roup is against the war. But the war goes on. I was sent to Cleveland to talk to the engineers. The engineers were meeting in Cleveland. I was supposed to persuade them not to do what they are going to do. I took Uniteds 4:45 from LaGuardia arriving in Cleveland at 6:13. Cleveland is dark blue at that hour. I went directly to the motel, where the engineers were meeting. Hundreds of engineers attehe Clevelaing. I no?ticed many fractures among the engineers, ban?dages, tra. I noticed peared to be frac?ture of the carpal scaphoid in six examples. I notiumerous fractures of the humeral shaft, of the oscalcis, of the pelvic girdle. I noticed a high ince of clay-shovellers fracture. I could not at for these fractures. The engineers were making calculations, taking measurements, sketg on the blackboard, drinking beer, throwing bread, buttonholing employers, hurling glasses into the fireplace. They were friendly.
They were friendly. They were full of love and information. The chief engineer wore shades. Pa?tella in Monks tra, clamshell fracture by the look of it. He was standing in a slum of beer bottles and microphone cable. "Have some of this chi a la Isambard Kingdom Bruhe Great Ingineer," he said. "And declare who you are and what we do for you. What is your line, distinguished guest?"
"Software," I said. "In every sense. I am here representing a small group of ied parties. We are ied in your thing, which seems to be funing. In the midst of so much dysfun, fun is iing. Other peoples things doo be w. The State Departments thing doeso be w. The U.N.s thing doeso be w. The democratic lefts thing doeso be w. Buddhas thing --"
"Ask us anything about our thing, which seems to be w," the chief engineer said. "We will open our hearts and heads to you, Software Man, because we want to be uood and loved by the great lay publid have our marvels appre?ciated by that public, for which we daily unsung produce tons of new marvels each more life-en?hang than the last. Ask us anything. Do you want to know about evaporated thin-film metal?lurgy? Monolithid hybrid ied-circuit processes? The algebra of inequalities? Optimiza?tion theory? plex high-speed miiniature closed and open loop systems? Fixed variable mathematical cost searches? Epitaxial deposition of semi-duaterials? Gross interfaced space gropes? We also have specialists in the cuckoo?flower, the doctorfish, and the dumdum bullet as these relate to aspects of todays expanding teology, and they do in the dam ways."
I spoke to him then about the war. I said the same things people always say when they speak against the war. I said that the rong. I said that large tries should not burn down small tries. I said that the gover had made a series of errors. I said that these errors once small and fivable were now immense and unfivable. I said that the gover was at?tempting to ceal its inal errors under layers of new errors. I said that the gover was sick with erriddy with it. I said that ten thousand of our soldiers had already been killed in pursuit of the govers errors. I said that tens of thou?sands of the enemys soldiers and civilians had been killed because of various errors, ours and theirs. I said that we are responsible for errors made in our name. I said that the gover should not be allowed to make additional errors.
"Yes, yes," the chief engineer said, "there is doubtless much truth in what you say, but ossibly lose the war, we? And stopping is los?ing, isnt it?