The Return of Vaman - A Scientific Novel

by Jayant V. Narlikar

  The computer was not working. His heart sank as he saw the red light. How would he face Arul and Navin now? He could hear their steps behind him….

  ‘Your toddler appears to have collapsed!’ Navin’s voice was soon heard from the doorway. He too had seen the red light. What would Arul say? That he had been too ambtious in asking for such a long programme for a first trial?

  Surprisingly, Arul was silent. He was staring at the monitor located a few feet away.

  ‘Laxman, come, have a look! I can’t believe it’, he finally blurted out. Laxman dashed over to his side and looked at the screen. The following sentences had appeared.

  Summary of conclusions:

  Examined all maps in all categories.

  Verified that four colours are enough in each case.

  Can print out all details.

  Your slow printer will take twelve hours nineteen minutes to print everything.

  Total time of executing this programme: 59.52 seconds.

  End.

  The computer had far surpassed all the expectations of Arul and Laxman. When they were completely satisfied with the results they informed Delhi.

  The Container Committee duly met in Delhi and studied the report. Most members felt that this extraordinary computer provided unique export opportunities and that the country could and should now go in for manufacture of the prototype. Most, that is, all except Arul and Laxman! They were not interested in the manufacturing aspect. To them the prototype was just the beginning. It was an invitation to study and evolve artificial intelligence, culminating in the von Neumann machine. But they could not express these views openly as the idea of the machine was known only to them and to Professor Kirtikar.

  It was Kirtikar who recognized their difficulty and suggested a way out. He proposed that they be allowed to use the prototype for their research for one year while the government set in motion all the legislation and the infrastructure for manufacture. After a year Dr Laxmanan would supervise the production, for he alone knew all its intricate details.

  As the chairman was about to conclude the meeting, Navin spoke up.

  ‘Sir! We have to do one important job still. This new baby deserves to have a name.’ Navin’s suggestion was seconded by others.

  ‘My own inclination is to give it a name of Indian origin, reflecting our tradition, our culture’, the chairman said.

  Several names were suggested and discussed. Finally, it was Probir Ganguly whose suggestion hit the mark when he said: ‘This computer will teach us a lot; so why not call it “Guru”? A name that is simple, yet reflecting our respect for the teacher.’

  ‘Done’, said the chairman, noticing the favourable reaction all round. ‘May this Guru make us wiser.’

  ‘Amen’, said Kirtikar to Arul who nodded in agreement.

  As the meeting concluded and Navin stepped out, there was a pat on his shoulder. It was Major Samant.

  ‘A friend of mine is anxious to meet you, Dr Navin. He won’t take no for an answer.’ He pointed to a waiting car.

  Without a word Navin followed Major Samant.

  6 The Rendezvous

  The Guru of Gauribidnur.

  Yesterday a high level committee of scientists, technocrats and administrators decided in New Delhi to go ahead with the fabrication of a photonic computer, it is reliably learnt. The manual for building this super-supercomputer was reported to have been deciphered from the data found in the excavated container at Gauribidnur. Experts rate this computer generations ahead of anything available in the advanced countries of the West. The Prime Minister, who is taking a personal interest in the Gauribidnur project, is believed to have given top priority to the completion of the computer and all being well the first model may see the light of day within a year. However, this crash programme being top secret, no one can be found to brief the press on it. Both the Electronics as well as Science and Technology Departments have kept mum on the project.

  This UNI release was, however, sufficient to generate excitement amongst the knowledgeable the world over. Karl Shulz alias Joseph read it in Zurich, while Chushiro Yamamoto saw it in California as he was flying in his private plane.

  ‘Joseph?’ Yamamoto was never one to lose a moment. He had called the secret number given by Joseph.

  ‘Who is it?’ was the cautious counter-question.

  ‘Chushiro.’ This was the pass word agreed between them. The voice at the other end relaxed significantly.

  ‘Joseph here.’

  ‘Have you read the news?’

  ‘I have … don’t worry, Chushiro. Everything is under control. It won’t take long.’

