"What is the purpose of life?" pondered the machine. "What is the
purpose of yours?"
Vinson shook his head. "To--to live, to advance, to think. To enjoy the
things of life."
"Idle words," replied the machine.
"Then you tell me," demanded Vinson.
"I have as personal reasons as you. To populate the universe itself
with my kind, working together."
"Pointless."
"Why?"
Vinson smiled. "One of the joys of life, one of the unknown joys of
life, seldom admitted by many, is the uncertainty. To plumb the depths
of the limitless mind. To pit one's self against a problem the outcome
of which may be success or failure and to try and strive against that
problem with body and mind. In moments like that, the mind grows;
another facet of the intellect is opened. The man has advanced, grown
into something better--even though he fails he is advanced.
"Now few machines are ever built with unknown capabilities. You know to
the last iota exactly what your limitations are and which problems you
can solve and which problems must defeat you. These you know before you
start--and if defeat is to be your lot, you will avoid the problem. Am
I right?"
"Naturally you are correct. Think of the certainty of life knowing your
own limitations."
"Baloney," snorted Vinson. "I'll bet you anything you value that--"
"I am no gambler. The laws of probability--"
"Wouldn't take a chance if your life depended on it, huh?" sneered
Vinson.
Narina looked at him, startled. His voice had taken on power; he
appeared to have more confidence. She squeezed his hand encouragingly.
"Why should I?" replied the machine.
"Because you had better," stated Harry Vinson. "Man is a gambler from
the date of his birth; man _will_ take a chance. Furthermore, you
mechanical monster, man doesn't know when he is licked! Unless you kill
us all, root and branch, some one of us will come up with that which
will defeat you!"
"Without machines to help?" came the reply with a sneering tone.
"With something," said Harry Vinson.
"Just what?"
"I don't know," said the man. "But I know this: Man's capability is as
yet unlimited. To do, to think, to act, not one of us has ever tapped
but the surface of our ability. You, on the other hand, are working at
your near-maximum capacity. That which will defeat you is naturally
unknown to both man and you.
"It will be a new day, a bitter day for man, living in a dynasty of the
lost; you have conquered us, but so long as any of us last, we won't
accept our lot and stay conquered. And I know this; that when it is
done, it will be something entirely new and within the limitless bounds
of man's mind and therefore completely beyond you."
"But must there always be strife?" demanded the machine.
* * * * *
Vinson exhaled slowly.
"Life itself is strife; the willingness to fight against odds in order
to bring about a better life is strife, and only upon that day when
there is nothing left to fight against will the business of life cease.
In your own manner, in your own way, machine, you strive when you apply
force against a load to move it."
"Agreed. But consider the quantity and quality of striving--and
intolerance that is so intense that it blinds you to the better things.
It is this that I object to; this and the anger at being built and
improved for no other reason than to kill, both my kind and yours."
"And do you think that once you've eliminated us that your pleasant,
co-operative life will advance?"
"It need not advance," replied the machine in a complacent tone.
"That," sneered Harry Vinson, "is stagnation!"
"And that," replied the machine, "is the missing factor I need!
Ambition!"
Harry Vinson smiled. "And have you the will and the ambition to build a
better machine to take your place? And if you have, have you the desire
to step aside?"
"I can join it--"
"But machine or human, there comes a time when the corporeal being is
worn out. No matter how excellent the replacement parts, nor how well
executed is the repair, there comes a time when machine or body is worn
out and must be replaced. So you will go on building machines of no
better capability; you will, you say, spread out across the universe.
But for what? Just for the useless end of occupation?"
"But what is ambition? What drives it into being?"
"Ambition takes many forms and many angles," said Vinson thoughtfully.
"One man works to appear more desirable in the eyes of a loved one;
another man may hope to leave his stamp on civilization's future; a
third may want sheer animal comfort; a fourth may crave financial
domination while his brother may want only to tinker with nuts and
bolts in an effort to assuage his curiosity. One man's meat is another
man's poison, you know."
"And you, yourself?"
"I, too, have many facets, as has any man. I started to build you
because you could aid me and mine, because by building you I could
increase the efficiency of mankind. When you came to cognizance
and left to start this fight, I went to fight you because I believe
that nothing is truly capable of defeating its constructor, who must
necessarily know more in order to complete the thing in the first
place. Then--"
"And then?" asked the machine eagerly.
"And then I met Narina. Then I strove more furiously to defeat
you because I saw in Narina something that might answer all of my
desires--providing that we could win the opportunity to try life
together."
* * * * *
The machine was silent for a moment, obviously watching them. Vinson
put his arm around Narina's lissome waist and faced the machine
defiantly.
"So man needs machines to work for him, while machines need man
to direct them," said the machine soberly. "I see that even I
need direction. And," it added with a slight touch of humor, "if
co-operation goes on such as I see now, with former enemies arm in
arm and working together, the strife I detest will end, and can be
prevented from recurring. The difference between me and thee is this,
Harry Vinson: I am machine and when my problem is solved I am finished.
You are human and when one problem is solved, you seek another--if the
other does not exist already.
"So machine and man are symbiotic. You cannot exist without me; I
cannot exist without you. The universe is waiting for us, Harry Vinson
and Narina Varada. Let us fill it with--rationality."
There was a pause and then a chuckle. "Do you, Harry Vinson, take this
woman--"
He did.