Men or machines—something had to give—though not necessarily one or the other. Why not both? (historian's note: The following statements are extracted from depositions taken by the Commission of Formal Inquiry appointed by the Peloric Rehabilitation Council, a body formed as a provisional government in the third month of the Calamity .)...

y name is Andrews, third assistant vice president in charge of maintenance for Cybernetic Publishers. It is not generally known that all the periodical publications for the world were put out by Cybernetics. We did not conceal the monopoly deliberately, but we found that using the names of other publishing houses helped to give our magazines an impression of variety. Of course, we didn't want too much variety, either; only the tried and tested kind. Cybernetics gained its monopoly by cutting cos

y name is Minton, traffic officer emeritus on the Extrapolated Parkway. The Parkway was equipped with the usual electronic controls to propel cars magnetically, to maintain a safe distance between all cars, and to hold them automatically in their proper lanes. The controls also turned cars off the Parkways at the proper exit, according to the settings on the individual automobile's direction-finder. On the ninth day of the Calamity, the controls became erratic. Cars ran off the highway at the wr

y name is Elder, sound director for Station 40 N 180. We had noticed nothing unusual about our broadcasts until the third day of the Calamity. That was the first time one of our ultra-sensitive microphones began to pick up and broadcast speeches from unknown sources. Our third assistant monitor was the first to notice. He called and told me that interference was disrupting the program. A few minutes later, he said that the sponsor's message, as broadcast, did not conform to the copy which had be

y name is Wilson. I manned the remote control panel for the Duplicator Construction Company. As you know, we directed a battery of building machines which erected mass housing projects. I directed only the destination of our machines. Once I sent them to a site, they completed their work automatically with the materials installed at our supply depot. A single machine could prepare a site and erect a complete house in one day. With an army of 5,000 machines, our firm had succeeded in building as

y name is Fisher. On the first day of the Calamity, I was a member of an audience which had been employed by the Spectacle Commission to observe the start of the Forty-Ton-Shovel-Cross-Continent-Ditch-Digging Contest. This was the first time that power shovels of this size had been used to dig a ditch more than a thousand miles long. I was very proud to be in that audience. The contest started on time. The shovels were marshaled and on their marks at the city line. The Mayor fired a disarmed war

y name is Danville. I was watching a colorvision program on the first day of the Calamity. The program was a wrestling match between a woman and a bear. The bear was winning when the screen went dark. The announcer's voice faded and I heard what sounded like the chatter of my neighbors. When the screen lit up again, it showed my own home. The door opened to reveal the hallway to the dining room, where I could see my wife sewing a patch on my son's pants. Then I saw my daughter experimenting on f

  am sorry that I do not remember my name. I have been employed a long time in the Classified Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and have been under security orders to speak to no one except in answer to official queries. As I am the only scholar in my field—the polarity of the positron—I have never been asked for information. If I had been, perhaps I would not have forgotten my name, but I cannot be sure. I don't know whether the replies are signed. I could have prevented the Calamity. I tried.