May 2, 2025 • 46 mins
A suspense series featuring mysterious tales with a twist, ranging from psychological thrillers to eerie supernatural encounters. Each episode is crafted for maximum tension.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh, Mystery Theater presents, come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome. I'm e. G. Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It was mister Voltaire who said that if God did
not exist, we should have to invent him. And through
the ages, this is what mankind has been doing since
the dim and distant beginnings of the human race.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The gods have come and.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Gone, and each civilization, every society, donates another deity to
the ever expanding pantheon. Or are they all merely extensions
of the same one.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You have been summoned here for a computer readout.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The computer has decided that you are now divorced.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Divorced?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh well, I love my wife that is irrelevant, and
she loves me that is immaterial. It is not in
the best interests of the social order for you to
remain married. But why the computer is not required to explain.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Our mystery drama?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
The God Machine was written especially for The Mystery Theater
by Sam dam and stars Lloyd Batista and Patricia Elliott.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
I'll be back shortly with that one.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Through our history, there's always been the quest, the quest
for what, well, the quest for the secret?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What secret?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Once again, which particular secret you wish to know the
secret of? Certainty, the secret of success, the secret.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Of wealth, power, immortality.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Thousands of years ago, magicians would sacrifice a cow and
claim to read the secret in a study of the entrance.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
We call that superstition.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Today, when we wish to ascertain the secret, we send
out people with clipboards who ask foolish questions. We call
that research. That's the way it goes. Our story takes
place at a time in the future. Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You seem nervous.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, yes, I guess I am. Why well, why not
a not a.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Time like this?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
What is there about a time like this to create
what appears to be a state of emotional imbalance?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Oh I'm balanced. I'm perfectly balanced, the absolutely symmetrical. It's
just yes, Well, nobody exactly looks forward to computer read
our time, do they?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Well, it's a it's just you never can tell what
the computer has decided. It's sort of like learning your fate.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Fate. That's an archaic word. Oh oh uh, I'm sorry,
an unfortunate word.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I certainly didn't know a word.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Which, if stated in seriousness, would indicate a definite need
for readjustments.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Wellll, sometimes a word just pops out.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The word fate belongs to the obsolete societies of the
barbaric past. I agree completely this discredited absolutely fallacious belief
in so called fate.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
What was it, Well, whatever it was, it was definitely wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It presumed the inevitability of a course of events predetermined
by some agent or agency beyond human control.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You see how insidious such a belief can be.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of course, we would thus be relieved of all responsibility.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
For our actions. Yes, yes, we and.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
We alone, through a complete analysis of our own makeup,
control ourselves and our society and our best interest.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Oh that's the gospel, truth, gospel.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh that sounds like another archaic word. What does it mean?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, I'm I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You are obviously reading a great many of the archaic books.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, it's legal, isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
It, provided it does not make one's mind unsymmetric, in
which case readjustment is indicated.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I don't take any of it seriously.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That will be determined at your annual symmetry checkup. At
this time, as your district programmer, I have summoned you
here to inform you of the results of your latest
computer readout. Thomas y one three oh five four six.
You have just been married. Married, I am married.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
It is estimated that in thirty years we shall require
an increase in mathematicians. Genetic Headquarters has therefore conducted an
analysis of DNA and chromosome factors, among others. It has
been determined that a marriage between you Thomas Y one
three oh Dash five four six and m Kay nine
nine eight Dash seven two seven shall produce offspring who
(05:06):
will become master mathematicians.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I I am married.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, the legal documentation is already stored.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
But I don't know the girl. Why do you raise
such an irrelevant point.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It's just that the whole thing is such a surprise.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Why certainly you knew that one day your marriage would
be programmed.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's just that I thought you thought. What is there
to think about?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Your home has already been selected and furnished, furnished in
accordance with the registered and adjusted tastes and preferences of
both of you. You will report there at once.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Where to north River? North River?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, that's so far away from what Well from my job.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You have a new job. For the next ten years,
you and your married companion shall devote all your efforts
and energy to producing your young life.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Look, I'm very happy with what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The computer has determined that you should be even happier
in your new mission. That is, unless, of course, you
are out of.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
The chest miss No, No, I'm perfectly adjusted.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Then let me be the first to congratulate you.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Thomas. Oh, oh, it's you, Paul. You're not even ready.
You have to be at the port within the hour. Paul,
What if what if I refuse to go? What if
you refuse to Thomas?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
What if I refuse?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We shouldn't be having this kind of conversation if I
can't talk about a thing like this to my brother,
to whom can I talk to?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Nobody? You know what they did to me, don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And don't use that word?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Which word they? There is no they, no.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
No, there's an us a wei, and each of our
actions is governed and guided by the wisdom and the experience.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Of all of us.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
If they want me to get married, there's that they again.
They ordered me to get married for our own.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
For your own, and for society's good.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
How do I know I love this girl?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Love?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Your problem is those archaic books. I just keep talking
and thinking like those ancient authors, and I can't see
how in the world you can hope to avoid readjustment.
You know what happens to you with there? Don't you
suppose I won't be able to love her?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Love? Just listen to me.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
You've been married for five years. Do you love Dorothy?
I like Dorothy. It's not the same thing. That's just
the point. What is love?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Love? Oh? I love is.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Well, it can't really be defined. It's an intense and
overwhelming feeling.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You could also be describing a fever, which is exactly
what love is.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
A fever of.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Unknown origin, a fever of unknown duration, a devastating fever
that strikes at random, without warning, reason, or rhyme. It's
based on emotion, on passion. That's all right, But it
isn't all right. It's not enough of a foundation for
a lasting relationship between a man and a woman. It's
too chancy for the genetic improvement of the human race.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I want the right to choose my own mate.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But you have chosen her. Your chromosomes and genes have
chosen her. Your nerve, endings and impulses have chosen her.
Your entire psychic anatomy has chosen her, just as she
has chosen you.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh, you don't know what I mean, but I do.
You would prefer to.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Make this most vital decision on the basis of what
a momentary mood, a passing fancy, a transient emotion.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
However it works out. It's my own business, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
No, it's our business, society's business. You are part of
the world. You will send children into the world in
any event, Thomas, there's nothing you can do about it, really,
is there.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Hello, I'm Emma, I.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm Thomas. Yes, well I see you got here to
the house first.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yes, but I didn't have far to go.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I live, that is, I used to live in the valley.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
You're a K nine nine eight. I used to know
some nine nine eight's over in Southfield.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
We that is, I'm Dash seven two seven. I have
no relatives in this part of the country.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh well, do you do you like the house?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, it's all right. Did you want to look around? Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Later, I guess, so here we are, Yes, here we are.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
You aren't at all. But I pictured what did you picture?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Some very serious looking person?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Why well, we're supposed to too, We're supposed to what
I hate to say, that word. But well, how else
can I put it? We're supposed to breed mathematicians.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, yeah, you don't look very much like a mathematician
to me either.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I don't know the first thing about mathematics, neither do I.
