THE BICENTENNIAL MAN

by Isaac Asimov

  “So it seemed to us,” William said, “that the autistic child was not failing to receive the impressions, or even failing to interpret them in quite a sophisticated manner. He was, rather, disapproving them and rejecting them, without any loss of the potentiality of full communication if some impression could be found which he approved of.”

  “Ah,” said Anthony, making just enough of a sound to indicate that he was listening.

  “Nor can you persuade him out of his autism in any ordinary way, for he disapproves of you just as much as he disapproves of the rest of the world. But if you place him in conscious arrest--”

  “In what?”

  “It is a technique we have in which, in effect, the brain is divorced from the body and can perform its functions without reference to the body. It is a rather sophisticated technique devised in our own laboratory; actually--” He paused.

  “By yourself?” asked Anthony gently. “Actually, yes,” said William, reddening slightly, but clearly pleased. “In conscious arrest, we can supply the body with designed fantasies and observe the brain under differential electroencephalography. We can at once learn more about the autistic individual; what kind of sense impressions he most wants; and we learn more about the brain generally.”

  “Ah,” said Anthony, and this time it was a real ah. “And all this you have learned about brains-- can you not adapt it to the workings of a computer?”

  “No,” said William. “Not a chance. I told that to Dmitri. I know nothing about computers and not enough about brains.”

  “If I teach you about computers and tell you in detail what we need, what then?”

  “It won't do. It--”

  “Brother,” Anthony said, and he tried to make it an impressive word. “You owe me something. Please make an honest attempt to give our problem some thought. Whatever you know about the brain--please adapt it to our computers.”

  William shifted uneasily, and said, “I understand your position. I will try. I will honestly try.”

  6.

  William had tried, and as Anthony had predicted, the two had been left to work together. At first they encountered others now and then and William had tried to use the shock value of the announcement that they were brothers since there was no use in denial. Eventually that stopped, however, and there came to be a purposeful non-interference. When William approached Anthony, or Anthony approached William, anyone else who might be present faded silently into the walls.

  They even grew used to each other after a fashion and sometimes spoke to each other almost as though there were no resemblance between them at all and no childish memories in common.

  Anthony made the computer requirements plain in reasonably non-technical language and William, after long thought, explained how it seemed to him a computer might do the work, more or less, of a brain.

  Anthony said, “Would that be possible?”

  “I don't know,” said William. “I am not eager to try. It may not work. But it may.”

  “We' d have to talk to Dmitri Large.”

  “Let's talk it over ourselves first and see what we've got. We can go to him with as reasonable a proposition as we can put together. Or else, not go to him.”

  Anthony hesitated, “We both go to him?” William said delicately, “You be my spokesman. There is no reason that we need be seen together.”

  “Thank you, William. If anything comes of this, you will get full credit from me.”

  William said, “I have no worries about that. If there is anything to this, I will be the only one who can make it work, I suppose.”

  They thrashed it out through four or five meetings and if Anthony hadn't been kin and if there hadn't been that sticky, emotional situation between them, William would have been uncomplicatedly proud of the younger-brother--for his quick understanding of an alien field.

  There were then long conferences with Dmitri Large. There were, in fact, conferences with everyone. Anthony saw them through endless days, and then they came to see William separately. And eventually, through an agonizing pregnancy, what came to be called the Mercury Computer was authorized.

  William then returned to New York with some relief. He did not plan to stay in New York (would he have thought that possible two months earlier?) but there was much to do at the Homological Institute.

  More conferences were necessary, of course, to explain to his own laboratory group what was happening and why he had to take leave and how they were to continue their own projects without him. Then there was a much more elaborate arrival at Dallas with the essential equipment and with two young aides for what would have to be an open-ended stay.

  Nor did William even look back, figuratively speaking. His own laboratory and its needs faded from his thoughts. He was now thoroughly committed to his new task.

  7.

  It was the worst period for Anthony. The relief during William's absence had not penetrated deep and there began the nervous agony of wondering whether perhaps, hope against hope, he might not return. Might he not choose to send a deputy, someone else, anyone else? Anyone with a different face so that Anthony need not feel the half of a two-backed four-legged monster?

  But it was William. Anthony had watched the freight plane come silently through the air, had watched it unload from a distance. But even from that distance he eventually saw William.

  That was that. Anthony left. He went to see Dmitri that afternoon. “It's not necessary, Dmitri, for me to stay, surely. We've worked out the details and someone else can take over.”

  “No, no,” said Dmitri. “The idea was yours in the first place. You must see it through. There is no point in needlessly dividing the credit.”

  Anthony thought: No one else will take the risk. There's still the chance of fiasco. I might have known.

  He had known, but he said stolidly, “You understand I cannot work with William.”

  “But why not?” Dmitri pretended surprise. “You have been doing so well together.”

  “I have been straining my guts over it, Dmitri, and they won't take any more. Don't you suppose I know how it looks?”

  “My good fellow! You make too much of it. Sure the men stare. They are human, after all. But they'll get used to it. I'm used to it.”

