August 31, 2024 • 24 mins
Hope you enjoy this episode of Dimension X! Find all our podcasts and OTR radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Dimension X was an anthology science-fiction series, originally aired from 1950-1951. This program dealt with more "adult" oriented themes like death, religion and science, war, politics and the moral issues of human being in regards to their place in the universe. Many the episodes were adapted from stories by the prominent science fiction writers of the era, for example, Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury. - Thank you for listening, consider a donation to help keep the OTR radio stations commercial-free: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jared.day.oldtimeradio - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 - Find all the podcasts here @ Spreaker.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Adventures in time and space transcribed in future tense. The
(00:28):
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Nobody knows exactly when the nightmare began. They must have
planned it for years, though, because looking back you can
find little incidents here and there, like the concrete mixer
in New Jersey killed the bricklayer, and the time Senator
Milbourne was sucked into the roto press at the Capital
Office Building. Unrelated accidents, we thought at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
But they add up now.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The day we really should have suspected was when the
men walked off the construction job at the new brook
Meadow Atomic Pile on Long Island. I'll never forget that day.
I was working as a statistical clerk in the project,
then operating one of those miracle computing machines developed to
fill the requirements of Army Ordnance.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They called it Aniac. Oh uh, yes, dolla.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
The Chief wants to see you in his office. Me
unless you're no longer Sampson Gurney.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
He wants to see you. Oh well, of course, Uh,
what do you suppose not read mine Keeleys or crystal Ball?
Of course, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have atched. Don't apologize,
I'm sorry, and don't wait for me.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
If the Hawk is in a.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Hurry, yes, I'll go in right away. Of course, her
name was Bella Roscob. She was mister Hawk secretary. I
had always thought her a very attractive woman, but for
some reason she didn't seem to like me. Of course,
on a clerk salary, I couldn't exactly afford to take
(02:29):
ladies to the best places. But I've often thought that
if there weren't such a disparity in our ages, I
might have.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
But then.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You wanted to see me, mister Hawk.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Gurney, I thought those electronic computations were infallible.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
They are, sir.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We got to kick back from the chief physicists. These
nuclear equations are inaccurate. No, they aren't.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm telling you what the memo said.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, sir, occasionally, if there's an overload, the machine goes haywire,
sort of has a nervous breakdown, you might say. We
usually rested up for twenty four hours and it's okay again, Well,
do whatever has to be done. Yes, oh when Gurney, Yes, sir,
you've been with a bureau for over fifteen years. Now
would be a shame to have to remove you because
(03:20):
you aren't.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Keeping your mind on your work.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Oh, mister Hawk, I hardly think anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Excus me.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Heart speaking?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Why they what? All of them? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Have me try to talk to them? Yes, of course,
I'll say. One of the safety engineers over this place
is falling apart, piece by pieces, ros Cod. Yes, the
men in the construction gang at the new building have
walked out of us. Someone slipped this morning and fell
into a turbine. Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
If the chief.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Safety engineer have him over there right away. Yes, Oh,
and contact the personnel office. Have masked the union to
order the men back to work. Get back to me,
mister Harry Gerny had no time to discuss anything further.
Get on the job and to stay awake, or we'll
have to make some cheat of mister hawk journey. That's all. Now.
(04:17):
You probably gathered by this time that I wasn't a
very important man at brook Meadow. I hated mister Hawk
with a passion. Because of his superior attitude, and because
I knew that Miss roscarb admired him as a man
of strength and decision. I was secretly happy he was
having trouble with his construction cruise. That evening, I wandered
(04:43):
over to the sight of the new atomic pile to
see where the man had fallen into the turbine. They
had the construction area fenced off with barbed wire, and
a security guard stopped me. Call it, buddy, you can't
go in there. That's a restricted area, Sampson Gurney from
the statistical section.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Here's my identification.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm sorry, mister Gurney. Nobody's allowed in the area.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I see.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
They had a lot of the employees come over tonight
to take a look, but nobody gets in.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What is Tell me? Was he killed instantly?