And how do they expect us to to have children
who do well?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
As I understand that we don't have to know anything
but our genes do?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I see?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You know?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It is the genes. They sort of mix and match
and one thing or another.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I suppose it all comes out the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Probably, I must say. They did fix the place up
very nicely.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yes, well, here we are, Yes, here we are.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Are there any entertainments in town that you know?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I haven't seen any schedules? But well we couldn't go anyhow.
Why not because we have a personal schedule? Oh yes,
it was delivered to me as soon as I got here.
I read it and I have to sign it. You
will have to sign it too.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
What does it say?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Oh? Well, you'd better read it all right.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
The newly married couple Thomas and Emma, will spend all
evenings at home until they've created evidence that the purpose
of their marriage has been fulfilled.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
The officer who delivered this said that the need for
mathematicians is becoming acute.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Yeah, that's what they predict.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Do you mind if we have some music?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But you don't have to ask. It's your house too.
I always like to.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Listen to music, so I brought my tapes. Well, look
at this machine we have here.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Oh see what it says? A wedding gift from the computer.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
District who says the computer doesn't have a heart. I'll
just accept it. In now we push this button.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
That's very nice.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It's beautiful, it's very well played.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You really don't like it, do you?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Why do you say that?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I just get that feeling.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
If you go around saying you don't like it, you
could get into trouble.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Well, I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You don't like it?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I hate it?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
What are you saying?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I can't stand it?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
What kind of music do you like?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Really want to know? Let me stop this trash. I
have a lot more on this tape here. Listen to this.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You you like this? You go for this?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I y oh me too.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
You're joking?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Listen to what else I got on here?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
By Johan Struck The elder. What else have you got?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I got to Stravinsky and George Gershwin and go stuff mom.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Then you must be you must be an archade.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, I am so am I No sure, red Yard Kipling,
Scott is, Daryl Mark Twain, hula hoops, bubble.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Gum, an archaic.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I never dreamed it could happen.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I never dreamed it could happen to me.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
You can't believe it, said free.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Oh we're not dreaming, are we?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Are we? No? No, it isn't a dream.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
That's real. We're hearing and we're in love.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
We're in love.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
We've fallen in love the way the way it's supposed
to happen at first sight.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yes, at first sight.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I love you, Amma, I love you Thomas. And the
computer is right. The computer divined this love. The computer
discovered it, and the computer brought us together.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yes, and now I believe it. I believe everything they
say about the computer.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
So do I.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
The computer can create an absolutely perfect world.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Of course it can, And seemingly it is brought together
two people of similar temperament and taste. So why shouldn't
this marriage be a most happy success? Why? Well, for
one very good reason. We are only just past the
first act. And besides, how can you have a garden
of Eden without a serpent?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'll be back with that too shortly.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I'm losing Anton.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Mister Charles Darwin once said, and I quote, I believe
that man in the distant future will be a far
more perfect creature than he is now.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
He said that at least one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Ago, if not more. Therefore, to him, we would be
the creatures of the future. I wouldn't say we're more
perfect than the people in his time, and the folks
in our story who are living, say a thousand years
from now, do not appear to be any more perfect
than we are.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Besides, what is perfection? Are you happy, Emma?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yes, I didn't know it was possible for her to
be happy. It was something you were supposed to hope for,
to strive for.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You're not even supposed to use the word I forgot.
Happy is something neurotic, dangerous. It can wark the personality.
You know, the word they want us to use.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Adjusted.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Adjusted.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
When the one great score comes to write against your name,
he marks not that you won or lost, but how
you played the game.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Me.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
You know, I don't think I ever heard that.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
One before Grantlan Rice.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You really know you're archaics h.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
He was a sports writer.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's right. They used to have people who wrote about sports.
But you're going back a thousand years at least.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
What I wouldn't give to see a professional football game
or a baseball.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
That's all been outlawed.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I don't understand why I do.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't agree with it, but I can't understand it.
After all, there's an imbalance in a society where an
athlete will be paid more than a research scientist.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Well, you've got a hand it at the computer had
picked out two kooks like us and brought us together.
Do you think they just wanted to get us out
of the way.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
No, they brought us together to produce mathematicians.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, no one can say we're not trying.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A book of versus beneath the bow, a loaf of bread,
a jug of wine and that. Do you know who
wrote that?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I give up.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It was written by Omar the tent Maker?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
How would you like to live in a tent?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
All I would need is for someone to see it.
I'd be packed in for readjustment.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Emma, when did I last tell you that I loved
you about to half an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I think, are you beginning to take me for granted.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
When when the children come along?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Are we going to do what everyone else does? Are
we going to let them take the kids away from us?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Well? Will we?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
They're not actually taking the children away. No, they're just
putting them into the nursery.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's not taking them away.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
If they can take better care of them than we could.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Well that's not the point.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
There are kids, they still be our kids will visit them.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
It's not the same. Wouldn't you really like to watch
your kids while he grows up, be the one to
feed them and clothe them and teach them things. I mean,
isn't that the natural way to do it?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There's just no way we could ever hope to do that.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Maybe we could figure something out. We've got to look.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
At us having an argument on how to raise a
child that is't even born yet. Would you like some music.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Exactly what I had in mind to think there was
a time when people could listen to music like this
in public. I know, why what have they got against
this music? I mean, okay, the books, maybe they could
object to the ideas, but muse.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It the way it was explained to me. Music represents
the spirit of an error, and in the music of
the past is all the restlessness and the conflicts and
the neuroses.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Everybody today is crazy except you and me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Thomas.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Hello, Paul, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I have to report to the district programmer. Why I
was told there was another computer read out? Well, I
don't see how it can be anything serious.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
No, neither do I.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well tell me how are thinks the word is perfection? Well,
absolute perfection? Well aren't you the one who said I
want the right to choose my own mate.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I have said a lot of stupid things in my life.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I hate to say I told you so. No, say it.
I deserve it.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Only the computer can match people perfectly. Now I know
what true happiness I beg your pardner, what true adjustment is.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, you're finally growing up.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I can just tell from now on everything's going to
be all right.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
As you're a district programmer, I have summoned you here
at this time to inform you that you have just
been divorced. Divorced. The legal documentation has already been stored divorce.
But no, I don't understand under the circumstances, you are
entitled to an explanation.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Wait a minute, there has been an.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Error, an error the computer makes an air How the
computer never makes an error? A Grade seven technician made
an error in transcription.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Well, he had no right to make an error. He
is being readjusted.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Readjusted, just because he made a little mistake. I mean,
that's a terrible thing to do to a person.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
That therapeutic and necessary thing.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Look, talking about my divorce.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
There is nothing to talk about. It has already been accomplished.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
You can't do this to me and to Emma.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
But we must.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
There has been a computer error.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It doesn't matter. You see it all worked.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Emma and I Why we're supremely happy.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Happy.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
I mean we're in love.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Love, We're in perfect semi you can't be Oh, please
believe me. I can only believe what the computer tells me.
And when the two of you are placed into it,
you simply do not balance.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
But when we get along, very well, it won't work.
