The Feeling Of Power

The Feeling Of Power

Isaac Asimov



Jehan Shuman was used to dealing with the men in authority on long-embattled earth. He was only a civilian but he originated programming patterns that resulted in self-directing war computers of the highest sort. Generals, consequently listened to him. Heads of congressional committees too.
There was one of each in the special lounge of New Pentagon.Shuman, tall, distinguished, and Programmer-first-class, faced them fearlessly.
He said, "This, gentlemen, is Myron Aub."
"Aub! How much is nine times seven?"
"Sixty-three," he said.
"Check it for yourself, Congressman."
The congressman took out his pocket computer, nudged the milled edges twice, looked at its face as it lay there in the palm of his hand, and put it back.  He said, "Is thisthe gift you brought us here to demonstrate. An illusionist?"
“More than that, sir.”Shuman said “would you be so kind as to suggest a number?”
"Seventeen," said the general.
"And you, Congressman?"
"Twenty-three."
"Good! Aub, multiply those numbers, and please show the gentlemen your manner of doing it."
"Yes, Programmer," said Aub,
 Finally he said in a low voice, "The answer is threehundred and ninety-one."
Congressman Brant took out his computer a second time and flicked it. "By Godfrey, so it is. How did he guess?"
"He computed that result. He did it on this sheet of paper."
"Explain, Aub," said Shuman.
"Yes, Programmer. Well, gentlemen, I write down seventeen, and just underneath it I write twenty-three. Next I say to myself: seven times three -Now seven times three istwenty-one."
"Seven times three is twenty-one, so I write down twenty-one. Then one times three is three, so I write down three under the two of twenty-one.
Aub said, "Three plus two makes five, you see, so the twenty- one becomes a fifty-one. Now you let that go for a while and start fresh. You multiply seven and two, that's fourteen, and one and two, that's two. Put them down like this and it addsup to thirty-four. Now if you put the thirty-four under the fifty-one this way and add them, you get three hundred and ninety-one, and that's the answer."
The President of the Terrestrial Federation had grown haggard in office and, in private, he allowed a look of settled melancholy to appear on his sensitive features.The Denebian War, after its early start of vast movement and great popularity,had trickled down into a sordid matter of maneuver and counter-maneuver, with discontent rising steadily on earth. Possibly, it was rising on Deneb, too.
"Computing without a computer," said the president impatiently, "is a contradiction in terms."
"Computing," said the congressman, "is only a system for handling data. A machine might do it, or the human brain might. Let me give you anexample." And, using the new skills he had learned, he worked out sums and products until the president, despite himself, grew interested.
"Does this always work?"
"Every time, Mr. President. It is foolproof."
"Is it hard to learn?"
"It took me a week to get the real hang of it. I think you would do better."
the Denebian War is a war of computer against computer. Their computers forge an impenetrableshield of countermissiles against our missiles, and ours forge one against theirs. If we advance the efficiency of our computers, so do they theirs, and for five years a precarious and profitless balance has existed.
"Now we have in our hands a method for going beyond the computed, leapfrogging it, passing through it. We will combine the mechanics of computation with human thought; we will havethe equivalent of intelligent computers, billions of them. I can't predict what the consequences will be in detail, but they will be incalculable. And if Deneb beats us to the punch, they may be unimaginably catastrophic."
"Put the power of the administration behind the establishment of a secret project on human computation. Call it Project Number, if you like. I can vouch for my committee, but...