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C00002 00002	\centerline{CREATIVITY IS AS CREATIVITY DOES}
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\centerline{CREATIVITY IS AS CREATIVITY DOES}
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John McCarthy opened then long envelope with the blue emblem.  It was
just as he feared:
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\centerline{DEPARTMENT OF SIMULATION}
\centerline{OFFICE OF INTAKE}
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\centerline{May 15, 2145}
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\leftline{Professor John McCarthy}
\leftline{846 Lathrop Drive}
\leftline{Stanford, California  94305}
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\leftline{Dear Professor McCarthy:}

I am sure you are aware of the world's acute problems of the balance may
between population and resources.  In order that humanity may be able to
continue on this planet, every possible measure has to be taken to conserve
material and energy.

In the year 2070, Lester Earnest developed a procedure for determining the
total personality of a human being from external measurements, in 2097,
Scheinman discovered how to program such a measured personality into a robot
or simu-man, as he called it.  In 2120, the Poole Act was passed to use
Earnest's and Scheinman's inventions to conserve resources.  This act provides
that any person whose personality has been measured well enough to predict
his actions in response to all stimuli for a period of two years is considered
a candidate for replacement by a robot simulation having the personality
measured.  In order to avoid the danger of losing some of the creative
potential of the human race, it is further provided that the replacement not
take place for a further six months.  If during that time, the human in question
performs acts not predicted by the simulation, the replacement will not take
place, and the question shall not be re-opened for a further fifty years.

I am sure you will be happy to learn that your personality has been
successfully measured and that you are now a candidate for replacement. 
Needless to say, this replacement will give you effective protection against
accidental death since the internal data recorder of the simu-man is virtually
indestructible and a new simu-man can be programmed from the record.  Diseases,
except for those considered part of your personality structure, can also be
eliminated, except, of course, for your terminal illness, which is deemed an
essential aspect of your life.

Of course, the six months trial period still has to be gone through, but we
rarely have troubles there any more.

Again let me congratulate you.

\leftline{Sincerely yours,}
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\leftline{Whitfield Diffie}
\leftline{Chief, Office of Intake}
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Contrary to the expectations of the letter, John McCarthy was not at all
happy to receive it.  McCarthy had recently become an adherent of the primitive
doctrine of humanism and believed that each human had something in him that no
machine could imitate.  He did not believe that any machine could really love,
suffer, or be creative.  Being replaced by a simulation was to him, strangely
enough, equivalent to dying.  Therefore, John McCarthy took action.

Forthwith he journeyed to Mexico where he ate the magic mushroom, joined
the cult of Sri Petit at its headquarters on the slopes of Mount Popacatapetl.
Obeying the injunctions of his Guru Helliwell to be himself, he initiated the
dangerous sport of parachuting into active volcanoes with a refrigerated
asbestos suit and riding the lava flow down the mountain.  Then, devising a
special snorkel for sleeping in the water, a special grease to protect his
 body from the salt water, and special fishing equipment, and accustoming
himself to a diet of raw fish, and having his kidney surgically modified to 
produce urine of greater salt concentration than sea water, he become the first
person to swim the Atlantic, choosing for historical and sentimental reasons
to swim from New York to Paris.  This feat was met with world-wide acclaim,
and, incidentally, the six months passed while he was in mid-Atlantic.

After returing home he spent the next few weeks in great trepidation, but as
time went by with no word from the Bureau of Simulation, he began to feel
more confident.  Two months later there came another letter in an envelope with 
the familiar blue emblem.
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\centerline{BUREAU OF SIMULATION}
\centerline{OFFICE OF INTAKE}
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\centerline{March 12, 2146}
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\leftline{Professor John McCarthy}
\leftline{846 Lathrop Drive}
\leftline{Stanford, California 94305}

\leftline{Dear Professor McCarthy:}

Allow me to congratualte you on your remarkable feat of devising a means of
swimming the Atlantic and carrying it out in the remarkably short time of
six months.  It shows great ingenuity, persistence, and creativity.  We were
sure you had it in you.

You will also be happy to know that the simulation program predicted this
remarkable success in response to the stimulus of our letter in compete detail.
Therefore, it is my great pleasure to inform you that at the end of the six
months trial period, your corporeal self was replaced by the simu-man robot
programmed according to your previously measured personality.  The high regard
the Bureau has for you is evidenced by the fact that the Director, Dr. Sobel,
took personal charge of the difficult task of performing the replacement in
mid-Atlantic.  You are now a simu-man with all its attendant advantages.

Again, let me congratulate you.

Sincerely yours,
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\leftline{Al Dulan}
\leftline{Chief, Office of Intake}
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At first, this disturbed and depressed Professor McCarthy quite a lot, but
after a while, he got used to it and even saw the advantages of being a robot.
\bye