The Truth Machine Read online

  THE TRUTH

  MACHINE

  James L. Halperin

  A Del Rey® Book

  BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Del Rey ® Book

  Published by Ballantine Books

  Copyright © 1996, 1997 by James L. Halperin

  Excerpt from The First Immortal copyright © 1997 by James L. Halperin

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Originally published in a slightly different form by Ivy Press, Inc. in July 1996.

  www.randomhouse.com

  Post your comments on the Truth Machine forum at truthmachine.com

  First Ballantine Books Trade Edition: September 1996

  First Ballantine Books Mass Market Edition: August 1997

  This book is also available in print.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-43980-2

  v3.0_r1

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  AND INDIVIDUALS INTRODUCED

  Chapter 1

  Chain of Fury

  Dr. Alphonso Carter

  Daniel Anthony Reece, Jr.

  Kendall DeLoach

  Chapter 2

  Two Five-Sigma Events

  Judith Sonntag

  Randall Petersen Armstrong

  Leonard Charles Armstrong

  Ed & Liza Armstrong

  Cassidy O’Meara

  Harry & Tabitha

  Chapter 3

  Two Worlds Collide

  Mark Burns

  Marjorie Ann Tilly

  Chapter 4

  Blackstone’s Paradox

  Senator Travis Endicott Hall

  Dr. Marshall Imberg

  Chapter 5

  Escape to Dallas

  David West

  (born Witkowsky)

  Bruce, Joanne, and Philip Witkowsky

  Hon. Stanley Norris

  Chapter 6

  Judgment Day

  Jennifer Finley

  Kevin Moffat

  Chapter 7

  Harvard Yard

  Professor Howard Gaddis

  Skipper

  Chapter 8

  Gut Course

  Charles Scoggins

  Chapter 9

  The Goddess

  Diana Hsu

  Larry Dannon

  Chapter 10

  The Inspiration

  Chapter 11

  The Debates

  Audrey Whitcomb

  Chapter 12

  Swift and Sure

  Senator Garrison Roswell

  Leo Boschnak

  Chapter 13

  The Holy Grail

  Maximilian Honeycutt

  Chapter 14

  The Team

  Bill Tannenbaum

  Leslie Williams

  Carl Whatley

  Gene Hildegrand

  Haywood Thacker

  Chapter 15

  Wall Street

  Alan Bonhert

  Chapter 16

  The Trojan Horse

  Chapter 17

  First Release

  Chapter 18

  Lottery

  Chapter 19

  Medical Network

  Dr. Sharon Rosenfield

  Chapter 20

  Confidential Source

  Bryan “Dutch” Treat

  Alison Kramer-White

  Thomas L. Mosely

  Chapter 21

  Attorney General

  Justin West

  Chapter 22

  Armageddon Averted

  Chapter 23

  Cryonics

  Chapter 24

  Senator West

  Hon. Joe Bob Barton

  Aaron Ben-Gurion

  Chapter 25

  The Temptation

  Chapter 26

  Four More States

  President Gordon Safer

  Chapter 27

  Innocent Accused

  Harold Edward Kilmer

  Colin Douglas Smith

  Vice President Gail Connors

  Chapter 28

  Frustration

  Warren Kenneth Fowler

  Chapter 29

  Second Ballot

  Governor Matthew Emery

  Chapter 30

  The First Official Scip

  Chapter 31

  Obsession

  Chapter 32

  On the Brink

  Chapter 33

  The Second Official Scip

  Chapter 34

  Quarter-Millennial

  Chapter 35

  The Mandate

  Chapter 36

  The Amnesty Laws

  Chapter 37

  Smaller, Faster, Cheaper

  Chapter 38

  Diplomacy

  Chapter 39

  Retirement

  President Caroline Whitcomb

  The Rev. Dr. Asia Jonas

  Chapter 40

  A Bright New World

  Dr. Leroy Hood

  Dr. Maya Helene Gale

  Chapter 41

  Future Probe

  Chapter 42

  The Miracle

  Chapter 43

  Leonard

  Leonard Gale Armstrong

  Chapter 44

  Truth Machine Two

  Texas Atty. Gen. Carlton Shaw

  Chapter 45

  Michael

  Michael Edward Armstrong

  Chapter 46

  The Trial

  Judge Curtis Lezar

  Chapter 47

  Day in Court

  Chapter 48

  Verdict

  Epilogue

  Appendix

  “AN EXTREMELY INTERESTING AND PROVOCATIVE STORY.”

