Free Sigma One by William Hutchison

ONE, as you can guess, is the flagship of the NSF. It is our major reason for existence, and it is the success of SIGMA ONE that will eventually lead to benefits far in excess of the funding it is currently receiving from taxes on your organizations." He stopped in mid-sentence and looked squarely at Ms. Robinson and the three military men.
    "Ms. Robinson, SIGMA ONE will not stop the current destruction of whales immediately. It will however, free resources which can be spent on repopulating the oceans of the world when funding of nuclear weaponry no longer nets to drain our economy."
    "Dr. Gandliong, SIGMA ONE will not stop the spread of aids. It will, however, allow more research dollars to become available in the future as its successes are realized."
    "General Lassiter, Colonel Anderson, and Commander Packett, SIGMA ONE won't stop conventional wars. That's not its purpose. But it will allow our conventional military forces to be made far superior to any army, navy or air force on earth as other research projects are spun off from the basic principles of thought programming. No longer will we need to send our sons and daughters to their deaths. Using thought programming and combining it with robotics, we can stop any enemy without loss of life."
    Pat flipped four charts in rapid succession to emphasize what he had just said. Each chart provided a picture of the utopia SIGMA ONE promised.
    The first, shown for Ms. Robinson, showed schools of California Gray Whales spouting and cavorting in the calm blue waters of the Catalina channel. The beautiful Wrigley Casino and Zane Grey's home could be seen above the peaceful Avalon harbor. A graph at the bottom of the chart which plotted whale population estimates as a function of time indicated a stop to the downward trend of whale numbers in the 1999 to 2009 time frame showing the effects of dollars that would be poured into Green Peace from deep cuts in offensive nuclear forces.
    The second slide showed a slow to the exponential rise in the numbers of aids cases in the same timeframe as research began to accelerate to find a cure for the deadly disease.
    The third and fourth slides depicted artist renditions of new futuristic assault weapon, smaller automated aircraft carriers, and new supersonic remotely piloted tactical attack aircraft.
     
    These last pictures were meant to whet the appetites of his military antagonists and the artwork on each of them was incredible in detail, bringing tears to the eyes of the military men seated at the end of the table and making Robinson and Gandliong impressed by the potential benefits to their causes as well.
    General Lassiter was the first to speak after Pat's over-obvious appeal to their hot buttons.
    "That's all very well indeed Mr. Huxley, but all these prospects of world peace depend on SIGMA ONE's success. And it's the viability of the project we're here to judge--not the potential future benefits it might bring if it works. So if you could please get to the meat of the matter we would appreciate it."
    The other members nodded in concurrence. They had seen through Pat's intended smokescreen as well.
    "Very well, General, as you wish, "Pat said reluctantly. He then put up his next set of slides which described the theoretical basis for SIGMA ONE, using the same ones he had shown Radcliff earlier in the week.
    When he was finished, the committee members were impressed with the technical details, each one of which was backed up by additional comments and verification provided by Salinger in his inimitable German-English accent.
    The committee members may have been impressed, but they were still not convinced.
    Pat finished with a chart showing a computer program written, he said while Dr. Jackowitz, his newest star (aka O'Shaunnesey) was linking with the computer. Of course, the program was not written by O'Shaunessey and certainly not without the use of a keyboard, but Pat had to show it anyway. He hoped, but didn't expect, it would