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
This guy was checking a magnetic field inside the turbine,
see right down inside it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's all over it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But if it wasn't hooked up, mister Gurney, They got
smarter guys than me trying to figure these things out.
Yesterday it was a concrete mold. Wham. Two guys get
sucked right into the mixer. Three days ago, a bulldozer
starts up by itself and runs wild. One killed two
almost go figure it out, you know what I think, sabotage.
(05:50):
We got more guards and FBI me in in here
than we got workers. Flee couldn't get through without prove
and he didn't come off a Russian wolf on. Now,
I'm a statistician all my life. I've been interested in statistics,
so way simple sounding thing like this started me off.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I went back to.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The office that evening instead of going home, and for
the next two and a half hours I computed figures
on the probability of industrial accidents for the types of
machines we were using. I took one look at my
(06:35):
figures and went down to Hawk's office just as I
figured he was staying late working on a settlement with
the construction workers.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh good evening.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I saw the light journey. What are you doing here
because mister.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Hawk working late?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, I am too.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I wonder if I could see him a moment.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We're busy right now. Could you make it tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's very urgent.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'll wait if you don't mind suit you so, miss Roscobb,
I wonder if perhaps you would consider having dinner with
me this evening after you are through. I have a date,
mister Gurney. I was thinking we might go to Raymonds.
They have very good spaghetti.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Mister Hawk has.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Already asked me to have dinner with them at the
Golden shiskebab Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, of course that's out of my class.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
A year, mister Hawk, Mister Gurney would like to see
you a moment, he says, it's very urgent.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
All right, I'll give them a minute.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Okay, thank you, Miss Roscobb, mister Hawk. In the past
three months, industrial accidents all over the country have taken
a sharp, unexplained upswing. Why don't you stop playing FBI
man and stick to your job, which, incidentally you haven't
been doing too well. You and our computing machine. He's
(08:00):
made mistakes before, now this is probably another. I'll have
miss Ross comes out. Start. What's the matter with this
plastic buzzer? There's Ross Hoff, there's Ross Top. Stopless plastic buzzer.
Get a repair out of a caddic, anything but stop
the thing and you, Gernie, get out. I went back
(08:24):
to my office to get my hat and coat, feeling
about as unhappy and humiliated as a man can feel.
He had thrown me out in front of her. The
office was dark and deserted. The whole building seemed depressive
and unnatural. I walked across to my desk.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
In front of me.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The Antiac glowed and chattered eerily as it worked on
the equations we had fed at that morning. Its many
fingered circuits hung against the wall like some great octopus,
and the thousands of tubes glowed orange and blue in
the dark, like a thousand eyes staring at me. It
(09:13):
almost seemed a lie. Then it increased its temple a
moment an a pleading notion crossed my brain that it
was laughing at.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Me, laughing like all the others. What was the matter
with me?
Speaker 5 (09:29):
What? U?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And I shut my desk drawer and began to put
the cover on my Aniac typewriter, when an amazing thing happened,
the most amazing single incident of my life. Alone in
the darkness, with no one at the keyboard, the Aniact
(09:56):
typewriter began to type. Am I going crazy? There can't
be there's nobody here. There's nobody here. Oh no, no, no,
I'm just imagining it. It's in my mind, but I
(10:19):
hadn't imagined it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
The paper was there in the carriage. Could I dare
read it?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Or would the whole thing suddenly vanish and send me
shrieking to the nearest psychiatry Sampson, Gurney, there are some
equations that are left unsolved.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The answer to yours is dead.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
It was not until I turned to go that I
was suddenly aware of the utter and complete silence of
the room. Then it dawned on me the enniac had
stopped working.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Gernie.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Do you expect me to believe this? It's insane, mister Hawk,
I'm a sane I get easy. Gurney, Oh, this is
just some practical joke someone in the office is playing.
There was no one in the office, of course, not.