  —Science Fiction Weekly

  “Riveting . . . The book may well become a cult classic, if not more.”

  —Professor Howard Gardner

  Harvard Graduate School of Education

  Bestselling author of Frames of Mind:

  The Theory of Multiple Intelligence

  “I loved The Truth Machine. Once I started the book, I couldn’t put it down.”

  —Professor Robert Sternberg

  Yale University

  Department of Psychology

  “Halperin has combined a visionary analysis of the future of brain imaging technologies with a compelling and deeply human story. The Truth Machine is simultaneously fascinating, moving, and chilling. Anyone interested in where society is heading should read this book.”

  —Professor Daniel L. Schacter, Chairman

  Harvard University Department of Psychology

  Author of Searching for Memory:

  The Brain, the Mind and the Past

  “Halperin has turned the future into a great read. . . . Not since Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead have we had a portrait of a great man that is as convincing and poignant as Pete Armstrong. . . . This is a novel to be discussed and debated by thoughtful readers for years to come.”

  —Jonathan M. Winer

  U.S. Deputy Secretary of State

  for Law Enforcement and Crime

  The technological and political predictions dated after 1995, although based on extensive research, are fictional.

  Truth be told, to observe the future without altering it is a scientific impossibility. But if your views remain fluid, even a false vision is far more valuable than no vision at all.
/>   THE

  TRUTH

  MACHINE

  Intel 22g CP-TLMos

  Dallas, Texas—July 15, 2050

  Silently, you sit in a courtroom as the evidence unfolds against you. You can only watch and listen—in frustration, fear, and disbelief. You cannot prove your innocence, because there is no Truth Machine. Instead you pray for a miracle, a divine intervention to save your life. But the miracle never comes. Later, as they strap you to a table to receive the lethal injection that will steal your every possession and dream, you wonder if even the people you love, and who love you, secretly believe you are guilty.

  That is not fiction. As recently as 26 years ago, before the Truth Machine remade our world, it happened all the time.

  As of March 1, 2024, Randall Petersen Armstrong, only 34 years old, had already built the world’s most profitable corporation, becoming the wealthiest person in human history. On that day, for reasons I will try to help you understand, he chose to commit one of the greatest frauds of this millennium. Yet fraud would not be his worst offense. It was only the first in his now-infamous series of crimes that, astonishingly, would remain undiscovered for 25 years.

  Since you plan to read these words, you’ll want to know who wrote them. I am an Intel 22g CP (22 billion instructions per microsecond contextual processor) from the series of 2046, specially designed for reportage. I’ve been programmed to write in journalistic style, so don’t expect scintillating metaphors or artistic imagery. If any show up on these pages, please assume they were added during editing, or that I am reporting someone else’s thoughts. What you’ll get from me are facts. When the photons strike just right, I’m even capable of some marginal irony or humor. If you’d prefer to read a composition reminiscent of Hemingway, I suggest you stick with human authors, or at least the output of a 44g PIM (parallel internal memory) computer with full literary mapping applications.

  Frankly however, you might wish to endure my writings. Stationed in Dallas, Texas, I have been favored with exceptional access to Randall Petersen Armstrong and David West, the two most influential people of the 21st century. Their stories are complex, and I have accumulated many facts of which you’re certainly unaware.

  My owner, Mr. Thomas L. Mosely, became a reporter for the Dallas News Syndicate (at the time it was a “newspaper” called the Dallas Morning News) in June 2010, long before I was manufactured. Over these past 40 years, Armstrong and West have granted him over 700 hours of one-on-one interviews, and I enjoy realtime access to all but the most private of their archives.

  Mosely also wrote the only family-authorized biography of Harold Edward Kilmer, who has come to symbolize the Swift and Sure Anti-Crime laws of 2005. Presumably, had Kilmer been given a scip,1 he would still be alive today. Thus, his tragedy eloquently demonstrates the value of the Armstrong Cerebral Image Processor (ACIP), otherwise known as the Truth Machine.

  With all this background, and the Armstrong trial so recently concluded, it would seem a waste for me not to write this narrative.

  The appeal decision won’t be rendered for at least two weeks, not in time to include before we disseminate this document. Updates will be available later, but may be unneeded. Since his trial has been the most widely followed news story of the third millennium, virtually every person in the world will learn of Armstrong’s fate at the same time.

