[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Robots are already well-entrenched in the operations of society and the
administering of our laws. Robot clerks tick off the fines paid and send out
summonses to defaulters. Robot accountants check income tax returns and
respond with a rapidly flashing light to small errors and exaggerations. Robot
eyes and sensitive detectors guard the security of our prisons. Robot voting
machines accept our secret ballot and tally the results.
Is it not within the realm of possibility that robots will be handed more and
more functions of government and administration, until there are no more to be
given them- because they will have them all...?
I SEE YOU
THE JUDGE WAS IMPESSIVE IN his black robes, and omniscient in the chromium
perfection of his skull. His voice rolled like the crack of doom; rich and
penetrating.
"Carl Tritt, this court finds you guilty as charged. On 218, 2423 you did
willfully and maliciously steal the payroll of the Marcrix Corporation, a sum
totaling 318,000 cr., and did attempt to keep these same credits as your own.
The sentence is twenty years."
The black gavel fell with the precision of a pile driver and the sound bounced
back and forth inside Carl's head. Twenty years. He clamped bloodless fingers
on the steel bar of justice and looked up into the judge's electronic eyes.
There was perhaps a glint of compassion, hut no mercy there. The sentence had
been passed and recorded in the Central Memory. There was no appeal.
A panel snapped open In the front of the judge's bench and exhibit "A"
slid out on a soundless piston. 318,000 or., still in their original pay
envelopes. The judge pointed as Carl slowly picked it up.
"Here is the money you stole-see that it is returned to the proper people."
Carl shuffled out of the courtroom, the package clutched weakly to his chest,
sunk in a sodden despair. The street outside was washed with a golden sunlight
that he could not see, for his depression shadowed It with the deepest gloom.
His throat was sore and his eyes burned. If he had not been an adult male
citizen, age 25, he might have cried. But 25-year-old adult males do not cry.
Instead he swallowed heavily a few times.
A twenty-year sentence - It couldn't be believed. Why me?
Of all the people in the world why did he have to receive a sentence severe as
that? His well-trained conscience instantly shot back the answer.
Because you stole money. He shied away from that unpleasant thought and
stumbled on.
Unshed tears swam in his eyes and trickled back into his nose and down his
throat. Forgetting in his misery where he was, he choked a bit. Then spat
heavily.
Even as the saliva hit the spotless sidewalk, a waste can twenty feet away
stirred into life. It rotated on hidden wheels and soundlessly rolled towards
him. In shocked horror Carl pressed the back of his hand to his mouth.
Page 36
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Too late to stop what was already done.
A flexible arm licked out and quickly swabbed the sidewalk clean. Then the can
squatted like a mechanical Buddha while a speaker rasped to life in its metal
insides. A tinny metallic voice addressed Carl.
"Carl Tritt, you have violated Local Ordinance #bd-14-668 by expectorating on
a public sidewalk. The sentence is two days. Your total sentence is now twenty
years and two days."
Two other pedestrians had stopped behind Carl, listening with gaping mouths as
sentence was passed. Carl could almost hear their thought. A
sentenced man. Think of that! Over twenty years sentence! They bugged their
eyes at him in a mixture of fascination and distaste.
Carl rushed away, the package clutched to his chest and his face flushed red
with shame. The sentenced men on video had always seemed so funny. How they
fell down and acted bewildered when a door wouldn't open for them.
It didn't seem so funny now.
The rest of that day crept by in a fog of dejection. He had a vague
recollection of his visit to the Marcrix Corporation to return his stolen
money. They had been kind and understanding, and he had fled in embarrassment.
All the kindness in the world wouldn't reprieve his sentence.
He wandered vaguely in the streets after that, until he was exhausted. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
Robots are already well-entrenched in the operations of society and the
administering of our laws. Robot clerks tick off the fines paid and send out
summonses to defaulters. Robot accountants check income tax returns and
respond with a rapidly flashing light to small errors and exaggerations. Robot
eyes and sensitive detectors guard the security of our prisons. Robot voting
machines accept our secret ballot and tally the results.
Is it not within the realm of possibility that robots will be handed more and
more functions of government and administration, until there are no more to be
given them- because they will have them all...?
I SEE YOU
THE JUDGE WAS IMPESSIVE IN his black robes, and omniscient in the chromium
perfection of his skull. His voice rolled like the crack of doom; rich and
penetrating.
"Carl Tritt, this court finds you guilty as charged. On 218, 2423 you did
willfully and maliciously steal the payroll of the Marcrix Corporation, a sum
totaling 318,000 cr., and did attempt to keep these same credits as your own.
The sentence is twenty years."
The black gavel fell with the precision of a pile driver and the sound bounced
back and forth inside Carl's head. Twenty years. He clamped bloodless fingers
on the steel bar of justice and looked up into the judge's electronic eyes.
There was perhaps a glint of compassion, hut no mercy there. The sentence had
been passed and recorded in the Central Memory. There was no appeal.
A panel snapped open In the front of the judge's bench and exhibit "A"
slid out on a soundless piston. 318,000 or., still in their original pay
envelopes. The judge pointed as Carl slowly picked it up.
"Here is the money you stole-see that it is returned to the proper people."
Carl shuffled out of the courtroom, the package clutched weakly to his chest,
sunk in a sodden despair. The street outside was washed with a golden sunlight
that he could not see, for his depression shadowed It with the deepest gloom.
His throat was sore and his eyes burned. If he had not been an adult male
citizen, age 25, he might have cried. But 25-year-old adult males do not cry.
Instead he swallowed heavily a few times.
A twenty-year sentence - It couldn't be believed. Why me?
Of all the people in the world why did he have to receive a sentence severe as
that? His well-trained conscience instantly shot back the answer.
Because you stole money. He shied away from that unpleasant thought and
stumbled on.
Unshed tears swam in his eyes and trickled back into his nose and down his
throat. Forgetting in his misery where he was, he choked a bit. Then spat
heavily.
Even as the saliva hit the spotless sidewalk, a waste can twenty feet away
stirred into life. It rotated on hidden wheels and soundlessly rolled towards
him. In shocked horror Carl pressed the back of his hand to his mouth.
Page 36
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Too late to stop what was already done.
A flexible arm licked out and quickly swabbed the sidewalk clean. Then the can
squatted like a mechanical Buddha while a speaker rasped to life in its metal
insides. A tinny metallic voice addressed Carl.
"Carl Tritt, you have violated Local Ordinance #bd-14-668 by expectorating on
a public sidewalk. The sentence is two days. Your total sentence is now twenty
years and two days."
Two other pedestrians had stopped behind Carl, listening with gaping mouths as
sentence was passed. Carl could almost hear their thought. A
sentenced man. Think of that! Over twenty years sentence! They bugged their
eyes at him in a mixture of fascination and distaste.
Carl rushed away, the package clutched to his chest and his face flushed red
with shame. The sentenced men on video had always seemed so funny. How they
fell down and acted bewildered when a door wouldn't open for them.
It didn't seem so funny now.
The rest of that day crept by in a fog of dejection. He had a vague
recollection of his visit to the Marcrix Corporation to return his stolen
money. They had been kind and understanding, and he had fled in embarrassment.
All the kindness in the world wouldn't reprieve his sentence.
He wandered vaguely in the streets after that, until he was exhausted. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]