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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32403-h.zip b/32403-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..475c22c --- /dev/null +++ b/32403-h.zip diff --git a/32403-h/32403-h.htm b/32403-h/32403-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8f25c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/32403-h/32403-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2219 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Human Error, by RAYMOND F. JONES. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Human Error, by Raymond F. Jones + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Human Error + +Author: Raymond F. Jones + +Illustrator: Paul Orbin + +Release Date: May 17, 2010 [EBook #32403] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN ERROR *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>HUMAN ERROR</h1> + +<h2>BY RAYMOND F. JONES</h2> + +<h3><i>Illustrated by Paul Orban</i></h3> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science +Fiction April 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote"><i>The government was spending a billion dollars to convince +the human race that men ought to be ashamed to be men—instead of +errorless, cybernetics machines. But they forgot that an errorless man +is a dead man....</i></div> + + +<p>During its three years' existence, the first Wheel was probably the +subject of more amateur astronomical observations than any other single +object in the heavens. Over three hundred reports came in when a call +was issued for witnesses to the accident that destroyed the space +station.</p> + +<p>It was fortunately on the night side of Earth at the time, and in a +position of bright illumination by the sun. Two of the observers had +movie cameras attached to their ten-inch mirrors. The film in one of +these was inadequate, but the other carried a complete record of the +incident from the moment of the <i>Griseda's</i> first approach, through the +pilot's fumbling attempt to correct course, and the final collision.</p> + +<p>The scene was lost for a few seconds as the wreckage drifted out of the +field. The observer had been watching through a small pilot scope, +however, and had wits enough to pan by hand so that he got most of the +remaining fall that was visible above his horizon as the locked remnants +of the Wheel and the <i>Griseda</i> began their slow, spiral course to Earth.</p> + +<p>By the time this scene was finished, word of the disaster was already +flashing to Government centers. Joe McCauley, radio operator aboard the +Wheel, had been talking with Ed Harris on the <i>Griseda</i>. As a matter of +routine, all their conversation was taped, and some of this was +recovered from the crash and played back at the investigation.</p> + +<p>"—and get this," Ed was saying, "my kid had his fifth birthday just +last week, and I've got him working through quadratic equations already. +You've got to go some to beat that one."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't mean a thing," said Joe. "You know how these infant brain boxes +burn out. Better take him fishing and forget that stuff for a while. +Hey—what the devil's going on? You got a truck driver in the control +room? I just saw you out the port and it looks like you're right on top +of us!"</p> + +<p>"Jeez, I dunno. It's been like that ever since we cleared Lunaport. +Sometimes I think this guy Cummins trained in a truck the way he—Hell, +he's comin' up on the wrong side of the Wheel! I relayed the orders to +go to the east turret. Acknowledged them himself—"</p> + +<p>"Ed! I can see you outside the port—we're going to hit!"</p> + +<p>The words were ripped by the shattering, grinding roar of colliding +metal. Then a moment later the blast of an exploding fuel tank.</p> + +<p>"Ed!"</p> + +<p>"Joe—yeah, I'm here. Lights gone. Emergency power still on. Take the +emergency band if you've still got a rig. I'll stand by—"</p> + +<p>Joe switched over without comment and called Space Command Base on the +emergency channel, which was always monitored. "Wheel just rammed by +<i>Griseda</i>," he said. "Possible loss of orbital velocity. Extent of +damage unknown."</p> + +<p>Lieutenant James, on duty at the Base, had just returned from a three +day leave and was scarcely settled in the routine of his post once more. +He glanced automatically at the radar tracking screen and his face paled +at the sight of the irregular figure there, slightly out of the +centering circle. It was no gag.</p> + +<p>"You're dropping," he said. "Orbital velocity must be down. Can you +correct?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't been able to contact the bridge," said Joe. "Alert all +Command and have crash point computed. Stand by."</p> + +<p>It developed that the bridge was entirely gone, along with a full thirty +percent of the station. Captain West had been spared, however, being on +inspection in the other sector of the station. He came on at once as Joe +McCauley managed to get the communication lines repatched.</p> + +<p>"Emergency red!" he called. "All stations report!"</p> + +<p>One by one, the surviving crew chiefs reported conditions in their +sectors. And when they were finished, they all knew their chance of +survival was microscopic. Captain West ordered: "Communicate with Base. +Request plotting of crash point."</p> + +<p>"Done, sir," Joe answered.</p> + +<p>"Command post will be established in the radio room. Emergency steering +procedure will be started on command. Man all taxi craft."</p> + +<p>It was all on the tapes that were salvaged. Everything was done that +desperate men could humanly do.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At Base, its Commander, General Oglethorpe, was in the communications +and tracking room by the time Joe McCauley had established contact with +Captain West.</p> + +<p>He picked up the mike at the table. "Plug me in to the station," he +commanded the Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>He got Joe first, but the radio operator put Captain West on as soon as +he arrived in the radio room. "Hello, Frank," said General Oglethorpe in +a quiet voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jack—" Captain West answered. "I'm glad you're there. Does it +look pretty bad?"</p> + +<p>"Orbital velocity is down two percent. You've been falling for eight +minutes."</p> + +<p>"That's pretty bad. I've got all steering stations manned, but only +thirty percent of them are still operable. We're using the taxis to give +a push too. But we haven't been able to dislodge the <i>Griseda</i>. Its +inertia takes almost half our available energy."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you get a blast from the <i>Griseda's</i> tubes to put you in +orbit?"</p> + +<p>"Adler's got a crew out there working on it. But his controls are gone, +besides his fuel tanks being opened. And even if we could get their +rockets operating it's doubtful we could get the right direction of +thrust. Our hope is in our own rockets, and in breaking the ship away +from the station."</p> + +<p>But the closer the massed wreckage dropped toward Earth, the higher were +its requirements for orbital velocity. While the crews worked at their +desperate tasks General Oglethorpe sat with his eyes on the tracking +scope, and the voice of his friend in his ear. He listened to Captain +West's measured commands to the men in the station and to those working +to free the ship. General Oglethorpe heard the repeated reports of +failure to free the <i>Griseda</i>. He listened to West's orders to transfer +fuel from the ship to the station as the latter's supply ran low. He +watched the continued deviation of the spot on the tracking scope.</p> + +<p>Then he turned as a lieutenant came up behind him with a sheet of +calculations. "Present rate of fall indicates a crash point in the San +Francisco Bay region, sir."</p> + +<p>The General gripped the paper, his face tightening. West said, "Did I +hear correctly, Jack? The San Francisco area?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to try to keep it from happening there. I'll order the +rockets shut off now. We'll save enough fuel to try to do some last +minute steering as we approach Earth."</p> + +<p>"No!" General Oglethorpe cried. "Use it now! Its effect will be the same +as later. Blow the chambers apart! Get back in orbit!"</p> + +<p>"We can't make it," West said quietly. "We've gained forward velocity, +but I'll bet your computers will show us better than four percent below +requirements at this orbit. Spot our crash as accurately as possible on +free fall from our present position. We'll save remaining fuel for last +minute steering in case we're near a city."</p> + +<p>The General was silent then as he heard the responses come back from the +men who manned the rockets and who knew that with the closing of their +fuel valves their own lives had also come to an end.</p> + +<p>"We'll want testimony account for the investigation," Oglethorpe said +finally. "Get the responsible officers on the circuit—but you first, +Frank—"</p> + +<p>There was a moment of silence before Captain Frank West began speaking +in changed tones. "What is there to say?" he asked, finally. "You won't +need to hold an investigation. I can tell you all you need to know—all +you'll ever find out at least,—right now. Your decision will be the +same one so many hundreds and thousands of investigating boards have +made in the past: Pilot Error.</p> + +<p>"<i>Human</i> error! That's what killed the first Wheel, and the <i>Griseda</i>. I +don't know why it happened. Adler doesn't. Neither does any other man up +here with us. Those who were with Cummins in the control room are dead, +but they didn't know any more than we do.</p> + +<p>"We spent a million dollars training that man, Cummins. We believed he +was the best we could produce. We measured his reflexes and his +intelligence and his blood composition until we thought we knew the +function and capability of every molecule in his body. And then, in just +one split second, he makes the decision of a moron, fumbling when he +needed to be precise."</p> + +<p>"Just what did he do?" Oglethorpe asked gently.</p> + +<p>"Our customary approach is to the west turret. This time he had been +ordered to go to the east side because of repairs on the other end of +the hub. Cummins had seen and acknowledged the orders. Apparently, they +slipped his mind during approach to the Wheel and he came up on the west +side. Then he remembered and tried to correct his position.</p> + +<p>"Everything must have gone wrong then. The decision was a blunder to +begin with. Wrong approach, yes. But it was suicide to attempt such a +detailed maneuver that close to the station. He used his side jets and +slammed the <i>Griseda</i> into the Wheel at a forty-five degree angle, +locking the ship in the wreckage of the rim and in the girders of the +spokes."</p> + +<p>"Was there any previous indication of instability in the pilot that you +know of? We'll get a better answer on that from Adler, but we need to +know if you were aware of anything."</p> + +<p>"The answer is no! Cummins was checked out before the start of the +flight just three days ago. He was all right as far as any of our means +of evaluation go. As right as any man will ever be—</p> + +<p>"Jack, listen to me. Remember when we were back at White Sands and +talked of the days when there would be a Wheel up here, and ships taking +off for the Moon and for Mars?"</p> + +<p>"I remember," said General Oglethorpe softly.</p> + +<p>"Well, we've got a piece of that dream. But there'll never be any more, +and what we've got is going to go smash unless we correct the one +weakness we've never tackled properly. You'll fail again and again as +long as men like Cummins can destroy twenty years' work and billions of +dollars worth of engineering construction. One man's stupid, moronic +error, and all of this goes to destruction, just as if it had never +been.</p> + +<p>"On the ground, a plane crashes—the board puts it down as pilot error +and planes go on flying. You can't do that out here! The cost is too +great. It's a sheer gamble putting this mountain of machinery and effort +into the hands of men we can never be sure of. You think you know them; +you do everything possible to find out about them. But you just don't +<i>know</i>.</p> + +<p>"We've solved every other technical problem that has stood in our way. +Why haven't we solved this one? We've learned how to make a machine that +will perform in a predictable manner, and when it fails to do so we can +provide adequate feedback alarms and correctors, and we can find the +cause of error.</p> + +<p>"With a man, we can do nothing. We have to accept him, in the final +analysis, on little more than faith.</p> + +<p>"A couple of hundred men are going to die because of a human error. Give +us a monument! Find out why men make errors. Produce a means of keeping +them from it. Do that, and our deaths will be a small price to pay!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>These were the words of a dead man. They were heard again and again in +the committee rooms and investigation chambers. They were printed and +broadcast around the world, and they enabled General Oglethorpe to do +the thing that became a burning crusade with him.</p> + +<p>He would probably have failed in his effort if those words hadn't been +spoken by a dying man while a shrieking, white-hot mass plunged through +the atmosphere to land, finally, in the waters of the Pacific.</p> + +<p>The wreckage missed the city of San Francisco without the necessity of +guidance by the rocket fuel so preciously hoarded by West. The Wheel and +the <i>Griseda</i> were doomed the moment the pilot, Cummins, decided to +shift the position of the ship with respect to the station.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In the anteroom of the Base Commander's office, Dr. Paul Medick rubbed +the palms of his hands against his trouser legs when the secretary +wasn't watching, and licked the dryness that burned the membrane of his +lips.</p> + +<p>The secretary remembered him. She probably had been the one to make out +his severance papers and knew all about Oglethorpe's firing him.</p> + +<p>Now she was no doubt wondering about the General's calling him back +after that bitter occasion—just as Paul himself was wondering.</p> + +<p>But he was pretty sure he knew. If he were right it was the opportunity +of a lifetime, and he couldn't afford to muff it.</p> + +<p>The girl turned at the sound of a buzz on the intercom. She smiled and +said, "You may go in now."</p> + +<p>"Thanks." He stood up and told his nerves to quit remembering the last +time he passed through the door he was now entering. General Oglethorpe +was nobody but the Base Commander, and if Paul Medick got thrown out +once more he would be no worse off than he now was.</p> + +<p>Oglethorpe looked up, a grim trace of a smile at the corners of his +mouth. He shook hands and indicated a chair by the desk, resuming his +own seat behind it. "You know why I called you—in spite of our past +differences."</p> + +<p>Paul hesitated. He didn't want to show his anxiety—and hopefulness—He +weighed the answers that might be expected of him, and said, "It's this +crash thing—and the appeal of Captain West?"</p> + +<p>"Would there be anything else?"</p> + +<p>"I'm flattered that you thought of me."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing personal involved, believe me! I'd a thousand times +rather have called somebody else—anybody else—but there's nobody that +can do the job you can."</p> + +<p>"Thanks."</p> + +<p>"Don't bother thanking me. I expect there'll still be a great deal of +difference between us about the basic goals of this project. But once we +start I don't want to have to fire you again."</p> + +<p>"Just what is the nature of this project," said Paul, "its goals? Fill +me in on the details."</p> + +<p>"There are no details—beyond what you've read and heard—you're going +to provide them. The objective is to find a kind of man that will keep +the Frank Wests of the future from dying, as those men aboard the Wheel +did."</p> + +<p>"What kind of man do you expect that to be?" Paul asked.</p> + +<p>"One who will eliminate, for all time, the damning verdict that has been +handed down in tens of thousands of investigations of accident and +disaster: <i>human error</i>.</p> + +<p>"We're going to find a kind of man who can be depended on to function +without error. One who can undertake a complicated task of known +procedure and perform it an infinite number of times, if necessary, +without a single deviation from standard."</p> + +<p>Paul Medick regarded the General through narrowed eyes. In spite of his +almost agonizing desire to possess the appointment to head up this +Project he had to have a clear understanding with Oglethorpe now. He had +to risk his chances, if necessary, to make himself absolutely clear.</p> + +<p>He said, "For untold thousands of years the human race has spent its +best efforts to reach the goal of perfection without achieving it. Now +you propose to assemble all the money in the world, and all the brains +and say: give us a perfect man! The United States Space Command demands +him!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly." General Oglethorpe's face hardened as he returned Paul's +steady gaze. "No other technical problem has been able to stand before +such an attack. There is no reason why this one should. And the problem +<i>must</i> be solved, or we're going to have to abandon space just as we +stand on the frontier, getting our first real glimpse of it."</p> + +<p>"Your world is such a simple, uncomplicated place, General," said Paul +slowly. "You want a man with two heads, four arms, and a tail? Order it! +Coming up!</p> + +<p>"That's the way you operated when I set up your basic personnel program +five years ago. It didn't work then; it won't work now."</p> + +<p>The General's face darkened. "It <i>will</i> work. Because it has to. Men are +going to the stars—because they have to. And they're going to change +themselves to whatever form or shape or ability is required by that +goal. They've done everything else they've ever set themselves to +do—life came up out of the sea because it had courage. Men left their +caves and struck out across the plains and seas, and took up the whole +Earth and made it what it is—because they had courage.</p> + +<p>"But to go to space, courage is not enough. We need a new kind of man +that we've never seen before. He's a man of iron, who's forgotten he was +ever flesh and blood. He's a machine, who can perform over and over the +same kind of complicated procedure and never make an error. He's more +reliable and endurable than the best machines we've ever made.</p> + +<p>"I don't know where we'll find him, but he can be found, and you <i>will</i> +do it, because you believe, as I do, that Man's frontier must not be +closed. And because, in spite of your cynicism, you still understand the +meaning of duty to your society and your race. There is no possibility +of your refusal, so I have taken steps already to make your appointment +official."</p> + +<p>"You must also have prepared yourself," said Paul, "to accept me with +the basic philosophy that must guide me in this matter. And my +philosophy is that this Project <i>must</i> fail. It has no possibility of +success. The man you seek does not exist. An errorless man would be a +dead man.