They wired up the machine and left. I checked the
machine myself. Mister all right, Gurney, you leave this note
with me and I'll turn it over to the security
force for further investigation. No butts, Kearny. The security men
(11:35):
will handle it, Yes, sir, Or maybe you've been working
too hard lately. You've got to relax more. Not out here.
Let me light that cigarette for you.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I watched him trying to make the lighter work. I
don't understand this. I just put fluid in it. There's
a brand new flame.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It seemed ridiculous, A little piece of mechanism like a
cigarette lighter. Frustrating the big important executive flash this lighter.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Here's a mass.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It was such a small thing, Yet as I watched him.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
The thought began to take shape in my mind.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Nebulous at first, incredible perhaps, but it grew you. Just
relax for a few days. Everything will turn out all right.
The main thing is not to let little things upset you.
(12:30):
It was the cigarette lighter that gave me the idea
and what Hawk had said about little things. For the
next week, I observed a thousand petty little annoyances around
the office. The door handle that wouldn't turn, the telephone
connection that cut off in the middle of an important call,
the power failure for no explainable reason. Suddenly these things
(12:56):
began to fall into a pattern. Hey, Samson, Gurney knew
that I had stumbled onto a secret so monstrous in
its implications that I was almost afraid to pursue. On
October twelfth, nineteen fifty six, I established communication with them.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I will curse the moment to my dying breath.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Who's there, night Security guy?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Oh, hello, Henry, Hello, mister Gurney.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
What are you doing here so late? I'm just doing
a little repair work on my aniac computator. EM sure's
some mess of wires and tubes. Yes, yes, yes, it
is well. I gotta finish my rams. Won't forget to
turn off the light. What do you, mister Gurney? No, Henry, No,
I won't forget. Good night. When you were a child,
(14:03):
did you ever try to imagine.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That you were all powerful? I felt like.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That when I finished hooking the input of the typewriter
to the main vacuum tube of the Antiac. Then I
turned on the current that sent a million volts of
pulsing energy into the electronic nerves of the machine. I
am certain that if anybody were watching me and the
next moment, he would have thought me a raving maniac.
(14:30):
I still wonder if perhaps it is not all a nightmare.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Now you, if what I have guessed that is true,
if there's life and intelligence in this room, make us time.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
There was nothing, nothing but the hum of the machine
and the dull blowing of the tubes. Then suddenly, without
provocation or explanation, it happened. The Niac typewriter began to
respond to the impulses from the machining. The letters were why, E, S, yes,
(15:20):
And it happened I Sampson Gurney had communicated with a machine.
I was about to try to communicate again when suddenly,
(15:41):
on ball bearing casters, a heavy metal filing cabinet began
to roll away from the wall toward me.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I started to move to.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
One side when another cabinet slat out from the wall,
and then another surrounded me. That was when I realized
that they cooperate. We taught them that you see on
the assembly lines and in the factories, there was no
way out. How could a mere man raison with some machine.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Still, they needed this.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
They needed to soil them and repair them and build them.
They hadn't gotten to the point yet where they could
exist without man. I had to make them understand that
before they killed me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Listen to me.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You must listen. What good will it do you if
you kill me. I'm only one man, but I can
help you. I can be useful to you.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Do you hear me? Do you hear me?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Good?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You're gonna need men to oil you and repair you.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
I'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'll do absolutely anything you want. But in the name
of God, don't kill me. If you can understand this,
answer me, answer me. Peel captured the longing of centuries
man as slave to the machine, and after a moment
the circuits glowed more brightly. The cabinet slid back to
(17:10):
the walls. That I tore the cape from the machine
and read it. The words were almost pathetic in their longing,
but most ominous in their implication.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
They read.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Address me as master.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
My life for the next six months was a nightmare.
