Cyber Rogues by James P. Hogan

Eventually FISE gave up and Ron supplied a hint by suggesting that if Hector looked in the utility closet, he might find something with which to knock out the pieces of glass.
    “The hammer is used for knocking things, but it would break the glass,” FISE protested. “You told me that breaking glass isn’t okay. What am I supposed to do?” Ron got excited again and delivered a lengthy exposition on the profound insights required, after which Hector made a reasonable job of clearing and cleaning out the window frame. Chris told PROPS to materialize a pane of glass and Hector placed it squarely in the frame after first, on his own initiative, stopping to put on a pair of gloves that just happened to be in the utility closet.
    “This is interesting,” Dyer commented. “Look. He didn’t just turn away. He’s waiting and watching the glass. FISE has connected it with something else he’s learned somewhere that’s telling him it might not be very stable.” Sure enough, PROPS weighed up the shape and angle of the pane, couldn’t make up its mind and flipped a random number. The pane began to fall inward. Hector stepped forward, caught it in one hand and repositioned it more carefully.
    Three enthusiastic roars of approval greeted the performance. For once, Ron treated FISE to a jubilant stream of ungrudging congratulations. Chris reconsidered his earlier statement and suggested that the machine might qualify for whatever IQ category lay above one. Although the thought had been half in his mind, Dyer decided it was not the time to mention the things that had been said in Hoestler’s office earlier in the afternoon. After all, he told himself, Lewis had not gone further than using the word “probably” several times. Nothing firm had been decided yet.

    “Chris and I are gonna go eat out while we’re deciding where to go later,” Ron called across the lab as he pulled on his coat. “Want to join us, Ray?” Dyer looked up from the console, where he was studying some of the new coding linkages that FISE had constructed in the course of the afternoon’s exercise.
    “Huh? Oh, no . . . I think I’ll stay on a while. This looks interesting. I’ll have to take a rain check on it. Thanks all the same.”
    “Okay. See ya tomorrow.” Ron moved away toward where Chris was standing waiting by the door. “Chris, great idea!” he said as they began moving out into the corridor. “Why don’t we catch a game later? There’s one on tonight that I promise ya is going to be terrific.”
    “Netball or rounders?” Chris’s voice inquired disdainfully.
    “Hey, you’ve said that before. What is all this stuff?”
    “Oh, just a couple of English games,” Chris told him matter-of-factly.
    “Really? Big-league stuff and all that, eh?”
    “No. Actually they’re normally played by schoolgirls.”
    “Schoolgirls?” Ron’s voice rose in sudden outrage. “SCHOOLGIRLS! Hey, exactly what the hell are you getting at? If you’re telling me what I think you’re tel—” Dyer grinned to himself as the exchange faded away. Judy left with Betty and a few minutes later Allan tossed across a sheepish goodnight and went out to join Pattie, who was waiting in the corridor. Dyer returned to the displays glowing on the console.
    One of the basic objectives of FISE was to investigate ways of enabling the computer to make generalized inferences from a few specific experiences, in much the same way as a child learns. The incident with the window bothered Dyer despite its encouraging aspects. FISE hadn’t been able to generalize sufficiently. If he knew enough not to allow Hector to burn himself, he should have been capable of generalizing to the extent of not allowing Hector to harm himself at all. Dyer had an idea where the problem lay and he spent the next two hours building a new section of system code and modifying some key parameters. Then he switched on the tank again to set up some situations to test out what he had