</p> + +<p>"Any living man is going to make errors. That's the process of learning: +make an approach, correct for error, approach again, correct once more. +It's the only way there is to learn."</p> + +<p>The General inhaled deeply and hesitated. "I know nothing about that," +he said finally. "You know what I want. Even if what you say were +partially true, there remains no reason why that which has been learned +cannot be performed without error. I may have to put up with it, but +you'll save yourself and all of us a lot of time if you don't spend +three months digging up reasons why the Project can't succeed."</p> + +<p>He stood up as if everything had been said that could possibly be said. +"Let's go and have a look at your laboratory quarters."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In the hot sunlight of the Southwest desert, they walked across the yard +from the administration building to a large laboratory which had been +cleared to the bare floor and walls. Paul felt a sense of instability +returning. But only for an instant. He'd all but insulted the General +and told him he had no intention of producing the iron superman the +Space Command contemplated. And still he had not been thrown out. They +must want him very badly, indeed!</p> + +<p>He had no qualms of conscience about taking the post now. General +Oglethorpe had been forewarned and knew what Paul Medick's hopes and +intentions were.</p> + +<p>"You can build your staff as big as you need it," the General was +saying. "This Project has crash priority over everything else. We've got +the machines to go to space. The machines need the men.</p> + +<p>"You can have anybody you want and do anything you like to them. We hope +you can put them back together again in reasonable shape, but that +doesn't matter too much."</p> + +<p>Paul turned about the bare room that would serve adequately as office +space. "All right," he said. "Consider Project Superman begun. Remember, +I have no hope of finding a solution in an errorless human being. I'll +find whatever answer there is to be found. If you have any objections to +my working of those terms, say so now. I don't intend to get fired again +with a Project in the middle of its course."</p> + +<p>"You won't be. You'll find the way to give us what we need. I want you +to come down to the other end of the building and meet a man who will be +working closely with you."</p> + +<p>There had been sounds of activity in the distance, and General +Oglethorpe led Paul towards them. They entered a large area in which +instrumental equipment was being set up. A tall, thin, dark-haired man +came up as they entered.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Nat Holt," said the General, "instrument and electronics expert. +This is Dr. Medick, the country's foremost man in psychology and +psychometric analysis.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Holt will be your instrument man. He will design and build whatever +special equipment your researches call for. Let me know soon what you'll +need in the way of furniture and assistants."</p> + +<p>He left them standing in the nearly bare room. Through the window they +watched his stiff form march back to his own office.</p> + +<p>Nat Holt shifted position and grinned at Paul. "I may as well tell you +that the General has briefed me thoroughly on what he considered your +probable reaction to the Project. I'm just curious enough to want to +know if he was right."</p> + +<p>"The General and I understand each other—I think," said Paul. "He knows +I'm contemptuous of his approach to a problem of human behavior by +ordering it solved. But he knows I'll take his money and spend it on the +biggest, deepest investigation of human behavior via psychometrical +analysis that has ever been conducted."</p> + +<p>"It ought to be enough to buy gold fringed couches for all the analysts +in the country."</p> + +<p>Paul raised his brows. "If it's that way with you, then why are you +joining me?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Because I have a stake in this, too! I want to see the problem solved +just as much as the General does. And I think it <i>can</i> be solved. But +not this way!</p> + +<p>"There's only one way to produce men of superior abilities. The method +of adequate training. Hard, brutal discipline and training of oneself. +I'm going to convince Oglethorpe of it after he's seen the failure you +intend to produce for him."</p> + +<p>"That shouldn't be hard," said Paul. "It's the General's own view. The +Project is simply to implement that view.</p> + +<p>"But let's not have any misunderstanding about my intentions. I expect +to give honest value in research for every dollar spent. I expect to +turn up data that will go a long way toward providing better spacemen +for the Command—and to give Captain West the monument he asked for!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Alone in his hotel room that night, Paul stood at the window overlooking +the desert. Beyond the distant hills a faint glow in the sky marked the +location of Space Command Base. He regarded it, and considered the +enormity of the thing that was being brewed for the world in that +isolated outpost. Now the chance was his to prove that manhood was a +quality to be proud of, that machines could be built and junked and +built again, but that a man's life was unique in the universe and could +never be replaced once it was crushed.</p> + +<p>For years he'd struggled to probe the basic nature of Man and find out +what divorces him from the merely mechanical. He'd known there would +probably never be enough money to reach his goal. And then Oglethorpe +had come, offering him all the money in the world to reach a nebulous +objective that Space Command did not know was unobtainable.</p> + +<p><i>Somebody</i> was going to spend that money. With clear conscience, Paul +rationalized that it might as well be him. He'd see that the country got +value for what it spent, even if this was not quite what the Space +Command expected.</p> + +<p>Nat Holt was going to be a most difficult obstacle. Paul wished the +General had let him pick his own technical director, but obviously the +two men understood each other. In their separate fields, they were alike +in their approach to human performance. Whip a man into line, make him +come to heel like a reluctant hound. Beat him, shape him, twist him to +the form you want him to bear.</p> + +<p><i>Discipline</i> him. That was the magic word, the answer to all things.</p> + +<p>Paul turned from the window in revulsion, drawing the curtains on the +skyglow of the Base.</p> + +<p>Human error!</p> + +<p>When would Man cease to indulge in this most monumental of all errors? +When would he cease to regard himself and his fellows as brute creatures +to be beaten into line?</p> + +<p>He had to find the right answer before Oglethorpe and his kind found +some flimsy validation for the one they had already chosen long ago.</p> + +<p>He stood up and glanced at the clock, deciding he wanted dinner, after +all. Tomorrow he'd wire Betty and the kids to get packed and be on their +way. No—he'd phone tonight. She had a right to know immediately the +outcome of his interview.</p> + +<p>The dining room was almost empty. He ordered absently and clipped the +speaker of his small personal radio behind his ear while waiting. He +seldom used it, but here in the desert was a sense of isolation that +made him seize almost compulsively upon any contact with the bright, +distant world. The music was dull, and the news uninspiring. He was +about to turn it off when his order arrived.</p> + +<p>The wine was very bad; the steak, however, was good, so Paul considered +it about even. His finger touched the radio switch once more. The +newscaster's voice changed its tone of pounding urgency. "Repercussions +of the recent crash of the world's first space station are still being +heard," he said. "Murmurs of protest against construction of a new Wheel +are rising in many quarters. Today they approach the proportions of a +roar.</p> + +<p>"The influential New England Times states that it is 'unqualifiedly +opposed' to any restoration of the Wheel. 'In its three years' existence +the structure proved beyond any question of doubt its utter lack of +utility. Now its fall to Earth demonstrates the menace constituted by +its presence over every city on the face of the globe.'</p> + +<p>"Senator Elbert echoes these sentiments. 'It was utter folly in the +first place to spend billions of dollars to construct this Sword of +Damocles in the sky of all the world. I propose that our Government go +on record denying any further intention to rebuild such a threat to the +peace and well-being of nations who stand now on the threshold of +understanding and friendliness which they have sought for so long.'"</p> + +<p>Paul switched it off. He remembered the hours of world-wide tension +while the Wheel was falling toward the city of San Francisco. In panic, +the whole population of the Bay Area attempted evacuation, but there +wasn't time. The bridges became clogged with traffic, and some +hysterical drivers left their cars and jumped to the waters below.</p> + +<p>As the wreckage neared Earth, the computers narrowed their circle of +error until it was certain at last that the city would not be struck. +But the damage was done. The fear remained, and now was congealing in +angry determination that another Wheel would not be built.</p> + +<p>Paul finished his meal, wondering what effect this would have on the +plans to build a new Wheel—and on Project Superman. Maybe Congress +would react in anger that would cut off all appropriations to the +Project.</p> + +<p>He wondered, in sudden weariness, if this would not be an unmixed +blessing, after all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The next three days were spent in telephone and telegraph communication +with members of his profession as he proceeded to recruit a staff.</p> + +<p>On Friday, Betty arrived with the kids. By the end of the following +week, laboratory furniture had been installed and the first trickle of +potential staff members was coming in to see what Superman was all +about. Nat, too, had been busy forming his own staff and setting up +basic equipment.</p> + +<p>Paul had the feeling that they were opposing camps setting up on the +same site of exploration. He tried to tell himself it was completely +irrational, until Nat approached him a few days later.</p> + +<p>"Quite a crew you're getting in here," the technician said. "You'll have +to take Oglethorpe up on his offer of new buildings if you expect to +find couch space for all your boys."</p> + +<p>"That's what you're here for," Paul suggested mildly, "to do away with +couches."</p> + +<p>"Right." Nat nodded. "Anything a couch can do, a meter can do twice as +efficiently."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes both are necessary. You forget my specialty is psychometry."</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not forgetting," said Nat. "But that's what makes it so hard +for me to figure out. You're attempting to span two completely +incompatible fields: science and humanities. Man behaves either as a +machine or as a creature of unstable emotion. To function as one you +have to suppress the other."</p> + +<p>"Splitting Man in two has never produced an answer to anything. It has +been tried even longer than couches—and with far less result."</p> + +<p>"I'll make you a small side bet. We're going to have to work together on +Superman, and coordinate all our procedures and results. But I'll bet +the final answer turns up on the side of a completely mechanistic man, +shorn of all other responses and motivations."</p> + +<p>"I'll take that!" Paul said with a grim smile. "I don't know how much of +an answer we'll find, but I know <i>that</i> won't be it!"</p> + +<p>"Let's say a small celebration feed for the whole crew when Superman is +completed. Nothing chintzy, either!"</p> + +<p>They shook on it. And afterward Paul was glad the incident had occurred. +It left no doubt about the direction Nat Holt would be traveling in his +work.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Four weeks to the day, from the time Paul had stepped into Oglethorpe's +office, he called the first meeting of his staff leaders. Invitations to +the General and to Nat Holt were deliberately omitted. He wanted this +first get together to be a family affair.</p> + +<p>He felt just a little shaky in the knees as he got up before that group +for the first time.</p> + +<p>"I won't repeat what you already know," Paul said carefully. "You all +know the background events that produced Project Superman.</p> + +<p>"I am sure that each of you has also caught the two basic errors that +have been assumed by the Space Command, first, that an errorless man is +possible, and second, that genuine scientific discovery can be secured +wholly upon command. General Oglethorpe recognizes that we consider +these assumptions erroneous, but he also knows that our professional +integrity demands that we pursue vigorously a course which he believes +will result in success.</p> + +<p>"We recognize, too, that we are not here to invent or produce anything +that does not already exist. But, in a sense, our superiors and some of +our co-workers expect us to do exactly that.</p> + +<p>"We can agree, however, that most of Man's potential still remains to be +discovered. And for us, who have hoped for a means of understanding that +potential, this Project is the fulfillment of dreams. If we fail to take +full advantage of it, we will win the condemnation of our profession for +a century to come.</p> + +<p>"Space Command has already concluded that a man can be stripped of his +humanity and driven to an utterly mechanistic state with the robotic +responses of a machine. Let there be no mistake about it: we have been +brought here to validate that conclusion.</p> + +<p>"We will validate it by default, so to speak, unless we can produce a +clean-cut analysis and demonstrations of the thing that most of us +believe: that the essence of Man is more than a piece of machinery or a +collection of bio-chemical reactions.</p> + +<p>"Our science of mind and Man is on trial. If we fail, we give consent to +a doctrine that will spread from space technology to all the rest of our +society, and bind Man in an iron mold that will not be broken for +generations. While we have been hired and will ostensibly work at the +task of developing an errorless man, our basic purpose must be to +validate the humanity of Man!"</p> + +<p>He waited for their reaction. Outside, far across the open desert at the +station, a rocket screamed into the air. They waited until the sound +died away.</p> + +<p>Professor Barker stood up. "There is scarcely a human being who has not +by now read or heard the words of Captain West's appeal. They will be +looking for the day when there will come marching from our laboratories, +like a robot, the errorless man he asked for.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean we have to fight the stated objectives of this Project? Can +we not discover sufficient understanding to establish some method of +training which will accomplish, in another way, the things the Space +Command needs?"</p> + +<p>"We are not fighting the Space Command's desire for more adequate men +for its ships," said Paul. "We are fighting only against the false +conclusions they have already formed concerning the nature of such men.</p> + +<p>"We must solve the problem of human error. We know its purpose in the +learning process. We must discover the reason for its existence in a +<i>learned</i> process. We have to find out what training actually means.</p> + +<p>"We have to ask how we know when an error has been made. It is obvious, +of course, when a spaceship rams a fixed orbit station. But what of the +subtler situations, where results are less dramatic, or are postponed +for a long time—?</p> + +<p>"The primary thing to remember at this point is that our basic goal is +to prevent any false confirmation of the dogma that Man is no more than +a badly functioning machine, which will gain value when he has been +tinkered with sufficiently so that he can slip in beside the gears and +vacuum tubes and be indistinguishable from them. And to reach this goal +we must discover his true nature."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was two weeks later that General Oglethorpe made his first visit +since Superman got under way. The soldier's face seemed more deeply +lined and his eyes more tired than Paul remembered seeing them before.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have things well in hand," he said. "How soon can you give +us some tangible results?"</p> + +<p>"Results! We've just started housekeeping. In a year, maybe two, we'll +have an idea where to begin a concentrated search for what you want to +know."</p> + +<p>The General shook his head slowly, his eyes remaining on Paul's face. +"You aren't going to have anything like a year. You haven't got time to +run down one line of research and then another. Run them all at once—a +thousand of them if you want to. Why do you think you've got the budget +you have!"</p> + +<p>"Some things," said Paul, "like threading a needle—or analysing a human +being—don't go much faster when a thousand men work at it than when +there's only one."</p> + +<p>"They do when there're a thousand needles to thread—or brains to pick. +And that's what we're up against here. We need a volume of the kind of +men we've been talking about, and we need them quick!"</p> + +<p>"We have to find out how to get the first one."</p> + +<p>"And you haven't got as much time now as we thought you had when +Superman began. They're trying to close us up.</p> + +<p>"We hadn't planned to build another Wheel right away, not until some +refinements of design had been worked out, and we had some results from +Superman.</p> + +<p>"Now, all that's been scrapped. We've received orders from Washington +that erection of a second Wheel is to begin at once, using the plans of +the first one. Fabrication of structures is already under way."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," said Paul.</p> + +<p>"If we don't get another one up there within a matter of weeks, this +hysterical opposition among the public is liable to prevent us ever +getting one there again. We have to act while we still have authority, +before the crackpots persuade Congress to take it away. And by the time +it's built, I want some men to put in it. Men who can be trusted to not +jeopardize it the moment they put their clumsy feet aboard. I want them, +Medick, and I intend to have them. That's by way of an order!"</p> + +<p>The General rose, but Paul remained seated. "You can't get them that +way, and you know it," the latter said. "We'll do all we can, as I've +told you before."</p> + +<p>"I think you'll do considerably more, now. That was quite a talk you +delivered to your boys a couple of weeks ago. We will 'ostensibly work +at the task of developing an errorless man', is the way I believe you +put it. You're going to do a lot more than ostensibly work at it, +Medick. Just how much do you think you can get away with?"