Originally posted on Atlas Shrugged: Rise of the Machines.
Dagny Taggart: Why Francisco, this is the most advanced mining machinery I have ever seen!
Francisco d'Anconia: Have you seen a lot of mining machinery?
Dagny Taggart: As a railroad magnate no, I have not. But I can still tell at a casual glance that these machines are amazing! What do they do?
Francisco d'Anconia: They mine.
Cobra Commander: I believe the lady was inquiring as to the specifics of how your automation works.
Francisco d'Anconia: Well it's actually quite ingenious. They work vaguely.
Cobra Commander: Excuse me?
Francisco d'Anconia: Well you recall that I have vast offscreen powers yes, I'm quite capable of handling myself in almost any situation so long as no one is paying attention to what I am doing. So I managed to incorporate those same techniques into these machines, but have improved them by making them nigh impossible to pay attention to.
Cobra Commander: All of what you are saying is complete nonsense.
Francisco d'Anconia: Exactly. If I was explaining anything coherently it would immediately fall apart, but as long as I gloss over everything and no one really thinks about it, they'll continue to work perfectly.
Cobra Commander: Well who built the machines?
Francisco d'Anconia: Oh I did, off screen. Obviously.
Cobra Commander: Well that couldn't have gone quickly... or cheaply. How did you finance yourself during the time it took you to construct such a monstrosity of engineering? I was under the impression you had destroyed your entire company and the full of your resources when you fled to this little wonderland of yours. And that also too you all operated your own little 'by the sweat of your brow' economy here. So you must have needed some venture capital in investment to build all of this improbable masterpiece.
Francisco d'Anconia: Well obviously our system only makes sense when viewed already in operation, and even then not all that much. Which is why I had to be off screen so much while we were building this whole place, and why I had to keep good Dagny out of all of this. If I'd had to explain things to her before we reached a stable level it would have all fallen apart under the weight of the ridiculousness of it all, but by waiting to bring it into narrative focus I was able to ensure smooth operation.
Cobra Commander: Neatly circular illogic you have there.
Dagny Taggart: Oh yes I'd whole heartedly agree! And it now makes so much sense why I was kept out of the loop on everything.
Cobra Commander: Well... I'm curious though, what was your plan if this hadn't all worked?
Francisco d'Anconia: I'm not sure I understand that sequence of words put together.
Cobra Commander: What if you had failed in your implausible endeavor?
Francisco d'Anconia: One does not plan to fail, Mr. Commander.
Cobra Commander: This goes beyond your little mining operation fool, this whole valley of yours is constructed on coincidence!
Dagny Taggart: Nonsense, it's clear they have it all figured out, look how beautifully everything fits together!
Cobra Commander: And there is the problem, what about insurance? Back up? Redundancy? What about plan B's? What about the extreme danger those six men and your little army of mules are in?
Francisco d'Anconia: There's no danger here at all!
Cobra Commander: There is nothing but danger! Your mine operates on untested equipment being manned by a skeleton crew out in the middle of nowhere. Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet!
Francisco d'Anconia: Nonsense! My machinery has made mining one hundred percent safe also too! Because I have just now said it did!
Cobra Commander: There is always risk. What if the land doesn't yield the bounty you need? What if one of your men has a heart attack? What if a mule trips and breaks its leg? What if your precious machinery is blown up by a charismatic terrorist? What if your valley fails to produce enough crops due to harsh climates? What if you don't happen to implausibly invent the next fantastically unlikely machine in time to deal with the next crisis that arises?
Francisco d'Anconia: Well then I'm sure John would be able to fix the problem.
Dagny Taggart: Yes, that sounds about right.
Francisco d'Anconia: I mean he was the one who convinced us all to do all this, and without him literally none of this would be possible.
Cobra Commander: Then your system is a failure. You sit here and preach about the virtues of your 'heroic spirit', but the only reason your society works at all is because you happen to have the most capable man in the world working with you. If this John of yours had been a communist, he could have created a communist utopia. If he had the urge to rule as a despot and emperor he could have simply conquered your world. Your ethos only has merit because the one man who mattered happened to agree with it. With all of this magical perfect happenchance that all fell in your laps you could have created whatever civilization you wanted, the fact that you made this one is no proof that you were actually correct.
Francisco d'Anconia: Well of course it is! He's the greatest man ever so obviously his ideas are always correct, which means whatever his ideas on ethics might be they too are also obviously correct, and as his ethos says he is the greatest man ever that further proves that his ideas are correct because the ideas say that he and thus they are correct.
Cobra Commander: My urge to destroy your little operation only continues to rise in the same ever feeding circle as your absurd conclusions. Still... I could likely repurpose such machines to some other profitable end...
Francisco d'Anconia: Yes my other good metal faced friend was saying the same thing, he was going to be bringing by this Serpent something fellow to check out my work. I believe he was arriving today
Cobra Commander: S-serpentor... here? Already!? I... I'm not... gah!
Dagny Taggart: Why is he so hung up on that man? Look... he just stole one of your mules and rode off on it.
Francisco d'Anconia: Nooo! I only had precisely enough mules to make the operation work! My mine is ruined! Unless...
Dagny Taggart: Unless what?
Francisco d'Anconia: Dagny you wouldn't happen to still have that bit and bridle from when we were dating would you?