（外文电子版资料）Robert Silverberg - The Macauley Circuit.pdf

THE MACAULEY CIRCUIT by Robert Silverberg I dont deny I destroyed Macauleys diagram; I never did deny it, gentlemen. Of course I destroyed it, and for fine, substantial reasons. My big mistake was in not thinking the thing through at the beginning. When Macauley first brought me the circuit, I didnt pay much attention to it—certainly not as much as it deserved. That was a mistake, but I couldnt help myself. I was too busy coddling old Kolfmann to stop and think what the Macauley circuit really meant. If Kolfmann hadnt shown up just when he did, I would have been able to make a careful study of the circuit and, once I had seen all the implications, I would have put the diagram in the incinerator and Macauley right after it. This is nothing against Macauley, you understand; hes a nice, clever boy, one of the finest minds in our whole research department. Thats his trouble. He came in one morning while I was outlining my graph for the Beethoven Seventh that we were going to do the following week. I was adding some ultrasonics that would have delighted old Ludwig—not that he would have heard them, of course, but he would have felt them—and I was very pleased about my interpretation. Unlike some synthesizer-interpreters, I dont believe in changing the score. I figure Beethoven knew what he was doing, and its not my business to patch up his symphony. All I was doing was strengthening it by adding the ultrasonics. They wouldnt change the actual notes any, but thered be that feeling in the air which is the great artistic triumph of synthesizing. So I was working on my graph. When Macauley came in I was choosing the frequencies for the second movement, which is difficult because the movement is solemn but not too solemn. Just so. He had a sheaf of paper in his hand, and I knew immediately that hed hit on something important, because no one interrupts an interpreter for something trivial. Ive developed a new circuit, sir, he said. Its b