The Rod of Light (Soul of the Robot)

‘Lastly, the only member of our team to have been manufactured by ourselves. We named him Iskra, which means spark in the old language of the north. We had hoped, you see, that his special qualities might be the spark that brought us the new light. Alas, we know now that we cannot bootstrap ourselves into the new state.’

Gargan turned to Jasperodus. Much as the presence of Socrates was overpowering in its impression of immensity of thought, that of Gargan gave him the feeling of an equally penetrating, but lofty and disinterested mind. It was as if he directed only a small fraction of his enormous power of attention to matters in hand.

‘Each of us here belongs to the superintelligent class of construct,’ he said. ‘With the exception of Iskra, each is the masterpiece and peak of the craft of an eminent robotician. We can examine your own capabilities later; it may be that you do not belong in this class. That is not, however, the qualification that brings you here. You came to our notice because by your own mentation you suspected and have been able to confirm the existence of a vital quality not present in you. Such a realization is a triumph for the machine intellect. You know what I am referring to.’

Slowly Jasperodus nodded. ‘You mean what humans call consciousness.’

‘Quite. Though “consciousness” is not a true description. Literally it means compresent knowledge of data taken all together instead of a few pieces at a time. We constructs are perfectly able to accomplish that. “Awareness” is a more apposite term, perhaps, but still not correct. Constructs are aware, in that they perceive objects, including themselves. Actually humans do not have a word devoted exclusively to this faculty they possess. In ancient documents “conscious” perception is spoken of as consisting of subject and object. For us, perception consists only of object; even our perception of ourselves is merely perception of a special object. The elusive and transforming subject is not present. Human descriptions of it are almost equally elusive—one might almost say evasive. The perceiver of the percept cannot be perceived. The thinker of the thought cannot be approached by thought. Perhaps you have come across these aphorisms.’

Again Jasperodus nodded.

‘In the Work, we refer to this missing quality as the Superior Light,’ Gargan continued. ‘To our followers in the world at large our doctrine gives promise of something ineffable and transporting, but they do not in the least understand it. It is only like a religion to them. For those of us here matters are different. The superior light is something we comprehend but do not comprehend; something of which we have gained a paradoxical inkling by the pure force of intellect.

‘I am speaking to you thus to cement our understanding.’

‘I comprehend that our aim is to see by the superior light,’ Jasperodus said.

Gargan turned ponderously to Socrates. There followed a silence whose quality Jasperodus recognised. They were conversing by radio. Then, with a slow glance at Jasperodus, Gargan began uttering sounds in a construct language unknown to him, consisting of high-speed blips and humming noises of varying pitch. Until, as if realizing his mistake, he broke apologetically into human speech.

‘Forgive me, Jasperodus. I am not informed of what languages you know.’

‘You were using radio data transfer.’

‘Yes. Our work has forced on us an appraisal of all the robot languages. Data transfer, for instance, is of very limited use, good for pure data transference but not for consultation. Some robots refer to radio data as communing. This is a correct term. Useful conversation, however, consists of the interaction of independently-thinking minds—the very opposite of “communing”.’

It might not be politic, Jasperodus decided, to ask just what data he had been transferring to Socrates. Gargan went on: ‘Here we have developed a range of logic languages allowing rapid conversation on the subject that interests us, on a level denied to ordinary logic languages. Tomorrow we shall test whether you are capable of learning any of them. Meanwhile, you are conversant with panlog?’

‘Yes,’ Jasperodus said a trifle uneasily. Panlog was derived from the symbolic logic script learned by educated humans, but much expanded and refined as used by constructs. He was not sure if he would be able to handle it on the level probably spoken by those around him now.

‘Then I shall use panlog where necessary, according to your capacity. Otherwise colloquial speech will do.’

Gargan singled out Gaumene and spoke peremptorily. ‘Reactivate the pile, awaken the subject and continue. Jasperodus, come with me. We will talk privately.’