[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

probably, the lives of many men?
A sort of welfare endeavor, perhaps. A matter of rampant do-goodism, an expression of the itch to interfere in other
people's lives.
Or was there here a conscious, well-planned effort to change the course of world events, so to alter the destiny of
mankind as to bring about some specific end-result? That would mean that whoever, or whatever, was responsible
possessed a sure method of predicting the future, and the ability to pick out the key factors in the present which must
be changed in order effectively to change that future m the desired direction.
 From where it stood upon the desk the phone snarled viciously.
He swung around in terror, frightened at the sound. The phone snarled a second time.
He strode to the desk and answered. It was the senator.
'Good,' said the senator. 'I did not get you up.'
'No. I was just getting ready to turn in.'
'You heard the news, of course.'
'On the radio,' said Harrington.
'The White House called...'
'And you had to take it.'
'Yes, of course, but then...'
There was a gulping, breathing sound at the other end as if the senator were on the verge of strangling.
'What's the matter, Johnson? What is going -'
'Then,' said the senator, 'I had a visitor.'
Harrington waited.
'Preston White,' said the senator. 'You know him, of course.'
'Yes. The publisher of _Situation_.'
'He was conspiratorial,' said the senator. 'And a shade dramatic. He talked in whispers and very confidentially. As if
the two of us were in some sort of deal.'
'But what -'
'He offered me,' said the senator, almost strangling with rare, 'the exclusive use of Harvey -'
Harrington interrupted, without knowing why - almost as if he feared to let the senator go on.
'You know,' he said, 'I can remember many years ago - I was just a lad - when Harvey was installed down in the
_Situation_ office.'
And he was surprised at how well he could remember it -the great hurrah of fanfare. Although at that time, he
recalled, no one had put too much credence in the matter, for _Situation_ was then notorious for its circulation stunts.
But it was different now. Almost everyone read the Harvey column and even in the most learned of circles it was
quoted as authority.
'Harvey!' spat the senator. 'A geared-up calculator! A mechanical predicter!'
And that was it, Harrington thought wildly. That was the very thing for which he had been groping!
For Harvey was a predicter. He predicted every week and the magazine ran a column of the predictions he spewed
out.
'White was most persuasive,' said the senator. 'He was very buddy-buddy. He placed Harvey at my complete
disposal. He said that he would let me see all the predictions that he made immediately he made them and that he'd
withhold from publication any that I wished.'
'It might be a help, at that,' said Harrington.
For Harvey was good. Of that there was no question. Week after week he called the shots exactly, right straight
down the line.
 'I'll have none of it!' yelled the senator. 'I'll have no part of Harvey. He is the worst thing that could have happened so
far as public opinion is concerned. The human race is entirely capable, in its own good judgment, of accepting or
rejecting the predictions of any human pundit. But our technological society has developed a conditioning factor that
accepts the infallibility of machines. It would seem to me that _Situation_, in using an analytical computer, humanized
by the name of Harvey, to predict the trend of world events, is deliberately preying upon public gullibility. And I'll
have no part of it. I will not be tarred with -'
'I knew White was for you,' said Harrington. 'I knew he favored your appointment, but -'
'Preston White,' said the senator, 'is a dangerous man. Any powerful man is a dangerous man, and in our time the
man who is in a position to mold public opinion is the most powerful of them all. I can't afford to be associated with
him in any way at all. Here I stand, a man of some forty years of service, without, thank God, a single smudge upon me.
What would happen to me if someone came along and pegged this man White - but good? How would I stand then?'
'They almost had him pegged.' said Harrington, 'that time years ago when the congressional committee investigated
him. As I remember, much of the testimony at that time had to do with Harvey.' [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

skierniewice.pev.pl