THE DEADLY THINKERS
Feature Novel of Machine and Man
By Wm. Gray Beyer
"Urei" was what they called the huge Unified Reflexive ElectronicIntegrator, and the vast machine seemed to be developing a personalityof its own. Then men began to suspect that Urei had acquired sentience,and with that came the fear of its interference with human minds.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Science Fiction Quarterly May 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
There was a slow smile hovering on the lips of the older man, too slowactually to materialize. "Fantasy," he said, gently. "You've beenreading too much science fiction."
Benton's smile was quick. It flashed into being with the speed ofthought, then vanished as abruptly.
"There isn't that much," he contended. "I've said before that sciencefiction was Urei's father, or at least a distant ancestor." He paused."But I'd still like to hear a few reasons why my logic is wrong."
"I've a million of them," assured Dr. Albie, crossing his lean legs andsettling back in the soft chair. "In the first place, Urei is too big.His billion-odd cells, relays and circuits occupy almost a square mile;his height, counting what's under ground, is almost five hundred feet.If he decided to perambulate ... well, it's just absurd. In the secondplace...."
"Let's finish with the first place," Benton interrupted. "Of coursethat's absurd. I didn't suggest it. He doesn't have to move; he's gotthe entire human race to run his errands. I tell you I felt something,a definite compulsion, when I turned that page. Urei is getting readyto take over!"
Benton jumped to his feet and paced rapidly back and forth, obliviousto the fact that Dr. Albie was watching him with a worried frown.That, had he seen it, would probably have snapped him out of hisfrenzied reverie, for the doctor was a man who was normally as farbeyond frowns as he was chary of laughter. His philosophy was such thathe eschewed all emotional extremes, stifling them before they could getstarted.
Albie cleared his throat arrestingly. "I won't insult you by sayingbluntly that you may have imagined it," he said. "But I'd like to pointout the fact that people are continually subject to impulses whichthey follow or ignore, depending on the circumstances. Those impulsesoriginate within their own minds, probably the result of associationstoo obscure to be identified at the time. You worked on those circuitequations far into the night and you didn't get much sleep; isn't itpossible that the compulsion you felt originated within yourself, andthat in your tired state you misjudged its source?"
Benton stopped, flexed thick biceps, clenched his fists and opened themseveral times, then propelled his stubby body toward a decanter full ofBourbon.
"It's possible," he conceded, downing a quick drink, "but I don'tbelieve it. I'm not subject to hallucinations, you know, but I'll goalong with the possibility. Let's see.... It was four o'clock when ithappened, which means I'd been working for seven hours. I workedsixteen hours yesterday and then had three hours sleep. It's eighto'clock now and I don't feel sleepy. Knowing me, do you think I wasexhausted t