It's working now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It won't last. How do you know the computer knows? How?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
The attraction between you is not based on qualities of
durable nature. Besides, you will not produce mathematicians. Well, aren't
you going to thank me? Thank you for what as
a well adjusted citizen, you should thank me for rectifying
what could have been the crucial mistake of your life.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks a million, Emma.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Thomas, what are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know about it?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
What are we going to do?
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There's nothing we can do?
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Oh, yes there is. We can appear to the chief programmer, Thomas.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Nobody ever wins those appeals.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That can always be a first time.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
But besides, Thomas, if you lose it, they put you
through readjustment.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Are you scared?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Yes, so am I.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Do you know what it does to you? It changes
you completely, Everything that means so much to you. It
just gets burned out.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Don't say that it amounts to.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
The same thing. It gets blotted out, cut out? Does
that sound any better? And you become just like everyone
else around here? Even worse.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
But if we're divorced, and if you marry this guy,
whoever he is with a number almost like mine, you
know the type of person he has to be.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yes, I'm afraid I do.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And then living with him, you'll become just like everyone else. Anyhow, No,
I won't. How could you help yourself.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, I'll still have my privacy and I can listen
to my tapes and read my books.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Will be enough for you?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Well it'll have to be.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
No, No, it won't.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It always was.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
It was for me too. That wasn't till I met
you and I lived with you. Once I've known what
it is to live with you. I can't go back
to the old way, and neither can you.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Well, both of us, we'll just have to.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I'm going to appeal, please Thomas, but it won't do
any good if you don't appeal with me.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But I'm scared, Thomas. I'm so frightened.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Mamma, we have to do it.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
How do you do?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Oh? Who are you?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And I might ask you that question? However, I am
Walter V two seven eight Fash six six four. I
assume I'm in the presence of my newly married companion
m A K nine nine eighth Fash seven two seven.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Oh, she happens to be my married companion.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
They would appear to be in an error. I have
here the certificate.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh yes, I was told about the minor mishapping.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Readout a minor mishap. That's what you consider it? What
I mean you're suddenly informed that your marriage is canceled,
and that's a minor mishap.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I believe you are becoming dangerously emotional.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I believe I have a right to No one ever.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Has the right to become dangerously emotional, and especially over
such a minor affair as this.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Minor what else is it? It's only marriage. You'll stay
to dinner.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I hope stay to dinner.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Is there any reason why the three of us shouldn't
be good friends?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yes? Really, I can't imagine why I happen to be
in love with Emma. And that's a rather archaic concept,
isn't it. And she happens to be in love with me? Really?
Are you in love with Emma? Love? I'm not in
love with anybody, nor do I ever intend to be.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
You would become a married companion of a woman you
didn't love, My dear Chap.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If I should ever become so so unsymmetrical as to
fall in love, I would take great pains to see
to it that I never married her.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I goodness, you are a thorough going died in the wall.
I heard there were fellows like you, but I never
ran into any before what do you say to a
little music?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Huh genuinely clears the air. Thomas, you'd better go. No, Am,
I can't.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Thomas, I make it so hard for us. There's nothing
we can do.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We will appeal.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Ah, here we are. Oh isn't this absolutely fantastic? You know, Emma,
I could listen to this day and night. Don't you
just love it?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thomas? Thomas, don't go, don't leave me.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, we will appeal right now now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Let us appeal.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Music, it has been said, can soothe the savage breasts,
taking the opposite tech, it can also inflame the civilized heart.
And so now we learn about another facet of this
futuristic society. There is an appeal procedure. But is it
like the situation that is all too familiar in our time,
(27:06):
the one that's known as fighting city Hall. This shall
be clarified shortly in Act three. Certain things never seem
to change, and one of them is the triangle, not
the geometric triangle of euclid, but the human triangle two
(27:28):
men and one woman or two women and one man.
The geometric triangles can always be neatly solved. That is
because mathematics follows precise and rigid rules. Human triangles, on
the other hand, defy analysis, resist definition, and evade solution.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
What are you saying, Emma, I.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Said Thomas, and I must appeal.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I can't believe you.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Why can't you believe it?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You mean you'll risk readjustment?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Why because I love Thomas?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
You love Thomas.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Now there's an unbalanced statement if I ever heard one.
But don't worry, I'm not an informer.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Well, actually, you do seem like a really nice person, Walter,
aside from your grotesque taste in music. It's a pity
you have to be the one in the middle.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Why do I have to be the one in the middle.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Why?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well that, for that matter, why does anyone have to
be in the middle. Believe me?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
The whole business isn't worth risking readjustment.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
You keep saying that it's true we're.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
In love, but you couldn't understand that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I sincerely hope I never understand what love is or
feels like. I want nothing to do with it. I
said it before. There's no reason why we all can't
be friends. I like Emma, sure, but I like quite
a few other guys too.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Just a minute, are you implying what I think. Are
you saying that you and I should share, Emma? Share
that that should be the greatest of all our cake
were just answer the question.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
The answer should be self evident. I refuse to share,
Emma with anybody? Can you be so selfish?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Do you realize what an antisocial attitude you have? Suppose
everyone felt that way about their married companion, we'd have
violence in every.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Street, in every home. And at just a moment, I
should have something to say about this.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I was waiting for you to interject something reasonable and sensible.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Emma. I only want one man.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I really think that two of you deserve each other.
You may only want one man, Emma, but society requires
you to have more.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And society is wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Genetically, society is right. It's the only way to bring
the proper children into the world.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Emma and I want our own children.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Children are never your own going around and around. I'm
only saying, be sensible.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I happen to know an ar cake phrase or two myself,
and you recall the one that applies here.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Don't make waves.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You wish to request an appeal? Yes? Have you thought
about it?
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yes, carefully, we are determined it is my duty as
your district programmer to warn you of the implications of
this act.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
We're already aware of them.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You have filled out the necessary forms, yes, and we
wish to present them here officially. The law provides for
a twenty day cooling off period.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
That isn't necessary.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
We know our mine. Nevertheless, it must be followed.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Your request for repeal is now tentatively acknowledged. Tentatively, at
the end of this period, if you are still determined
to go through with this procedure, you will report to
the chief programmer. Otherwise your request will be null and void.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Will be there. Please, Paul, don't try to talk me
out of it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Listen to me.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
I'll listen, and you'll say one thing, and I'll say another,
and we'll go round and round.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Do you want to die? That's what readjustment is.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
You know that everything you are, everything you want to be,
everything you hold so important, is taken out of you.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You're just a shell. Now.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I know what you meant when I asked you if
you loved Dorothy and you said I like her. Do
you like her the way Walter likes Emma? I suppose so, well,
then who do you love?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Love?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Love you have to love someone, even if it's in secret.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Who is she? Is that important? I don't care about
her name. I don't even want to know her. But
she exists, doesn't she?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Paul?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, yes, yes, oh listen to that. And who was
caring on about love just a little while ago? Who
was saying love was a fever? It is, it's a disease.