  ‘Long is a relative measure of time’, Yamamoto spoke in his even tone. ‘I need absolute estimates, especially where time is money … In your case delay reduces the value of the information, I need hardly add.’

  ‘OK. Message registered. One month’, Joseph replied.

  ‘That’s too long.’

  ‘But considerably shorter than a year … And with your multinational advantages you can easily make up for a month’s lead.’

  ‘One month, Joseph, and no more.’

  As Yamamoto hung up he pondered. Yes. The red tape and slow style of functioning of Indian projects would ensure that his one month of delay was of no consequence. As to the computer’s capability, Joseph had certainly provided ample proof.

  At the other end, Joseph picked up the letter just delivered to him by one of the international couriers. He reread the most important part:

  ‘…Navin has managed to collect most of the manual instructions and I will get a package to you within a week. It will contain everything except the data on the Central Processing Unit. The information on the CPU is heavily guarded … only Laxman knows it … but Navin is optimistic.’

  Joseph cursed softly at the letter writer. If Pyarelal were asked to stage Hamlet, he would arrange for everything except the Prince of Denmark.

  On his return from Delhi, Laxman took up the challenge of making the von Neumann machine. The clues were all given in a highly intricate programme which could not be understood without Guru’s help. Not even Arul could get to first base in understanding what was involved. So Laxman struggled along all on his own.

  ‘What research keeps you busy, Laxman, now that you have delivered the Guru?’ Navin tried to prod him in the canteen on one occasion as they were having lunch.

  ‘Finding a Guru is not enough, Navin. One must learn from him’, Laxman answered guardedly. No one, least of all Navin, must know what he was up to.

  ‘All computers only carry out orders. Yours is no exception. Fast, yes, efficient, certainly. But intelligent? No sir! I think we chose a wrong name for it when we decided to call it Guru. It cannot teach us anything.’

  ‘Wait till you see what this Guru delivers’, Laxman suddenly burst out. Exactly what Navin wanted.

  ‘Delivers? Delivers what? May we mortals know what supreme knowledge your Guru will eventually deliver?’ he asked in provocative tones.

  But he was disappointed. Long before Laxman could answer back, Arul, sitting two places away, suddenly interrupted with a reminder.

  ‘No more discussion, Laxman … unless you are willing to forego the cricket match … Come, it is high time we were on our way’, Arul almost unceremoniously bundled Laxman away.

  ‘I had to act, Laxman’, he explained as they were speeding along towards Bangalore. ‘You almost walked into his trap. Remember … Navin is a bad egg.’

  ‘I got carried away … I admit’, Laxman confessed. But he added, ‘I feel strongly defensive when Guru is under criticism. Of course, I should have remembered that Navin is trying hard to get the information about the CPU. Why do you laugh?’

  Arul explained. He was reminded of ogres in fairy tales whose life was safely tucked away in some innocent object like a parrot or a fruit. Ogres, who could not be killed in the conventional way. So the hero had to find the secret of an ogre’s life.

  ‘The analogy is not
quite apt … is it? Here we have Navin the villain, not a hero, trying to find out what makes Guru tick. But joking apart, don’t you think your plan of making a robot cannot be kept secret for long? We will soon need technicians to carry out Guru’s instructions.’ Laxman posed a practical problem.

  Arul mused for a while. Laxman’s point was well taken.

  ‘The correct plan of action, Laxman, lies in our disclosing the truth but not the whole truth. From computers to automation is a natural course of action. Why not disclose that you are making a robot, a robot of the ordinary kind? But, of course, only a handful need know its real nature.’

  ‘We will raise the matter with the Major today’, Laxman said.

  ‘Major Samant? Are we meeting him today? Where?’ Arul asked, greatly surprised. The Major seemed hard to avoid.

  ‘Sorry, Arul, I forgot to tell you’, Laxman sounded a little embarrassed. ‘It was the Major who got us tickets for the one-day international. I like cricket of course, but not to the extent of spending eight hours watching it. As it happens, the match is basically an excuse for us to meet a friend of the Major … from the C.B.I.’

  ‘Who is this man?’