  You are not, you fat liar, Anthony thought. He said, “I'm not used to it.”

  “You're not looking at it properly. Your parents were peculiar--but after all, what they did wasn't illegal, only peculiar, only peculiar. It's not your fault, or William's. Neither of you is to blame.”

  “We carry the mark,” said Anthony, making a quick curving gesture of his hand to his face.

  “It's not the mark you think. I see differences. You are distinctly younger in appearance. Your hair is wavier. It's only at first glance that there is a similarity. Come, Anthony, there will be all the time you want, all the help you need, all the equipment you can use. I'm sure it will work marvelously. Think of the satisfaction--”

  Anthony weakened, of course, and agreed at least to help William set up the equipment. William; too, seemed sure it would work marvelously. Not as frenetically as Dmitri did, but with a kind of calmness.

  “It's only a matter of the proper connections,” he said, “though I must admit that that's quite a huge 'only.' Your end of it will be to arrange sensory impressions on an independent screen so that we can exert-- well, I can't say manual control, can I?--so that we can exert intellectual control to override, if necessary.”

  “That can be done,” said Anthony. “Then let's get going....Look, I'll need a week at least to arrange the connections and make sure of the instructions--”

  “Programming, “ said Anthony. “Well, this is your place, so I'll use your terminology. My assistants and I will program the Mercury Computer, but not in your fashion.”

  “I should hope not. We would want a homologist to set up a much more subtle program than anything a mere telemetrist could do.” He did not try to hide the self-hating irony in his words.


  William let the tone go and accepted the words. He said, “Well begin simply. We'll have the robot walk.”

  8.

  A week later, the robot walked in Arizona, a thousand miles away. He walked stiffly, and sometimes he fell down, and sometimes he clanked his ankle against an obstruction, and sometimes he whirled on one foot and went off in a surprising new direction.

  “He's a baby, learning to walk,” said William. Dmitri came occasionally, to learn of progress. “That's remarkable,” he would say.

  Anthony didn't think so. Weeks passed, then months. The robot had progressively done more and more, as the Mercury Computer had been placed, progressively, under a more and more complex programming. (William had a tendency to refer to the Mercury Computer as a brain, but Anthony wouldn't allow it.) And all that happened wasn't good enough.

  “It's not good enough, William,” he said finally. He had not slept the night before.

  “Isn't that strange?” said William coolly. “I was going to say that I thought we had it about beaten.”

  Anthony held himself together with difficulty. The strain of working with William and of watching the robot fumble was more than he could bear. “I'm going to resign, William. The whole job. I'm sorry....It's not you.”

  “But it is I, Anthony.”

  “It isn't all you, William. It's failure. We won't make it. You see how clumsily the robot handles himself, even though he's on Earth, only a thousand miles away, with the signal round trip only a tiny fraction of a second in time. On Mercury, there will be minutes of delay, minutes for which the Mercury Computer will have to allow. It's madness to think it will work.”

  William said, “Don't resign, Anthony. You can't resign now. I suggest we have the robot sent to Mercury. I'm convinced he's ready.”

  Anthony laughed loudly and insultingly. “You're crazy, William.”

  “I'm not. You seem to think it will be harder on Mercury, but it won't be. It's harder on Earth. This robot is designed for one-third Earth-normal gravity, and he's working in Arizona at full gravity. He's designed for 400° C, and he's got 300° C. He's designed for vacuum and he's working in an atmospheric soup.”

  “That robot can take the difference.”

  “The metal structure can, I suppose, but what about the Computer right here? It doesn't work well with a robot that isn't in the environment he's designed for....Look, Anthony, if you want a computer that is as complex as a brain, you have to allow for idiosyncrasies....Come, let's make a deal. If you will push, with me, to have the robot sent to Mercury, that will take six months, and I will take a sabbatical for that period. You will be rid of me.”

  “Who'll take care of the Mercury Computer?”

  “By now you understand how it works, and I'll have my two men here to help you.”

  Anthony shook his head defiantly. “I can't take the responsibility for the Computer, and I won't take the responsibility for suggesting that the robot be sent to Mercury. It won't work.”

  “I'm sure it will.”

  “You can't be sure. And the responsibility is mine. I'm the one who'll bear the blame. It will be nothing to you.”

  Anthony later remembered this as a crucial moment. William might have let it go. Anthony would have resigned. All would have been lost.

  But William said, “Nothing to me? Look, Dad had this thing about Mom. All right. I'm sorry, too. I'm as sorry as anyone can be, but it's done, and there's something funny that has resulted. When I speak of Dad, I mean your Dad, too, and there's lots of pairs of people who can say that: two brothers, two sisters, a brother and sister. And then when I say Mom, I mean your Mom, and there are lots of pairs who can say that, too. But I don't know any other pair, nor have I heard of any other pair, who can share both Dad and Mom.”

  “I know that,” said Anthony grimly. “Yes, but look at it from my standpoint,” said William hurriedly. “I'm a homologist. I work with gene patterns. Have you ever thought of our gene patterns? We share both parents, which means that our gene patterns are closer together than any other pair on this planet. Our very faces show it.”