How can you say that? I didn't want you to
catch it? Why not because.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Because you couldn't handle it?
Speaker 4 (31:55):
What gives you the right to say that?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
We'll look at you? Can you handle it? Actually going
to appeal on account of it? Why can't you just
accept love the way it is? Why must you force
it to destroy you?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
I can't help, but I can't think of her with another.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Man, Thomas, This is what destroyed the ancient world's passion,
blind overwhelming passion, uncontrolled emotions.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Don't lecture me.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
People could be driven to kill I confess. Don't you
want to kill Walter? You see you're afraid to answer.
Is that what you want us to go back to?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
But what we're doing it isn't natural?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Who says so? No one feels anything, No one really lives.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I also know one or two archaics sayings Thomas for instance,
moderation in all things.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yes, moderation, of course, but it has to be the
moderation that I adopt for myself.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
It can't be the moderation that's forced on me. You're
really going to appeal, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yes, you're actually going to fight the computer?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yes? Yes, after all? What is the computer anyhow?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
God?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Of course? You mean you didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
We only have fifteen more days. Do you want to
change your mind?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
We're going to lose I know. Do you know why?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Because you can't fight the computer?
Speaker 4 (33:30):
And do you know why? Because the computer is God?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
God?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
I never thought about it until my brother said it
a little while ago, he laughed.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I'm sure he thinks it's a joke. But it's true.
The computer is God. But what was God to the ancients?
Something or someone infallible omnipotence.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
But the computer, it's something that we.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
May peoples make their own gods.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Well, even if that's true, how does it help.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Us what we make we can also destroy? How can
we destroy the computer easily? Blow it up?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
What are you saying?
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And then the world can start all over again?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Blow up the computer?
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Why not but you know what they'll do to us,
the government, but everybody.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Maybe, But how can you say?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Maybe? It's a fact.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I've learned something. I learned that most people live by
fooling the computer, by finding ways to get around it,
by paying lip service to it.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Well, how does that help anything.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We'll be doing a service to humanity. We'll be saying, Look,
you don't have to pretend anymore. You can live honestly, freely.
You could be true to your feelings, your emotions. That
people won't allow the.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Government to readjust us, We're going to start a revolution
to honus.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Do you believe that, don't you?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Well, I don't know, and believe me.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I'm right. I know I'm right. Suppose there are gods, gods?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Why this is the main computer bank?
Speaker 4 (35:10):
And well, now God isn't protected by gods, but by awe,
by fear.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Please be careful, Thomas, No.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
No, don't worry. This is a very stable explosive. It
can't go off until already. Now it's through that door.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
But what if it's locked?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Why should it be locked.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
We're going to do it. We're actually going to do it.
I can hardly believe it.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Here see it's open ah lock.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yes, Look all those banks and banks and rows and
rows and computers.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
That's God. That's God deciding on the movement of everybody in.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
The entire world.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
It's God controlling every thought, every act. Well, we're going
to give rid of that idea and we're going to
think and act for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Thomas, what is it? I was just wondering if.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
You're starting to dub, you can get out of it.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
No, no, no no, I'm only wondering if people will
really want to think and act for themselves, or do
they want it all decided for them.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
I am the captain of my soulier. I am a
master of my faith.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Thomas.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
That's just poetry, just poetry. Isn't poetry something to live by?
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Oh, yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I have adapted. Are
you sure? Yes, let's do it now. He has to
wire at each row of these Oh.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
What's that's Thomas?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
They did attempt to destroy the main computer bank. Since
they are obviously too unbalanced, too unsymmetrical to speak in
their own defense, who does appear for them?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Er with your permission? I am brother to Thomas and
brother in law to Emma, and what have you to say.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
The fault is not with these two immature people. It
lies with the archaic books and tapes. Their minds have
been confused by the neuroses of ancient writers, philosophers, and poets.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Thus they were driven to this.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yes, it is a most serious crime, but readjustment is
a most serious punishment.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Readjustment is not a punishment, It is a therapy.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It is a most drastic therapy.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
May I suggest an extended period of re education and
retraining under more benign circumstances. Let us replace their subversive
and destructive ideas by study and analysis, rather than by
the searing trauma of electric shock.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I have made my statement.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Thank you for your efforts to secure justice. This office
has taken all possible factors into consideration. A study of
both the accused reveals that there is no hope in
milder attempts to balance. The asymmetry is so pronounced that
it may only be corrected by total readjustment.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I do believe we have a visitor, Emma, a visitor
who's Thomas.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Thomas.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Sit down, Thomas, let me turn this thing off. I
must say, you're looking good.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Thank you, Walter. Hello, Emma, how are.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
You Thomas, Well, what can we do for you?
Speaker 4 (39:16):
I I was just out walking.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I'm married.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Now, as we heard, we're supposed to produce marine biologists.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Well it's the coming field. I understand. Well, why don't
you bring her over sometime? She's very busy. I hardly
get to see her myself.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Well that's the way it goes. I understand. Emma, my dear,
I have an appointment.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Are you leaving?
Speaker 1 (39:42):
It won't be for long, And besides, Thomas will keep
you company. Why did you have to rock the boat? Well,
I'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
What did he mean by that rock the boat?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Thomas. Do I know you?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
I think we know each other, but I'm not sure.
There are things I simply can't remember anymore.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yes, I feel that way too. Sometimes my head hurts.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Mine does too.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
And I get the feeling that I'm being punished. But
I can't seem to remember why.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Neither can I.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
If only, if only I could remember why why I'm
being punished?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
If only?
Speaker 4 (40:49):
And yet, in a way, he's lucky.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
In many societies, his crime would have received the far
more drastic punishment. The moral of our story he hesitated
to offer one, except perhaps that if you want to
save the world, you'd better make sure that the world
thinks in danger. To begin with, I shall return shortly.
(41:22):
We began our little session with a discussion of the
basic similarities between ancient and modern man. Ancient man had
an entire pantheon of gods, and they had to be
consulted before each and every venture. Today we demand the
same services of a machine. Feed in the facts, factor
(41:42):
in the data. The ancients waited for the verdict.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Of the oracle at Delphi, who was the priestess of Apollo.
We wait for the verdict of the computer.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I wonder which in the long run has proved more reliable.
Cast included Lloyd Batista, Patricia Elliott, Terry Keane, and Bob Caliban.
The entire production is under the direction of Hyman Brown.
And now a preview of our next tale.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Why would she have amnesia?