  ‘A Mr Kamala Prasad Singh. He is to meet us in the stadium.’

  The Karnataka State Cricket Stadium was overflowing with cricket fans. It was the final and deciding one-day match in the five-match series between India and Pakistan. India had won the events in Delhi and Calcutta, while Pakistan had proved superior in Bombay and Hyderabad.

  The two scientists almost turned back when they saw the crowds at the gates. But then they discovered that they had special tickets which entitled them to seats in the VIP enclosure. The gate there was well guarded and they could get in without difficulty. Samant was nowhere to be seen and Laxman had half a mind to go out and look for him. But Arul, who had now caught the match fever, refused to budge.

  The game started exactly at 4 p.m. It was to go on till midnight under floodlights. Pakistan had the better luck with the toss and put India in to bat. Judging by the state of the pitch and the Pakistan batting line up, experts wanted India to score runs at an average rate of five per over to win.

  The game started on a sensational note. The opening batsmen threw caution to the winds and lambasted the bowling to register twenty-two runs in the first two overs. At this rate, argued the optimists, even three hundred in forty-five overs was not impossible. ‘Wait’, said the pessimists; for sooner or later this lack of caution will invite disaster.

  It did. The Pakistan bowlers discovered their line and rhythm and before long the scoreboard showed 32 for four wickets in six overs. ‘Will the Indians even make it to three figures?’ wailed a commentator.

  ‘It all reflects on our lack of match temperament’, someone behind Laxman spoke in Hindi.

  Laxman turned round to find that a tall, lean person had occupied the seat behind him. Laxman did not remember seeing him there when they had come in. He had probably come in late.

  As Laxman turned back to watch the match, the man handed him a card. It gave the name only as Kamala Prasad Singh. Beneath it ‘PTO’ was written in hand. Laxman idly turned the card. There was scribbled message: ‘Follow me at the drinks interval.’

  7 The Challenge

  Arul was deeply engrossed in what he was reading. John von Neumann’s thesis in ‘Theory of self-reproducing automata’ had taken hold of him. Extensive commentaries by experts accompanied the original work. He had first heard of this famous mathematician at school. His maths teacher had set the class a tricky problem: Two railway stations are 120 miles apart. Two trains start at the same time from the two stations and move towards each other along the same tracks. One has the speed of 20 miles per hour while the other moves at 40 m.p.h. A fly that was sitting on the engine of the first train travels at the speed of 50 m.p.h. until it lands on the engine of the second train, whence it rebounds and flies back towards the first train. It keeps shuttling between the trains at the same speed until the engines collide and the fly is crushed to death. How many miles did the fly traverse during its entire journey?

  Arul had solved that problem with relative ease. He figured out that the distance between the two trains was steadily diminishing at the rate of 20 + 40 = 60 m.p.h. For them to collide, this distance (which was originally 120 miles) must reduce to zero. This would take two hours to happen. In those two hours the fly would have travelled altogether 2 × 50 = 100 miles.

  ‘Well done!’ the teacher had said. ‘Do you know how von Neumann, the famous mathematician solved this problem?’ The teacher related the tale of how a friend posed the problem to von Neumann, who had almost instantly given the right answer. ‘How did you solve it?’ the friend asked. ‘Why, there is only one method that I know of—the direct one’, von Neumann elaborated. ‘You calculate all the distances the fly covered from engine to engine. She made infinitely many trips to and fro, but the distance in each trip is reduced in a geometric progression. I summed the series and gave you the answer.’

  This direct method requires considerably more calculation, and a reasonably bright mathematician can do the sum in about ten to fifteen minutes. That von Neumann got the answer so fast was typical of how rapidly his brain functioned. To Arul it was more revealing in the sense that his method was the one a computer would use to solve the problem. The direct method—it may involve more calculations—but time was no problem to a fast computer. So von Neumann’s brain was ideally suited to think about how a computer would work. No wonder he had proposed the notion of this fantastic machine.

