X-Message-Number: 6219
From: 
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 18:27:18 -0400
Subject: SCI. CRYONICS The Truth Machine

                                      THE TRUTH MACHINE

[From the (delayed) April issue of THE IMMORTALIST]

The book of above name is scheduled for June publication by Ivy Press, 100
Highland
Park Village, Suite 200, Dallas TX 75205. (Contact 1-800-228-9264.) $19.95,
about 320
pp.  

The author, James L. Halperin, "directs the world's largest rare coin
company" Turns out
he has known Pat Heller, Vice President and Treasurer of Cryonics Institute,
for many
years, since Pat also owns a coin shop and often travels to meetings and coin
shows--
but he didn't know that Pat is a fellow cryonicist. Mr. Halperin is a member
of
Alcor.

The book, a "speculative novel," is the author's first effort at fiction. It
will certainly provide a lot of pleasure and stimulation for immortalists and
cryonicists among others, as well as those "futurists" who only want to play
at it. If we are lucky, it may even catch on among the general public. 

>From a P.R. standpoint its most hopeful feature is that it may convey to
ordinary
people some sense of the reality of the future and of change: there really
will be a
tomorrow, and it really will be different, and we really must take personal
responsibility in realizing its potential.

In common with other good "future history" science fiction, the meat of it is
in interesting
ideas, some with a degree of originality and potential importance; these are
spiced with
human interest and wit in the story line and characters. 

How good is the meat, and is the spice too much or too little or the right
kind for a
large readership? I have no clue on the second question; I shared his
characters'joys
and sorrows, but my reactions are not always typical. However, I'll offer a
few comments.

First, a word about blurbs: A  friendly reviewer is tempted to use
extravagant
language of praise, including extreme adjectives easily excerpted for ads.
But I
always try to avoid hyperbole and do not say "wonderful" when I mean "good,"
or "good"
when I mean "mediocre." In this case, the author's reach may have exceeded
his grasp-
-because he reached so very high--but that is scarcely a criticism. 

Oversimplifying a bit, the author's main point is that crime and war threaten
the
existence of humanity in the relatively near future, because even individuals
may gain
access to weapons of mass destruction. To eliminate crime and war, and create
a world
government, we must have completely reliable evidence of everyone's past
actions
and present intentions. We need a Truth Machine--essentially, a device that
reads
minds. (I had something partly similar in my 1948 story, "The Penultimate
Trump.")

That premise can certainly be debated. We already have primitive "truth
machines" (the
polygraph is the best known), and it doesn't have to be perfect to be useful.
But our
courts--which encourage jurors to use the "demeanor" (!) of a witness as a
gauge of
verity--will not even allow polygraph evidence to be introduced. Even
recording
videocameras in public places are resisted as "invasion of privacy." And of
course there is
the "self incrimination" prohibition in the Bill of Rights...

But maybe a "guarantee" of 100% accuracy might make a difference. Mr.
Halperin points
out that American juries are hung up on the possibility of convicting an
innocent person,
even when the likelihood of that is very small. (Consider the "reasonable
doubt" in
the Simpson case!) Obviously there are other solutions to the "reasonable
doubt" problem;
in particular, the probability of guilt could be an element in the
sentencing--and should be,
in any rational judicial system.

Certainly the loss of a few cities to terrorists with nuclear devices or
vials of bacteria or
bottles of "gray goo" might make people feel differently about the primacy of
privacy. 

In any event, the degree of originality is considerable. Many writers have
discussed
the Great Divide in history that might accompany mature nanotech, or self-
improving and self-propagating or conscious machines, or human immortality. I
don't
recall any that focus on the Divide resulting from a lifetime of universal
truthfulness. 

(Older science fiction readers may recall the Lensman series; a Gray Lensman
was a sort
of futuristic 007 with a license to kill; he could penetrate the mind of a
suspected
perpetrator, ascertain the truth instantly, pass judgment and inflict the
death penalty on his own responsibility.)

One of our IMMORTALIST humor pieces laid out a horrid future in which e.g.
everyone
was medically compelled to tell the truth. Actually, I think I'd like it. And
I certainly
liked the book.                        --R.E.


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