</p> + +<p>Paul remained motionless in the chair. Only his lips moved. "So you had +a report on our little meeting? I hope it was complete enough to give +you the rest of the things I said, that my basic purpose was not to +produce human robots, but to validate the humanity of man."</p> + +<p>Oglethorpe leaned closer, his fists resting on the top of the desk. "The +humanity of man be damned! I told you before we want men who've +forgotten they were ever human, men of metal and electrons. If I didn't +think you were the man who could do it—probably the <i>only</i> man in the +whole country—you wouldn't last here another minute. But you <i>can</i> do +it, and you're going to.</p> + +<p>"Your little lecture was enough to ruin your career in any place you try +to run to, if you undermine Superman. Who do you suppose would trust you +with any kind of research after that expression of intent to sabotage +the Project your Government entrusted you with, and which you agreed to +carry out?</p> + +<p>"You're finished, Medick, washed up completely in your own profession, +unless you give me what I've asked for! I won't take promises any more. +The only assurance you can give me from here on out is results! I want +those men, and I want them damn fast!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Professor Barker listened attentively as Paul sat across from him in the +administration office and reported Oglethorpe's visit and demands.</p> + +<p>"We're caught in a squeeze, and we've got to push both ways," Paul said. +"If the Base goes down, Superman goes with it, and we've lost an +opportunity that will never come again in our lifetimes. So we've got to +do two things: We've got to give active support to the rebuilding of the +Wheel, and we've got to develop some kind of show that will convince +Oglethorpe that Superman is giving him what he wants. It will mean +detouring our basic objectives, but it's necessary in order to have a +project at all. I'd like you to take charge of it."</p> + +<p>"It'll be a waste of time," Barker said slowly. "I wonder if we'll ever +get back on the track."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to gamble on it," said Paul. "I don't want you to feel I'm +deliberately pushing you up a blind alley, but I think you're the best +man for bringing up something we can sell Oglethorpe—while we try to do +some real research on some honest goals."</p> + +<p>"We can follow the usual lines of so-called training—brute conditioning +through shock and fear and pain and discomfort. Most of the men here are +already well anaesthetized in that respect. Their breakdown level is +high."</p> + +<p>"Cummins' was the highest," said Paul, "and he cracked. But work along +those lines anyway. Maybe we can find a way to thicken the conditioning +armor. At the same time let's push a genuine investigation into the +nature of error as hard as we can. For the moment we'll forget broader +objectives, until we know the Project is safe."</p> + +<p>Barker agreed reluctantly, feeling that they would end up as mere +personnel counselors before long. As soon as he left, Paul called +Oglethorpe.</p> + +<p>"I've got a suggestion," he said. "Let's not get on the defensive about +this thing. Why don't you propose a Senatorial investigation of Space +Command?"</p> + +<p>"Are you crazy? Why would we want to have them come out here and pick +our bones to pieces before making final burial?"</p> + +<p>"We've got a story to tell them—remember? We've got Superman, that's +going to produce for the first time in the world's history a man +adequate to go into the dangers of space. And there's that little story +of yours about courage. I think that would go over with them. We'd be +out in front if we took the initiative in this instead of just waiting +until it rolled over us."</p> + +<p>There was a long pause before Oglethorpe spoke again. "I wonder just +what you're trying to do," he said finally. "I know you don't mean a +word of what you're saying at all—"</p> + +<p>"But I do mean it," Paul said earnestly. "I want Superman saved; you +want the Wheel. It amounts to the same thing."</p> + +<p>"You could be right. You might even be telling the truth. I'll give it +some thought."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The officer in charge of the rocket crews and the take-off stand was a +young engineer-soldier named Harper. Paul had met him during the first +week at Base. His endorsement of Project Superman was enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>After talking with Oglethorpe, Paul took a jeep over to the stand and +located Harper. The engineer was overseeing the fueling process on a big +rocket.</p> + +<p>"Doc Medick!" Harper exclaimed. "How's your crew of head shrinkers +coming along? We're just about ready for your new breed of pilots."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"This is the nucleus ship. She's going out in orbit tonight with the +first batch of supplies and instruments to get ready for the new Wheel. +We're going to need your men awfully fast."</p> + +<p>"That's what I came to talk about. Can you spare a few minutes?"</p> + +<p>"Sure." Harper led him to the office, where the whining of fueling pumps +was silenced. "What can we do for you?"</p> + +<p>"I wanted to ask about Cummins. You knew him pretty well, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Buddies. Just like that." Harper crossed his fingers.</p> + +<p>"What went wrong, do you think? I know it's all been hashed over in the +investigations, but I'd like your personal feelings about him."</p> + +<p>Harper's face sobered and he looked away a moment. "Cummins was as good +a guy as they come," he said. "But in a pinch he was just a weak sister. +That doesn't mean he didn't have a lot on the ball," Harper added +defensively. "He was a better pilot than most of us ever will be, but he +was just human like the rest of us."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, 'human'?"</p> + +<p>"Weak, soft, failure when the going gets rough—everything we have to be +on guard against every minute we're alive."</p> + +<p>"I take it you don't think much of human beings, as such."</p> + +<p>Harper leaned forward earnestly. "Listen, Doc, when you've been around +ships as long as I have, you'll know what Captain West really meant. The +weakest link in any technological development has always been the men +involved with its operation. In space flight our weakness is pilots and +technicians. Set a machine on course and it'll go until it breaks +down—and flash you a warning before it fails. With a man, you never +know when he's going to fail, and you have to be on guard against <i>his</i> +breakdown every minute because he won't give any warning.</p> + +<p>"Think what it's like to be in our shoes! We take the controls of a few +hundred million dollars worth of machinery, and we know that every last +man of us is booby-trapped with some weakness that can break out in a +critical moment and destroy everything. We fight against it; we struggle +to hold it in and act like responsible instruments. And we grow to hate +ourselves because of the weak things that we are.</p> + +<p>"Cummins was like that. He fought himself every waking hour, knowing +that he had a weakness of becoming confused in a tight spot. Oh, it was +nothing that even showed up on the tests, and he was the best man of any +of us on the Base. But he knew it was there, just as we all know our +closets bulge with skeletons that we try to keep from breaking out."</p> + +<p>"Do you fight yourself the way Cummins did?" Paul asked.</p> + +<p>"Sure."</p> + +<p>"What would happen if you pulled a blunder that wrecked that ship out +there on the stand."</p> + +<p>"I'd have had it, that's all. I'd never get within ten miles of a rocket +base again as long as I lived. And there wouldn't be much worth living +for—"</p> + +<p>"It would be pretty wonderful to feel you weren't constantly on the +verge of some disastrous blunder, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It would be a rocket man's idea of heaven to handle these ships with +that kind of a feeling inside him."</p> + +<p>"We're about ready to begin running tests on Superman, and I'd like you +to be the first to help us out. Can you arrange it?"</p> + +<p>"We're tied up like a ball of string on getting the nucleus ship in +orbit. I know Oglethorpe gave orders we were to jump when you called, +but I'll have to check on replacements for those of us you take. What +kind of test are you going to run on me?"</p> + +<p>"I want to find out how long it takes you to make a serious error, and +what happens to you when you do!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Arrangements were made for initiating this series of tests two days +later. Paul had designed them, and Nat Holt's crew had built the +equipment.</p> + +<p>But before they were started, Paul grew increasingly aware of the clamor +and public agitation against the Wheel. Instead of dying out after a +small spurt of anger, it was accumulating momentum in every corner of +the nation.</p> + +<p>A rabble rouser named Morgan in the middle-west had proposed a motor +caravan to Space Command Base, where the participants would go on a +sit-down strike until assurance was given that no Wheel would be built +again. And on the heels of this came the demand by an increasing number +of Senators for a full investigation of the Base.</p> + +<p>Paul met Barker after seeing the newscast of Morgan's revivalist type +appeal for a caravan of protest against the Base. "This looks like it +could get to be something that would be hard to handle," Barker said. +"It doesn't seem reasonable that the near-crash of the first Wheel at +San Francisco could be responsible for all this commotion."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it is," Paul answered reflectively. "The sinking of a big +ocean liner doesn't produce hysterical demands that no more ships be +built. The crash of an airship with a hundred people aboard is accepted +for what it is, without this kind of reaction. I think these broadcasts +and write-ups of Captain West's appeal have sunk in deeper than +Oglethorpe or anyone else ever intended.</p> + +<p>"For a long time there has been building up a sense of man's inferiority +to his machines. Now this incident of the Wheel and the world-wide +broadcast of West's final words have triggered that inferiority into a +genuine fear. They're afraid to have another Wheel up there over their +heads. They're afraid that no man is capable of mastering such a piece +of machinery."</p> + +<p>Not only the public was infected with this fear, but the very men on +whom the operation of the ships depended. Harper was right, Paul +thought, as he reached his own office again. It must be terrible to be +in their shoes, fighting constantly the conviction that they were poor +miserable creatures hardly fit to polish the shining hulls of their +creations!</p> + +<p>They were trained in the best of military traditions, crushing their +weaknesses by sheer force. And they had concluded their own breakdown +was inevitable, in spite of their training and traditions. How could +such men even hope for the stars!</p> + +<p>But where was the flaw in it all? If the answer was not in men who were +more nearly like their own machines, where was it?</p> + +<p>They needed a year or two to even approach the problem properly, and +some kind of answer was demanded within weeks!</p> + +<p>Oglethorpe came to the laboratory the morning Harper was to begin his +test runs. "We're going on a complete crash-priority basis, with +round-the-clock shifts," he said. "It's been a toss-up whether to close +Superman and put everything we had on the new Wheel, or leave it open in +the hope of getting something out of it.</p> + +<p>"For the time being I'm leaving it open, but remember that every hour +Harper or one of his men spends here is an hour away from the job on the +Wheel.</p> + +<p>"We didn't need your suggestion about an investigation. Plenty of other +people thought of it first. The Senators will be here in four or five +days. You're going to talk to them. You're going to tell them what you +proposed to tell them."</p> + +<p>"Of course. And what are you going to do about Morgan's cavalcade?"</p> + +<p>Oglethorpe spat out an exclamation. "We'll set up barricades that they'd +better not cross within ten miles of Base!"</p> + +<p>"That won't help," Paul warned. "I think you'd better let me prepare +something for them, too."</p> + +<p>"Forget them! Take care of the Senators and the Project and you'll be +doing enough."</p> + +<p>Harper arrived shortly, nervous in spite of his attempt to appear +composed. But he was put at ease when they took him to the laboratory of +complex testing equipment assembled by Nat Holt.</p> + +<p>Paul indicated a seat in the middle of the mass of equipment. "As near +as we've been able to make it," he said, "this simulates the landing +procedure of a rocket craft. There are a hundred and thirty-five +distinct actions, observations and judgements involved. A taped voice +will lead you through the sequence, asking you to press buttons and make +adjustments to indicate your observations and responses. When you can do +all this to your satisfaction, you will turn off the tape and continue +for as many cycles as you can."</p> + +<p>"How long? A man could do that for a month, provided he didn't have to +sleep."</p> + +<p>"I think you'll be a little surprised. You will continue until your +accumulation of errors becomes so great that the entire procedure +collapses."</p> + +<p>"It still looks like a kid's game to me," Harper said confidently. +"Let's get started."</p> + +<p>Carefully, they fitted the multiple electrodes of the +electro-encephalograph recorder to his skull. The tape instructor was +turned on, and Harper began the first cycle.</p> + +<p>Behind the one-way glass of the observation room, Paul sat with Nat Holt +and Professor Barker and two assistants, watching. The rocket engineer +began jauntily, contemptuous of the simple actions required of him, +impatient to have it over with and get back to his duties at the +take-off stand.</p> + +<p>The instructions coming over the speaker had some variations from the +normal handling of a ship, including the items necessary to record +observations and responses. Harper listened to these for a half dozen +cycles. Then, confident that he could breeze through the procedure for +the rest of the day if he had to, he switched off the tape and settled +back to take it easy.</p> + +<p>One by one, he watched the meters, noted their information, made the +proper adjustments, added compensations, waited for results, checked and +re-checked—</p> + +<p>"He'll go a long time," said Nat Holt confidently. "He's had top +training. If it breaks down, we may find out a few things."</p> + +<p>"Cummins had top-drawer training, too," Paul said. "His break point +seemed to have no adequate antecedents. I don't think we're going to +find Harper holding out very long."</p> + +<p>After an hour, the attitude of contempt had left Harper's face, and he +was proceeding with obvious boredom. He had made no error yet, but there +was evident a faint trace of anxiety as he concentrated on the +instruments and levers.</p> + +<p>At two hours and a half Harper reached for a button and withdrew his +hand in abrupt hesitation. Then it darted out again and pressed +decisively. At three hours he was making two such hesitations every +cycle.</p> + +<p>"Not so good," Barker commented. "Not for a man who battles himself the +way Harper does."</p> + +<p>Nat Holt remained silent, watching critically the wavering dials and +graphs showing the engineer's physical condition and reaction.</p> + +<p>At four and a half hours, Harper's hand reached for a lever in the +center of the board. But it didn't get more than a third of the way. In +mid-air it froze, as if paralysis had suddenly struck it. Harper +regarded it in seeming dumb astonishment. His face grew red, and sweat +broke out upon his forehead as if from the physical exertion of trying +to put his hand to the lever.</p> + +<p>Paul grabbed a microphone and switched it on. "Touch the lever," he +commanded. "Draw it toward you."</p> + +<p>Harper looked around as if in panic, but he completed the motion. He sat +staring at the panels for a full two minutes while alarm eyes went from +green to yellow to red.</p> + +<p>"Alarm red!" Paul exclaimed into the microphone. "Correct course!"</p> + +<p>Harper turned and glared about with hate in his eyes as if to find the +source of the sound. He began tearing at the wires and contacts fastened +to his head and body. "To hell with the course!" he cried. "I'm getting +out of here!"</p> + +<p>He hurled the wiring harness at the panels. Then, he stood in a moment's +further paralysis and slumped finally into the chair. He put his arms +and head down on the instrument desk and began sobbing deeply.</p> + +<p>Paul put away the microphone and moved to the door. "That's the end of +that," he said. "I hope our record is good. Harper might not like to go +through that again."</p> + +<p>Nat Holt was still staring through the window at the sobbing engineer. +"I don't understand," he murmured. "What made him break down like that +for no reason at all?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>One by one, the top engineers of the Base went through the breakdown +test. Some broke down with an emotional storm as Harper had, others +simply ended in a swirl of confusion that put lights flashing all over +the panels. But all of them had a breaking point of some kind that could +be measured in a small number of hours.</p> + +<p>The test was a stab in the dark. It was based on an old and well-known +principle that repeated tactile contact under command will break down +the motor responses of the body in a matter of hours. Paul did not know +whether it would actually provide a fertile lead to the problem of error +or not, but it seemed the closest possible approach at present.</p> + +<p>Nat Holt, however, was astonished at the reaction of the men. He +insisted on trying it himself, determined that he would not break down +no matter what happened. He lasted six hours before the panel lit up +like a Christmas tree.</p> + +<p>He subjected the resulting curves to an analyzer, and to his own he gave +the most detailed attention. At the end of a full week of study on it, +he called Paul with an excitement he could not suppress in his voice.</p> + +<p>"It looks like you owe that dinner," he said. "We've got what we were +looking for!"</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" Paul demanded.</p> + +<p>"We've got proof that a human being is nothing more nor less than a +simple cybernetic gadget. It's a laugh—people trying to build a +mechanical man all these years. That's the only kind there is!"</p> + +<p>"You still aren't making sense."</p> + +<p>"Come on over and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>Puzzled and irritated, Paul left his office and went down to the +analyzer laboratory. There he found Holt and his staff in a buzz of +excitement.</p> + +<p>The multiple recorder sheets were laid out on long tables, being studied +intensely. Paul followed Holt to one series that was separated from the +rest.</p> + +<p>"We didn't know we had anything at first," said Holt. "The pulse was so +low in amplitude that it was hard to pick out of the noise, but the +analyzer showed it was consistently present under certain conditions of +the subject."