A Silicon Prometheus
by Robert Hamill

Scene 1
   Truman Phillips, a newsman in search of a story in the dry news of the death of a academic scientist sits across the desk from Kate Marchant, dean of a large university. Next to Truman sits George Porter, chief lab assistant of the late Professor Machter.
Truman Phillips:
   I have been assigned by my editor to do a fuller treatment of Professor Machter. Of course, we did the usual bio when he died unexpectantly last month, but that was already in the can. It missed his latest work. How would you summarize his work and its importance, Dean Marchant?
Dean Marchant:
   Of course, I can't address the specifics of his work, but the general flow I did understand. Professor Machter developed the Martian mosquito using neural networks. Do you know what that is?

 

Truman:
   The Martian mosquito was the device that we sent to explore Mars a few years back and neural nets are the field in which the Professor worked.
Dean:
   Very good. It was seven years ago, when Professor Machter turned the Martian mosquito over to the space program. George, you were his chief assistant. Could you explain a neural net to Mr. Phillips?
George Porter:
   I'll try. Neural networks differ from conventional computers in how they operate. Neural nets are not programmed but trained to categorize input. An important step in the creation of a good neural net is the training of it.
Truman:
   I'd heard that neural nets do not have a central control. Is that right?
George:
   Exactly. A neural network consists of many, simple