  Thanks to his ACIP, Mosely and I have come to know Armstrong in a way that would not have been possible 26 years ago. Our goal is for you readers of The Truth Machine to understand him as well as we do. We both believe it would be best if the World Tribunal were merciful. Not to underplay the seriousness of his crimes; Armstrong has done you far more good than harm. In fact his invention may have single-handedly diverted the human race’s relentless march toward self-destruction. It seems illogical to kill him or even reduce his capacity to further contribute to scientific progress. Unfortunately the strict sentencing guidelines appear to offer little hope of leniency.

  But enough speculation; we will all know the Tribunal’s decision soon enough.

  REFERENCE POINTS

  You can skip this section if you’d like, but unless you’re a fellow machine, it might be better if you didn’t. Even when a history is accurately portrayed—as I assure you this will be—human readers often come away with misconceptions. Very few of you boast the perfect mnemonic abilities of computers (though I realize you have other valuable attributes). To diminish the confusion that springs from a combination of authorial omission and readers’ distortion, I will provide additional perspectives.

  For example, I’ll try to keep you informed of the ages of the people I discuss, but it’s easy to forget that a 50-year-old woman in say, 2010, was quite different from a 50-year-old woman today. Or if I describe a man in 2015 as being 5 feet 11 inches tall, you might think he was somewhat short in stature although actually as an adult male 35 years ago, he would have stood at average height. Also, because inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the dollar, $1,000 in the year 2000 was the equivalent of $41,500 in today’s dollars. Hence I have prepared three charts on age, height, and inflation, which appear in the Appendix at the end of this book. You might wish to refer to these charts during your reading.

  This history spans about 60 years and involves many people. The Table of Contents and Individuals Introduced, which precedes these pages, might also be a useful reference.

  Each chapter heading bears a date corresponding to the most important event described therein. What’s more, every chapter appears in chronological order. I see no need to be tricky merely for the sake of drama. Drama is nice of course, but I’m more interested in clarity.

  Finally, next to the date at the beginning of each chapter I will list a few of the most important news events reported in the media that day. The added historical vantage point should help you better interpret this extraordinary story.

  —Intel 22g CP-TLMos

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAIN OF FURY

  Massachusetts State Prison

  September 6, 1991—The cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union has just ended following an unsuccessful coup against Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist government. Gorbachev remains in power, but Boris Yeltsin, whose heroic actions during the coup may have saved Gorbachev’s government, is now a force with which to be reckoned. Communism, for all practical purposes, is dead.—The United States, in the midst of economic recession after the Gulf War against Iraq, is entering a dangerous time of increasing isolationism. Many voters resent seeing America’s resources exploited to solve the problems of other nations and insist their leaders focus attention on problems at home, particularly the economy and violent crime.

  “According to your file you were raped by your father and you murdered your mother. Tell me about that.”

  Those were the first words Daniel Anthony Reece, Jr., heard from Dr. Alphonso Carter. Reece was shocked. Carter didn’t ask if he had been happy in school, or what his childhood had been like before the “incident,” or any of the other standard questions.

  Just my luck, Reece thought. Affirmative action. This monkey should be flipping hamburgers, but instead he’s my goddam shrink.

  * * *

  In fact, Dr. Carter was famous in criminal psychology circles, and well known even outside his field. Just 31 years old, he had coauthored the best-selling book, Chain of Fury—The Cycle of Savagery in America, and so could afford to pass up the financial enticements of private practice. At Massachusetts State Prison, Carter immersed himself in the study of violence—and those who commit it. Thus he had developed a depth of understanding of the criminal mind exceptional for a man of his time.

  Carter’s voice boomed and his diction was perfect, like that of a trained actor. As a boy he had stuttered horribly, the butt of cruel and inevitable teasing by the other kids in the neighborhood, until a drama teacher from the Booker T. Washington Middle School discovered his concealed talent. By the time he graduated from high school, C
arter had played the lead in Othello. Even now his speech often seemed more like performance than conversation. Never did he use contractions or resort to street lingo.

  “Mr. Reece?”

  Reece sat back in his chair and sucked on a kitchen match. The two were less than four feet apart, separated by nothing—not a desk, not a coffee table. Carter’s legs were crossed, his hands folded, his massive head shaved above a face so black that when he smiled his gums seemed blue.