Self-discovery

And that's how I met Elena Ivanovna Kolomiets, an engineer from the nearby construction design bureau. The following day, engineer Kolomiets wrote a pass for executive engineer Krivoshein to visit her department. “Savior! Benefactor!” cried the head of the department, Zhalbek Balbekovich Pshembakov, when engineer Kolomiets introduced me and explained that I could buy up the bureau's damned solid — state circuits. But I agreed to benefact and save Zhalbek Balbekovich only on the following conditions: (a) all 38,000 cells would be mounted on panels in accordance with a rough sketch I gave him; (b) the cells would be connected by feed bars; (c) each cell would be wired and; (d) all this would be done by the end of the year.

“You have great production forces here. It won't be difficult for you.”

“For the same money? But the cells themselves cost fifty thousand!”

“Yes, but they didn't fit the FTD. Keep that in mind.”

“You're a scourge, not a benefactor,” said Zhalbek Balbekovich, sadly waving his hand. “Fill out the order, Elena Ivanovna. We'll send it in from our department. And I'm putting this whole thing in your hands.”

May Allah bless your name, Zhalbek Balbekovich!

To this very day, I think that I won Lena's heart not with my great qualities, but because — when the cells had been mounted on the panels and the edges of the microelectrical cube looked like fields of colorful wires — I answered her tremulous question “And how should they be connected?” with a devil — may — care:

“However you like! Blue to red — and make sure it's aesthetically pleasing!”

Women respect the irrational.

And that's how it all happened. Chance does make itself felt. (Oh, now it's beginning to seem that during the course of my work I've developed a worshipful attitude toward chance! The fanaticism of a convert…. Before, to tell the truth, I was a real sluggard, preaching humility and resignation in the face of “unlucky” events. If you think about it, such feelings always mask our spiritual laziness and complacency. Now I was beginning to understand an important aspect of chance, whether in life or science: you won't conquer it with reason alone. Working with chance demands quick thinking, initiative, and a readiness to change your plans… but it's just as stupid to worship it as it is to deride it. Chance is neither enemy nor friend, neither God nor devil. Whether chance is mastered or lost depends on the person. And those who believe in luck and fate can go out and buy lottery rickets!)

“But the name laboratory of Random Research' is too odious,” said Arkady Arkadievich, signing the order to establish an unstructured lab, directed by engineer Krivoshein, with the concomitant material, fire safety, and other responsibilities. “You shouldn't give people straight lines. Let's call it something more restrained, like 'New Systems Laboratory. And then we'll see.”

That meant that doing my dissertation remained my major problem. Beyond that, it was “we'll see.” I have yet to solve the problem.

Chapter 7

If an identification computer, or perceptron, signals “garbage” in response to a picture of an elephant, to the depiction of a camel, and to the portrait of a major scientist, this does not necessarily mean that it is irreparable. It may just be philosophically inclined

— K. Prutkov — engineer, Thought 30

Naturally, I had hoped, for my spirits, that the work would be livelier. How could I not dream, when the mastermind of cybernetics, Walter Ross Ashby, doctor of neurophysiology, kept coming up with ideas, each more entrancing than the next! Random processes as the source of the development and ruin of any system, strengthening the thinking capabilities of humans and machines by distinguishing the valuable thoughts from the nonsense in random expression…. and finally, noise as the raw material for extracting information — yes, yes, the “white noise,” that troublemaker on which I lost more than one year and more than one idea trying to drive it out of circuitry!