The Turing Option

“He is going to love that. I’ll take another coffee before I even think about facing him.”

“Help yourself. But I have to get back to the O.R.”

“I’m going with you. I’m staying there until I see just what kind of security the General comes up with.”

6 February 19, 2023

The next morning Benicoff got to Dr. Snaresbrook’s office just before she left for the operating room.

“Got a moment?”

“Just that and nothing more. This is going to be a difficult day.”

“I thought you might want to know about the assassin. As was expected no identification, no labels in his clothes, no identification. His blood was more revealing. The report said that his blood type placed his origin in South America. Colombia in fact. I didn’t know they could be that specific.”

“Blood typing is getting more and more refined — and you will probably find that given enough time they will be able to pinpoint his origin exactly. Is that all?”

“Not quite. He had full-blown AIDS and was a three-bag-a-day heroin addict. He came down from his high just long enough to pull the job — but he had a hypodermic in his bag loaded with a dose that would kill a horse. So we have a hired gun, more than ready to kill for his expensive fix. The trail gets cold there but the investigators are trying to work through the people who arranged the contract with him for the hit. I have not yet even been told who they are or how this information reached us. So you will appreciate that it is not very easy.”

“I appreciate. Now if you will excuse me I have to go to work. Come with me.” They scrubbed and dressed in silence, then went into the O.R. Once more the covering on Brian’s open brain was pulled back.

“This operation will hopefully be the last,” Erin Snaresbrook said. “This is a computer that will be implanted in his brain.”

She was balancing an oddly shaped black plastic form on the palm of her gloved hand, holding it up so that the camera that was recording the operating procedure could get a clear view of it. “It is a million-processor CM-10 connection machine with a 1,000-megahertz router and then a thousand megabytes of RAM. It has the capacity to easily do 100 trillion operations per second. Even after the implantation of the connection chip films there is space in the brain left for this where the dead tissue was removed. The computer case was shaped to exactly fit into this space.”

She laid the supercomputer on the sterile tray. The tendrils of the machine above dropped down over it, examined it, picked it and rotated it into the correct position for implantation. When the preparation was complete the computer was lifted, then lowered into the opening in Brian’s skull.

“Before being finally positioned the connections are made between the computer and each of the films. There, the connections have been made, the case is being fitted into its permanent position. As soon as the last, external connection is complete we will begin closure. Even now the computer should be in operation. It has been programmed with reconnection-learning software. This recognizes similar or related signals and reroutes the nerve signals within the chips. Hopefully these memories will now be accessible.”

“It’s a strange kind of graduation present,” Dolly said. “The boy needs clothes and a new jacket.”

“He’ll get them, just take him shopping after school,” Paddy said, grunting as he bent to tie his shoes. “Anyway, clothes aren’t any kind of real present for a boy. Especially on an occasion like this. He’s finished high school in less than a year and is looking forward to the university. And he’s only twelve years old.”

“Have you ever thought that we are pushing him too fast?”

“Dolly — you know better than to say a thing like that. There’s no pushing here. If anything we have to work hard not to hold him back. It was his idea to finish high school so quickly because there are courses he wants to take that aren’t available in secondary education. That’s why he wants to see where I work. The security regulations prevented him coming until now. So this is a very exciting moment in his life because he now has all the grounding that he needs to go ahead. To him the university is the horn of plenty, bursting with good things to consume.”

“Well that’s all right. He really should eat more. He gets into that computer and forgets where he is.”

“A metaphor!” Paddy laughed. “Intellectual food to feed his curiosity.”

She was hurt, tried not to show it. “Now you’re laughing at me, just because I worry about his health.”

“I’m not laughing at you — and his health is fine. And his weight’s fine, he grows like a weed and swims and works out just like every other kid. But his intellectual curiosity — that’s what is different. You want to come with us? This is his big day.”

She shook her head. “It’s not for me. Just enjoy yourself and see that you are back by six. I’m making a turkey with all the trimmings and Milly and George are coming over later. I want to be cleaned up before they get here—”