Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 19:54:02 -0500
From: thaughey <thaughey at acnet.net>
To: wsfalist at wsfa.org
Subject: [WSFA] [Fwd: Re: [WSFA] Re: The World Turned Upside Down - and changes]
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [WSFA] Re: [WSFA] Re: The World Turned Upside Down - and changes
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:10:36 -0500
From: thaughey <thaughey at acnet.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
References: <200409130251.i8D2pTW20039 at panix6.panix.com>

It all has to do with radiation which deactivates our computers.
Remember the MIG we were so interested in because it supposedly had
electronics which would withstand the electromagnetic flash effect of a
near miss by an atom bomb..  It turned out it would indeed survive
because it used old-fashioned vacuum tubes.  Just put in a line in an
old novel about a lingering electromagnetic flux and old technology
suddenly becomes shiny and new.  --Tom Haughey

dicconf wrote:

>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
>