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Well because an athlete in training, she's in perfect health.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Well then she was kidnapped.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Right off the street Delaware Avenue. They could have overpowered her,
forced her into a car.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
She wouldn't go quietly. She seems a big, strong girl.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I don't say it like that.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You make her sound ungainly.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
She's beautifully built.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And you can't hool out the possibility of kidnapping, Sergeant.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
You'd have received word by now about a ransom.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Well, maybe it's the kind of kidnapping where girls have
sold into you know, slavery.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Oh please, Molly, Sergeant. We're desperately yes, sir, I understand,
and I just wish you knew a little more about her.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Should find her please, She's own little girl. Have we
loved her?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Missus E. G.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for
another adventure in the macabre USU U
Oh, Mystery Theater presents, come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome. I'm e. G. Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It was mister Voltaire who said that if God did
not exist, we should have to invent him. And through
the ages, this is what mankind has been doing since
the dim and distant beginnings of the human race.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The gods have come and.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Gone, and each civilization, every society, donates another deity to
the ever expanding pantheon. Or are they all merely extensions
of the same one.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You have been summoned here for a computer readout.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The computer has decided that you are now divorced.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Divorced?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh well, I love my wife that is irrelevant, and
she loves me that is immaterial. It is not in
the best interests of the social order for you to
remain married. But why the computer is not required to explain.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Our mystery drama?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
The God Machine was written especially for The Mystery Theater
by Sam dam and stars Lloyd Batista and Patricia Elliott.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
I'll be back shortly with that one.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Through our history, there's always been the quest, the quest
for what, well, the quest for the secret?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What secret?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Once again, which particular secret you wish to know the
secret of? Certainty, the secret of success, the secret.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Of wealth, power, immortality.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Thousands of years ago, magicians would sacrifice a cow and
claim to read the secret in a study of the entrance.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
We call that superstition.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Today, when we wish to ascertain the secret, we send
out people with clipboards who ask foolish questions. We call
that research. That's the way it goes. Our story takes
place at a time in the future. Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You seem nervous.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, yes, I guess I am. Why well, why not
a not a.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Time like this?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
What is there about a time like this to create
what appears to be a state of emotional imbalance?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Oh I'm balanced. I'm perfectly balanced, the absolutely symmetrical. It's
just yes, Well, nobody exactly looks forward to computer read
our time, do they?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Well, it's a it's just you never can tell what
the computer has decided. It's sort of like learning your fate.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Fate. That's an archaic word. Oh oh uh, I'm sorry,
an unfortunate word.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I certainly didn't know a word.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Which, if stated in seriousness, would indicate a definite need
for readjustments.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Wellll, sometimes a word just pops out.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The word fate belongs to the obsolete societies of the
barbaric past. I agree completely this discredited absolutely fallacious belief
in so called fate.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
What was it, Well, whatever it was, it was definitely wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It presumed the inevitability of a course of events predetermined
by some agent or agency beyond human control.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You see how insidious such a belief can be.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of course, we would thus be relieved of all responsibility.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
For our actions. Yes, yes, we and.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
We alone, through a complete analysis of our own makeup,
control ourselves and our society and our best interest.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Oh that's the gospel, truth, gospel.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh that sounds like another archaic word. What does it mean?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, I'm I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You are obviously reading a great many of the archaic books.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, it's legal, isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
It, provided it does not make one's mind unsymmetric, in
which case readjustment is indicated.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I don't take any of it seriously.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That will be determined at your annual symmetry checkup. At
this time, as your district programmer, I have summoned you
here to inform you of the results of your latest
computer readout. Thomas y one three oh five four six.
You have just been married. Married, I am married.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
It is estimated that in thirty years we shall require
an increase in mathematicians. Genetic Headquarters has therefore conducted an
analysis of DNA and chromosome factors, among others. It has
been determined that a marriage between you Thomas Y one
three oh Dash five four six and m Kay nine
nine eight Dash seven two seven shall produce offspring who
(05:06):
will become master mathematicians.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I I am married.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, the legal documentation is already stored.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
But I don't know the girl. Why do you raise
such an irrelevant point.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It's just that the whole thing is such a surprise.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Why certainly you knew that one day your marriage would
be programmed.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's just that I thought you thought. What is there
to think about?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Your home has already been selected and furnished, furnished in
accordance with the registered and adjusted tastes and preferences of
both of you. You will report there at once.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Where to north River? North River?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, that's so far away from what Well from my job.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You have a new job. For the next ten years,
you and your married companion shall devote all your efforts
and energy to producing your young life.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Look, I'm very happy with what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The computer has determined that you should be even happier
in your new mission. That is, unless, of course, you
are out of.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
The chest miss No, No, I'm perfectly adjusted.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Then let me be the first to congratulate you.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Thomas. Oh, oh, it's you, Paul. You're not even ready.
You have to be at the port within the hour. Paul,
What if what if I refuse to go? What if
you refuse to Thomas?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
What if I refuse?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We shouldn't be having this kind of conversation if I
can't talk about a thing like this to my brother,
to whom can I talk to?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Nobody? You know what they did to me, don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And don't use that word?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Which word they? There is no they, no.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
No, there's an us a wei, and each of our
actions is governed and guided by the wisdom and the experience.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Of all of us.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
If they want me to get married, there's that they again.
They ordered me to get married for our own.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
For your own, and for society's good.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
How do I know I love this girl?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Love?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Your problem is those archaic books. I just keep talking
and thinking like those ancient authors, and I can't see
how in the world you can hope to avoid readjustment.
You know what happens to you with there? Don't you
suppose I won't be able to love her?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Love? Just listen to me.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
You've been married for five years. Do you love Dorothy?
I like Dorothy. It's not the same thing. That's just
the point. What is love?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Love? Oh? I love is.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Well, it can't really be defined. It's an intense and
overwhelming feeling.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You could also be describing a fever, which is exactly
what love is.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
A fever of.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Unknown origin, a fever of unknown duration, a devastating fever
that strikes at random, without warning, reason, or rhyme. It's
based on emotion, on passion. That's all right, But it
isn't all right. It's not enough of a foundation for
a lasting relationship between a man and a woman. It's
too chancy for the genetic improvement of the human race.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I want the right to choose my own mate.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But you have chosen her. Your chromosomes and genes have
chosen her. Your nerve, endings and impulses have chosen her.
Your entire psychic anatomy has chosen her, just as she
has chosen you.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh, you don't know what I mean, but I do.
You would prefer to.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Make this most vital decision on the basis of what
a momentary mood, a passing fancy, a transient emotion.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
However it works out. It's my own business, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
No, it's our business, society's business. You are part of
the world. You will send children into the world in
any event, Thomas, there's nothing you can do about it, really,
is there.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Hello, I'm Emma, I.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm Thomas. Yes, well I see you got here to
the house first.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yes, but I didn't have far to go.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I live, that is, I used to live in the valley.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
You're a K nine nine eight. I used to know
some nine nine eight's over in Southfield.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
We that is, I'm Dash seven two seven. I have
no relatives in this part of the country.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh well, do you do you like the house?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, it's all right. Did you want to look around? Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Later, I guess, so here we are, Yes, here we are.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
You aren't at all. But I pictured what did you picture?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Some very serious looking person?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Why well, we're supposed to too, We're supposed to what
I hate to say, that word. But well, how else
can I put it? We're supposed to breed mathematicians.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, yeah, you don't look very much like a mathematician
to me either.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I don't know the first thing about mathematics, neither do I.