</p> + +<p>"What conditions?" said Paul.</p> + +<p>"At the exact moment of committing an error! I should say it occurs +between the moment of making the decision to carry out an erroneous act +and the triggering of the motor impulse that executes it."</p> + +<p>Paul frowned. "How can you be sure it doesn't occur at any other time as +well?"</p> + +<p>"Because we've run every set of charts through the analyzer and this +particular impulse comes out no other place."</p> + +<p>"It looks very interesting," Paul said. "But why did you say you've got +proof that a human being is nothing but a cybernetic gadget? I don't see +what this has got to do with it."</p> + +<p>"I didn't give you quite all the story," Holt said smugly. "I should +have said that the pulse occurred every time there was an <i>intent</i> to +perform an error. Sometimes that intent was not carried out."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"That pulse is nothing more nor less than a feedback pulse indicating +that an action matrix has been set up which is in non-conformity with +the previously chosen pattern of learning or intent. It's a feedback +alarm carrying the information that an error will result if the proposed +action is carried out. When the feedback is successfully returned to the +action matrix a change is made until there is no feedback and a correct +action is taken. When the feedback is blocked or ignored, an error +results. It's as simple as that! Your complex human being is nothing but +a fairly elaborate cybernetic machine operating wholly on feedback +principles. The only time he fails and breaks down is when he ceases to +act like the cybernetic machine that he is!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Holt's eyes shone triumphantly as he patted the long strips of paper on +the table. Paul followed the motion of his hand and remained staring at +the graphs in a kind of stunned recognition. There must be some mistake, +there <i>had</i> to be. Holt's interpretation was wrong, even if the data +were correct. Man, a feedback response mechanism—! If that were true a +vacuum tube structure could eventually be devised to do <i>anything</i> a man +could do.</p> + +<p>"I think we'll hold off on that dinner a while yet," Paul said. "The +data are interesting and, I'm sure, important—but I can hardly agree +with your conclusions." Inwardly, he cursed the stiltedness he felt +creeping into his voice, and his irrational resentment of Holt's +continued smug grin.</p> + +<p>"Take all the time you want," Holt said, "but when you're through you'll +come up with the same answers I've got. Man is a machine and nothing +else. Our only job now is to discover why the feedback sometimes fails, +and to set it back on the job."</p> + +<p>Paul took the recordings and the analyzer graphs back to his own office.</p> + +<p>He called Barker and showed the older man what Holt had found out. "If +this is true," he said, "we don't need to worry about validating Space +Command's pre-chosen conclusions. It has already been done."</p> + +<p>Dr. Barker looked puzzled and a little frightened as he sat down at the +desk to examine the charts. After an hour, he looked up. "It's true," he +said. "There's no escaping the fact. Look what we have here—" He +pointed to a corresponding sector of the six charts he'd lined up.</p> + +<p>"After the first feedback impulse, there was no attempt to correct," he +said, "or, rather, there was a deliberate effort to suppress the +feedback. This created a second, larger feedback, which, in turn +resulted in increased suppression and a simultaneous enlargement of the +error. The result was a hunting effect in increasingly large amplitude, +like the needle of an autosyn indicator with undamped positive feedback.</p> + +<p>"Now, here's another one with the opposite effect. In this case the +hunting shows diminishing amplitude as correction of the effort results +from application of the feedback pulses. One pulse is not sufficient, +but they are applied in decreasing force as the intent is brought into +alignment with the learned pattern. A purely mechanical response!"</p> + +<p>Paul turned from the window through which he had been staring toward the +launchers. "Then Space Command is perfectly right," he said bitterly. +"We <i>can</i> give them their errorless, mechanical men—just as soon as we +find ways of correcting the blockage of the feedback pulses!"</p> + +<p>Barker leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his moderate +paunch. "I'm afraid that's right. We've been wrong all along in bucking +the mechanical concept of Man. The technologists saw it long ago in a +sort of intuitive way, but they couldn't prove it. Now, they can!"</p> + +<p>"And the soul of Man is nothing but a feedback impulse!"</p> + +<p>Barker sighed heavily. "What else, Paul?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Morgan's Caravan appeared that evening and camped at the ten-mile limit +imposed by the military police guards. They posted their signs of +protest and began their picket lines. Oglethorpe sent out his sound +trucks to try to scare them away, but they wouldn't scare.</p> + +<p>Paul watched at home the broadcast of the scene, but the fate of the +Base and the Wheel had almost ceased to concern him. He told Betty of +the discovery Holt had made on Superman.</p> + +<p>"It leaves nothing to account for the most valued acts of Man," he said. +"It can't account for creativeness, because a cybernetic device cannot +create; it can only follow a pattern. So where is the poetry, the art, +the scientific invention if this is the essence of Man? It can't be, yet +there's no way of getting around this thing."</p> + +<p>"Where does the pattern come from?" asked Betty. "Isn't that the created +thing which the cybernetic system tries to follow?"</p> + +<p>Paul shook his head. "The pattern we're talking about is no more than a +response to stimuli, a purely mechanical thing also. Holt claims this is +all there ever is, that what we call art, poetry, music inspiration, and +intuition are nothing more than the results of badly functioning +cybernetic systems. The more or less irrational results of errors in +accommodating to the real world. We find pleasure in them because they +tend to excuse our badly malfunctioning circuits.</p> + +<p>"The ideal race of Man would be devoid of all this, a smoothly operating +group of individuals unperturbed by emotional or artistic responses, +completely capable of solving any problem in a purely cybernetic +manner."</p> + +<p>"And do you agree with it?" Betty asked.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing else I can do! The evidence is there." He laughed +shortly and moved to the window where he could see the nearby camp of +Morgan's Caravan. "Human development has moved—is moving—in a +completely different direction from anything I ever dreamed. +Oglethorpe's iron-hard, emotionless machine-men are the only ones who'll +get there. The rest of us who can't match the pace of a technological +society will be shucked off as the waste part in the development of a +species meant to inhabit galaxies instead of a single world."</p> + +<p>"If I had ever wondered how you'd sound when you were completely out of +your mind I'd have the answer now," said Betty.</p> + +<p>In the morning he turned over to one of the units the task of further +identifying and analyzing the feedback impulse they had discovered. In +the middle of this he was called to Oglethorpe's office. The +investigating Senators had arrived.</p> + +<p>They were favorably impressed by the day-long tour that General +Oglethorpe provided for them around the entire Base. But they found in +Paul's announcement the strongest single factor in favor of permitting +Space Command to continue with its work.</p> + +<p>"We know now," he said, "and this is something I haven't even had time +to present to General Oglethorpe—we know that a completely mechanical +man is possible."</p> + +<p>The General's eyes narrowed as Paul's flat statement continued. "We know +that it is possible to have men at the helm of our ships, who are +incapable of error. We have hopes of producing them within a very short +time if Project Superman is allowed to continue. And when this is done, +there is no technical goal we cannot reach."</p> + +<p>This was the thing the Senators had come to find out, and they were +satisfied. "But the public has got to be reassured of this," Senator +Hart said. "We need to get this mob away from your gates for one thing. +The news programs keep them constantly before the public eye and the +whole country is stirred up."</p> + +<p>"We'll take care of it at once," General Oglethorpe said. "As Dr. Medick +has indicated, this discovery is so new that even I had not been +informed of it. Morgan's mob will go away as soon as they hear the news. +And that, in turn, will reassure the entire country. We can arrange for +a broadcast by Dr. Medick to the whole nation."</p> + +<p>Paul was swept along as arrangements were made to make a statement to +Morgan and his group camped outside the Base, to the press, and to the +public in general.</p> + +<p>Oglethorpe cornered him after the meeting with the Committee. "This is +on the level," he said, "not something you cooked up on the spur of the +moment?"</p> + +<p>"It's on the level," said Paul. "You were right all along."</p> + +<p>When he returned to his office an urgent message from Barker awaited +him. He hurried down to the testing laboratory, where the older man +greeted him in excitement and anxiety.</p> + +<p>"It looks like we've got something by the tail and can't let go of it. +Come in and have a look."</p> + +<p>Paul followed him and found Captain Harper in an observation room, +writhing on a cot in a storm of tears and emotional fury. He beat +against the walls and the floor with his fists as his sobbing continued +beyond control.</p> + +<p>"What happened to him?" Paul demanded.</p> + +<p>"We have three others in the same condition," said Barker. "We tried to +determine the effect of a pure feedback impulse, and fed it back to each +of them in amplified form as we found it on their charts. This is what +happened. I'm afraid we may have cost them their sanity, and we don't +know why."</p> + +<p>"How could their own feedback do such a thing to them?" he asked in +wonder. "What part of the chart did you take it from?"</p> + +<p>"We used the impulse that didn't get through, the one that was blocked +so that error resulted. Apparently this is the alternative to error." He +nodded toward the writhing, sobbing man. "Harper reached a point where +he <i>had</i> to fail or else be subject to this psychic storm."</p> + +<p>Paul ran his long, bony fingers through his hair. "This makes less sense +than ever! If that's true, then we've got to take back what we've told +Oglethorpe. His errorless man isn't possible, after all."</p> + +<p>"I don't know." Barker shook his head thoughtfully. "Evidently the +production of error is a protection against the admission of this +intolerable feedback impulse. But the question remains: why is it +intolerable, and why does it become so after numerous other feedback +impulses have been passed?</p> + +<p>"Yesterday we thought we had it all wrapped up. Now it's blown open +wider than ever before!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Oglethorpe's public relations man prepared a statement to the effect +that further danger from pilot error in rocket ships and the second +Wheel could be considered as completely eliminated with the new training +processes that would make men incapable of technical errors.</p> + +<p>Paul knew it was as ineffectual as the average Government release, but +he made no protest in his concern for Harper and the three other men. He +signed the statement automatically.</p> + +<p>He was presented the following day, however, with arrangements to give +it personally to the members of Morgan's Caravan from the top of one of +the sound trucks. He did protest then that any flunky on the Base could +read it to the crowd as well as he. But Oglethorpe insisted he do it +personally.</p> + +<p>With official pompousness the big, olive-green truck rolled out from the +Base. Paul rode beside the driver and Metcalf, the public relations man. +He'd not told Oglethorpe about their latest development. If this psychic +reaction to feedback proved an impenetrable barrier there'd be time +enough to give Space Command the bad news. In the meantime a Wheel would +be built, the public would be mollified, and Superman would continue +on—to what unknown ends Paul didn't know.</p> + +<p>The massed camp of the fanatic followers of Morgan appeared in the +distance like a discarded rag on either side of the road. Then as they +approached it broke into individual knots of sand-scoured, unwashed +people clustered about their tents. Morgan hadn't given much thought to +adequate facilities before leading them out here.</p> + +<p>The truck rolled to a halt in the center of the camp. Morgan himself, a +long, lanky figure in a dusty black suit, came at the head of a group of +his people to meet them. "I hope you have the news we are waiting for," +he said cordially.</p> + +<p>"We have a statement," said Metcalf. "Dr. Medick here, who has made an +important discovery that will enable all of you to return to your homes, +will read it to you."</p> + +<p>Paul could have stayed in the cab, but he preferred to climb to the +platform atop the truck to get a look at the crowd Morgan had assembled. +He hesitated a moment with the paper in his hands, then took up the mike +and read the statement Metcalf had prepared. "The United States Space +Command wishes to announce that—"</p> + +<p>It fell utterly flat on completely non-understanding ears. Paul looked +over the mass of faces and knew it had failed. Something far more than +this was needed. A little feedback, he thought grimly. A little feedback +of the idiocy of their present situation to correct their course and +return it to normalcy.</p> + +<p>"Five hundred years ago there might have been a crowd of people just +like you," he said suddenly in low tones. "There was a harbor, and some +small ships, and a man who believed he could sail them over the edge of +the world. On the shore were people who thought he was a fool and a +blasphemer, and a few who thought he was right—or at least hoped he +was.</p> + +<p>"Five hundred years ago was the beginning of a new freedom from the +prison of a tiny, constricted world. Today, another freedom waits our +successful conquest of space. And whenever a freedom has been won there +have been more who jeered against it than have cheered for it. You are +today making a choice—"</p> + +<p>He talked for ten minutes, and when he was through he knew that he'd +accomplished his goal. Even before the sound truck pulled out, the cars +of the Caravan were breaking away from the mass and disappearing in the +distance.</p> + +<p>"Nice job," Metcalf congratulated, as if he'd been responsible for it +himself.</p> + +<p>"Just a little feedback in the right place—" murmured Paul absently.</p> + +<p>"Feedback? What's that—new kind of propaganda technique—?"</p> + +<p>"Yeah, you might call it that. How could a guy have been so <i>blind</i>—?" +he said fiercely, more to himself than to his companions.</p> + +<p>He hurried to the laboratory as soon as the truck got him back to Base. +He rounded up Barker and Nat Holt and a dozen of his other top men. "The +answer's been under our noses all the time," he said. "We've been too +busy fighting each other for the sake of our own preconceived notions to +have seen it!"</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" Holt demanded.</p> + +<p>"Feedback. Can't you guess what it is?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Are you willing to let us give you a small dose—something less than +the level given Harper and his men—and then tell us what you find out +about it?"</p> + +<p>Nat Holt looked hesitant. "If you think you know what you're talking +about. There's no point in my getting in a condition like Harper's."</p> + +<p>"We'll pull you out before you get anywhere near that far."</p> + +<p>Still dubious, he took a seat amid the mass of pulse generating +equipment and electro-encephalograph recorders. A single pair of +feedback terminals were fitted to his skull. The generator was set to +duplicate his own feedback impulse taken from a moment of failure.</p> + +<p>Paul switched on the circuits and advanced the controls carefully. A +look of pain and regret crossed Holt's face. He cried out with a +whimper. "Turn it off!"</p> + +<p>"A second more—," Paul said. He advanced the control a hair and waited. +The technologist began to cry suddenly in a low, sobbing voice.</p> + +<p>Paul cut the switch.</p> + +<p>For a moment Holt continued to slump in the chair, his shoulders +jerking. Then he looked up, half-bewildered, half-furious. "What did you +do to me?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"You did it to yourself," Paul reminded him. "That's your own feedback +pulse just beefed up a little, remember. How did it feel?"</p> + +<p>"Terrible! No wonder a guy dodges that. It's enough to make him wreck a +space station to avoid the full blast of it."</p> + +<p>"What would you call it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know—," Holt hesitated. "Grief, maybe. Regret—anxiety. But +regret, mostly, I guess."</p> + +<p>"That's your feedback," Paul said as he removed the terminals and turned +to the others. "These feedback pulses we've isolated are nothing but +stabs of pure emotion."</p> + +<p>He turned with a faint smile to Holt. "You and Harper and the rest of +the iron-bowelled boys were so convinced that the pure mechanical man +would be utterly devoid of all emotional responses and content! And I +was so sure that a warm, responsive, emotional human being could never +respond like a cold machine!</p> + +<p>"And we were both utterly wrong. The human being does both. He operates +on true cybernetic principles. But the content of his feedback control +pulses is sheer emotion!</p> + +<p>"A small error, a stab of regret. It's repeated, magnified, or +diminished until the action gets back on the track that brings predicted +results. Ignored, the error builds up until the whole structure goes +smash.</p> + +<p>"And we're <i>taught</i> to ignore it! It's the noble, brave and manly thing +to ignore the human feelings that surge through us. Be steel, be glass, +be electrons—anything but a responsive, emotional human being! That's +the way to be a superman! We've tried to find the way to perfection and +have fought tooth and nail against the only means of achieving it."</p> + +<p>Barker's face was glowing with excitement and Holt seemed to be +remembering something afar off. "That <i>was</i> it," he breathed softly. "I +can feel it now—the way it was as I began to get jittery and make +mistakes in the test procedures. I seemed to fight something within +myself—something I thought was making me do it wrong. But it wasn't +that, at all. I was fighting against the emotional feedback the errors +were throwing at me."</p> + +<p>"Right," said Paul. "And your iron-hard, errorless Superman is going to +be the most emotionally sensitive creature you can produce."</p> + +<p>"How did you catch on to this?" Barker asked.