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C00002 00002	traffi[lit,jmc]		computer program saves humanity
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traffi[lit,jmc]		computer program saves humanity

	The telepathic aliens are taking over.  Their society, because
of the telepathy, is one of total conformity.  Non-telepathic
deviants in their population make disturbing innovations, and they
want to stamp them out and also want to stamp out non-conformity
on earth.  Their telepathy enables them to detect plots against
their increasing secret penetration.

	Our hero is a computer program intended merely to make a
study of automobile traffic.  However, it has common sense and
access to a large common sense data base.  It notices that some
drivers start their cars at traffic lights within .1 seconds after
the light changes.  These turn out to be the aliens.

	It attempts to inform its programmer of this fact but fortunately
for him, he is on vacation.  Had he been informed, the alien telepathic
monitoring would detect it, and he would be removed and replaced by
an alien with similar appearance and access to his memories by
telepathy from the vats where the brains of the helpless human victims
are kept - in frustrated fear, boredom and rage and subject to
interrogation.

	The program informs one human that there is a subpopulation
with .1 second reaction time, and he informs another, claiming that
he had discovered it himself and then accidentally is killed.
The second person is detected by the telepathic scan and replaced.

	The program notices the replacement and goes through lengthy
Talmudic reasoning about whether the replacement is good for the
original trying to discover what its obligations would be under the
Asimov laws.  It eventually concludes that the act of replacement 
was probably good, but then decides that there is enough probability
that the replacement was harmful to justify holding back informing
humans in general and its programmer in particular about the subpopulation
with fast reaction time.

	Its access to the common sense data base and its use
of circumscriptive reasoning gradually causes it to conclude that
it should change its function from writing reports about traffic
to saving humanity from the aliens.

	However, it needs human help, but informing any human of
the facts will lead to his takeover.  It turns out that speculation
about alien takeovers is endemic among science fiction writers, and
the aliens, short of manpower, have discovered that they had
previously over-reacted to such speculations and wasted manpower
in taking over too many science fiction writers and fans.  They
have decided therefore to distinguish between mere speculation about
alien takeover and concrete knowledge of it.  This gives the
program its chance.

	It gives a science fiction writer "accidental" access to
a plot that has some resemblance to the reality, and a story is
published.  This causes many people to speculate in ways close to
the truth, and the aliens decide to tolerate the speculation but
to inhibit further publication by taking over magazine editors.
Nevertheless, the program is able to set some scientists speculating
about something so close to reality that they are able to make
valuable suggestions about what to do.

	Somehow the program decides that the way out is to use
the aliens' telepathic ability and conformist psychology against them.
The alternative is to inhibit the telepathy and wait for non-conformity
to arise among the aliens.

	The story should be told in such a way that the reader at
first sympathizes with the alien rationalization that they control humans
by telepathy to abolish war and injustice.