The Inquest

Credibility and Conflict in Lem's "The Inquest"

"The year is 2029, and machines will convince us that they are conscious and that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They will embody human qualities; claim to be human...and we'll believe them.

- Ray Kurzweil

Perhaps Kurzweil slipped up when he put a date in his prediction. Perhaps he intended it to be more of a challenge than a guess. Ultimately, it separates the theorists, like Kurzweil, from the storytellers, like Stanislaw Lem. Lem's "The Inquest" takes a glimpse into the future to show readers what it may look like some day. He uses a futuristic setting to examine the possible role of machines in our daily lives. Conflict, credulity and human nature are at the forefront of this story, all of which allude to deeper meaning in today's world.

The level of robotics and AI in Lem's "The Inquest" is not farfetched. That is to say, the story is not unconvincing, but simply exaggerated for our time. Though the events are assumed to be taking place in the future, Lem references no time period and forces the reader to blindly suspend disbelief. The premise of the story revolves around this fact, and gives the story its body as a work of science fiction.

The most relevant instance of computer exaggeration is in the supporting characters we meet: the non-linear officers of the Goliath. The main character, Commander Pirx, is known to be human, and must command a mixed group of humans and robots, not knowing the true identity of each. Here we have the story's biggest assumption about AI in the future; that robotics and AI will be indistinguishable from human abilities and intelligence. This colossal inference about computer technology is only acceptable to the reader when coupled with the lack of a given time period. Pirx is asked to command these two groups on a routine space mission, all the while making inference on their actions and interactions during a variety of real world tests. He is then to make a formal report to the creators of these machines to be used as a formal test result. The fact that Pirx cannot immediately distinguish between the humans and the robots implies that all the machines have passed the Turing test. Though this story is set in the future, this test is a standard by which we judge the intelligence of machines today, and gives us some insight on the level of AI that Lem implies.

Throughout the mission, Pirx is approached (both in person and on paper) by members of his crew who offer their opinions on the test and their inferences on the other crew members. These interactions produce conflicting information from the view of Pirx, making him assume some and doubt others. The only concrete evidence we are given about the crew's identity comes towards the end of the story. Pirx confirms Calder's non-linearity in recounting the robot's plan to kill the humans on board the ship. This inference is the only connectivity we have between certain actions and a robot. From this, we can deduce some other relations.

Calder was the ship's pilot. He was in control of the ship's bearing and handling, a job that is of utmost importance to the ship's safety. This is a job that cannot be taken lightly, and that requires a competent, skilled, and diligent operator. Giving such a job to a robot would put the ship and its crew at risk, unless the robot was able to handle every possible situation that could arise. Human pilots are aided by mechanical controls and a computerized system, but ultimately the craft rests in the skilled hands of the human operator. People today would never allow commercial airplanes to be controlled solely by a machine. They would feel unsafe, since many people do not put faith in such machines. This story takes place in a time when these fears have been eliminated, even to the point that a robotic pilot could bring the ship back to port unaided in the case of a disaster.

"...at which time Calder, the sole survivor, would have risen to his feet, flipped the safety interlocks, and, in a cockpit full of corpses, begun heading home. "

The humans in this story trust the robots to perform immensely critical tasks without fail. By doing so, they show that the level of the robots' AI is drastically higher than that of robots today.

Following from the previous argument, we can show that the mobility and manoeuvrability of the robots in this story is far beyond anything in the works today. The robots in this story have the ability to mimic humans in every way, including basic mobility in their everyday "lives". This ability is understated, and is second only to their ability to reason and "think". Take for example the motions taken while doing their jobs. They must be able to perform tasks such as walking, handling objects, and balancing, all while performing all other actions (speaking, thinking, etc). This ability is only beginning to appear in today's robotics. For instance, the ASIMO from Honda is a humanoid robot that can walk. The maximum speed of this robot is 1.6 kilometres per hour. At this speed, the robot can just keep its balance and course steady. The robots in Lem's story can walk as fast as humans, and can also run, since they are virtually indistinguishable from us. Also, the ASIMO can only function for thirty minutes on a full charge. The robots in "The Inquest" can seemingly hold a charge for much longer (as no charging time is mentioned). This shows that the robotics demonstrated are much more advanced than those is use today.

Finally, Pirx's inquiries about the machines results in a fact from the public relations representative McGuirr regarding the computing power of the machines:

"It's a monocrystal multistat with sixteen billion binary elements! "

This statement quantifies the computing power of the robots. At sixteen billion binary elements, the machines are 250 000 000 times as powerful as a modern personal computer (with 64 binary elements). Such computing power is unheard of in today's world, pushing the story's possible timeline further away from the present.

In terms of the story's credibility, there are two approaches. Following from the above arguments, the story is farfetched. Incredible advancements in technology would be required for such a story to become reality. In this sense, the story is not credible. On the other hand, willing suspension of disbelief can make such a situation seem possible, given ample time for computer and robotic advancements. So which is it? Personally,