Page 63 - EE Times Europe Magazine | February 2020

EE|Times EUROPE 61
Arti cia nte i ent t ees er t in

in cars now? They can spot a deer up the road I was born. I was a breech birth. I’d never “Saved?” I asked, fearful again.
1,000 yards, around a hairpin curve, during known that before. I saw myself taking my Plinck sighed. “Infini ision is an evil tech-
a blizzard? And the car warns you to slow first step, saying my first word, and spelling nology, created in innocence,” he said. “Those
down?” my name in alphabet soup. I saw myself two forces — evil and innocence — work,
“Of course,” I said glibly. “Advanced driv- getting beaten up on the playground, striking somehow, in balance. Too much of one or the
er-assistance systems.” out in Little League, and placing second at the other, either way, and we’re screwed.”
“Yeah, whatever,” said Plinck. “Infini ision state science fair. I saw my dog, Teddy, run “But ” I asked hopefully, watching flames
leaves those kiddy toys in the dust. I can see over by a bus. dance in the gloaming.
that dumb buck in the incipient headlights a “I saw the girl who broke my heart in my “Well,” said Plinck, “if we know how it’s
mile away. I can track his hoofprints through freshman year and the other girl I cast aside all going to come out, and we think we have
the snow. I can tell you what he ate for his two years later. I saw that drunken leap off no choice, then what the hell? We just sit
last meal and the last time he got lucky with a the pier into shallow water that shattered my back and let it happen. We might even unite
doe. I can tell you whether he’s going to stand tibia and ended my Olympic hopes. I saw my in our despair and help it along. We keep on
there in the road and, if he does, whether wife’s pain and my daughter’s loneliness and screwing one another, because we think that’s
you’re going to hit him or not. I can foresee my inability to talk to either one. I saw every all there is.”
the damage to your car and give you a repair colonoscopy I ever had, and I saw, with vivid, “I think I see,” I said grimly. “But maybe if
estimate. I can envision your injuries and tell horrifying clarity, the futility of a land war in we don’t know, if we can’t see what you saw,
you how long it’s going take poor Bambi to die Asia. But worst of all, I saw…” we can cling to a shred of innocence. Make
in the ditch.” For a moment, Dr. Plinck, his eyes bulging, different choices. Maybe it won’t come out
I wondered if Plinck was crazy, as he ram- his hands shaking, couldn’t speak. that way after all.”
bled on. “What did you see?” I demanded. “Please, I gazed into the fire. “There’s hope, right ”
“Infini ision can see it all, everywhere. It please tell me.” I said.
sees the dark side of the moon and the edge of “I saw,” said Plinck haltingly, “I saw how it’s Dr. Plinck looked up, searchingly, into the
the universe. It sees the flutter of a butterfly all going to come out.” His face turned dark. evening sky. As far as either of us could see,
in the Amazon jungle and the glint in the eye “Not good, huh?” I said. from sunset to far horizon, there was not a
of a great white shark off the Cape of Good Plinck flicked the ippo. A tongue of blue single pig on the wing. ■
Hope. It can penetrate the memory of an flame leapt up. e dropped the lighter into
addled grandmother dying alone and see into the gas-soaked kindling. A cloud of acrid David Benjamin is a no e ist and o rna -
the heart of a young girl. It can even find the smoke rose from the bonfire. ist o sp its is ti e et een aris and
tiny, cold, shrunken soul of ladimir Putin.” “This might just work,” said Plinck softly. adison isconsin. or ore o is or isit
Plinck shook his head and took a deep “We might be saved…” lastkidbooks.com.
breath.
“I’m not even sure how it works.” said
Plinck. “That’s the scary thing about artificial
intelligence nowadays. It gets away from you. ADVERTISERS INDEX
It does stuff on its own. My cosmic interstice
just sees everything. But only God knows— ” Company Page
Plinck suddenly stopped, rubbing his chin.
“What is it?” I asked. Avalue Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
“Well, I’m not sure even God knows,” said ASPENCORE @Embedded World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Plinck. “I mean, the first time I realized what
this sucker could do, I called it Ojo de Dios Bürklin Elektronik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
— Eye of God. But it turns out this was an Cervoz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
understatement. Because, well, there’s one Elektroda.de . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
thing God can’t see. But, with that gadget…” Elma Electronic Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
— he pointed at the Infini isor — “ I can.” Green Hills Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
“What’s that?” I asked fearfully. “What
can’t God see?” IAR Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
“God,” said Plinck. IBASE Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
“Come on,” I said. “What you’re saying is n neon echnologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover Gatefold, 68
beyond human possibility.” Innodisk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
“Yeah, well, it ain’t human. You know when
I realized I had to destroy it?” LPKF Laser & Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
“No idea,” I said. Mesago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
“The other day, standing at my booth in Nürnberg Messe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Hall D, over there, I was showing off my pro- PEAK-System Technik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
totype to a couple of buyers from Mobileye, Pico Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
right? I put it on, turned a few dials, and
suddenly, there I was.” SINTRONES Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36, 40
“There you were?” Taiwan Commate Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
“All of me. Everything I’ve done or thought TQ Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
I was going to do. Everywhere I’ve been or Würth Elektronik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
wanted to go. Everyone I’ve known or wished
I’d never met — all the way back to the day

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