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On Zan, industriously reading pirated books, Hoddan hadn't known where utility stopped. He'd kept on learning long after a practical man would have stopped studying to get a paying job. Any electronic engineer could have made the device he now assembled. It only needed to be wanted and apparently he was the first person to want it.
It would have taken all spacemen present about ten days to complete the job by regular methods, but the electronic computer produced the answer in three minutes. "Thanks a million, Chief," Rip said. "I’ll be calling on you again before this is over." He tucked the sheets into his pocket. "Any time, Lieutenant. We’ll keep rechecking the figures as we go along.
"You mean down in the South Atlantic?" Tom nodded. "I'd sure like to know if they found that missile." "You and I both, pal!" Bud agreed. "Hey! We could use the electronic hydrolungs for scouting around!" he added eagerly. "I intend to," Tom said. "But we'll need speed to cover the area. So first I want to add an ion drive to our equipment." "Ion drive? For underwater?"
Roger stuck his head through the radar-bridge hatch and gazed in awe at the array of electronic communicators, detection radar and astrogation gear. With lips pulled into a thin line, he mumbled to himself: "Too bad they didn't give you this kind of equipment." "What'd you say, Roger?" asked Astro, climbing alongside to peer into the radar bridge.
And when Foster gets down to doing his calculations, have your men run them through the electronic computer for him." Rip thanked them both, then stood up. "Sir, I'm going back to my men. I want to be sure everything is ready. If there's a Connie cruiser headed this way, we don't want to lose any time." "Good idea. I think we'll dump you on the asteroid, Foster, and then blast off.
Nobody can want anything he doesn't know exists or that he can't imagine to exist. On Walden nobody wanted anything, unless it was relief from the tedium of ultra-civilized life. Hoddan's electronic device did not fill a human need; only a technical one. It had, therefore, no value that would make anybody hospitable to it. And Hoddan would spend his life in jail for failing to recognize the fact.
You'll continue to get rich, but there's no harm in that so long as you re-introduce romance and adventure and derring-do to a galaxy headed for decline. Savages will not invent themselves if there are plenty of heroic characters of your making! to slap them down!" Hoddan said painfully: "I like working on electronic gadgets. My cousin Oliver and I have some things we want to work on together."
According to him, there might be 25 million books belonging to public domain in the main regional and national libraries in the world, without counting various editions. If Gutenberg allowed everyone to get print books at little cost, Project Gutenberg could allow everyone to get a library of electronic books at no cost on a cheap device like a USB drive.
Like MacLeod, they wore only the plastic disks they had received in exchange for the metal ones they wore inside the reservation, and they were being searched by attendants who combed through their hair, probed into ears and nostrils, peered into mouths with tiny searchlights, and employed a variety of magnetic and electronic detectors. To this search MacLeod submitted wearily.
Coniston had remained below with the crew answering my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through a deck window. Anita was alone at another. "Lift, Haljan!" I lifted up gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. And started the central electronic engine. Its thrust from the stern moved us diagonally over the purple forest trees. The glade slid downward and away.
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