Robert Silverberg - The Macauley Circuit

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THE MACAULEY CIRCUIT

by Robert Silverberg

I don't deny I destroyed Macauley's diagram; I never did deny it, gentlemen.

Of course I destroyed it, and for fine, substantial reasons. My big mistake

was in not thinking the thing through at the beginning. When Macauley first

brought me the circuit, I didn't pay much attention to it—certainly not as

much as it deserved. That was a mistake, but I couldn't help myself. I was too

busy coddling old Kolfmann to stop and think what the Macauley circuit really

meant.

If Kolfmann hadn't shown up just when he did, I would have been able to make

a careful study of the circuit and, once I had seen all the implications, I

would have put the diagram in the incinerator and Macauley right after it.

This is nothing against Macauley, you understand; he's a nice, clever boy, one

of the finest minds in our whole research department. That's his trouble.

He came in one morning while I was outlining my graph for the Beethoven

Seventh that we were going to do the following week. I was adding some

ultrasonics that would have delighted old Ludwig—not that he would have heard

them, of course, but he would have felt them—and I was very pleased about my

interpretation. Unlike some synthesizer-interpreters, I don't believe in

changing the score. I figure Beethoven knew what he was doing, and it's not my

business to patch up his symphony. All I was doing was strengthening it by

adding the ultrasonics. They wouldn't change the actual notes any, but there'd

be that feeling in the air which is the great artistic triumph of

synthesizing.

So I was working on my graph. When Macauley came in I was choosing the

frequencies for the second movement, which is difficult because the movement

is solemn but not too solemn. Just so. He had a sheaf of paper in his hand,

and I knew immediately that he'd hit on something important, because no one

interrupts an interpreter for something trivial.

"I've developed a new circuit, sir," he said. "It's based on the imperfect

Kennedy Circuit of 2261."

I remembered Kennedy—a brilliant boy, much like Macauley here. He had worked

out a circuit which almost would have made synthesizing a symphony as easy as

playing a harmonica. But it hadn't quite worked—something in the process

fouled up the ultrasonics and what came out was hellish to hear—and we never

found out how to straighten things out. Kennedy disappeared about a year later

and was never heard from again. All the young technicians used to tinker with

his circuit for diversion, each one hoping he'd find the secret. And now

Macauley had.

I looked at what he had drawn, and then up at him. Hewas standing there

calmly, with a blank expression on his handsome, intelligent face, waiting for

me to quiz him.

"This circuit controls the interpretative aspects of music, am I right?"

"Yes, sir. You can set the synthesizer for whatever esthetic you have in

mind, and it'll follow your instruction. You merely have to establish the

esthetic coordinates—the work of a moment—and the synthesizer will handle the

rest of the interpretation for you. But that's not exactly the goal of my

circuit, sir," he said, gently, as if to hide from me the fact that he was

telling me I had missed his point. "With minor modifications—"

He didn't get a chance to tell me, because at that moment Kolfmann came

dashing into my studio. I never lock my doors, because for one thing no one

would dare come in without good and sufficient reason, and for another my

analyst pointed out to me that working behind locked doors has a bad effect on

my sensibilities, and reduces the esthetic potentialities of my

interpretations. So I always work with my door unlocked and that's how

Kolfmann got in. And that's what saved Macauley's life, because if he had gone

on to tell me what was on the tip of his tongue I would have regretfully

incinerated him and his circuit right then and there.

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Robert Silverberg - The Macauley Circuit

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