</p> + +<p>"We should have seen it in Harper. He's the original iron-man. He's +bottled up and fought his emotions all his life. A concentrated dose of +his own feedback simply shattered the dam.</p> + +<p>"But I didn't get it until I watched Morgan's mob reacting to the purely +rational explanation Metcalf prepared to convince them they should go +home. They were on a wrong tack and needed a generous amount of the +right feedback to get them back where they belonged. The cold, logical +approach was a dud. What does it take to move an intractible mob? +Emotion—based on the projected consequences of what they're doing. A +perfect feedback setup when correctly applied. And it worked."</p> + +<p>Holt shuddered faintly and moved away from the chair he had sat in to +experience his own feedback. "I'm not quite sure who owes who that +dinner," he said to Paul. "But I think somebody does."</p> + +<p>"We'll split it," Paul said. And then he was silent as they listened to +the departure of another cargo ship carrying parts of the second Wheel +to the thousand-mile orbit.</p> + +<p>He smiled to himself. Ye of little faith!—he thought. Frightened about +the true nature of a race that had come through three billion years of +the kind of torment that Man had survived!</p> + +<p>Man had everything that was needed to go to the stars or anywhere else +he might want to go. He was safe. Man could never be turned into a +robot. The basic mechanisms of his humanity were so interwoven with the +structure of his being that they could never be separated.</p> + +<p>But they hadn't come very far, Paul knew. They had opened only a small +crack in a door that had been irrationally closed from the beginning of +time. They had to know fully why that door had never been opened before. +And beyond it might lie a thousand others just as tightly closed and +closely guarded.</p> + +<p>Yet they had reached a starting point, at last. Project Superman could +get about its business of preparing men for the stars.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Human Error, by Raymond F. Jones + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN ERROR *** + +***** This file should be named 32403-h.htm or 32403-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/0/32403/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Jones + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Human Error + +Author: Raymond F. Jones + +Illustrator: Paul Orbin + +Release Date: May 17, 2010 [EBook #32403] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN ERROR *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +HUMAN ERROR + +BY RAYMOND F. JONES + +_Illustrated by Paul Orban_ + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science +Fiction April 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: _The government was spending a billion dollars to convince +the human race that men ought to be ashamed to be men--instead of +errorless, cybernetics machines. But they forgot that an errorless man +is a dead man...._] + + +During its three years' existence, the first Wheel was probably the +subject of more amateur astronomical observations than any other single +object in the heavens. Over three hundred reports came in when a call +was issued for witnesses to the accident that destroyed the space +station. + +It was fortunately on the night side of Earth at the time, and in a +position of bright illumination by the sun. Two of the observers had +movie cameras attached to their ten-inch mirrors. The film in one of +these was inadequate, but the other carried a complete record of the +incident from the moment of the _Griseda's_ first approach, through the +pilot's fumbling attempt to correct course, and the final collision. + +The scene was lost for a few seconds as the wreckage drifted out of the +field. The observer had been watching through a small pilot scope, +however, and had wits enough to pan by hand so that he got most of the +remaining fall that was visible above his horizon as the locked remnants +of the Wheel and the _Griseda_ began their slow, spiral course to Earth. + +By the time this scene was finished, word of the disaster was already +flashing to Government centers. Joe McCauley, radio operator aboard the +Wheel, had been talking with Ed Harris on the _Griseda_. As a matter of +routine, all their conversation was taped, and some of this was +recovered from the crash and played back at the investigation. + +"--and get this," Ed was saying, "my kid had his fifth birthday just +last week, and I've got him working through quadratic equations already. +You've got to go some to beat that one." + +"Doesn't mean a thing," said Joe. "You know how these infant brain boxes +burn out. Better take him fishing and forget that stuff for a while. +Hey--what the devil's going on? You got a truck driver in the control +room? I just saw you out the port and it looks like you're right on top +of us!" + +"Jeez, I dunno. It's been like that ever since we cleared Lunaport. +Sometimes I think this guy Cummins trained in a truck the way he--Hell, +he's comin' up on the wrong side of the Wheel! I relayed the orders to +go to the east turret. Acknowledged them himself--" + +"Ed! I can see you outside the port--we're going to hit!" + +The words were ripped by the shattering, grinding roar of colliding +metal. Then a moment later the blast of an exploding fuel tank. + +"Ed!" + +"Joe--yeah, I'm here. Lights gone. Emergency power still on. Take the +emergency band if you've still got a rig. I'll stand by--" + +Joe switched over without comment and called Space Command Base on the +emergency channel, which was always monitored. "Wheel just rammed by +_Griseda_," he said. "Possible loss of orbital velocity. Extent of +damage unknown." + +Lieutenant James, on duty at the Base, had just returned from a three +day leave and was scarcely settled in the routine of his post once more. +He glanced automatically at the radar tracking screen and his face paled +at the sight of the irregular figure there, slightly out of the +centering circle. It was no gag. + +"You're dropping," he said. "Orbital velocity must be down. Can you +correct?" + +"I haven't been able to contact the bridge," said Joe. "Alert all +Command and have crash point computed. Stand by." + +It developed that the bridge was entirely gone, along with a full thirty +percent of the station. Captain West had been spared, however, being on +inspection in the other sector of the station. He came on at once as Joe +McCauley managed to get the communication lines repatched. + +"Emergency red!" he called. "All stations report!" + +One by one, the surviving crew chiefs reported conditions in their +sectors. And when they were finished, they all knew their chance of +survival was microscopic. Captain West ordered: "Communicate with Base. +Request plotting of crash point." + +"Done, sir," Joe answered. + +"Command post will be established in the radio room. Emergency steering +procedure will be started on command. Man all taxi craft." + +It was all on the tapes that were salvaged. Everything was done that +desperate men could humanly do. + + * * * * * + +At Base, its Commander, General Oglethorpe, was in the communications +and tracking room by the time Joe McCauley had established contact with +Captain West. + +He picked up the mike at the table. "Plug me in to the station," he +commanded the Lieutenant. + +He got Joe first, but the radio operator put Captain West on as soon as +he arrived in the radio room. "Hello, Frank," said General Oglethorpe in +a quiet voice. + +"Yes, Jack--" Captain West answered. "I'm glad you're there. Does it +look pretty bad?" + +"Orbital velocity is down two percent. You've been falling for eight +minutes." + +"That's pretty bad. I've got all steering stations manned, but only +thirty percent of them are still operable. We're using the taxis to give +a push too. But we haven't been able to dislodge the _Griseda_. Its +inertia takes almost half our available energy." + +"Couldn't you get a blast from the _Griseda's_ tubes to put you in +orbit?" + +"Adler's got a crew out there working on it. But his controls are gone, +besides his fuel tanks being opened. And even if we could get their +rockets operating it's doubtful we could get the right direction of +thrust. Our hope is in our own rockets, and in breaking the ship away +from the station." + +But the closer the massed wreckage dropped toward Earth, the higher were +its requirements for orbital velocity. While the crews worked at their +desperate tasks General Oglethorpe sat with his eyes on the tracking +scope, and the voice of his friend in his ear. He listened to Captain +West's measured commands to the men in the station and to those working +to free the ship. General Oglethorpe heard the repeated reports of +failure to free the _Griseda_. He listened to West's orders to transfer +fuel from the ship to the station as the latter's supply ran low. He +watched the continued deviation of the spot on the tracking scope. + +Then he turned as a lieutenant came up behind him with a sheet of +calculations. "Present rate of fall indicates a crash point in the San +Francisco Bay region, sir." + +The General gripped the paper, his face tightening. West said, "Did I +hear correctly, Jack? The San Francisco area?" + +"Yes." + +"We'll have to try to keep it from happening there. I'll order the +rockets shut off now. We'll save enough fuel to try to do some last +minute steering as we approach Earth." + +"No!" General Oglethorpe cried. "Use it now! Its effect will be the same +as later. Blow the chambers apart! Get back in orbit!" + +"We can't make it," West said quietly. "We've gained forward velocity, +but I'll bet your computers will show us better than four percent below +requirements at this orbit. Spot our crash as accurately as possible on +free fall from our present position. We'll save remaining fuel for last +minute steering in case we're near a city." + +The General was silent then as he heard the responses come back from the +men who manned the rockets and who knew that with the closing of their +fuel valves their own lives had also come to an end. + +"We'll want testimony account for the investigation," Oglethorpe said +finally. "Get the responsible officers on the circuit--but you first, +Frank--" + +There was a moment of silence before Captain Frank West began speaking +in changed tones. "What is there to say?" he asked, finally. "You won't +need to hold an investigation. I can tell you all you need to know--all +you'll ever find out at least,--right now. Your decision will be the +same one so many hundreds and thousands of investigating boards have +made in the past: Pilot Error. + +"_Human_ error! That's what killed the first Wheel, and the _Griseda_. I +don't know why it happened. Adler doesn't. Neither does any other man up +here with us. Those who were with Cummins in the control room are dead, +but they didn't know any more than we do. + +"We spent a million dollars training that man, Cummins. We believed he +was the best we could produce. We measured his reflexes and his +intelligence and his blood composition until we thought we knew the +function and capability of every molecule in his body. And then, in just +one split second, he makes the decision of a moron, fumbling when he +needed to be precise." + +"Just what did he do?" Oglethorpe asked gently. + +"Our customary approach is to the west turret. This time he had been +ordered to go to the east side because of repairs on the other end of +the hub. Cummins had seen and acknowledged the orders. Apparently, they +slipped his mind during approach to the Wheel and he came up on the west +side. Then he remembered and tried to correct his position. + +"Everything must have gone wrong then. The decision was a blunder to +begin with. Wrong approach, yes. But it was suicide to attempt such a +detailed maneuver that close to the station. He used his side jets and +slammed the _Griseda_ into the Wheel at a forty-five degree angle, +locking the ship in the wreckage of the rim and in the girders of the +spokes." + +"Was there any previous indication of instability in the pilot that you +know of? We'll get a better answer on that from Adler, but we need to +know if you were aware of anything." + +"The answer is no! Cummins was checked out before the start of the +flight just three days ago. He was all right as far as any of our means +of evaluation go. As right as any man will ever be-- + +"Jack, listen to me. Remember when we were back at White Sands and +talked of the days when there would be a Wheel up here, and ships taking +off for the Moon and for Mars?" + +"I remember," said General Oglethorpe softly. + +"Well, we've got a piece of that dream. But there'll never be any more, +and what we've got is going to go smash unless we correct the one +weakness we've never tackled properly. You'll fail again and again as +long as men like Cummins can destroy twenty years' work and billions of +dollars worth of engineering construction. One man's stupid, moronic +error, and all of this goes to destruction, just as if it had never +been. + +"On the ground, a plane crashes--the board puts it down as pilot error +and planes go on flying. You can't do that out here! The cost is too +great. It's a sheer gamble putting this mountain of machinery and effort +into the hands of men we can never be sure of. You think you know them; +you do everything possible to find out about them. But you just don't +_know_. + +"We've solved every other technical problem that has stood in our way. +Why haven't we solved this one? We've learned how to make a machine that +will perform in a predictable manner, and when it fails to do so we can +provide adequate feedback alarms and correctors, and we can find the +cause of error. + +"With a man, we can do nothing. We have to accept him, in the final +analysis, on little more than faith. + +"A couple of hundred men are going to die because of a human error. Give +us a monument! Find out why men make errors. Produce a means of keeping +them from it. Do that, and our deaths will be a small price to pay!" + + * * * * * + +These were the words of a dead man. They were heard again and again in +the committee rooms and investigation chambers. They were printed and +broadcast around the world, and they enabled General Oglethorpe to do +the thing that became a burning crusade with him. + +He would probably have failed in his effort if those words hadn't been +spoken by a dying man while a shrieking, white-hot mass plunged through +the atmosphere to land, finally, in the waters of the Pacific. + +The wreckage missed the city of San Francisco without the necessity of +guidance by the rocket fuel so preciously hoarded by West. The Wheel and +the _Griseda_ were doomed the moment the pilot, Cummins, decided to +shift the position of the ship with respect to the station. + + * * * * * + +In the anteroom of the Base Commander's office, Dr. Paul Medick rubbed +the palms of his hands against his trouser legs when the secretary +wasn't watching, and licked the dryness that burned the membrane of his +lips. + +The secretary remembered him. She probably had been the one to make out +his severance papers and knew all about Oglethorpe's firing him. + +Now she was no doubt wondering about the General's calling him back +after that bitter occasion--just as Paul himself was wondering. + +But he was pretty sure he knew. If he were right it was the opportunity +of a lifetime, and he couldn't afford to muff it. + +The girl turned at the sound of a buzz on the intercom. She smiled and +said, "You may go in now." + +"Thanks." He stood up and told his nerves to quit remembering the last +time he passed through the door he was now entering. General Oglethorpe +was nobody but the Base Commander, and if Paul Medick got thrown out +once more he would be no worse off than he now was. + +Oglethorpe looked up, a grim trace of a smile at the corners of his +mouth. He shook hands and indicated a chair by the desk, resuming his +own seat behind it. "You know why I called you--in spite of our past +differences." + +Paul hesitated. He didn't want to show his anxiety--and hopefulness--He +weighed the answers that might be expected of him, and said, "It's this +crash thing--and the appeal of Captain West?" + +"Would there be anything else?" + +"I'm flattered that you thought of me." + +"There's nothing personal involved, believe me! I'd a thousand times +rather have called somebody else--anybody else--but there's nobody that +can do the job you can." + +"Thanks." + +"Don't bother thanking me. I expect there'll still be a great deal of +difference between us about the basic goals of this project. But once we +start I don't want to have to fire you again." + +"Just what is the nature of this project," said Paul, "its goals? Fill +me in on the details." + +"There are no details--beyond what you've read and heard--you're going +to provide them. The objective is to find a kind of man that will keep +the Frank Wests of the future from dying, as those men aboard the Wheel +did." + +"What kind of man do you expect that to be?" Paul asked. + +"One who will eliminate, for all time, the damning verdict that has been +handed down in tens of thousands of investigations of accident and +disaster: _human error_. + +"We're going to find a kind of man who can be depended on to function +without error. One who can undertake a complicated task of known +procedure and perform it an infinite number of times, if necessary, +without a single deviation from standard." + +Paul Medick regarded the General through narrowed eyes. In spite of his +almost agonizing desire to possess the appointment to head up this +Project he had to have a clear understanding with Oglethorpe now. He had +to risk his chances, if necessary, to make himself absolutely clear. + +He said, "For untold thousands of years the human race has spent its +best efforts to reach the goal of perfection without achieving it. Now +you propose to assemble all the money in the world, and all the brains +and say: give us a perfect man! The United States Space Command demands +him!" + +"Exactly." General Oglethorpe's face hardened as he returned Paul's +steady gaze. "No other technical problem has been able to stand before +such an attack. There is no reason why this one should. And the problem +_must_ be solved, or we're going to have to abandon space just as we +stand on the frontier, getting our first real glimpse of it." + +"Your world is such a simple, uncomplicated place, General," said Paul +slowly. "You want a man with two heads, four arms, and a tail? Order it! +Coming up! + +"That's the way you operated when I set up your basic personnel program +five years ago. It didn't work then; it won't work now." + +The General's face darkened. "It _will_ work. Because it has to. Men are +going to the stars--because they have to. And they're going to change +themselves to whatever form or shape or ability is required by that +goal. They've done everything else they've ever set themselves to +do--life came up out of the sea because it had courage. Men left their +caves and struck out across the plains and seas, and took up the whole +Earth and made it what it is--because they had courage. + +"But to go to space, courage is not enough. We need a new kind of man +that we've never seen before. He's a man of iron, who's forgotten he was +ever