[SKRIVA] Kryptofannisk sf-novell

Som jag nämnt går jag den där distanskursen i läsa/skriva sf på Högskolan i 
Gävle. Det senaste vi skulle sätta tänderna i var Isaac Asimovs I, Robot (som 
Jag, robot på svenska - det går ett rykte om att Hollywoods 
specialeffektsavdelning "gjort" en "film" som skulle ha med boken att göra, ett 
synnerligen illvilligt och falskt rykte!). Det ingår att man skall skriva egna 
texter med utgångspunkt från läslistan. Så jag började koka ihop något som 
angick Robotikens Tre Lagar. Och medan jag skrev halkade ett par fanniska och 
mer interna referenser in. Och så gick jag över det hela igen, och igen, och 
snart var hela texten fullpepprad med slikt! Tanken är att sådana referenser 
skall "passa in", utan att en mer aningslös utomstående läsare skall märka så 
mycket - en del kanske de märker, som när jag sparkar på FRA. Möjligen räknar 
någon ut att H1L1 är H-"ein"-L"ein" - tyskt ett, alltså. Och kanske något mer. 
Men de interna blinkningarna är många, flera som t ex går tillbaka till 
amerikansk fandom på 30/40-talet t ex...

  Texten är på engelska, då kursens arbetsspråk är det. (Hade jag skrivit på 
svenska, skulle jag ha använt fler interna referenser till svensk fanhistoria. 
Nu föll det sig inte så.) Jag säger inte att det är en bra novell, men den är 
nog en smula kul...  Kommentera gärna.

 

--Ahrvid

 

The SETI Machines
 
The Moon Shuttle's landing was hard and bouncy like a half-cooked potato, but 
Professor Robert didn't mind. Now he'd finally get the explanation of why he'd 
been called to the SETI centre in the Drake-Sagan complex. The eager has 
landed, he thought, at the cost of millions of Euros.
  As the airlock sighed from the final pressure equalisation and the doors 
dilated, he immediately spotted Dr Sykora, the director. They were escorted 
through the corridors by zapgun-armed personnel from Luna City Security. There 
was tension in the re-circulated, sterile air. Robert saw many other guards 
standing around here and there. It must all have to do with the reason for his 
hastily arranged visit. What was going on?
  Technicians walked around in solemn silence. Everywhere grim faces. Robert 
felt like he had ridden a rocket to the morgue. Sykora had to sluice them 
through at least two retina scans. Ten standard minutes after touchdown they 
were seated in his cramped office cubicle, full of equipment, 3D screens and 
stacks of paper protruding from behind a radiator. Sykora sipped on the cup of 
algae coffee in his hand. Robert didn't take any. A fan was slowly cranking in 
a corner indicating that hot news awaited.
  "Welcome, Professor. You may spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard!" 
Sykora opened.
  "Excuse me," Robert said.
  "Sorry, just an expression. Tell me Professor, I guess you want the thrilling 
wonder stories about why we called you here?"
  "You can say that again, Doctor Sykora. It was this week's adventure, to say 
the least! Of course I couldn't deny your request, and I have read everything 
about the subspace SETI signals. You really have contact with an alien 
civilisation..."
  "Yes, and that's the problem."
  For decades mankind had searched the electromagnetic wavelengths for 
extra-terrestrial signals, even attempting to detect laser-light communication. 
But when the gravitrino was discovered at ConCERN, the new super collider, a 
whole new spectrum - if you may call something resembling white dots in a black 
darkness that - for interstellar communications opened, one that was almost 
instantaneous too. Drake-Sagan on the Moon's backside, shielded from Earth 
disturbance, was the best spot to pick up gravitrino interference pulses, 
shortly nicknamed subspace from an ancient 2D-TV series called "Star Wreck" or 
something.
  Once the correction fluid dynamics were understood and the Dean drive was 
spinning the scientists could construct the ANSIBLE - Astronomical Noisy 
Subspace Interference Bulletin Log Extender. Forsvarets Radioanstalt in Sweden, 
with their long experience in clandestine eavesdropping, provided the final 
pieces of the puzzle and soon they deciphered the first signals from the 
Bug-Eyed Monsters.
  "But we're not sure they are Bug-Eyed Monsters," Sykora explained. "We 
suspect they are machines."
  "I've read the ANSIBLE news, of course," Robert said. "Fun to read, but a bit 
insider oriented and often obscure. However, things don't click. Why the 
tightened security? And why do you need me? I was very occupied preparing for 
the Minneapolis ´73 convention for the International Scientific Association, 
and me getting away from it all costs a lot - and I'll miss Von Donegans 
scientific talk! There ain't no such thing as a free launch, you know. It's a 
proud and lonely thing to be the single passenger on a very expensive shuttle, 
but..."
  "That's peanuts, Professor! President Kyle said you couldn't sit there on 
Earth. We had to do that oneshot for you."
  "Hm, Dr Sykora, does it matter if the extra-terrestrials are biological or 
mechanical or electronic or nanonic or crottled..."
  "It matters to a high degree. We need to find out, and you are an expert on 
the Turing test."
  "It was a eons since I was the field's leading expert and critic," Robert 
sighed. "My doctoral thesis on turingology was 17 years ago. But I've hardly 
touched that mind-expanding stuff since and the field has advanced immensely. 
There are thousands of researchers who know much more now. But why is this 
important?"
  "Let me explain. As you know Moskowitz's Conjecture in turingology states, 
loud and clear, that any species building conscious machines will have to build 
in something similar to the Three Laws of Robotics. However, if machine-like 
beings are *the only* representatives of their civilisation the situation 
changes. An exclusion act applies, and Law one and two disappear."
  "Ah, I see," Robert said. "Law one: A robot may not injure a human being... 
it becomes irrelevant if there are no humans, or any equivalent biological 
beings. And Law two - a robot must obey any orders by humans - also becomes 
irrelevant, for the same reason."
  "All that remains is Law three: A robot must protect its own existence," 
Sykora said. "And you can guess what that implies. We may have ANSIBLE contact 
with very single-minded beings, with a very strong *dominating* law - to 
protect themselves at all costs."
  "And mankind has been naughty boys during its entire history. World War I, 
World War II, World War 2,5 which almost...mankind's endless staple wars. I'd 
find reasons to be afraid of us, if I were them. We've never had much of a 
cosmic mind."
  "Now, we want you to construct the most important Turing test in history. 
They must not suspect they are being tested. You must write them little letters 
of comment. You must be subtle, with the tricky bits interlineated with the 
mostly harmless serious and constructive stuff. If the aliens are machine 
beings they must not see us as a threat. But we must know their true nature!"
  "But why me?"
  "Well, Professor Robert. You were the first in your category to get a degree 
in turingology, and the board strongly feels that to reveal robots, it will 
take a robot."
  Now it clicked for Professor Robert A-H1L1.
 
--Ahrvid Engholm

--
ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx / Gå med i SKRIVA - för författande, sf, fantasy, kultur 
(skriva-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, subj: subscribe) YXSKAFTBUD, GE VÅR WCZONMÖ 
IQ-HJÄLP! (DN NoN 00.02.07)


                                          
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