Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 22:51:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The World Turned Upside Down - and changes
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, Jim Kling wrote:

> Saturday, September 11, 2004, 11:50:28 AM, you wrote:
>
> > That's good question - how do post-computer readers
> > feel about stories written in the pre-computer era?  I
> > know I find it jarring to read a story where the main
> > character pulls out a slide rule to make calculations
> > for his whiz-bang machine.  It seems odd to have a
> > machine that can do wonderful things, but the data to
> > run it has to be manually entered.  And I remember
> > slide calculators!  What if you've never had that
> > experience of no computers, cell phones, and the like.
>
> I read these stories as alternate history.

Even that might not be enough to avoid a choking fit when the Galactic
Patrol's chief librarian finds all the brilliant scientists in
Civilization by running their Hollerith cards through a sorter to provide
Kimball Kinnison with the list of people qualified to work on the
negasphere.

-- Dick Eney
   My Inner Child is an honor student at St. Trinian's