flesh and blood. He's a machine, who can perform over and over the +same kind of complicated procedure and never make an error. He's more +reliable and endurable than the best machines we've ever made. + +"I don't know where we'll find him, but he can be found, and you _will_ +do it, because you believe, as I do, that Man's frontier must not be +closed. And because, in spite of your cynicism, you still understand the +meaning of duty to your society and your race. There is no possibility +of your refusal, so I have taken steps already to make your appointment +official." + +"You must also have prepared yourself," said Paul, "to accept me with +the basic philosophy that must guide me in this matter. And my +philosophy is that this Project _must_ fail. It has no possibility of +success. The man you seek does not exist. An errorless man would be a +dead man. + +"Any living man is going to make errors. That's the process of learning: +make an approach, correct for error, approach again, correct once more. +It's the only way there is to learn." + +The General inhaled deeply and hesitated. "I know nothing about that," +he said finally. "You know what I want. Even if what you say were +partially true, there remains no reason why that which has been learned +cannot be performed without error. I may have to put up with it, but +you'll save yourself and all of us a lot of time if you don't spend +three months digging up reasons why the Project can't succeed." + +He stood up as if everything had been said that could possibly be said. +"Let's go and have a look at your laboratory quarters." + + * * * * * + +In the hot sunlight of the Southwest desert, they walked across the yard +from the administration building to a large laboratory which had been +cleared to the bare floor and walls. Paul felt a sense of instability +returning. But only for an instant. He'd all but insulted the General +and told him he had no intention of producing the iron superman the +Space Command contemplated. And still he had not been thrown out. They +must want him very badly, indeed! + +He had no qualms of conscience about taking the post now. General +Oglethorpe had been forewarned and knew what Paul Medick's hopes and +intentions were. + +"You can build your staff as big as you need it," the General was +saying. "This Project has crash priority over everything else. We've got +the machines to go to space. The machines need the men. + +"You can have anybody you want and do anything you like to them. We hope +you can put them back together again in reasonable shape, but that +doesn't matter too much." + +Paul turned about the bare room that would serve adequately as office +space. "All right," he said. "Consider Project Superman begun. Remember, +I have no hope of finding a solution in an errorless human being. I'll +find whatever answer there is to be found. If you have any objections to +my working of those terms, say so now. I don't intend to get fired again +with a Project in the middle of its course." + +"You won't be. You'll find the way to give us what we need. I want you +to come down to the other end of the building and meet a man who will be +working closely with you." + +There had been sounds of activity in the distance, and General +Oglethorpe led Paul towards them. They entered a large area in which +instrumental equipment was being set up. A tall, thin, dark-haired man +came up as they entered. + +"Dr. Nat Holt," said the General, "instrument and electronics expert. +This is Dr. Medick, the country's foremost man in psychology and +psychometric analysis. + +"Dr. Holt will be your instrument man. He will design and build whatever +special equipment your researches call for. Let me know soon what you'll +need in the way of furniture and assistants." + +He left them standing in the nearly bare room. Through the window they +watched his stiff form march back to his own office. + +Nat Holt shifted position and grinned at Paul. "I may as well tell you +that the General has briefed me thoroughly on what he considered your +probable reaction to the Project. I'm just curious enough to want to +know if he was right." + +"The General and I understand each other--I think," said Paul. "He knows +I'm contemptuous of his approach to a problem of human behavior by +ordering it solved. But he knows I'll take his money and spend it on the +biggest, deepest investigation of human behavior via psychometrical +analysis that has ever been conducted." + +"It ought to be enough to buy gold fringed couches for all the analysts +in the country." + +Paul raised his brows. "If it's that way with you, then why are you +joining me?" he asked. + +"Because I have a stake in this, too! I want to see the problem solved +just as much as the General does. And I think it _can_ be solved. But +not this way! + +"There's only one way to produce men of superior abilities. The method +of adequate training. Hard, brutal discipline and training of oneself. +I'm going to convince Oglethorpe of it after he's seen the failure you +intend to produce for him." + +"That shouldn't be hard," said Paul. "It's the General's own view. The +Project is simply to implement that view. + +"But let's not have any misunderstanding about my intentions. I expect +to give honest value in research for every dollar spent. I expect to +turn up data that will go a long way toward providing better spacemen +for the Command--and to give Captain West the monument he asked for!" + + * * * * * + +Alone in his hotel room that night, Paul stood at the window overlooking +the desert. Beyond the distant hills a faint glow in the sky marked the +location of Space Command Base. He regarded it, and considered the +enormity of the thing that was being brewed for the world in that +isolated outpost. Now the chance was his to prove that manhood was a +quality to be proud of, that machines could be built and junked and +built again, but that a man's life was unique in the universe and could +never be replaced once it was crushed. + +For years he'd struggled to probe the basic nature of Man and find out +what divorces him from the merely mechanical. He'd known there would +probably never be enough money to reach his goal. And then Oglethorpe +had come, offering him all the money in the world to reach a nebulous +objective that Space Command did not know was unobtainable. + +_Somebody_ was going to spend that money. With clear conscience, Paul +rationalized that it might as well be him. He'd see that the country got +value for what it spent, even if this was not quite what the Space +Command expected. + +Nat Holt was going to be a most difficult obstacle. Paul wished the +General had let him pick his own technical director, but obviously the +two men understood each other. In their separate fields, they were alike +in their approach to human performance. Whip a man into line, make him +come to heel like a reluctant hound. Beat him, shape him, twist him to +the form you want him to bear. + +_Discipline_ him. That was the magic word, the answer to all things. + +Paul turned from the window in revulsion, drawing the curtains on the +skyglow of the Base. + +Human error! + +When would Man cease to indulge in this most monumental of all errors? +When would he cease to regard himself and his fellows as brute creatures +to be beaten into line? + +He had to find the right answer before Oglethorpe and his kind found +some flimsy validation for the one they had already chosen long ago. + +He stood up and glanced at the clock, deciding he wanted dinner, after +all. Tomorrow he'd wire Betty and the kids to get packed and be on their +way. No--he'd phone tonight. She had a right to know immediately the +outcome of his interview. + +The dining room was almost empty. He ordered absently and clipped the +speaker of his small personal radio behind his ear while waiting. He +seldom used it, but here in the desert was a sense of isolation that +made him seize almost compulsively upon any contact with the bright, +distant world. The music was dull, and the news uninspiring. He was +about to turn it off when his order arrived. + +The wine was very bad; the steak, however, was good, so Paul considered +it about even. His finger touched the radio switch once more. The +newscaster's voice changed its tone of pounding urgency. "Repercussions +of the recent crash of the world's first space station are still being +heard," he said. "Murmurs of protest against construction of a new Wheel +are rising in many quarters. Today they approach the proportions of a +roar. + +"The influential New England Times states that it is 'unqualifiedly +opposed' to any restoration of the Wheel. 'In its three years' existence +the structure proved beyond any question of doubt its utter lack of +utility. Now its fall to Earth demonstrates the menace constituted by +its presence over every city on the face of the globe.' + +"Senator Elbert echoes these sentiments. 'It was utter folly in the +first place to spend billions of dollars to construct this Sword of +Damocles in the sky of all the world. I propose that our Government go +on record denying any further intention to rebuild such a threat to the +peace and well-being of nations who stand now on the threshold of +understanding and friendliness which they have sought for so long.'" + +Paul switched it off. He remembered the hours of world-wide tension +while the Wheel was falling toward the city of San Francisco. In panic, +the whole population of the Bay Area attempted evacuation, but there +wasn't time. The bridges became clogged with traffic, and some +hysterical drivers left their cars and jumped to the waters below. + +As the wreckage neared Earth, the computers narrowed their circle of +error until it was certain at last that the city would not be struck. +But the damage was done. The fear remained, and now was congealing in +angry determination that another Wheel would not be built. + +Paul finished his meal, wondering what effect this would have on the +plans to build a new Wheel--and on Project Superman. Maybe Congress +would react in anger that would cut off all appropriations to the +Project. + +He wondered, in sudden weariness, if this would not be an unmixed +blessing, after all. + + * * * * * + +The next three days were spent in telephone and telegraph communication +with members of his profession as he proceeded to recruit a staff. + +On Friday, Betty arrived with the kids. By the end of the following +week, laboratory furniture had been installed and the first trickle of +potential staff members was coming in to see what Superman was all +about. Nat, too, had been busy forming his own staff and setting up +basic equipment. + +Paul had the feeling that they were opposing camps setting up on the +same site of exploration. He tried to tell himself it was completely +irrational, until Nat approached him a few days later. + +"Quite a crew you're getting in here," the technician said. "You'll have +to take Oglethorpe up on his offer of new buildings if you expect to +find couch space for all your boys." + +"That's what you're here for," Paul suggested mildly, "to do away with +couches." + +"Right." Nat nodded. "Anything a couch can do, a meter can do twice as +efficiently." + +"Sometimes both are necessary. You forget my specialty is psychometry." + +"No, I'm not forgetting," said Nat. "But that's what makes it so hard +for me to figure out. You're attempting to span two completely +incompatible fields: science and humanities. Man behaves either as a +machine or as a creature of unstable emotion. To function as one you +have to suppress the other." + +"Splitting Man in two has never produced an answer to anything. It has +been tried even longer than couches--and with far less result." + +"I'll make you a small side bet. We're going to have to work together on +Superman, and coordinate all our procedures and results. But I'll bet +the final answer turns up on the side of a completely mechanistic man, +shorn of all other responses and motivations." + +"I'll take that!" Paul said with a grim smile. "I don't know how much of +an answer we'll find, but I know _that_ won't be it!" + +"Let's say a small celebration feed for the whole crew when Superman is +completed. Nothing chintzy, either!" + +They shook on it. And afterward Paul was glad the incident had occurred. +It left no doubt about the direction Nat Holt would be traveling in his +work. + + * * * * * + +Four weeks to the day, from the time Paul had stepped into Oglethorpe's +office, he called the first meeting of his staff leaders. Invitations to +the General and to Nat Holt were deliberately omitted. He wanted this +first get together to be a family affair. + +He felt just a little shaky in the knees as he got up before that group +for the first time. + +"I won't repeat what you already know," Paul said carefully. "You all +know the background events that produced Project Superman. + +"I am sure that each of you has also caught the two basic errors that +have been assumed by the Space Command, first, that an errorless man is +possible, and second, that genuine scientific discovery can be secured +wholly upon command. General Oglethorpe recognizes that we consider +these assumptions erroneous, but he also knows that our professional +integrity demands that we pursue vigorously a course which he believes +will result in success. + +"We recognize, too, that we are not here to invent or produce anything +that does not already exist. But, in a sense, our superiors and some of +our co-workers expect us to do exactly that. + +"We can agree, however, that most of Man's potential still remains to be +discovered. And for us, who have hoped for a means of understanding that +potential, this Project is the fulfillment of dreams. If we fail to take +full advantage of it, we will win the condemnation of our profession for +a century to come. + +"Space Command has already concluded that a man can be stripped of his +humanity and driven to an utterly mechanistic state with the robotic +responses of a machine. Let there be no mistake about it: we have been +brought here to validate that conclusion. + +"We will validate it by default, so to speak, unless we can produce a +clean-cut analysis and demonstrations of the thing that most of us +believe: that the essence of Man is more than a piece of machinery or a +collection of bio-chemical reactions. + +"Our science of mind and Man is on trial. If we fail, we give consent to +a doctrine that will spread from space technology to all the rest of our +society, and bind Man in an iron mold that will not be broken for +generations. While we have been hired and will ostensibly work at the +task of developing an errorless man, our basic purpose must be to +validate the humanity of Man!" + +He waited for their reaction. Outside, far across the open desert at the +station, a rocket screamed into the air. They waited until the sound +died away. + +Professor Barker stood up. "There is scarcely a human being who has not +by now read or heard the words of Captain West's appeal. They will be +looking for the day when there will come marching from our laboratories, +like a robot, the errorless man he asked for. + +"Do you mean we have to fight the stated objectives of this Project? Can +we not discover sufficient understanding to establish some method of +training which will accomplish, in another way, the things the Space +Command needs?" + +"We are not fighting the Space Command's desire for more adequate men +for its ships," said Paul. "We are fighting only against the false +conclusions they have already formed concerning the nature of such men. + +"We must solve the problem of human error. We know its purpose in the +learning process. We must discover the reason for its existence in a +_learned_ process. We have to find out what training actually means. + +"We have to ask how we know when an error has been made. It is obvious, +of course, when a spaceship rams a fixed orbit station. But what of the +subtler situations, where results are less dramatic, or are postponed +for a long time--? + +"The primary thing to remember at this point is that our basic goal is +to prevent any false confirmation of the dogma that Man is no more than +a badly functioning machine, which will gain value when he has been +tinkered with sufficiently so that he can slip in beside the gears and +vacuum tubes and be indistinguishable from them. And to reach this goal +we must discover his true nature." + + * * * * * + +It was two weeks later that General Oglethorpe made his first visit +since Superman got under way. The soldier's face seemed more deeply +lined and his eyes more tired than Paul remembered seeing them before. + +"You seem to have things well in hand," he said. "How soon can you give +us some tangible results?" + +"Results! We've just started housekeeping. In a year, maybe two, we'll +have an idea where to begin a concentrated search for what you want to +know." + +The General shook his head slowly, his eyes remaining on Paul's face. +"You aren't going to have anything like a year. You haven't got time to +run down one line of research and then another. Run them all at once--a +thousand of them if you want to. Why do you think you've got the budget +you have!" + +"Some things," said Paul, "like threading a needle--or analysing a human +being--don't go much faster when a thousand men work at it than when +there's only one." + +"They do when there're a thousand needles to thread--or brains to pick. +And that's what we're up against here. We need a volume of the kind of +men we've been talking about, and we need them quick!" + +"We have to find out how to get the first one." + +"And you haven't got as much time now as we thought you had when +Superman began. They're trying to close us up. + +"We hadn't planned to build another Wheel right away, not until some +refinements of design had been worked out, and we had some results from +Superman. + +"Now, all that's been scrapped. We've received orders from Washington +that erection of a second Wheel is to begin at once, using the plans of +the first one. Fabrication of structures is already under way." + +"I don't understand," said Paul. + +"If we don't get another one up there within a matter of weeks, this +hysterical opposition among the public is liable to prevent us ever +getting one there again. We have to act while we still have authority, +before the crackpots persuade Congress to take it away. And by the time +it's built, I want some men to put in it. Men who can be trusted to not +jeopardize it the moment they put their clumsy feet aboard. I want them, +Medick, and I intend to have them. That's by way of an order!" + +The General rose, but Paul remained seated. "You can't get them that +way, and you know it," the latter said. "We'll do all we can, as I've +told you before." + +"I think you'll do considerably more, now. That was quite a talk you +delivered to your boys a couple of weeks ago. We will 'ostensibly work +at the task of developing an errorless man', is the way I believe you +put it. You're going to do a lot more than ostensibly work at it, +Medick. Just how much do you think you can get away with?" + +Paul remained motionless in the chair. Only his lips moved. "So you had +a report on our little meeting? I hope it was complete enough to give +you the rest of the things I said, that my basic purpose was not to +produce human robots, but to validate the humanity