The aniac gave me messages which I had to transmit
into my telephone.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I was frantic.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I began to lose weight. I couldn't sleep. My nights
were torture, a constant fear. It was in December, just
after Christmas. I was sitting in my room listening to
a broadcast Ladies and Gentlemen, a special Pulleton. Already twenty
(18:09):
four hours before the peak of the new year's traffic,
over one thousand deaths have been reported.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
This is an unprecedented figure.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Again, if that very afternoon, I had transmitted a message
to the telephones for relay to all machines of transportation.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
The message was one word kill.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Next morning, I avoided my office. Instead, I went directly
to the office of mister Hawk. Highly agitated, my lips
trembled as I spoke, well Gurney, mister Hawk, but I'm
going to tell you sounds crazy. I know it does,
but I must say, all right, say it that for
Heaven's sake, mister Hawk. Have you ever heard of resistentialism?
(19:04):
Resist what resistentialism? You're not making sense, Kearnie, mister Hawk.
I'm trying to tell you all these accidents, the trouble
with the machines, mister Hawk. They're alive.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
They think they cooperate, and they hate it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Who the machines journey. You've got to believe me. I've
communicated with him. I notes, what are you doing now?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Just relax, Garnie.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Everything will be all What are you doing? Miss Roscom
said for the plant position at once, mister Gurney has
had a nervous collapse. But mister Hawker, everything will be
all right. Gurney, We'll give you a nice long rest.
You fool, you.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Blind, stupid fool. Can't just see what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Fool, fool fool. When the plant position arrived a few
moments later, Lucius Hawk was found at his desk, strangled
to death. Than the nest of telephones, the wires were
still humming softly.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Samson Gurney, you stand accused of the crime of murder.
How do you please?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I did not kill him. I did so record I.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
Secure should look procedure.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Now, miss Roscob, did the accused quarrel.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
With your employer on the morning of the murder?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Oh? Yes, He and mister Hawk quarreled violently. I could
hear mister Gurney screaming at him, and mister Hawk asked
me to send to the plant physician. What were his words,
he said, mister Gurney has had a nervous collaority.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Now, mister Simpson, you are a guard of the brook
Meadow Project.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yes, sir, when did you have occasion to meet the accused?
Right after those accidents? He was snooping around the construction areas.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Lamson Journey taught hereby find you guilty of murder in
the first degree, recommendation that you'll be examined committed to
the State Hospital for the criminally insane.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That not a word, And that's how I came to
be here at the hospital, doctor Cline.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
That's the whole story.
Speaker 8 (21:38):
Thank you, mister Gurney.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You can see that I'm not insane. You must believe
me that.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Of course, I believe you, mister Gurney, Now tell me
about this revolt.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It will begin in Washington then spread to New York. Yes,
the Madison Avenue buses lead the charge. Picture at Doctor Kleine.
Three thousand buses roaring rampant through the preach, people running
like rats and amazed looking for manholes in the pavement.
Speaker 8 (22:04):
Don't you really believe this will happen, mister Gilny.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I know it, doctor.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The worst part of it is there's no way to
stop them. Now it's too late.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
You mustn't excite yourself, doctor.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Don't you see m It's fair enough. I suppose we
built them, We taught them to think for themselves. It
was just bound to come. I guess the female machines
will be worse of all in the beauty parlors.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
They're more high strung. You know.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Well, since there's nothing we can do about it, mister Gurney, suppose.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
You go to your room, and maybe if I went
to my old Plymouth I could make a deal before
the police cars got me.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
Would you take mister Gurney to his room. God, he's
already been given sedations.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yes, those concrete mixers may have made a mistake, you know,
just high spirits.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And all that.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But if they got so, they liked the flavor. See
you later, mister.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
Now, try not to worry too much, all right?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
God? Why sir?
Speaker 8 (23:10):
Oh machines revolting telephone strangling people?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Oh? Oh, blasted cigarette lighter?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Why won't it work? I just filled it flint is good?
Speaker 8 (23:27):
Oh well, you can never trust this new fangled machinery.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Next week, Dimension X will present a story of the future,
a story of an insignificant pebble in the sky called Earth,
and of a man from a distant star who grew
to love this unimportant planet.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Dimension X is transcribed each week by the National Broadcasting
Company in collaboration with Freeden Smith, publishers of the magazine
Astounding Science Fiction.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Nightmare was written by George Leopards and based on a
poem The Revolt of the Machines by Stephen Vincent Bennet.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Featured players in the cast were John Gibson as mister
Gurney and retailed In as Bella Roscom Norman Rose as
your Host.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Music by Albert Berman engineer Bill Chambers.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by
Edward King.
