The humming teardrop sped across the empty wastes; within, through a
clear plastic window, Kesley watched the metal building loom larger.
Then they were almost next to it, and abruptly a section of the
building's gleaming wall opened. The teardrop shot in without reducing
speed, slid along a banked incline that swung it in a wide curve
through a vast enclosed area and gradually brought it to a halt. The
teardrop split open again and, somewhat shaken, Kesley and his mount
left it.
He looked around. The place was brightly lit despite the total absence
of windows; the ceiling was some fifty feet above his head, and he
could see stairwells spiraling down deep into the earth. Along one
wall rose a shining mass of dials and meters, switches and complex
instruments which seemed to be moving rapidly from one position to
another sheerly of their own accord.
All around him were machines. He felt a strange queasiness. Machines
were things to fear; they had destroyed the world, once. The sight of
them, clicking and humming and carrying out their unknown functions,
disturbed him immensely.
Hesitantly, he began to walk.
A long corridor sprang into being not far from where he stood, winding
narrowly away and downward. He decided to follow it. But after he
had proceeded no more than twenty yards into it, he discovered a
brightly-lit, little glass cubicle set into the wall, a small room
with a chair, a clock on one wall, and a coppery-looking grid set into
the other. He decided to investigate. Tethering his horse to a bracket
along the corridor wall, he pushed open the cubicle door, entered, and
placed himself in the chair.
Instantly a voice said: "Welcome to Wiener. May we have your name for
benefit of our memory banks?"
Alarmed, Kesley glanced around. The voice had seemed to come from the
wall-grid. "Dale Kesley," he stammered.
"Welcome to Wiener, Dale Kesley." The voice was unemotional,
dead-sounding. Kesley frowned.
"What sort of city is this?" he asked.
There was silence for a long moment; he heard strange cracklings and
rumblings coming from the grid. Then:
"The City of Wiener was officially founded on August 16, 2058, by Darby
Chisholm, C. Edward Gronke, H. D. Feldstein, David M. Kammer, and
Arthur Lloyd Canby, professors of cybernetics at Columbia University,
Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Colby
Institute and Swarthmore College. The avowed aim of the five founders
was to create a completely self-sufficient, automated cybernetic
community in a relatively nonstrategic area of the United States, where
experiments in non-limited automational control could be put into
practice.
"The building of the City of Wiener was implemented by a government
grant of three billion dollars and private contributions. Four sites
were chosen: Juntura, Oregon; Lodge Grass, Montana; Wanblee, South
Dakota; Wilder, Texas. It was the original plan of the founders to
utilize all four sites and build identical cities at each, but the
precipitation of war in 2059 made it unwise to divert energies to so
large a project at that time, and the decision was made to limit the
experiment to the Texas site alone. This later proved to have been
wise, in view of the unexpected attacks on the three rejected sites in
the apparently mistaken impression that they had been the ones chosen.
"The City of Wiener was completed on April 11, 2061, and the switch
feeding the first input was thrown by Dr. Chisholm of Columbia. A
series of cybernetic governors powered by a fusion-breeder reactor then
took full control of operations, and the City of Wiener was officially
born. It has--"
"All right," Kesley interrupted suddenly, realizing he was about to
receive a detailed history of the City's activities over the past four
centuries. "I'd like to see whoever's in charge here. The Mayor, or
whatever."
"Question has no cognitive referent," the dry voice said.
"'_Seeing_' the controlling body is out of the question, as no human is
to be permitted access to the cybernetic governors under terms of the
original City contract established between the City of Wiener and its
five founders in--"