of man." + +Oglethorpe leaned closer, his fists resting on the top of the desk. "The +humanity of man be damned! I told you before we want men who've +forgotten they were ever human, men of metal and electrons. If I didn't +think you were the man who could do it--probably the _only_ man in the +whole country--you wouldn't last here another minute. But you _can_ do +it, and you're going to. + +"Your little lecture was enough to ruin your career in any place you try +to run to, if you undermine Superman. Who do you suppose would trust you +with any kind of research after that expression of intent to sabotage +the Project your Government entrusted you with, and which you agreed to +carry out? + +"You're finished, Medick, washed up completely in your own profession, +unless you give me what I've asked for! I won't take promises any more. +The only assurance you can give me from here on out is results! I want +those men, and I want them damn fast!" + + * * * * * + +Professor Barker listened attentively as Paul sat across from him in the +administration office and reported Oglethorpe's visit and demands. + +"We're caught in a squeeze, and we've got to push both ways," Paul said. +"If the Base goes down, Superman goes with it, and we've lost an +opportunity that will never come again in our lifetimes. So we've got to +do two things: We've got to give active support to the rebuilding of the +Wheel, and we've got to develop some kind of show that will convince +Oglethorpe that Superman is giving him what he wants. It will mean +detouring our basic objectives, but it's necessary in order to have a +project at all. I'd like you to take charge of it." + +"It'll be a waste of time," Barker said slowly. "I wonder if we'll ever +get back on the track." + +"We'll have to gamble on it," said Paul. "I don't want you to feel I'm +deliberately pushing you up a blind alley, but I think you're the best +man for bringing up something we can sell Oglethorpe--while we try to do +some real research on some honest goals." + +"We can follow the usual lines of so-called training--brute conditioning +through shock and fear and pain and discomfort. Most of the men here are +already well anaesthetized in that respect. Their breakdown level is +high." + +"Cummins' was the highest," said Paul, "and he cracked. But work along +those lines anyway. Maybe we can find a way to thicken the conditioning +armor. At the same time let's push a genuine investigation into the +nature of error as hard as we can. For the moment we'll forget broader +objectives, until we know the Project is safe." + +Barker agreed reluctantly, feeling that they would end up as mere +personnel counselors before long. As soon as he left, Paul called +Oglethorpe. + +"I've got a suggestion," he said. "Let's not get on the defensive about +this thing. Why don't you propose a Senatorial investigation of Space +Command?" + +"Are you crazy? Why would we want to have them come out here and pick +our bones to pieces before making final burial?" + +"We've got a story to tell them--remember? We've got Superman, that's +going to produce for the first time in the world's history a man +adequate to go into the dangers of space. And there's that little story +of yours about courage. I think that would go over with them. We'd be +out in front if we took the initiative in this instead of just waiting +until it rolled over us." + +There was a long pause before Oglethorpe spoke again. "I wonder just +what you're trying to do," he said finally. "I know you don't mean a +word of what you're saying at all--" + +"But I do mean it," Paul said earnestly. "I want Superman saved; you +want the Wheel. It amounts to the same thing." + +"You could be right. You might even be telling the truth. I'll give it +some thought." + + * * * * * + +The officer in charge of the rocket crews and the take-off stand was a +young engineer-soldier named Harper. Paul had met him during the first +week at Base. His endorsement of Project Superman was enthusiastic. + +After talking with Oglethorpe, Paul took a jeep over to the stand and +located Harper. The engineer was overseeing the fueling process on a big +rocket. + +"Doc Medick!" Harper exclaimed. "How's your crew of head shrinkers +coming along? We're just about ready for your new breed of pilots." + +"What do you mean?" + +"This is the nucleus ship. She's going out in orbit tonight with the +first batch of supplies and instruments to get ready for the new Wheel. +We're going to need your men awfully fast." + +"That's what I came to talk about. Can you spare a few minutes?" + +"Sure." Harper led him to the office, where the whining of fueling pumps +was silenced. "What can we do for you?" + +"I wanted to ask about Cummins. You knew him pretty well, didn't you?" + +"Buddies. Just like that." Harper crossed his fingers. + +"What went wrong, do you think? I know it's all been hashed over in the +investigations, but I'd like your personal feelings about him." + +Harper's face sobered and he looked away a moment. "Cummins was as good +a guy as they come," he said. "But in a pinch he was just a weak sister. +That doesn't mean he didn't have a lot on the ball," Harper added +defensively. "He was a better pilot than most of us ever will be, but he +was just human like the rest of us." + +"What do you mean, 'human'?" + +"Weak, soft, failure when the going gets rough--everything we have to be +on guard against every minute we're alive." + +"I take it you don't think much of human beings, as such." + +Harper leaned forward earnestly. "Listen, Doc, when you've been around +ships as long as I have, you'll know what Captain West really meant. The +weakest link in any technological development has always been the men +involved with its operation. In space flight our weakness is pilots and +technicians. Set a machine on course and it'll go until it breaks +down--and flash you a warning before it fails. With a man, you never +know when he's going to fail, and you have to be on guard against _his_ +breakdown every minute because he won't give any warning. + +"Think what it's like to be in our shoes! We take the controls of a few +hundred million dollars worth of machinery, and we know that every last +man of us is booby-trapped with some weakness that can break out in a +critical moment and destroy everything. We fight against it; we struggle +to hold it in and act like responsible instruments. And we grow to hate +ourselves because of the weak things that we are. + +"Cummins was like that. He fought himself every waking hour, knowing +that he had a weakness of becoming confused in a tight spot. Oh, it was +nothing that even showed up on the tests, and he was the best man of any +of us on the Base. But he knew it was there, just as we all know our +closets bulge with skeletons that we try to keep from breaking out." + +"Do you fight yourself the way Cummins did?" Paul asked. + +"Sure." + +"What would happen if you pulled a blunder that wrecked that ship out +there on the stand." + +"I'd have had it, that's all. I'd never get within ten miles of a rocket +base again as long as I lived. And there wouldn't be much worth living +for--" + +"It would be pretty wonderful to feel you weren't constantly on the +verge of some disastrous blunder, wouldn't it?" + +"It would be a rocket man's idea of heaven to handle these ships with +that kind of a feeling inside him." + +"We're about ready to begin running tests on Superman, and I'd like you +to be the first to help us out. Can you arrange it?" + +"We're tied up like a ball of string on getting the nucleus ship in +orbit. I know Oglethorpe gave orders we were to jump when you called, +but I'll have to check on replacements for those of us you take. What +kind of test are you going to run on me?" + +"I want to find out how long it takes you to make a serious error, and +what happens to you when you do!" + + * * * * * + +Arrangements were made for initiating this series of tests two days +later. Paul had designed them, and Nat Holt's crew had built the +equipment. + +But before they were started, Paul grew increasingly aware of the clamor +and public agitation against the Wheel. Instead of dying out after a +small spurt of anger, it was accumulating momentum in every corner of +the nation. + +A rabble rouser named Morgan in the middle-west had proposed a motor +caravan to Space Command Base, where the participants would go on a +sit-down strike until assurance was given that no Wheel would be built +again. And on the heels of this came the demand by an increasing number +of Senators for a full investigation of the Base. + +Paul met Barker after seeing the newscast of Morgan's revivalist type +appeal for a caravan of protest against the Base. "This looks like it +could get to be something that would be hard to handle," Barker said. +"It doesn't seem reasonable that the near-crash of the first Wheel at +San Francisco could be responsible for all this commotion." + +"I don't think it is," Paul answered reflectively. "The sinking of a big +ocean liner doesn't produce hysterical demands that no more ships be +built. The crash of an airship with a hundred people aboard is accepted +for what it is, without this kind of reaction. I think these broadcasts +and write-ups of Captain West's appeal have sunk in deeper than +Oglethorpe or anyone else ever intended. + +"For a long time there has been building up a sense of man's inferiority +to his machines. Now this incident of the Wheel and the world-wide +broadcast of West's final words have triggered that inferiority into a +genuine fear. They're afraid to have another Wheel up there over their +heads. They're afraid that no man is capable of mastering such a piece +of machinery." + +Not only the public was infected with this fear, but the very men on +whom the operation of the ships depended. Harper was right, Paul +thought, as he reached his own office again. It must be terrible to be +in their shoes, fighting constantly the conviction that they were poor +miserable creatures hardly fit to polish the shining hulls of their +creations! + +They were trained in the best of military traditions, crushing their +weaknesses by sheer force. And they had concluded their own breakdown +was inevitable, in spite of their training and traditions. How could +such men even hope for the stars! + +But where was the flaw in it all? If the answer was not in men who were +more nearly like their own machines, where was it? + +They needed a year or two to even approach the problem properly, and +some kind of answer was demanded within weeks! + +Oglethorpe came to the laboratory the morning Harper was to begin his +test runs. "We're going on a complete crash-priority basis, with +round-the-clock shifts," he said. "It's been a toss-up whether to close +Superman and put everything we had on the new Wheel, or leave it open in +the hope of getting something out of it. + +"For the time being I'm leaving it open, but remember that every hour +Harper or one of his men spends here is an hour away from the job on the +Wheel. + +"We didn't need your suggestion about an investigation. Plenty of other +people thought of it first. The Senators will be here in four or five +days. You're going to talk to them. You're going to tell them what you +proposed to tell them." + +"Of course. And what are you going to do about Morgan's cavalcade?" + +Oglethorpe spat out an exclamation. "We'll set up barricades that they'd +better not cross within ten miles of Base!" + +"That won't help," Paul warned. "I think you'd better let me prepare +something for them, too." + +"Forget them! Take care of the Senators and the Project and you'll be +doing enough." + +Harper arrived shortly, nervous in spite of his attempt to appear +composed. But he was put at ease when they took him to the laboratory of +complex testing equipment assembled by Nat Holt. + +Paul indicated a seat in the middle of the mass of equipment. "As near +as we've been able to make it," he said, "this simulates the landing +procedure of a rocket craft. There are a hundred and thirty-five +distinct actions, observations and judgements involved. A taped voice +will lead you through the sequence, asking you to press buttons and make +adjustments to indicate your observations and responses. When you can do +all this to your satisfaction, you will turn off the tape and continue +for as many cycles as you can." + +"How long? A man could do that for a month, provided he didn't have to +sleep." + +"I think you'll be a little surprised. You will continue until your +accumulation of errors becomes so great that the entire procedure +collapses." + +"It still looks like a kid's game to me," Harper said confidently. +"Let's get started." + +Carefully, they fitted the multiple electrodes of the +electro-encephalograph recorder to his skull. The tape instructor was +turned on, and Harper began the first cycle. + +Behind the one-way glass of the observation room, Paul sat with Nat Holt +and Professor Barker and two assistants, watching. The rocket engineer +began jauntily, contemptuous of the simple actions required of him, +impatient to have it over with and get back to his duties at the +take-off stand. + +The instructions coming over the speaker had some variations from the +normal handling of a ship, including the items necessary to record +observations and responses. Harper listened to these for a half dozen +cycles. Then, confident that he could breeze through the procedure for +the rest of the day if he had to, he switched off the tape and settled +back to take it easy. + +One by one, he watched the meters, noted their information, made the +proper adjustments, added compensations, waited for results, checked and +re-checked-- + +"He'll go a long time," said Nat Holt confidently. "He's had top +training. If it breaks down, we may find out a few things." + +"Cummins had top-drawer training, too," Paul said. "His break point +seemed to have no adequate antecedents. I don't think we're going to +find Harper holding out very long." + +After an hour, the attitude of contempt had left Harper's face, and he +was proceeding with obvious boredom. He had made no error yet, but there +was evident a faint trace of anxiety as he concentrated on the +instruments and levers. + +At two hours and a half Harper reached for a button and withdrew his +hand in abrupt hesitation. Then it darted out again and pressed +decisively. At three hours he was making two such hesitations every +cycle. + +"Not so good," Barker commented. "Not for a man who battles himself the +way Harper does." + +Nat Holt remained silent, watching critically the wavering dials and +graphs showing the engineer's physical condition and reaction. + +At four and a half hours, Harper's hand reached for a lever in the +center of the board. But it didn't get more than a third of the way. In +mid-air it froze, as if paralysis had suddenly struck it. Harper +regarded it in seeming dumb astonishment. His face grew red, and sweat +broke out upon his forehead as if from the physical exertion of trying +to put his hand to the lever. + +Paul grabbed a microphone and switched it on. "Touch the lever," he +commanded. "Draw it toward you." + +Harper looked around as if in panic, but he completed the motion. He sat +staring at the panels for a full two minutes while alarm eyes went from +green to yellow to red. + +"Alarm red!" Paul exclaimed into the microphone. "Correct course!" + +Harper turned and glared about with hate in his eyes as if to find the +source of the sound. He began tearing at the wires and contacts fastened +to his head and body. "To hell with the course!" he cried. "I'm getting +out of here!" + +He hurled the wiring harness at the panels. Then, he stood in a moment's +further paralysis and slumped finally into the chair. He put his arms +and head down on the instrument desk and began sobbing deeply. + +Paul put away the microphone and moved to the door. "That's the end of +that," he said. "I hope our record is good. Harper might not like to go +through that again." + +Nat Holt was still staring through the window at the sobbing engineer. +"I don't understand," he murmured. "What made him break down like that +for no reason at all?" + + * * * * * + +One by one, the top engineers of the Base went through the breakdown +test. Some broke down with an emotional storm as Harper had, others +simply ended in a swirl of confusion that put lights flashing all over +the panels. But all of them had a breaking point of some kind that could +be measured in a small number of hours. + +The test was a stab in the dark. It was based on an old and well-known +principle that repeated tactile contact under command will break down +the motor responses of the body in a matter of hours. Paul did not know +whether it would actually provide a fertile lead to the problem of error +or not, but it seemed the closest possible approach at present. + +Nat Holt, however, was astonished at the reaction of the men. He +insisted on trying it himself, determined that he would not break down +no matter what happened. He lasted six hours before the panel lit up +like a Christmas tree. + +He subjected the resulting curves to an analyzer, and to his own he gave +the most detailed attention. At the end of a full week of study on it, +he called Paul with an excitement he could not suppress in his voice. + +"It looks like you owe that dinner," he said. "We've got what we were +looking for!" + +"What are you talking about?" Paul demanded. + +"We've got proof that a human being is nothing more nor less than a +simple cybernetic gadget. It's a laugh--people trying to build a +mechanical man all these years. That's the only kind there is!" + +"You still aren't making sense." + +"Come on over and see for yourself." + +Puzzled and irritated, Paul left his office and went down to the +analyzer laboratory. There he found Holt and his staff in a buzz of +excitement. + +The multiple recorder sheets were laid out on long tables, being studied +intensely. Paul followed Holt to one series that was separated from the +rest. + +"We didn't know we had anything at first," said Holt. "The pulse was so +low in amplitude that it was hard to pick out of the noise, but the +analyzer showed it was consistently present under certain conditions of +the subject." + +"What conditions?" said Paul. + +"At the exact moment of committing an error! I should say it occurs +between the moment of making the decision to carry out an erroneous act +and the triggering of the motor impulse that executes it." + +Paul frowned. "How can you be sure it doesn't occur at any other time as +well?" + +"Because we've run every set of charts through the analyzer and this +particular impulse comes out no other place." + +"It looks very interesting," Paul said. "But why did you say you've got +proof that a human being is nothing but a cybernetic gadget? I don't see +what this has got to do with it." + +"I didn't give you quite all the story," Holt said smugly. "I should +have said that the pulse occurred every time there was an _intent_ to +perform an error. Sometimes that intent was not carried out." + +"I don't understand." + +"That pulse is nothing more nor less than a feedback pulse indicating +that an action matrix has been set up which is in non-conformity with +the previously chosen pattern of learning or intent. It's a feedback +alarm carrying the information that an error will result if the proposed +action