Adventures in time and space transcribed in future tense. The
(00:28):
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Nobody knows exactly when the nightmare began. They must have
planned it for years, though, because looking back you can
find little incidents here and there, like the concrete mixer
in New Jersey killed the bricklayer, and the time Senator
Milbourne was sucked into the roto press at the Capital
Office Building. Unrelated accidents, we thought at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
But they add up now.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The day we really should have suspected was when the
men walked off the construction job at the new brook
Meadow Atomic Pile on Long Island. I'll never forget that day.
I was working as a statistical clerk in the project,
then operating one of those miracle computing machines developed to
fill the requirements of Army Ordnance.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They called it Aniac. Oh uh, yes, dolla.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
The Chief wants to see you in his office. Me
unless you're no longer Sampson Gurney.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
He wants to see you. Oh well, of course, Uh,
what do you suppose not read mine Keeleys or crystal Ball?
Of course, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have atched. Don't apologize,
I'm sorry, and don't wait for me.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
If the Hawk is in a.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Hurry, yes, I'll go in right away. Of course, her
name was Bella Roscob. She was mister Hawk secretary. I
had always thought her a very attractive woman, but for
some reason she didn't seem to like me. Of course,
on a clerk salary, I couldn't exactly afford to take
(02:29):
ladies to the best places. But I've often thought that
if there weren't such a disparity in our ages, I
might have.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
But then.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You wanted to see me, mister Hawk.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Gurney, I thought those electronic computations were infallible.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
They are, sir.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We got to kick back from the chief physicists. These
nuclear equations are inaccurate. No, they aren't.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm telling you what the memo said.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, sir, occasionally, if there's an overload, the machine goes haywire,
sort of has a nervous breakdown, you might say. We
usually rested up for twenty four hours and it's okay again, Well,
do whatever has to be done. Yes, oh when Gurney, Yes, sir,
you've been with a bureau for over fifteen years. Now
would be a shame to have to remove you because
(03:20):
you aren't.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Keeping your mind on your work.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Oh, mister Hawk, I hardly think anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Excus me.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Heart speaking?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Why they what? All of them? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Have me try to talk to them? Yes, of course,
I'll say. One of the safety engineers over this place
is falling apart, piece by pieces, ros Cod. Yes, the
men in the construction gang at the new building have
walked out of us. Someone slipped this morning and fell
into a turbine. Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
If the chief.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Safety engineer have him over there right away. Yes, Oh,
and contact the personnel office. Have masked the union to
order the men back to work. Get back to me,
mister Harry Gerny had no time to discuss anything further.
Get on the job and to stay awake, or we'll
have to make some cheat of mister hawk journey. That's all. Now.
(04:17):
You probably gathered by this time that I wasn't a
very important man at brook Meadow. I hated mister Hawk
with a passion. Because of his superior attitude, and because
I knew that Miss roscarb admired him as a man
of strength and decision. I was secretly happy he was
having trouble with his construction cruise. That evening, I wandered
(04:43):
over to the sight of the new atomic pile to
see where the man had fallen into the turbine. They
had the construction area fenced off with barbed wire, and
a security guard stopped me. Call it, buddy, you can't
go in there. That's a restricted area, Sampson Gurney from
the statistical section.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Here's my identification.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm sorry, mister Gurney. Nobody's allowed in the area.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I see.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
They had a lot of the employees come over tonight
to take a look, but nobody gets in.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What is Tell me? Was he killed instantly?
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
This guy was checking a magnetic field inside the turbine,
see right down inside it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's all over it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But if it wasn't hooked up, mister Gurney, They got
smarter guys than me trying to figure these things out.
