Then came the question of what to do with the rest of the evening. “Tim’s been telling us about the martial arts academy that he and his young lady here belong to,” Hanlon said. “It sounds like quite a place. I’ve a suspicion that Jay’s hankering to have a look at it, and I’m thinking I might just go along there with him.”
“Me?” Jay exclaimed. ‘I’ll come long, sure, but I thought it was you who couldn’t resist it.”
“Bret’s an unarmed-combat instructor with the Army,” Tim explained.
Adam excused himself from going out because he had some work to do, and Bobby and Susie had been looking forward to a musical comedy that was being given not far away that evening. Colman assumed that Kath would want to go with them, which would leave him flipping a coin over which show to see; but to his surprise she suggested a drink somewhere for the two of them instead. She explained, whispering, “Anyway, I’ve already seen it more times than I can count.” So who was he to turn it down? Colman asked himself. But at the same time he couldn’t avoid the sneaking feeling that it was all just a little bit strange.
Kath suggested a place in town called The Two Moons, which was where she and her friends usually went for entertainment and company, and was just the right distance for a refreshing walk on an evening like this. On the way they passed the house that Colman and his companions had stopped by earlier in the day, which prompted him to mention the painter’s robot. “It looked as if it was learning the trade,” Colman said.
“Very probably it was,” Kath replied. “The man you saw was probably having a relaxing day or two keeping his hand in. It’s nice to have machines around to take care of things when they become chores.”
“People don’t worry about being replaced by a’ chip?”
“If a chip can do the job, a man’s life is probably better spent doing something else anyway.”
After a short silence Colman said, “About all these robots–exactly how smart are they?”
“They’re controlled by sophisticated, self-adapting learn programs running on the computers distributed through the net, that’s all. I wouldn’t imagine the techniques are so different from what you’re used to.”
“So they’re not anywhere near intelligent… self-aware, anything like that?”
Kath gave a short laugh, “Of course not … but they’re deceptive, aren’t they. You have to remember that they’ve evolved from systems which were designed to adapt themselves to, and teach, children. You project a lot of yourself into what you think they’re saying.”
“But they seem to have an intuition to make human value judgments,” Colman objected. ‘They know too much about how people think.”
Kath laughed again. “Do they? They don’t really, you know. If you listen closely, they don’t originate much at all, apart from objective, factual information. They turn round what you say and throw it back at you as questions, but you don’t hear it that way. You think they’re telling you something that they’re not.”
“Catalysts,” Colman said after a few seconds of reflection. “You know, you’re fight, now that I think about it. All they do is make you exercise the brains you never ‘ knew you had.”
“You’ve got it,” Kath said lightly. “Isn’t that what teaching children is all about?”
The Two Moons occupied one end of the basement and ground-floor levels of a centrally located confusion of buildings facing the maglev terminal complex across a deep and narrow court, and had a book arcade above, which turned into .residential units higher up. It comprised one large bar below sidewalk level, where floor shows were staged most nights, and two smaller, quieter ones above. Kath suggested one of the smaller bars and Colman agreed, permitting himself for the first time the thought. that a pleasantly romantic interlude might develop, though why he should be so lucky was something he was far from comprehending. If it happened, he wasn’t going to argue about it.
Of course, Swyley, Stanislau, Driscoll, and Carson had to be there. There was no way of backing out; Swyley had spotted him entering even before Colman had noticed the ‘four uniforms in the corner. “Small world, chief,” Driscoll