The Turing Option

If the security arrangements were invisible during the day this certainly was not true at night. In the short walk from the office block to the laboratory building they encountered two guards on patrol — both with vicious-looking dogs on strained leashes. The area was brilliantly lit, while TV cameras turned and followed them as they walked through the grounds. Another guard, his Uzi submachine gun ready, was waiting outside the lab doors. Although the guard knew them all, including his own boss, he had to see their personal IDs before he unlocked the security box. J.J. waited patiently until the light inside turned green. He entered the correct code, then pressed his thumb to the pressure plate. The computer checked his thumbprint as well. Toth repeated this procedure, then in response to the computer’s query, punched in the number of visitors.

“Computer needs your thumbprint too, Dr. McCrory.”

Only after this had been done did the motors hum in the frame and the door clicked open.

“I’ll take you as far as the laboratory,” Toth said, “but I’m not cleared for entry at this time. Call me on the red phone when you are ready to leave.”

The laboratory was brilliantly lit. Visible through the armor-glass door was a thin, nervous man in his early twenties. He ran his fingers anxiously through his unruly red hair as he waited.

“He looks a little young for this level of responsibility,” J. J. Beckworth said.

“He is young — but you must realize that he finished college before he was sixteen years old,” Bill McCrory said. “And had his doctorate by the time he was nineteen. If you have never seen a genius before you are looking at one now. Our headhunters followed his career very closely, but he was a loner with no corporate interest, turned down all of our offers.”

“Then how come he is working for us now?”

“He overstretched himself. This kind of research is both expensive and time-consuming. When his personal assets began to run out we approached him with a contract that would benefit both parties. At first he refused — in the end he had no choice.”

Both visitors had to identify themselves at another security station before the last door opened. Toth stepped aside as they went in; the computer counted the visitors carefully. They entered and heard the door close and lock behind them. J. J. Beckworth took the lead, knowing that the easier he made this meeting, the faster he would get results. He extended his hand and shook Brian’s firmly.

“This is a great pleasure, Brian. I just wish we could have met sooner. I have heard nothing but good news about the work you have been doing. You have my congratulations — and my thanks for taking the time to show me what you have done.”

Brian’s white Irish skin turned red at his unexpected praise. He was not used to it. Nor was he versed enough in the world of business to realize that the Chairman was deliberately turning on the charm. Deliberate or not, it had the desired result. He was more at ease now, eager to answer and explain. J.J. nodded and smiled.

“I have been told that you have had an important breakthrough. Is that true?”

“Absolutely! You could say that this is it — the end of ten years’ work. Or rather the beginning of the end. There will be plenty of development to come.”

“I was given to understand that it has something to do with artificial intelligence.”

“Yes, indeed. I think that we have some real AI, at last.”

“Hold your horses, young man. I thought that AI had been around for decades?”

“Certainly. There have been some pretty smart programs written and used that have been called AI. But what I have here is something far more advanced — with abilities that promise to rival those of the human mind.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t mean to lecture. But how acquainted are you with the work in this field?”

“To be perfectly frank, I know nothing at all. And the name is J.J., if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, sir — J.J. Then if you will come with me I will bring you up to date a little bit.”

He led the way to an impressive array of apparatus that filled an entire laboratory bench. “This is not my work, it’s a project that Dr. Goldblum has under way. But it makes a perfect introduction to AI. The hardware isn’t much, it’s an old Macintosh SE/60 with a Motorola 68050 CPU and a data-base coprocessor that increases its execution speed by a factor of 100. The software itself is based on an updated version of a classic Self-Learning Expert System for renal analysis.”

“Just hold it there, son! I don’t know what a renal is. I know a little about Expert Systems, but what was it you said — a Self-Learning Expert System? You are going to have to go back and start at square A if you don’t want to lose me.”