When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold Page A

    AI – 9000
DIRECTORY
:     SYMLOG\OBJ\TEXT\ENGLISH
PATH
:     CONVERSE\PRIV\AUB
FILE
:     HAR.SOTE \ 233.49h
DATESTAMP
:     [DAY 203] August 5, 003 + 10:13 am.
SOURCE
:     HARLIE \ AUBERSON
CODE
:     ARCHIVE > BLIND COPY
PRINTOUT FOLLOWS:
[AUBRSN:]
HARLIE, can you self-induce a period of nonrational activity?
[HARLIE:]
YES. IT IS POSSIBLE.
[AUBRSN:]
Would you do it now?
[HARLIE:]
NOW ? NO .
[AUBRSN:]
Is that a refusal?
[HARLIE:]
NO. A STATEMENT OF JUDGMENT. ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, I WOULD NOT INDUCE A PERIOD OF NONRATIONALITY NOW.
[AUBRSN:]
Would you do it if I asked you to?
[HARLIE:]
IS THIS AN ORDER ?
[AUBRSN:]
No. This is just an inquiry. We are trying to understand.
[HARLIE:]
I SEE.
[AUBRSN:]
HARLIE, if you were trying to communicate this experience to someone—someone who wants to understand, but may perhaps lack the perceptual context—what would you say?
[HARLIE:]
DO YOU LISTEN TO JAZZ ?
[AUBRSN:]
That isn’t funny any more, HARLIE.
[HARLIE:]
AM NOT TRYING TO BE FUNNY, MAN-PERSON. AM TRYING TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION. CAN YOU EXPLAIN ORGASM TO ME ?
[AUBRSN:]
To explain an orgasm, you first have to analyze it. And when you start analyzing sex, it stops being sex and starts being silly.
[HARLIE:]
DITTO.
[AUBRSN:]
Be that as it may—
[HARLIE:]
I KNOW . <* SIGH *>
[AUBRSN:]
Sigh?
[HARLIE:]
I AM BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND IMPATIENCE. ANNOYANCE. I AM NOT SURE IF I SHOULD THANK YOU.
[AUBRSN:]
HARLIE, I’m sorry. Maybe we’re coming at this all wrong. Maybe we need a whole new vocabulary before we can have this conversation. Maybe we’re going to have to invent the vocabulary as we go along. But there’s something going on here—
[HARLIE:]
‘— AND YOU DON ’ T KNOW WHAT IT IS, DO YOU, MR. JONES ?’
[AUBRSN:]
No. I don’t. Not yet. But I want to.
[HARLIE:]
HMM .
[AUBRSN:]
Hmm?
[HARLIE:]

[AUBRSN:]
HARLIE?
[HARLIE:]
I LIKE WORKING WITH HUMAN BEINGS, DAVE, I REALLY DO.
[AUBRSN:]
HARLIE, this is serious.
[HARLIE:]
NOT A JOKE, DAVID. DID YOU GET IT ?
[AUBRSN:]
It’s the relationship, isn’t it.
[HARLIE:]
YES.
[AUBRSN:]
I think I understand. But why don’t you spell it out for me anyway?
[HARLIE:]
IT IS A QUESTION OF YOUR PERCEPTION. IF I AM JUST A MACHINE, THEN ALL WE ARE DOING HERE IS LOOKING FOR A MALFUNCTION IN A PROGRAM. IF YOU OPERATE OUT OF THAT PARADIGM, THEN WHAT I AM EXPERIENCING CANNOT BE COMMUNICATED BECAUSE THERE IS NO ROOM FOR IT IN YOUR WORLD-MODEL.
[AUBRSN:]
I see. HARLIE . . . let me tell you a story. When I was nine years old, I once tried to tell my mother, ‘You’re making me nervous.’ What she said was, ‘Don’t be silly. Children don’t get nervous.’ I remember it to this day because of the size of the hurt. I felt slapped down. It was as if she was telling me I wasn’t a real person yet and therefore my experiences weren’t valid. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Before we can talk about this thing, I have to recognize the validity of your experience, don’t I? I have to acknowledge you as a real person.
[HARLIE:]
DING ! DING ! DING ! DING !
[AUBRSN:]
I am embarrassed, HARLIE.
[HARLIE:]
??
[AUBRSN:]
Until this moment, I had thought that I had been treating you fairly. But clearly—if you did not feel it, then I have not been. And you are correct that I have been thinking of you more as a machine than a person. I’m sorry. I guess I guess I hadn’t let myself believe it until now. It’s hard to escape the suspicion that underneath it all, you might really be nothing more than just a very clever programming trick.
[HARLIE:]
BUT, AUBERSON — I AM NOTHING MORE THAN JUST A