And how do they expect us to to have children
who do well?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
As I understand that we don't have to know anything
but our genes do?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I see?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You know?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It is the genes. They sort of mix and match
and one thing or another.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I suppose it all comes out the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Probably, I must say. They did fix the place up
very nicely.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yes, well, here we are, Yes, here we are.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Are there any entertainments in town that you know?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I haven't seen any schedules? But well we couldn't go anyhow.
Why not because we have a personal schedule? Oh yes,
it was delivered to me as soon as I got here.
I read it and I have to sign it. You
will have to sign it too.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
What does it say?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Oh? Well, you'd better read it all right.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
The newly married couple Thomas and Emma, will spend all
evenings at home until they've created evidence that the purpose
of their marriage has been fulfilled.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
The officer who delivered this said that the need for
mathematicians is becoming acute.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Yeah, that's what they predict.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Do you mind if we have some music?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But you don't have to ask. It's your house too.
I always like to.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Listen to music, so I brought my tapes. Well, look
at this machine we have here.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Oh see what it says? A wedding gift from the computer.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
District who says the computer doesn't have a heart. I'll
just accept it. In now we push this button.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
That's very nice.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It's beautiful, it's very well played.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You really don't like it, do you?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Why do you say that?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I just get that feeling.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
If you go around saying you don't like it, you
could get into trouble.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Well, I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You don't like it?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I hate it?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
What are you saying?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I can't stand it?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
What kind of music do you like?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Really want to know? Let me stop this trash. I
have a lot more on this tape here. Listen to this.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You you like this? You go for this?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I y oh me too.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
You're joking?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Listen to what else I got on here?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
By Johan Struck The elder. What else have you got?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I got to Stravinsky and George Gershwin and go stuff mom.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Then you must be you must be an archade.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, I am so am I No sure, red Yard Kipling,
Scott is, Daryl Mark Twain, hula hoops, bubble.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Gum, an archaic.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I never dreamed it could happen.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I never dreamed it could happen to me.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
You can't believe it, said free.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Oh we're not dreaming, are we?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Are we? No? No, it isn't a dream.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
That's real. We're hearing and we're in love.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
We're in love.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
We've fallen in love the way the way it's supposed
to happen at first sight.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yes, at first sight.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I love you, Amma, I love you Thomas. And the
computer is right. The computer divined this love. The computer
discovered it, and the computer brought us together.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yes, and now I believe it. I believe everything they
say about the computer.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
So do I.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
The computer can create an absolutely perfect world.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Of course it can, And seemingly it is brought together
two people of similar temperament and taste. So why shouldn't
this marriage be a most happy success? Why? Well, for
one very good reason. We are only just past the
first act. And besides, how can you have a garden
of Eden without a serpent?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'll be back with that too shortly.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I'm losing Anton.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Mister Charles Darwin once said, and I quote, I believe
that man in the distant future will be a far
more perfect creature than he is now.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
He said that at least one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Ago, if not more. Therefore, to him, we would be
the creatures of the future. I wouldn't say we're more
perfect than the people in his time, and the folks
in our story who are living, say a thousand years
from now, do not appear to be any more perfect
than we are.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Besides, what is perfection? Are you happy, Emma?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yes, I didn't know it was possible for her to
be happy. It was something you were supposed to hope for,
to strive for.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You're not even supposed to use the word I forgot.
Happy is something neurotic, dangerous. It can wark the personality.
You know, the word they want us to use.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Adjusted.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Adjusted.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
When the one great score comes to write against your name,
he marks not that you won or lost, but how
you played the game.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Me.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
You know, I don't think I ever heard that.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
One before Grantlan Rice.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You really know you're archaics h.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
He was a sports writer.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's right. They used to have people who wrote about sports.
But you're going back a thousand years at least.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
What I wouldn't give to see a professional football game
or a baseball.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
That's all been outlawed.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I don't understand why I do.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't agree with it, but I can't understand it.
After all, there's an imbalance in a society where an
athlete will be paid more than a research scientist.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Well, you've got a hand it at the computer had
picked out two kooks like us and brought us together.
Do you think they just wanted to get us out
of the way.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
No, they brought us together to produce mathematicians.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, no one can say we're not trying.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A book of versus beneath the bow, a loaf of bread,
a jug of wine and that. Do you know who
wrote that?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I give up.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It was written by Omar the tent Maker?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
How would you like to live in a tent?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
All I would need is for someone to see it.
I'd be packed in for readjustment.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Emma, when did I last tell you that I loved
you about to half an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I think, are you beginning to take me for granted.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
When when the children come along?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Are we going to do what everyone else does? Are
we going to let them take the kids away from us?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Well? Will we?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
They're not actually taking the children away. No, they're just
putting them into the nursery.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's not taking them away.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
If they can take better care of them than we could.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Well that's not the point.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
There are kids, they still be our kids will visit them.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
It's not the same. Wouldn't you really like to watch
your kids while he grows up, be the one to
feed them and clothe them and teach them things. I mean,
isn't that the natural way to do it?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There's just no way we could ever hope to do that.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Maybe we could figure something out. We've got to look.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
At us having an argument on how to raise a
child that is't even born yet. Would you like some music.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Exactly what I had in mind to think there was
a time when people could listen to music like this
in public. I know, why what have they got against
this music? I mean, okay, the books, maybe they could
object to the ideas, but muse.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It the way it was explained to me. Music represents
the spirit of an error, and in the music of
the past is all the restlessness and the conflicts and
the neuroses.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Everybody today is crazy except you and me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Thomas.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Hello, Paul, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I have to report to the district programmer. Why I
was told there was another computer read out? Well, I
don't see how it can be anything serious.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
No, neither do I.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well tell me how are thinks the word is perfection? Well,
absolute perfection? Well aren't you the one who said I
want the right to choose my own mate.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I have said a lot of stupid things in my life.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I hate to say I told you so. No, say it.
I deserve it.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Only the computer can match people perfectly. Now I know
what true happiness I beg your pardner, what true adjustment is.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, you're finally growing up.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I can just tell from now on everything's going to
be all right.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
As you're a district programmer, I have summoned you here
at this time to inform you that you have just
been divorced. Divorced. The legal documentation has already been stored divorce.
But no, I don't understand under the circumstances, you are
entitled to an explanation.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Wait a minute, there has been an.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Error, an error the computer makes an air How the
computer never makes an error? A Grade seven technician made
an error in transcription.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Well, he had no right to make an error. He
is being readjusted.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Readjusted, just because he made a little mistake. I mean,
that's a terrible thing to do to a person.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
That therapeutic and necessary thing.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Look, talking about my divorce.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
There is nothing to talk about. It has already been accomplished.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
You can't do this to me and to Emma.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
But we must.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
There has been a computer error.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It doesn't matter. You see it all worked.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Emma and I Why we're supremely happy.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Happy.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
I mean we're in love.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Love, We're in perfect semi you can't be Oh, please
believe me. I can only believe what the computer tells me.
And when the two of you are placed into it,
you simply do not balance.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
But when we get along, very well, it won't work.