Yesterday it was a concrete mold. Wham. Two guys get
sucked right into the mixer. Three days ago, a bulldozer
starts up by itself and runs wild. One killed two
almost go figure it out, you know what I think, sabotage.
(05:50):
We got more guards and FBI me in in here
than we got workers. Flee couldn't get through without prove
and he didn't come off a Russian wolf on. Now,
I'm a statistician all my life. I've been interested in statistics,
so way simple sounding thing like this started me off.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I went back to.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The office that evening instead of going home, and for
the next two and a half hours I computed figures
on the probability of industrial accidents for the types of
machines we were using. I took one look at my
(06:35):
figures and went down to Hawk's office just as I
figured he was staying late working on a settlement with
the construction workers.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh good evening.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I saw the light journey. What are you doing here
because mister.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Hawk working late?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, I am too.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I wonder if I could see him a moment.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We're busy right now. Could you make it tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's very urgent.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'll wait if you don't mind suit you so, miss Roscobb,
I wonder if perhaps you would consider having dinner with
me this evening after you are through. I have a date,
mister Gurney. I was thinking we might go to Raymonds.
They have very good spaghetti.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Mister Hawk has.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Already asked me to have dinner with them at the
Golden shiskebab Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, of course that's out of my class.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
A year, mister Hawk, Mister Gurney would like to see
you a moment, he says, it's very urgent.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
All right, I'll give them a minute.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Okay, thank you, Miss Roscobb, mister Hawk. In the past
three months, industrial accidents all over the country have taken
a sharp, unexplained upswing. Why don't you stop playing FBI
man and stick to your job, which, incidentally you haven't
been doing too well. You and our computing machine. He's
(08:00):
made mistakes before, now this is probably another. I'll have
miss Ross comes out. Start. What's the matter with this
plastic buzzer? There's Ross Hoff, there's Ross Top. Stopless plastic buzzer.
Get a repair out of a caddic, anything but stop
the thing and you, Gernie, get out. I went back
(08:24):
to my office to get my hat and coat, feeling
about as unhappy and humiliated as a man can feel.
He had thrown me out in front of her. The
office was dark and deserted. The whole building seemed depressive
and unnatural. I walked across to my desk.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
In front of me.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The Antiac glowed and chattered eerily as it worked on
the equations we had fed at that morning. Its many
fingered circuits hung against the wall like some great octopus,
and the thousands of tubes glowed orange and blue in
the dark, like a thousand eyes staring at me. It
(09:13):
almost seemed a lie. Then it increased its temple a
moment an a pleading notion crossed my brain that it
was laughing at.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Me, laughing like all the others. What was the matter
with me?
Speaker 5 (09:29):
What? U?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And I shut my desk drawer and began to put
the cover on my Aniac typewriter, when an amazing thing happened,
the most amazing single incident of my life. Alone in
the darkness, with no one at the keyboard, the Aniact
(09:56):
typewriter began to type. Am I going crazy? There can't
be there's nobody here. There's nobody here. Oh no, no, no,
I'm just imagining it. It's in my mind, but I
(10:19):
hadn't imagined it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
The paper was there in the carriage. Could I dare
read it?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Or would the whole thing suddenly vanish and send me
shrieking to the nearest psychiatry Sampson, Gurney, there are some
equations that are left unsolved.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The answer to yours is dead.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
It was not until I turned to go that I
was suddenly aware of the utter and complete silence of
the room. Then it dawned on me the enniac had
stopped working.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Gernie.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Do you expect me to believe this? It's insane, mister Hawk,
I'm a sane I get easy. Gurney, Oh, this is
just some practical joke someone in the office is playing.
There was no one in the office, of course, not.
They wired up the machine and left. I checked the
machine myself. Mister all right, Gurney, you leave this note
with me and I'll turn it over to the security
force for further investigation. No butts, Kearny. The security men
(11:35):
will handle it, Yes, sir, Or maybe you've been working
too hard lately. You've got to relax more. Not out here.
