Paul Macovei

“She stood a moment before my eyes, clearly and painfully, loved and deeply woven into my destiny; then fell away again in a deep oblivion, at a half regretted distance.”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

“Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.”
― André Gide

“I gave it directions—to work out a course through hyperspace to a position near Sayshell Planet, the capital of the Sayshell Union. It did, and charted a course in twenty-nine steps, which is arrogance of the worst sort.” “Why arrogance?” “The error in the first Jump makes the second Jump that much less certain, and the added error then makes the third Jump pretty wobbly and untrustworthy, and so on. How do you calculate twenty-nine steps all at once? The twenty-ninth could end up anywhere in the Galaxy, anywhere at all. So I directed it to make the first step only. Then we could check that before proceeding.” “The cautious approach,” said Pelorat warmly. “I approve!” “Yes, but having made the first step, might the computer not feel wounded at my having mistrusted it? Would it then be forced to salve its pride by telling me there was no error at all when I asked it? Would it find it impossible to admit a mistake, to own up to imperfection? If that were so, we might as well not have a computer.” Pelorat’s long and gentle face saddened. “What can we do in that case, Golan?” “We can do what I did—waste a day. I checked the position of several of the surrounding stars by the most primitive possible methods: telescopic observation, photography, and manual measurement. I compared each actual position with the position expected if there had been no error. The work of it took me all day and wore me down to nothing.” “Yes, but what happened?” “I found two whopping errors and checked them over and found them in my calculations. I had made the mistakes myself.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation's Edge