It's working now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It won't last. How do you know the computer knows? How?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
The attraction between you is not based on qualities of
durable nature. Besides, you will not produce mathematicians. Well, aren't
you going to thank me? Thank you for what as
a well adjusted citizen, you should thank me for rectifying
what could have been the crucial mistake of your life.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks a million, Emma.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Thomas, what are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know about it?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
What are we going to do?
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There's nothing we can do?
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Oh, yes there is. We can appear to the chief programmer, Thomas.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Nobody ever wins those appeals.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That can always be a first time.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
But besides, Thomas, if you lose it, they put you
through readjustment.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Are you scared?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Yes, so am I.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Do you know what it does to you? It changes
you completely, Everything that means so much to you. It
just gets burned out.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Don't say that it amounts to.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
The same thing. It gets blotted out, cut out? Does
that sound any better? And you become just like everyone
else around here? Even worse.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
But if we're divorced, and if you marry this guy,
whoever he is with a number almost like mine, you
know the type of person he has to be.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yes, I'm afraid I do.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And then living with him, you'll become just like everyone else. Anyhow, No,
I won't. How could you help yourself.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, I'll still have my privacy and I can listen
to my tapes and read my books.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Will be enough for you?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Well it'll have to be.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
No, No, it won't.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It always was.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
It was for me too. That wasn't till I met
you and I lived with you. Once I've known what
it is to live with you. I can't go back
to the old way, and neither can you.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Well, both of us, we'll just have to.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I'm going to appeal, please Thomas, but it won't do
any good if you don't appeal with me.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But I'm scared, Thomas. I'm so frightened.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Mamma, we have to do it.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
How do you do?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Oh? Who are you?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And I might ask you that question? However, I am
Walter V two seven eight Fash six six four. I
assume I'm in the presence of my newly married companion
m A K nine nine eighth Fash seven two seven.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Oh, she happens to be my married companion.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
They would appear to be in an error. I have
here the certificate.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh yes, I was told about the minor mishapping.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Readout a minor mishap. That's what you consider it? What
I mean you're suddenly informed that your marriage is canceled,
and that's a minor mishap.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I believe you are becoming dangerously emotional.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I believe I have a right to No one ever.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Has the right to become dangerously emotional, and especially over
such a minor affair as this.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Minor what else is it? It's only marriage. You'll stay
to dinner.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I hope stay to dinner.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Is there any reason why the three of us shouldn't
be good friends?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yes? Really, I can't imagine why I happen to be
in love with Emma. And that's a rather archaic concept,
isn't it. And she happens to be in love with me? Really?
Are you in love with Emma? Love? I'm not in
love with anybody, nor do I ever intend to be.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
You would become a married companion of a woman you
didn't love, My dear Chap.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If I should ever become so so unsymmetrical as to
fall in love, I would take great pains to see
to it that I never married her.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I goodness, you are a thorough going died in the wall.
I heard there were fellows like you, but I never
ran into any before what do you say to a
little music?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Huh genuinely clears the air. Thomas, you'd better go. No, Am,
I can't.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Thomas, I make it so hard for us. There's nothing
we can do.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We will appeal.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Ah, here we are. Oh isn't this absolutely fantastic? You know, Emma,
I could listen to this day and night. Don't you
just love it?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thomas? Thomas, don't go, don't leave me.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, we will appeal right now now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Let us appeal.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Music, it has been said, can soothe the savage breasts,
taking the opposite tech, it can also inflame the civilized heart.
And so now we learn about another facet of this
futuristic society. There is an appeal procedure. But is it
like the situation that is all too familiar in our time,
(27:06):
the one that's known as fighting city Hall. This shall
be clarified shortly in Act three. Certain things never seem
to change, and one of them is the triangle, not
the geometric triangle of euclid, but the human triangle two
(27:28):
men and one woman or two women and one man.
The geometric triangles can always be neatly solved. That is
because mathematics follows precise and rigid rules. Human triangles, on
the other hand, defy analysis, resist definition, and evade solution.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
What are you saying, Emma, I.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Said Thomas, and I must appeal.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I can't believe you.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Why can't you believe it?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You mean you'll risk readjustment?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Why because I love Thomas?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
You love Thomas.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Now there's an unbalanced statement if I ever heard one.
But don't worry, I'm not an informer.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Well, actually, you do seem like a really nice person, Walter,
aside from your grotesque taste in music. It's a pity
you have to be the one in the middle.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Why do I have to be the one in the middle.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Why?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well that, for that matter, why does anyone have to
be in the middle. Believe me?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
The whole business isn't worth risking readjustment.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
You keep saying that it's true we're.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
In love, but you couldn't understand that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I sincerely hope I never understand what love is or
feels like. I want nothing to do with it. I
said it before. There's no reason why we all can't
be friends. I like Emma, sure, but I like quite
a few other guys too.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Just a minute, are you implying what I think. Are
you saying that you and I should share, Emma? Share
that that should be the greatest of all our cake
were just answer the question.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
The answer should be self evident. I refuse to share,
Emma with anybody? Can you be so selfish?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Do you realize what an antisocial attitude you have? Suppose
everyone felt that way about their married companion, we'd have
violence in every.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Street, in every home. And at just a moment, I
should have something to say about this.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I was waiting for you to interject something reasonable and sensible.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Emma. I only want one man.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I really think that two of you deserve each other.
You may only want one man, Emma, but society requires
you to have more.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And society is wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Genetically, society is right. It's the only way to bring
the proper children into the world.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Emma and I want our own children.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Children are never your own going around and around. I'm
only saying, be sensible.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I happen to know an ar cake phrase or two myself,
and you recall the one that applies here.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Don't make waves.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You wish to request an appeal? Yes? Have you thought
about it?
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yes, carefully, we are determined it is my duty as
your district programmer to warn you of the implications of
this act.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
We're already aware of them.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You have filled out the necessary forms, yes, and we
wish to present them here officially. The law provides for
a twenty day cooling off period.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
That isn't necessary.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
We know our mine. Nevertheless, it must be followed.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Your request for repeal is now tentatively acknowledged. Tentatively, at
the end of this period, if you are still determined
to go through with this procedure, you will report to
the chief programmer. Otherwise your request will be null and void.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Will be there. Please, Paul, don't try to talk me
out of it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Listen to me.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
I'll listen, and you'll say one thing, and I'll say another,
and we'll go round and round.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Do you want to die? That's what readjustment is.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
You know that everything you are, everything you want to be,
everything you hold so important, is taken out of you.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You're just a shell. Now.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I know what you meant when I asked you if
you loved Dorothy and you said I like her. Do
you like her the way Walter likes Emma? I suppose so, well,
then who do you love?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Love?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Love you have to love someone, even if it's in secret.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Who is she? Is that important? I don't care about
her name. I don't even want to know her. But
she exists, doesn't she?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Paul?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, yes, yes, oh listen to that. And who was
caring on about love just a little while ago? Who
was saying love was a fever? It is, it's a disease.
How can you say that? I didn't want you to
catch it? Why not because.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Because you couldn't handle it?
