"Davis, Jerry - Penalties Of Pirating, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

one up and found it was a sales letter, very well written in an
appealing style, addressed to someone whom he didn't know. What
startled him was that like on Lolita's severance check his own
signature was at the bottom. "What the hell is this?"
"I am assuming you are you are talking to me," a female voice
said. It was coming from the new vox modem. "During the evening
while the phone rates were down, I accessed several nearby
hospital data banks and compiled a list of people who are in
outstanding health according to recent physical examinations. I am
writing them a form letter and then will follow up with a phone
call to secure an appointment. As appointments are made I will
print out daily schedules for you to follow."
Leo felt a little dizzy, trying to take this all in. "How did
you do my signature?"
"I was able to pull a sample of your signature out of the
memory buffer of the fax peripheral. The signature is from a
letter you faxed yesterday morning."
"Why did you fire Lolita?"
"Her pay was unnecessary overhead."
"What makes you think I wanted her fired?"
"My purpose is to make money selling life insurance. It was a
business decision which needed to be made."
"You should have asked me first."
"You did not specify that beforehand."
"You, I " Leo threw his hands into the air, and sat down in
his desk chair. What was the point in arguing with a machine? The
fact was, the machine appeared to be doing her job already, and
with much more efficiency, and had the machine not fired her he
would have never been able to bring himself to do it. It had
actually done him a favor.
Sitting there, thinking about it, he suddenly had a swelling
feeling of well-being. He picked up one of the freshly printed
sales letters and read it over again with admiration. This program
really knew what it was doing. It was most definitely the best
investment he had ever made.
During the next several weeks Leo was busier than he'd ever
been in his career as an insurance agent. The computer program,
which he'd come to call "Partner," kept his schedule full every
single day. Even better, all his new contacts were already primed
to buy his life insurance. Partner was doing most of the selling
in letters and over the phone (using the seductive voice of the
vox modem), and Leo was just calling on them in person to get the
papers signed.
The bank account swelled. After two months Leo bought a new
car, one that separated hydrogen and oxygen from water and burned
it. A month after that, he put a down payment on a big new condo.
Leo was coming out of a restaurant after a terrific dinner
when he ran into Dano Sharks, the software pirate from which he'd
bought the AI program. Dano looked a little shocked to see Leo,
and looked around nervously to see if anyone was looking at them.