n ._ ^1 start serving McDiodes? Will Ronald - se nteresis '"-• H.^«M& HB— j«^^i^^k^c^^^P McDonald eventually be automated out tnev've accepted enormous campaign of a job and forced into early retirement contri out ions from Robo' PACs-. Robot at the Old Downs' Home? influence even extencs beyond Con.gres • A certain Olympic team is packed with to the Oval Qthce. When you are.

ringers. the. country; machine, ycu don; care if they call catsu LA5T ; robot. (1 can't name don't there are spies everywhere i don't oven a vegetable; tor that matter you

truss ''iv toaster.) Let's jus^ say that care if they call iron ore trust. It's all the IAJDRD there's an Eastern European nation. to same fc you as long as ycu can ge; yr whom Olympic- goid is very, very batteries recharged when you'. please.

• Ii not actually Hughes i was Howard 3y Randy Cohen imoortanl. i hat's what happens when a

country has no worthwhile rock bands. : hiding out in that Las. Vegas hotel suite iPerhaps they've movie stars, o^ twelve-year-old fashion models— they care- who wins the hammer Hughes had a moot recluse built to his replaced your already throw or tne luge.) Thecoumjy in question soecifications, Alf that time, the real modular sofa has been censured in the past for dosing Howard Hughes was hieing out m a ho its teams with iorbidden.drugs aodfor suite- in Reno. with five sofa-robots. I'd entering athletes- of dubious gender be careful where in the women's events. But that's Bronze- roaming the country, gunning for Nancy

ii Age cheating compared to what's on- :',:, ::,!;:; ! ; . . 1 sat if I were you. They line. For the Los Angeles games in '84 the why she buys. so. many clothes— to thro are among us3 judges will have to determine which the kiilers off the scent. That way they entrants' ate- human and which are not. To disinformation pu. anoth< .ir- . • There are Soviet robot second mile, the fifty-ton bench press, -teams-disguised as computers at maj and the L.A-.-lo-Paris pole vault. American newspapers. Their mission; • 'George Steinbrenner will replace the to discredit Jerzy Kosinski. entire Mew York Yankee Infield with android * Finally the coming iooot rumors will athletes. For a man who experiences exploit our fear that the machines are

such profound ,p rid e-o.f- ownership among us Scientists are nowhere near

feelings, it's a dream, come true. Hq longer building a robot that can mimic the being., or need he pretend to treat his players . complex behaviorof a human

like human beings if his new robot pitcher even the clumsy actions of someone

fails to perform.' Steinbrenner can do like my Undo Milt. Bui the truth' is. they something' more dramatic than trading the aren't even trying. Rather than deyeiopin bum to Texas. He can have him broken Simplified versions of oeopie. governme up and sold for scrap. The only; people researchers are creating sophisticated who are likely -to fight the shift to- versions of furniture, expioiling the in roar automation are the players union and. me ' made by Magic Fingers and the chewing -tobacco lobby. Sar calou.hg'er; Alf they have 'to do is ad • Robots engage in bizarre sex acts some input-output devices, install an T and on- board computer,, and devise a mobili'

is; do kinky things to them, (That's why i system And there i- the digita- bed. couldn't discuss the.'O.lympic.s in front of the intelligent walking coffee (ably. In lac

mv toaster- it could be havina an affair perhaps they've already replaced your with some moot and anything could modular sofa with five sofa-robots. I'd b

f : be blurted- out in a moment of digital- -careful- who re I sat i 1 were you. They

ecstasy.) The appliance departments of are among us. It's like that famous SF ;

certain stores, if has been teamed, movie invasion or the Sota Snalchers. , function as after-hours dubs. Jor' robot least that's the rumor.DO