Speaker 4 (31:55):
What gives you the right to say that?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
We'll look at you? Can you handle it? Actually going
to appeal on account of it? Why can't you just
accept love the way it is? Why must you force
it to destroy you?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
I can't help, but I can't think of her with another.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Man, Thomas, This is what destroyed the ancient world's passion,
blind overwhelming passion, uncontrolled emotions.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Don't lecture me.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
People could be driven to kill I confess. Don't you
want to kill Walter? You see you're afraid to answer.
Is that what you want us to go back to?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
But what we're doing it isn't natural?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Who says so? No one feels anything, No one really lives.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I also know one or two archaics sayings Thomas for instance,
moderation in all things.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yes, moderation, of course, but it has to be the
moderation that I adopt for myself.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
It can't be the moderation that's forced on me. You're
really going to appeal, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yes, you're actually going to fight the computer?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yes? Yes, after all? What is the computer anyhow?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
God?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Of course? You mean you didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
We only have fifteen more days. Do you want to
change your mind?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
We're going to lose I know. Do you know why?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Because you can't fight the computer?
Speaker 4 (33:30):
And do you know why? Because the computer is God?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
God?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
I never thought about it until my brother said it
a little while ago, he laughed.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I'm sure he thinks it's a joke. But it's true.
The computer is God. But what was God to the ancients?
Something or someone infallible omnipotence.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
But the computer, it's something that we.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
May peoples make their own gods.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Well, even if that's true, how does it help.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Us what we make we can also destroy? How can
we destroy the computer easily? Blow it up?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
What are you saying?
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And then the world can start all over again?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Blow up the computer?
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Why not but you know what they'll do to us,
the government, but everybody.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Maybe, But how can you say?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Maybe? It's a fact.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I've learned something. I learned that most people live by
fooling the computer, by finding ways to get around it,
by paying lip service to it.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Well, how does that help anything.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We'll be doing a service to humanity. We'll be saying, Look,
you don't have to pretend anymore. You can live honestly, freely.
You could be true to your feelings, your emotions. That
people won't allow the.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Government to readjust us, We're going to start a revolution
to honus.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Do you believe that, don't you?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Well, I don't know, and believe me.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I'm right. I know I'm right. Suppose there are gods, gods?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Why this is the main computer bank?
Speaker 4 (35:10):
And well, now God isn't protected by gods, but by awe,
by fear.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Please be careful, Thomas, No.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
No, don't worry. This is a very stable explosive. It
can't go off until already. Now it's through that door.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
But what if it's locked?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Why should it be locked.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
We're going to do it. We're actually going to do it.
I can hardly believe it.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Here see it's open ah lock.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yes, Look all those banks and banks and rows and
rows and computers.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
That's God. That's God deciding on the movement of everybody in.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
The entire world.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
It's God controlling every thought, every act. Well, we're going
to give rid of that idea and we're going to
think and act for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Thomas, what is it? I was just wondering if.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
You're starting to dub, you can get out of it.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
No, no, no no, I'm only wondering if people will
really want to think and act for themselves, or do
they want it all decided for them.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
I am the captain of my soulier. I am a
master of my faith.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Thomas.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
That's just poetry, just poetry. Isn't poetry something to live by?
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Oh, yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I have adapted. Are
you sure? Yes, let's do it now. He has to
wire at each row of these Oh.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
What's that's Thomas?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
They did attempt to destroy the main computer bank. Since
they are obviously too unbalanced, too unsymmetrical to speak in
their own defense, who does appear for them?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Er with your permission? I am brother to Thomas and
brother in law to Emma, and what have you to say.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
The fault is not with these two immature people. It
lies with the archaic books and tapes. Their minds have
been confused by the neuroses of ancient writers, philosophers, and poets.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Thus they were driven to this.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yes, it is a most serious crime, but readjustment is
a most serious punishment.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Readjustment is not a punishment, It is a therapy.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It is a most drastic therapy.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
May I suggest an extended period of re education and
retraining under more benign circumstances. Let us replace their subversive
and destructive ideas by study and analysis, rather than by
the searing trauma of electric shock.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I have made my statement.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Thank you for your efforts to secure justice. This office
has taken all possible factors into consideration. A study of
both the accused reveals that there is no hope in
milder attempts to balance. The asymmetry is so pronounced that
it may only be corrected by total readjustment.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I do believe we have a visitor, Emma, a visitor
who's Thomas.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Thomas.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Sit down, Thomas, let me turn this thing off. I
must say, you're looking good.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Thank you, Walter. Hello, Emma, how are.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
You Thomas, Well, what can we do for you?
Speaker 4 (39:16):
I I was just out walking.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I'm married.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Now, as we heard, we're supposed to produce marine biologists.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Well it's the coming field. I understand. Well, why don't
you bring her over sometime? She's very busy. I hardly
get to see her myself.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Well that's the way it goes. I understand. Emma, my dear,
I have an appointment.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Are you leaving?
Speaker 1 (39:42):
It won't be for long, And besides, Thomas will keep
you company. Why did you have to rock the boat? Well,
I'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
What did he mean by that rock the boat?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Thomas. Do I know you?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
I think we know each other, but I'm not sure.
There are things I simply can't remember anymore.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yes, I feel that way too. Sometimes my head hurts.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Mine does too.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
And I get the feeling that I'm being punished. But
I can't seem to remember why.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Neither can I.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
If only, if only I could remember why why I'm
being punished?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
If only?
Speaker 4 (40:49):
And yet, in a way, he's lucky.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
In many societies, his crime would have received the far
more drastic punishment. The moral of our story he hesitated
to offer one, except perhaps that if you want to
save the world, you'd better make sure that the world
thinks in danger. To begin with, I shall return shortly.
(41:22):
We began our little session with a discussion of the
basic similarities between ancient and modern man. Ancient man had
an entire pantheon of gods, and they had to be
consulted before each and every venture. Today we demand the
same services of a machine. Feed in the facts, factor
(41:42):
in the data. The ancients waited for the verdict.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Of the oracle at Delphi, who was the priestess of Apollo.
We wait for the verdict of the computer.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I wonder which in the long run has proved more reliable.
Cast included Lloyd Batista, Patricia Elliott, Terry Keane, and Bob Caliban.
The entire production is under the direction of Hyman Brown.
And now a preview of our next tale.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Why would she have amnesia?
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Well because an athlete in training, she's in perfect health.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Well then she was kidnapped.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Right off the street Delaware Avenue. They could have overpowered her,
forced her into a car.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
She wouldn't go quietly. She seems a big, strong girl.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I don't say it like that.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You make her sound ungainly.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
She's beautifully built.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And you can't hool out the possibility of kidnapping, Sergeant.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
You'd have received word by now about a ransom.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Well, maybe it's the kind of kidnapping where girls have
sold into you know, slavery.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Oh please, Molly, Sergeant. We're desperately yes, sir, I understand,
and I just wish you knew a little more about her.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Should find her please, She's own little girl. Have we
loved her?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Missus E. G.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for
another adventure in the macabre USU U
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