is carried out. When the feedback is successfully returned to the +action matrix a change is made until there is no feedback and a correct +action is taken. When the feedback is blocked or ignored, an error +results. It's as simple as that! Your complex human being is nothing but +a fairly elaborate cybernetic machine operating wholly on feedback +principles. The only time he fails and breaks down is when he ceases to +act like the cybernetic machine that he is!" + + * * * * * + +Holt's eyes shone triumphantly as he patted the long strips of paper on +the table. Paul followed the motion of his hand and remained staring at +the graphs in a kind of stunned recognition. There must be some mistake, +there _had_ to be. Holt's interpretation was wrong, even if the data +were correct. Man, a feedback response mechanism--! If that were true a +vacuum tube structure could eventually be devised to do _anything_ a man +could do. + +"I think we'll hold off on that dinner a while yet," Paul said. "The +data are interesting and, I'm sure, important--but I can hardly agree +with your conclusions." Inwardly, he cursed the stiltedness he felt +creeping into his voice, and his irrational resentment of Holt's +continued smug grin. + +"Take all the time you want," Holt said, "but when you're through you'll +come up with the same answers I've got. Man is a machine and nothing +else. Our only job now is to discover why the feedback sometimes fails, +and to set it back on the job." + +Paul took the recordings and the analyzer graphs back to his own office. + +He called Barker and showed the older man what Holt had found out. "If +this is true," he said, "we don't need to worry about validating Space +Command's pre-chosen conclusions. It has already been done." + +Dr. Barker looked puzzled and a little frightened as he sat down at the +desk to examine the charts. After an hour, he looked up. "It's true," he +said. "There's no escaping the fact. Look what we have here--" He +pointed to a corresponding sector of the six charts he'd lined up. + +"After the first feedback impulse, there was no attempt to correct," he +said, "or, rather, there was a deliberate effort to suppress the +feedback. This created a second, larger feedback, which, in turn +resulted in increased suppression and a simultaneous enlargement of the +error. The result was a hunting effect in increasingly large amplitude, +like the needle of an autosyn indicator with undamped positive feedback. + +"Now, here's another one with the opposite effect. In this case the +hunting shows diminishing amplitude as correction of the effort results +from application of the feedback pulses. One pulse is not sufficient, +but they are applied in decreasing force as the intent is brought into +alignment with the learned pattern. A purely mechanical response!" + +Paul turned from the window through which he had been staring toward the +launchers. "Then Space Command is perfectly right," he said bitterly. +"We _can_ give them their errorless, mechanical men--just as soon as we +find ways of correcting the blockage of the feedback pulses!" + +Barker leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his moderate +paunch. "I'm afraid that's right. We've been wrong all along in bucking +the mechanical concept of Man. The technologists saw it long ago in a +sort of intuitive way, but they couldn't prove it. Now, they can!" + +"And the soul of Man is nothing but a feedback impulse!" + +Barker sighed heavily. "What else, Paul?" + + * * * * * + +Morgan's Caravan appeared that evening and camped at the ten-mile limit +imposed by the military police guards. They posted their signs of +protest and began their picket lines. Oglethorpe sent out his sound +trucks to try to scare them away, but they wouldn't scare. + +Paul watched at home the broadcast of the scene, but the fate of the +Base and the Wheel had almost ceased to concern him. He told Betty of +the discovery Holt had made on Superman. + +"It leaves nothing to account for the most valued acts of Man," he said. +"It can't account for creativeness, because a cybernetic device cannot +create; it can only follow a pattern. So where is the poetry, the art, +the scientific invention if this is the essence of Man? It can't be, yet +there's no way of getting around this thing." + +"Where does the pattern come from?" asked Betty. "Isn't that the created +thing which the cybernetic system tries to follow?" + +Paul shook his head. "The pattern we're talking about is no more than a +response to stimuli, a purely mechanical thing also. Holt claims this is +all there ever is, that what we call art, poetry, music inspiration, and +intuition are nothing more than the results of badly functioning +cybernetic systems. The more or less irrational results of errors in +accommodating to the real world. We find pleasure in them because they +tend to excuse our badly malfunctioning circuits. + +"The ideal race of Man would be devoid of all this, a smoothly operating +group of individuals unperturbed by emotional or artistic responses, +completely capable of solving any problem in a purely cybernetic +manner." + +"And do you agree with it?" Betty asked. + +"There's nothing else I can do! The evidence is there." He laughed +shortly and moved to the window where he could see the nearby camp of +Morgan's Caravan. "Human development has moved--is moving--in a +completely different direction from anything I ever dreamed. +Oglethorpe's iron-hard, emotionless machine-men are the only ones who'll +get there. The rest of us who can't match the pace of a technological +society will be shucked off as the waste part in the development of a +species meant to inhabit galaxies instead of a single world." + +"If I had ever wondered how you'd sound when you were completely out of +your mind I'd have the answer now," said Betty. + +In the morning he turned over to one of the units the task of further +identifying and analyzing the feedback impulse they had discovered. In +the middle of this he was called to Oglethorpe's office. The +investigating Senators had arrived. + +They were favorably impressed by the day-long tour that General +Oglethorpe provided for them around the entire Base. But they found in +Paul's announcement the strongest single factor in favor of permitting +Space Command to continue with its work. + +"We know now," he said, "and this is something I haven't even had time +to present to General Oglethorpe--we know that a completely mechanical +man is possible." + +The General's eyes narrowed as Paul's flat statement continued. "We know +that it is possible to have men at the helm of our ships, who are +incapable of error. We have hopes of producing them within a very short +time if Project Superman is allowed to continue. And when this is done, +there is no technical goal we cannot reach." + +This was the thing the Senators had come to find out, and they were +satisfied. "But the public has got to be reassured of this," Senator +Hart said. "We need to get this mob away from your gates for one thing. +The news programs keep them constantly before the public eye and the +whole country is stirred up." + +"We'll take care of it at once," General Oglethorpe said. "As Dr. Medick +has indicated, this discovery is so new that even I had not been +informed of it. Morgan's mob will go away as soon as they hear the news. +And that, in turn, will reassure the entire country. We can arrange for +a broadcast by Dr. Medick to the whole nation." + +Paul was swept along as arrangements were made to make a statement to +Morgan and his group camped outside the Base, to the press, and to the +public in general. + +Oglethorpe cornered him after the meeting with the Committee. "This is +on the level," he said, "not something you cooked up on the spur of the +moment?" + +"It's on the level," said Paul. "You were right all along." + +When he returned to his office an urgent message from Barker awaited +him. He hurried down to the testing laboratory, where the older man +greeted him in excitement and anxiety. + +"It looks like we've got something by the tail and can't let go of it. +Come in and have a look." + +Paul followed him and found Captain Harper in an observation room, +writhing on a cot in a storm of tears and emotional fury. He beat +against the walls and the floor with his fists as his sobbing continued +beyond control. + +"What happened to him?" Paul demanded. + +"We have three others in the same condition," said Barker. "We tried to +determine the effect of a pure feedback impulse, and fed it back to each +of them in amplified form as we found it on their charts. This is what +happened. I'm afraid we may have cost them their sanity, and we don't +know why." + +"How could their own feedback do such a thing to them?" he asked in +wonder. "What part of the chart did you take it from?" + +"We used the impulse that didn't get through, the one that was blocked +so that error resulted. Apparently this is the alternative to error." He +nodded toward the writhing, sobbing man. "Harper reached a point where +he _had_ to fail or else be subject to this psychic storm." + +Paul ran his long, bony fingers through his hair. "This makes less sense +than ever! If that's true, then we've got to take back what we've told +Oglethorpe. His errorless man isn't possible, after all." + +"I don't know." Barker shook his head thoughtfully. "Evidently the +production of error is a protection against the admission of this +intolerable feedback impulse. But the question remains: why is it +intolerable, and why does it become so after numerous other feedback +impulses have been passed? + +"Yesterday we thought we had it all wrapped up. Now it's blown open +wider than ever before!" + + * * * * * + +Oglethorpe's public relations man prepared a statement to the effect +that further danger from pilot error in rocket ships and the second +Wheel could be considered as completely eliminated with the new training +processes that would make men incapable of technical errors. + +Paul knew it was as ineffectual as the average Government release, but +he made no protest in his concern for Harper and the three other men. He +signed the statement automatically. + +He was presented the following day, however, with arrangements to give +it personally to the members of Morgan's Caravan from the top of one of +the sound trucks. He did protest then that any flunky on the Base could +read it to the crowd as well as he. But Oglethorpe insisted he do it +personally. + +With official pompousness the big, olive-green truck rolled out from the +Base. Paul rode beside the driver and Metcalf, the public relations man. +He'd not told Oglethorpe about their latest development. If this psychic +reaction to feedback proved an impenetrable barrier there'd be time +enough to give Space Command the bad news. In the meantime a Wheel would +be built, the public would be mollified, and Superman would continue +on--to what unknown ends Paul didn't know. + +The massed camp of the fanatic followers of Morgan appeared in the +distance like a discarded rag on either side of the road. Then as they +approached it broke into individual knots of sand-scoured, unwashed +people clustered about their tents. Morgan hadn't given much thought to +adequate facilities before leading them out here. + +The truck rolled to a halt in the center of the camp. Morgan himself, a +long, lanky figure in a dusty black suit, came at the head of a group of +his people to meet them. "I hope you have the news we are waiting for," +he said cordially. + +"We have a statement," said Metcalf. "Dr. Medick here, who has made an +important discovery that will enable all of you to return to your homes, +will read it to you." + +Paul could have stayed in the cab, but he preferred to climb to the +platform atop the truck to get a look at the crowd Morgan had assembled. +He hesitated a moment with the paper in his hands, then took up the mike +and read the statement Metcalf had prepared. "The United States Space +Command wishes to announce that--" + +It fell utterly flat on completely non-understanding ears. Paul looked +over the mass of faces and knew it had failed. Something far more than +this was needed. A little feedback, he thought grimly. A little feedback +of the idiocy of their present situation to correct their course and +return it to normalcy. + +"Five hundred years ago there might have been a crowd of people just +like you," he said suddenly in low tones. "There was a harbor, and some +small ships, and a man who believed he could sail them over the edge of +the world. On the shore were people who thought he was a fool and a +blasphemer, and a few who thought he was right--or at least hoped he +was. + +"Five hundred years ago was the beginning of a new freedom from the +prison of a tiny, constricted world. Today, another freedom waits our +successful conquest of space. And whenever a freedom has been won there +have been more who jeered against it than have cheered for it. You are +today making a choice--" + +He talked for ten minutes, and when he was through he knew that he'd +accomplished his goal. Even before the sound truck pulled out, the cars +of the Caravan were breaking away from the mass and disappearing in the +distance. + +"Nice job," Metcalf congratulated, as if he'd been responsible for it +himself. + +"Just a little feedback in the right place--" murmured Paul absently. + +"Feedback? What's that--new kind of propaganda technique--?" + +"Yeah, you might call it that. How could a guy have been so _blind_--?" +he said fiercely, more to himself than to his companions. + +He hurried to the laboratory as soon as the truck got him back to Base. +He rounded up Barker and Nat Holt and a dozen of his other top men. "The +answer's been under our noses all the time," he said. "We've been too +busy fighting each other for the sake of our own preconceived notions to +have seen it!" + +"What are you talking about?" Holt demanded. + +"Feedback. Can't you guess what it is?" + +"No." + +"Are you willing to let us give you a small dose--something less than +the level given Harper and his men--and then tell us what you find out +about it?" + +Nat Holt looked hesitant. "If you think you know what you're talking +about. There's no point in my getting in a condition like Harper's." + +"We'll pull you out before you get anywhere near that far." + +Still dubious, he took a seat amid the mass of pulse generating +equipment and electro-encephalograph recorders. A single pair of +feedback terminals were fitted to his skull. The generator was set to +duplicate his own feedback impulse taken from a moment of failure. + +Paul switched on the circuits and advanced the controls carefully. A +look of pain and regret crossed Holt's face. He cried out with a +whimper. "Turn it off!" + +"A second more--," Paul said. He advanced the control a hair and waited. +The technologist began to cry suddenly in a low, sobbing voice. + +Paul cut the switch. + +For a moment Holt continued to slump in the chair, his shoulders +jerking. Then he looked up, half-bewildered, half-furious. "What did you +do to me?" he demanded. + +"You did it to yourself," Paul reminded him. "That's your own feedback +pulse just beefed up a little, remember. How did it feel?" + +"Terrible! No wonder a guy dodges that. It's enough to make him wreck a +space station to avoid the full blast of it." + +"What would you call it?" + +"I don't know--," Holt hesitated. "Grief, maybe. Regret--anxiety. But +regret, mostly, I guess." + +"That's your feedback," Paul said as he removed the terminals and turned +to the others. "These feedback pulses we've isolated are nothing but +stabs of pure emotion." + +He turned with a faint smile to Holt. "You and Harper and the rest of +the iron-bowelled boys were so convinced that the pure mechanical man +would be utterly devoid of all emotional responses and content! And I +was so sure that a warm, responsive, emotional human being could never +respond like a cold machine! + +"And we were both utterly wrong. The human being does both. He operates +on true cybernetic principles. But the content of his feedback control +pulses is sheer emotion! + +"A small error, a stab of regret. It's repeated, magnified, or +diminished until the action gets back on the track that brings predicted +results. Ignored, the error builds up until the whole structure goes +smash. + +"And we're _taught_ to ignore it! It's the noble, brave and manly thing +to ignore the human feelings that surge through us. Be steel, be glass, +be electrons--anything but a responsive, emotional human being! That's +the way to be a superman! We've tried to find the way to perfection and +have fought tooth and nail against the only means of achieving it." + +Barker's face was glowing with excitement and Holt seemed to be +remembering something afar off. "That _was_ it," he breathed softly. "I +can feel it now--the way it was as I began to get jittery and make +mistakes in the test procedures. I seemed to fight something within +myself--something I thought was making me do it wrong. But it wasn't +that, at all. I was fighting against the emotional feedback the errors +were throwing at me." + +"Right," said Paul. "And your iron-hard, errorless Superman is going to +be the most emotionally sensitive creature you can produce." + +"How did you catch on to this?" Barker asked. + +"We should have seen it in Harper. He's the original iron-man. He's +bottled up and fought his emotions all his life. A concentrated dose of +his own feedback simply shattered the dam. + +"But I didn't get it until I watched Morgan's mob reacting to the purely +rational explanation Metcalf prepared to convince them they should go +home. They were on a wrong tack and needed a generous amount of the +right feedback to get them back where they belonged. The cold, logical +approach was a dud. What does it take to move an intractible mob? +Emotion--based on the projected consequences of what they're doing. A +perfect feedback setup when correctly applied. And it worked." + +Holt shuddered faintly and moved away from the chair he had sat in to +experience his own feedback. "I'm not quite sure who owes who that +dinner," he said to Paul. "But I think somebody does." + +"We'll split it," Paul said. And then he was silent as they listened to +the departure of another cargo ship carrying parts of the second Wheel +to the thousand-mile orbit. + +He smiled to himself. Ye of little faith!--he thought. Frightened about +the true nature of a race that had come through three billion years of +the kind of torment that Man had survived! + +Man had everything that was needed to go to the stars or anywhere else +he might want to go. He was safe. Man could never be turned into a +robot. The basic mechanisms of his humanity were so interwoven with the +structure of his being that they could never be separated. + +But they hadn't come very far, Paul knew. They had opened only a small +crack in a door that had been irrationally closed from the beginning of +time. They had to know fully why that door had never been opened before. +And beyond it might lie a thousand others just as tightly closed and +closely guarded. + +Yet they had reached a starting point, at last. Project Superman could +get about its business of preparing men for the stars. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Human Error, by Raymond F. 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