a measure. Any citizen can transmit his will with one of these, make
his needs register on a central control that automatically responds.
When a large enough segment of the population wants a certain thing
done, these little gadgets set up an active field that touches all the
others. An issue won't have to go through a formal Council. The
citizens can express their will long before any bunch of gray-haired
old men could get around to it."
* * * * *
Sherikov broke off, frowning.
"Of course," he continued slowly, "there's one little detail...."
"What's that?"
"I haven't been able to get a model to function. A few bugs.... Such
intricate work never was in my line." He paused at the door. "Well, I
hope I'll see you again before you go. Maybe if you feel well enough
later on we could get together for one last talk. Maybe have dinner
together sometime. Eh?"
But Thomas Cole wasn't listening. He was bent over the schematics, an
intense frown on his weathered face. His long fingers moved restlessly
over the schematics, tracing wiring and terminals. His lips moved as
he calculated.
Sherikov waited a moment. Then he stepped out into the hall and softly
closed the door after him.
He whistled merrily as he strode off down the corridor.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Variable Man, by Philip K. Dick
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VARIABLE MAN ***
***** This file should be named 32154.txt or 32154.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/1/5/32154/
Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this
|