Let me light that cigarette for you.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I watched him trying to make the lighter work. I
don't understand this. I just put fluid in it. There's
a brand new flame.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It seemed ridiculous, A little piece of mechanism like a
cigarette lighter. Frustrating the big important executive flash this lighter.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Here's a mass.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It was such a small thing, Yet as I watched him.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
The thought began to take shape in my mind.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Nebulous at first, incredible perhaps, but it grew you. Just
relax for a few days. Everything will turn out all right.
The main thing is not to let little things upset you.
(12:30):
It was the cigarette lighter that gave me the idea
and what Hawk had said about little things. For the
next week, I observed a thousand petty little annoyances around
the office. The door handle that wouldn't turn, the telephone
connection that cut off in the middle of an important call,
the power failure for no explainable reason. Suddenly these things
(12:56):
began to fall into a pattern. Hey, Samson, Gurney knew
that I had stumbled onto a secret so monstrous in
its implications that I was almost afraid to pursue. On
October twelfth, nineteen fifty six, I established communication with them.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I will curse the moment to my dying breath.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Who's there, night Security guy?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Oh, hello, Henry, Hello, mister Gurney.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
What are you doing here so late? I'm just doing
a little repair work on my aniac computator. EM sure's
some mess of wires and tubes. Yes, yes, yes, it
is well. I gotta finish my rams. Won't forget to
turn off the light. What do you, mister Gurney? No, Henry, No,
I won't forget. Good night. When you were a child,
(14:03):
did you ever try to imagine.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That you were all powerful? I felt like.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That when I finished hooking the input of the typewriter
to the main vacuum tube of the Antiac. Then I
turned on the current that sent a million volts of
pulsing energy into the electronic nerves of the machine. I
am certain that if anybody were watching me and the
next moment, he would have thought me a raving maniac.
(14:30):
I still wonder if perhaps it is not all a nightmare.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Now you, if what I have guessed that is true,
if there's life and intelligence in this room, make us time.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
There was nothing, nothing but the hum of the machine
and the dull blowing of the tubes. Then suddenly, without
provocation or explanation, it happened. The Niac typewriter began to
respond to the impulses from the machining. The letters were why, E, S, yes,
(15:20):
And it happened I Sampson Gurney had communicated with a machine.
I was about to try to communicate again when suddenly,
(15:41):
on ball bearing casters, a heavy metal filing cabinet began
to roll away from the wall toward me.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I started to move to.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
One side when another cabinet slat out from the wall,
and then another surrounded me. That was when I realized
that they cooperate. We taught them that you see on
the assembly lines and in the factories, there was no
way out. How could a mere man raison with some machine.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Still, they needed this.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
They needed to soil them and repair them and build them.
They hadn't gotten to the point yet where they could
exist without man. I had to make them understand that
before they killed me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Listen to me.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You must listen. What good will it do you if
you kill me. I'm only one man, but I can
help you. I can be useful to you.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Do you hear me? Do you hear me?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Good?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You're gonna need men to oil you and repair you.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
I'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'll do absolutely anything you want. But in the name
of God, don't kill me. If you can understand this,
answer me, answer me. Peel captured the longing of centuries
man as slave to the machine, and after a moment
the circuits glowed more brightly. The cabinet slid back to
(17:10):
the walls. That I tore the cape from the machine
and read it. The words were almost pathetic in their longing,
but most ominous in their implication.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
They read.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Address me as master.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
My life for the next six months was a nightmare.
The aniac gave me messages which I had to transmit
into my telephone.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I was frantic.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I began to lose weight. I couldn't sleep. My nights
were torture, a constant fear. It was in December, just
after Christmas. I was sitting in my room listening to
a broadcast Ladies and Gentlemen, a special Pulleton. Already twenty
(18:09):
four hours before the peak of the new year's traffic,
over one thousand deaths have been reported.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
This is an unprecedented figure.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Again, if that very afternoon, I had transmitted a message
to the telephones for relay to all machines of transportation.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
The message was one word kill.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Next morning, I avoided my office. Instead, I went directly
to the office of mister Hawk. Highly agitated, my lips
trembled as I spoke, well Gurney, mister Hawk, but I'm
going to tell you sounds crazy. I know it does,
but I must say, all right, say it that for
Heaven's sake, mister Hawk. Have you ever heard of resistentialism?
