"Robert Rankin - Waiting for Godalming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robert Rankin)

There came a crackling sound from the Dictaphone, followed by
another "Aaaaaagh!" and a "Stop, please stop, I'll tell you
everything."
And Icarus listened while the tortured soul told everything. And
as Icarus listened, his face became pale and his hands began to
tremble.
For what Icarus heard was this and it bothered him more than a
little.
"Tell me all about Red Head," said the other voice. "How did you
come up with the formula?"
"From the flowers. It was the flowers that showed me the way."
"Are you trying to be funny?" said the other voice.
"No. I'm telling you all the truth. And I have to tell someone. I'll
go mad if I don't."
"Just tell it all from the beginning then."
"All right. As you know I worked for the Ministry of Serendipity.
On the A.I. project. Artificial intelligence. The thinking computer.
Rubbish, all of it. But we didn't know it then."
"Why is it rubbish?"
"Just listen to what I'm telling you. From the beginning, OK?"
"OK."
"I worked on the project with Professor John Garrideb. He was
one of three brothers, all of them something in mathematics.
John was always convinced that we'd make the big breakthrough.
But when we did, when I did, it wasn't the way we expected and
it's my fault, what happened to him, which is why I'm telling you
this.
"We worked on the project for twenty-two months, but like I say
we were getting nowhere and we kept getting all these directives
from above, saying that our work was in the National Interest
and we should hurry ourselves up and that other governments
were ahead of ours and all the rest of it. And we were working
really long hours and I took to drinking a bit in the evenings. And
then a bit more and then a bit too much.
"And one night I left the Ministry and went home on the special
train from Mornington Crescent and got off at the wrong stop.
And I found myself in Brentford and I fell down on the floral clock
in the Memorial Park and that was when it came to me.
"I had a sort of revelation. It was all to do with the flowers on the
floral clock. It was well after midnight and as I lay there I noticed
that all the flowers were still awake. They had their petals open.
And I thought that's a bit odd and then I saw the floodlights.
They're on all night, you see, to illuminate the clock and because
they're on all night the flowers stay open. The flowers never
sleep. The flowers cannot dream."
There was a pause and Icarus heard sobbing.
"Stop blubbing there," said the other voice. "What are you crying
about?"
"Because I understood it then. I understood why we could never
build a computer with artificial intelligence. Because a computer