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Holt took the ball out-of-bounds on the sideline and passed to Ricks who dribbled down the middle of the court crossing the mid-court line. Ricks passed to Smith who was heavily guarded but managed to take a nice set shot that went high off the backboard and into the basket.
The Rens’ Smith was lined up for the jump ball when a fan threw a tomato at him and it splattered his jersey. The referee got a towel from the sidelines and handed it to Smith. Someone from the scorer’s table had run out to wipe the floor. One of the policemen near the exit took a few steps up in the bleachers to try and stop this behavior from the fans. They had started throwing more than just tomatoes. Smith did not react since this happened all the time and he was just used to it. Getting the ball down the court was what mattered. The referee resumed play with the tipoff.
After the tomato-throwing incident, the tough defensive play of Smith and Holt were starting to take a toll on the Celtics. The Rens had managed a 10-point lead with six minutes remaining in the game. The Celtics scored a couple of layups by setting up screens at the bottom of the key. But in the end, it was the Rens’ outside shooting from Yancey and Saitch that won the game for them, 31-28.
Ralph’s Creator
New York City, 1995
When Charles got to the office, he had a message waiting from his friend Ted. Ted was the “mad genius” who had created Ralph, using the early research of an equally eccentric mathematician, Alan Turing. Returning Ted’s call, Charles said he would stop by Ted’s apartment in a few minutes. After going through some papers and checking some legal reports, Charles drove to Ted’s apartment. The genius’ pad wasn’t much to look at. Besides two red vinyl chairs, a beat-up sofa that Charles had helped Ted pick up from the Goodwill, and an old black and white TV with rabbit ears, the apartment was pretty bare. Stacks of dishes piled in the sink and on the counter gave off a foul smell and Charles could see clothes heaped on the bed from the open bedroom door. In another room was Ted’s work area, a tiny space overloaded with electronic equipment, where Ralph had been assembled.
Like Frankenstein, Ralph was created to be a companion. Ted had diligently and passionately studied the work of Turing, his hero. Turing’s theory hypothesized that a computer could be programmed after the human brain. He called his machine a B-type unorganized machine. The human brain “talks” with its millions of brain cells or neurons by using synapses. Turing developed the theory that computers could work like the human brain by using artificial neurons and devices that modify the connections between them. In other words, by setting up a neural network in which each neuron-to-neuron connection must pass through a modifier device, Turing could create a “real” brain.
The difference between Turing’s computer and other computers consisted of Turing’s network that enabled the neurons to interconnect freely. In modern computers, the flow of information through the network from one layer to the next layer is restricted. It had taken years of hard work applying Turing’s theories before Ted had accomplished what he had set out to do – build a computer that would simulate the neural networks of the brain.
Ted was able to invent Ralph, a hyper computer – a computer that was programmed to think on its own. Ralph was programmed to be able to learn just like children when they are continually exposed to new learning environments. Ralph would learn more when Ted would input additional information. For now, he was happy listening to the Mamas and the Papas with Charles and finding out details about police officers.
Ted’s life was simple. He received military disability benefits after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He served in the Army from 1967-71 during the Vietnam War. Even though he was a genius at the computer, like his hero Turing, he had trouble holding down a job and taking care of his basic necessities. It was a struggle to pay the rent on time and have enough money in his checking account to pay other bills.
Charles checked on Ted from time to time, making sure he had food in the cupboards, was eating properly, and paying the rent. Several times, he had called the utility company when Ted’s electricity was turned off. Finally, Charles had talked with the landlord and the utility company to have Ted’s monthly bills forwarded to Charles’ office to make sure they got paid.
At night, Ted would stay up well into the early morning hours, viewing the stars through a refractor telescope. He even had made an impressive map of the constellations with specific stars marked on it. In school, he had excelled in math, science, and chemistry, and now he continued to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Ted couldn’t ask for any better friend than Charles. Ted, in turn, gave Ralph to Charles to use for research in his law practice and picking stocks that ended up making nice returns. Ralph had an uncanny knack for knowing when a stock was going to increase in value.
Charles knew a little about computers – after all, he used one in his law office – but he wasn’t knowledgeable on the intricacies of Ralph because Ralph was always learning new information. Ralph seemed to have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. No subject matter was too trivial or boring for Ralph – history, archeology, the solar system, all of this was fodder for Ralph’s curiosity. Ralph was probably the world’s greatest trivia expert. He had more knowledge than 10 law office computers put together. Sometimes Ralph could be annoying, like when he quizzed Charles on the most insignificant things. But Charles had to admit Ralph could put together a stock market analysis like nobody’s business or quote case law after case law. Charles realized even with his law degree he was no match for Ralph, who kept learning and never tired of the intricacies or details of things that interested him.
Of all his passions, however, Ralph’s main interest was chess. He loved to play chess and would play with anyone. Charles kidded that he would try to line up a match with a world champion chess player or maybe Deep Blue, the IBM computer. No person or machine was too much of a challenge for Ralph.
Modesty was not one of Ralph’s strong attributes. He wasn’t exactly arrogant, but he was like a boxer who was going into a match with superior technique and skills. Ted had designed Ralph so he could communicate through several different methods.
The video camera and headset would work for Ralph’s eyes and ears. Ralph also was set up with a video camera attached in Charles’ Porsche. Ted made sure Ralph could be taken anywhere through the use of a modified video camera. This made him portable. Any device that could communicate with the mainframe computer, which was at Charles’ apartment, would work. Another way Ralph would communicate with other electronic devices was with electronic waves transmitted to a satellite much the same way a cell phone works today. “So, how’s Ralph been?” asked Ted, who still liked to check in on his creation. Ralph found it insulting that Ted had asked Charles how he was doing, “I’m doing very well, thank you,” Ralph said.
Charles and Ted both laughed. “Yes, he’s doing excellent,” Charles said.
“That would be excellently,” corrected Ralph.
“He keeps me on my toes,” commented Charles. “By the way, do you need anything?”
“I don’t think so,” answered Ted. “Maybe I could play chess with Ralph.”
While Ralph and Ted exchanged moves – Ralph was winning as usual – Charles’ mind drifted to things other than pawns, bishops, kings, and queens. He began reflecting on his meeting at the diner with Samuel Jacobsen and his legal problem. In short, Jacobsen had done some major work for a firm called Cybertex and never got paid. Then Cybertex filed for bankruptcy and Samuel never saw a dime.
Samuel had about 200 people working for his contracting business. СКАЧАТЬ