(19:04):
Resist what resistentialism? You're not making sense, Kearnie, mister Hawk.
I'm trying to tell you all these accidents, the trouble
with the machines, mister Hawk. They're alive.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
They think they cooperate, and they hate it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Who the machines journey. You've got to believe me. I've
communicated with him. I notes, what are you doing now?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Just relax, Garnie.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Everything will be all What are you doing? Miss Roscom
said for the plant position at once, mister Gurney has
had a nervous collapse. But mister Hawker, everything will be
all right. Gurney, We'll give you a nice long rest.
You fool, you.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Blind, stupid fool. Can't just see what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Fool, fool fool. When the plant position arrived a few
moments later, Lucius Hawk was found at his desk, strangled
to death. Than the nest of telephones, the wires were
still humming softly.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Samson Gurney, you stand accused of the crime of murder.
How do you please?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I did not kill him. I did so record I.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
Secure should look procedure.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Now, miss Roscob, did the accused quarrel.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
With your employer on the morning of the murder?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Oh? Yes, He and mister Hawk quarreled violently. I could
hear mister Gurney screaming at him, and mister Hawk asked
me to send to the plant physician. What were his words,
he said, mister Gurney has had a nervous collaority.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Now, mister Simpson, you are a guard of the brook
Meadow Project.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yes, sir, when did you have occasion to meet the accused?
Right after those accidents? He was snooping around the construction areas.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Lamson Journey taught hereby find you guilty of murder in
the first degree, recommendation that you'll be examined committed to
the State Hospital for the criminally insane.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That not a word, And that's how I came to
be here at the hospital, doctor Cline.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
That's the whole story.
Speaker 8 (21:38):
Thank you, mister Gurney.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You can see that I'm not insane. You must believe
me that.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Of course, I believe you, mister Gurney, Now tell me
about this revolt.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It will begin in Washington then spread to New York. Yes,
the Madison Avenue buses lead the charge. Picture at Doctor Kleine.
Three thousand buses roaring rampant through the preach, people running
like rats and amazed looking for manholes in the pavement.
Speaker 8 (22:04):
Don't you really believe this will happen, mister Gilny.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I know it, doctor.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The worst part of it is there's no way to
stop them. Now it's too late.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
You mustn't excite yourself, doctor.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Don't you see m It's fair enough. I suppose we
built them, We taught them to think for themselves. It
was just bound to come. I guess the female machines
will be worse of all in the beauty parlors.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
They're more high strung. You know.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Well, since there's nothing we can do about it, mister Gurney, suppose.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
You go to your room, and maybe if I went
to my old Plymouth I could make a deal before
the police cars got me.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
Would you take mister Gurney to his room. God, he's
already been given sedations.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yes, those concrete mixers may have made a mistake, you know,
just high spirits.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And all that.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But if they got so, they liked the flavor. See
you later, mister.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
Now, try not to worry too much, all right?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
God? Why sir?
Speaker 8 (23:10):
Oh machines revolting telephone strangling people?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Oh? Oh, blasted cigarette lighter?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Why won't it work? I just filled it flint is good?
Speaker 8 (23:27):
Oh well, you can never trust this new fangled machinery.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Next week, Dimension X will present a story of the future,
a story of an insignificant pebble in the sky called Earth,
and of a man from a distant star who grew
to love this unimportant planet.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Dimension X is transcribed each week by the National Broadcasting
Company in collaboration with Freeden Smith, publishers of the magazine
Astounding Science Fiction.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Nightmare was written by George Leopards and based on a
poem The Revolt of the Machines by Stephen Vincent Bennet.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Featured players in the cast were John Gibson as mister
Gurney and retailed In as Bella Roscom Norman Rose as
your Host.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Music by Albert Berman engineer Bill Chambers.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by
Edward King.
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