  “I know that, too.”

  “So that if this project were to work, and if you were to gain glory from it, it would be your gene pattern that would have been proven highly useful to mankind--and that would mean very much my gene pattern as well....Don't you see, Anthony? I share your parents, your face, your gene pattern, and therefore either your glory or your disgrace. It is mine almost as much as yours, and if any credit or blame adheres to me, it is yours almost as much as mine, too. I've got to be interested in your success. I've a motive for that which no one else on Earth has-- a purely selfish one, one so selfish you can be sure it's there. I'm on your side, Anthony, because you're very nearly me!”

  They looked at each other for a long time, and for the first time, Anthony did so without noticing the face he shared.

  William said, “So let us ask that the robot be sent to Mercury.”

  And Anthony gave in. And after Dmitri had approved the request -- he had been waiting to, after all-- Anthony spent much of the day in deep thought.

  Then he sought out William and said, “Listen!”

  There was a long pause which William did not break. Anthony said again, “Listen!” William waited patiently.

  Anthony said, “There's really no need for you to leave. I'm sure you wouldn't like to have the Mercury Computer tended by anyone but yourself.”

  William said, “You mean you intend to leave?” Anthony said, “No, I'll stay, too.”

  William said, “We needn't see much of each other.”

  All of this had been, for Anthony, like speaking with a pair of hands clenched about his windpipe. The pressure seemed to tighten now, but he managed the hardest statement of all.

  “We don't have to avoid each other. We don't have to.”

  William smiled rather uncertainly. Anthony didn't smile at all; he left quickly.

  9.

  William looked up from his book. It was at least a month since he had ceased being vaguely surprised at having Anthony enter.

  He said, “ Anything wrong?”

  “Who can say? They're coming in for the soft landing. Is the Mercury Computer in action?”

  William knew Anthony knew the Computer status perfectly, but he said, “By tomorrow morning, Anthony.”

  “ And there are no problems?”

  “None at all.”

  “Then we have to wait for the soft landing.”

  “Yes.”

  Anthony said, “Something will go wrong.”

  “Rocketry is surely an old hand at this. Nothing will go wrong.”

  “So much work wasted.”

  “It's not wasted yet. It won't be.”

  Anthony said, “Maybe you're right.” Hands deep in his pockets, he drifted away, stopping at the door just before touching contact. “Thanks!”

  “For what, Anthony?”

  “For being-- comforting.”

  William smiled wryly and was relieved his emotions didn't show.

  10.

  Virtually the entire body of personnel of the Mercury Project was on hand for the crucial moment. Anthony, who had no tasks to perform, remained well to the rear, his eyes on the monitors. The robot had been activated and there were visual messages being returned.

  At least they came out as the equivalent of visual--and they showed as yet nothing but a dim glow of light which was, presumably, Mercury's surface.

  Shadows flitted across the screen, probably irregularities on that surface. Anthony couldn't tell by eye alone, but those at the controls, who were analyzing the data by methods more subtle than could be disposed of by unaided eye, seemed calm. None of the little red lights that might have betokened emergency were lighting. Anthony was watching the key observers rather than the screen.

  He should be down with William and the others at the Computer. It was going to be thrown in only when the soft landing was made. He should be. He couldn't be.

&n
bsp; The shadows flitted across the screen more rapidly. The robot was descending-- too quickly? Surely, too quickly!

  There was a last blur and a steadiness, a shift of focus in which the blur grew darker, then fainter. A sound was heard and there were perceptible seconds before Anthony realized what it was the sound was saying--“Soft landing achieved! Soft landing achieved!”

  Then a murmur arose and became an excited hum of self-congratulation until one more change took place on the screen and the sound of human words and laughter was stopped as though there had been a smash collision against a wall of silence.

  For the screen changed; changed and grew sharp. In the brilliant, brilliant sunlight, blazing through the carefully filtered screen, they could now see a boulder clear, burning white on one side, ink-on-ink on the other. It shifted right, then back to left, as though a pair of eyes were looking left, then right. A metal hand appeared on the screen as though the eyes were looking at part of itself.

  It was Anthony's voice that cried out at last, “The Computer's been thrown in.”

  He heard the words as though someone else had shouted them and he raced out and down the stairs and through a Corridor, leaving the babble of voices to rise behind him.

  “William,” he cried as he burst into the Computer room, “it's perfect, it's--”

  But William's hand was upraised. “Shh. Please. I don't want any violent sensations entering except those from the robot.”

  “You mean we can be heard?” whispered Anthony.

  “Maybe not, but I don't know.” There was another screen, a smaller one, in the room with the Mercury Computer. The scene on it was different, and changing; the robot was moving.

  William said, “The robot is feeling its way. Those steps have got to be clumsy. There's a seven-minute delay between stimulus and response and that has to be allowed for.”

  “But already he's walking more surely than he ever did in Arizona. Don't you think so, William? Don't you think so?” Anthony was gripping William's shoulder, shaking it, eyes never leaving the screen.