FOIA on Martin Luther King

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

could not be devised and introduced in this first effort. Yet, despite the model's material orientation, the conclusions of the study point to the need for fundamental changes in the values of society. (34, p. 191)

Admission that the world model has a minor flaw of omitting "critical social factors" followed so blithely by conclusions about fundamental value changes surely conveys to the reader that the factors that have been dealt with are the more essential and more significant.

## Again recall the human attributes as you read:

By the same token since the thinking human being is also an information processor, it should be possible to study his processes and their organization independently of the details of the biological mechanisms - the 'hardware' that implement them. (Simon and Newell, Information-Processing in Computers and Man", p. 256)

## That the theories

. . . are mechanistic - that they postulate only the processes capable of being effected by mechanism - is guaranteed by simulating the behavior predicated by ordinary digital computers. (ibid. p. 258)

To reemphasize the contribution of science fiction, let us trace through one well-written and popular book, Stand on Zanzibar (Brunner). In the 21st century over-populated world, there is a very advanced computer Shalmaneser owned by General Technic, a company large enough to be contemplating the subsidization, modernization, and management of a small underdeveloped country Beninia. Beninia is unique since it alone has retained peacefulness and trust and humane behavior. Computer analysis is undertaken of the feasibility of the G.T. project and for alternative plans of carrying it out. With regard to the possibility of computer analysis of what makes Beninia attractive, one sensitive character in the book says "... when they get love down to a bunch of factors you can analyze with a computer, there'll be nothing left of whatever makes it worth being human". Shalmaneser eventually rejects the data on Beninia because it is inconsistent with reality. Mulligan, a cynical sociologist, gets the computer to process the data by adding the additional assumption that an unknown force is active in that population. Mulligan points out that the scientists who have been working toward consciousness for the super-computer have been successful because the rejection of the data was a display of its first human characteristic — "orneriness" or "bloody-mindedness". When faced with something different, it chose to reject it instead of broadening its view of the possible. Mulligan sets out to find what makes Beninia different and traces it to a genetic mutation which produces a body odour that surpresses in others the territorial-aggression reaction. Mulligan's hope is that a world-renowned biologist who is working on modification of human genetic maps can use this to better mankind. His hope is shattered when he learns that this biologist has been murdered for political reasons. The decision is that the machine will work on finding an external synthetic spray. Mulligan is led away crying for lost humanity "... what in God's name is it worth to be human, if we have to be saved from ourselves by a machine?" The now conscious machine has the last word and the last sentence of the book "Christ, what an imagination I've got". The irony of the book is that Mulligan, who represents and speaks for those

characteristics which are human, falls into another part of the prevalent mechanistic trap aggression is in our genes; the solution to our problems will be via a specific scientific breakthrough.

## Superstates and Sypersystems

A concern for the use of computers in politics and government is seen in numerous stories. Opinion polling in a political campaign is involved in The 480 (Burdick), and the writing of campaign literature in The Novel Computer (Escarpit). The prediction of elections is carried to an extreme in "Franchise" (Asimov) where only one vote is needed to determine the election, and Counterfeit World (Galouye) describes an entire synthetic society (an "electromathematical model") made up for purposes of opinion surveying. Of greater concern, however, are the super-states dependent on or replaced by supercomputer systems. Many of these stories describe the process by which men gradually gave away self-determination in exchange for material well-being, or in the belief that a larger something was needed to protect them from each other (Anderson, "Sam Hall"; Cole, The Funco File; Dick, Vulcan's Hammer; Fairman, I, the Machine; Mason, Matrix; Pohl, Starchild). Often, no one really understands any longer how the system works (Cameron, Cybernia; Cole, The Funco File; Delany, The Fall of the Towers; Dick, Vulcan's Hammer; Fairman, I, the Machine; Mason, Matrix). In most cases, the vast destructive power of the system is realized when, for some reason, it is no longer serving human ends. One computer overemphasizes the goal of protecting itself (Dick, Vulcan's Hammer), one gets carried away by its goal of avoiding thermo-nuclear war (Cardin, The God Machine), two become lonely and hence mad (Fairman, I, the Machine; Pohl, Starchild), another becomes psychotic because of what it learns from men's minds (Delany, The Fall of the Towers), others are under the control of selfish people (Cameron, Cybernia; Sladek, The Reproductive System). Most of these systems are destroyed by man's more flexible intelligence. However, in one story (Miller, "Dumb Waiter"), the system goes on even after there are no more people, and in another (Dick, "Autofac"), without the knowledge of the people.

## Loss of Control

Some ten years ago when discussing views of computers in science fiction, I pointed out that few contemporary stories could be viewed simply as man's worries about his machines getting beyond his control. I noted that most of the stories focused on extensions of specific current uses and emphasized man's responsibilities as technology advanced (30, 31). While there are some stories in which computers turn on their makers (Dnieprov, "Siema"), the stories just cited have two significantly different characteristics. The stories do not begin with the construction of a machine motivated by curiosity or scientific naivetée, but instead, they begin with the populace agreeing to control by the machine. We read, for example, that in 1993 after a large world war, all nations agree to "subordinate themselves in a realistic manner ... to a common supranational authority ..." which is a machine so that it won't put "interest over reason, emotion over logic" (Dick, Vulcan's Hammer p. 19); or that another machine is built to control the world because with stone axes men could be free as they could do only limited damage before they were stopped but with advanced technology men could do damage so much more quickly they cannot be free to start (Pohl, Starchild). In A Tale of the Big Computer (Johannesson), a history of life until the "computer age," we learn that man