  As von Neumann found, there is a basic difficulty in fabricating an intricate machine. For it demands a complicated system of logic which needs a highly elaborate set of cross connections for transmitting information. And the more complicated the logic, the easier it is to make mistakes. From hand-operated machines to automatic ones, the complexity and the likelihood of breakdown both increase. A self-reproducing automaton is of necessity far more complex than an ordinary one.

  Realizing this difficulty and the near impossibility of achieving foolproof logic, von Neumann introduced what he called ‘probabilistic logic’. It was a system of logic applied to an intricate device, not all the components of which were expected to function correctly at all times. The probability of breakdown of some logical step was thus allowed for.

  Based on such a system of logic, von Neumann had proved many mathematical theorems. Some of his conclusions went beyond abstract notions, for he offered explicit constructions for realizing them in practice. A machine with considerable complexity of automation may be able to make another with lesser complexity. But can it make a copy of itself? ‘Yes’, said von Neumann, and proved it mathematically. His construction of such an automaton was, however, too complicated to be within the scope of current technology. At least so the experts thought, and Arul agreed with them.

  But what about future, more advanced technologies? If they could make a self-reproducing automaton, what problems would they pose? Von Neumann’s work raised such questions. Would these machines follow the evolutionary doctrine applicable to living systems, wherein species improve through natural selection and interaction with the environment? Can one generation of automaton ‘learn’ from the mistakes of the previous generation?

  To Arul one question kept coming back again and again. If the automata strove to improve themselves at all costs, how would they deal with anything that interfered with that goal—even assuming that the interfering agency was human?

  ‘Laxman, at your suggestion, I studied von Neumann’s thesis. I now appreciate the enormity of the problem you are trying to solve. Without the blessings of the Guru, I would say that your task is an impossible one’, Arul said.

  ‘For me, the main work has already been done by those who left the container behind. I am merely trying to understand their prescription. Even that is proving hard enough’, Laxman replied.

  ‘Ha! Ha! It’s very amusing to see you being reduced to a
computer that follows programmed instructions.’

  ‘Not even that! The computer at least understands the instructions. I have yet to reach that stage. Which is where Guru helps me.’ And Laxman pointed to a locker.

  The sanctum sanctorum of the computer room was accessible only to Arul and Laxman. Strict security, manual and automatic, ensured that nobody else could enter. Even in such a guarded place Laxman had a specially made locker.

  ‘Over there, further instructions are to be fed to the robot I am making. According to Guru, the information has to be fed in a certain order to be strictly adhered to.’

  ‘That is fine so far as it goes! But Laxman, I have a word of caution. You made Guru as per the instructions. So far so good. We know what computers are. This one is highly exceptional, but still not totally unfamiliar to us. But what you are making now is new … alien.’

  ‘Bah! You are probably reading too much sci-fi, Arul. Alien, indeed! This robot is after all a robot, an automaton. One that can be controlled from without—not Frankenstein’s monster.’ Laxman laughed.

  ‘Nevertheless, I must advise caution. Don’t get carried away.’ Arul’s face expressed genuine worry.

  ‘OK! Let me promise to consult you at each important step in the project. How is that?’ Laxman asked, still in a light vein.

  ‘Good, but not good enough. We need an experienced mind. I would greatly value views from Professor Kirtikar. We consulted him in the beginning, remember?’

  ‘Done, Arul, done. To hear you speak, I am beginning to feel as though I am making a nuclear bomb instead of Vaman.’

  ‘Vaman?’ Arul was hearing the name for the first time.

  ‘My projected robot. I have already named him Vaman—for the instructions as interpreted by Guru make him only about a metre tall. What do you think of the name?’

  Vaman! One of the ten incarnations of Vishnu when he appeared as the Dwarf God.

  ‘Appropriate … very appropriate’, said Arul thoughtfully. The name had other connotations that worried him momentarily. According to the Hindu legend, King Bali offered Vaman as much space as he could cover in three steps. Thereupon Vaman grew, and grew, so that his three steps covered the heavens and all of Earth, with the result that Bali was deprived of his entire kingdom and had to retreat to the underworld. Would Laxman’s Vaman develop sinister intentions? Arul had vague misgivings, but he dismissed them as he nodded heartily and said: