Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold.
The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the
subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he
was doing.
Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold.
The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the
subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he
was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position
beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw
it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster
computing machines of all the populated planets in the
universe—ninety-six billion planets—into the
supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator,
one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of
all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions.
Then after a moment's silence he said, “Now, Dwar Ev.”
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of
power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted
along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. “The honor of
asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn.”
“Thank you,” said Dwar Reyn. “It shall be a question which
no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer.”
He turned to face the machine. “Is there a God?”
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the
clicking of a single relay.
“Yes, now there is a God.”
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the
switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and
fused the switch shut.