Difference between revisions of "Mechanical Answer"
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'''MacDonald, John D. "Mechanical Answer" (also "The Mechanical Answer").''' ''Astounding'', May 1948. ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (UK), April 1949. Reprinted ''The Robot and the Man''. Martin Greenberg, editor. Gnome Press, 1953. For other reprints and translation into German, see Internet Speculative Fiction Database at link.[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?57791] | '''MacDonald, John D. "Mechanical Answer" (also "The Mechanical Answer").''' ''Astounding'', May 1948. ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (UK), April 1949. Reprinted ''The Robot and the Man''. Martin Greenberg, editor. Gnome Press, 1953. For other reprints and translation into German, see Internet Speculative Fiction Database at link.[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?57791] | ||
| + | Summarized by Steve Scott on The Trap of Solid Gold: Celebrating the works of John D MacDonald (sic), 29 November 2009. | ||
| + | <blockquote> | ||
| + | Set in the relatively near future (of 1948), "The Mechanical Answer" takes place on a re-nationalized Earth. Joseph Kayden, a citizen of the United States of North America, is the Director of Automatic 81, a factory that produces "portable tele sets." The huge facility is really a massive assembly line manned by robotic machines that require only one employee to run it: Joseph Kayden. Located outside of Albuquerque, Kayden lives on-site with his wife Jane, and as the story opens, Jane is in tears after she has heard the news that Joe has been reassigned to a super-secret project in Poughkeepsie, known generally as "The Thinking Machine." * * * | ||
| + | Jane has suggested aping the processes of the human mind by forming basic engrams, simple ones at first, becoming more and more complex until rational thought is possible. After many more months of re-working, [German ex-patriate] Dr. Zander poses a single question to the newly-configured machine: "What hath God wrought?"[http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.com/2009/11/mechanical-answer.html] | ||
| + | </blockquote> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note Jane's effective "horse sense" as opposed to the dead ends run into by the thinking of the men. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Discussed at least briefly in ''[[Science Fiction and Computing]]'', which see. | ||
RDE, finishing, 14Jun21 | RDE, finishing, 14Jun21 | ||
[[Category: Fiction]] | [[Category: Fiction]] | ||
Latest revision as of 21:16, 14 June 2021
MacDonald, John D. "Mechanical Answer" (also "The Mechanical Answer"). Astounding, May 1948. Astounding Science Fiction (UK), April 1949. Reprinted The Robot and the Man. Martin Greenberg, editor. Gnome Press, 1953. For other reprints and translation into German, see Internet Speculative Fiction Database at link.[1]
Summarized by Steve Scott on The Trap of Solid Gold: Celebrating the works of John D MacDonald (sic), 29 November 2009.
Set in the relatively near future (of 1948), "The Mechanical Answer" takes place on a re-nationalized Earth. Joseph Kayden, a citizen of the United States of North America, is the Director of Automatic 81, a factory that produces "portable tele sets." The huge facility is really a massive assembly line manned by robotic machines that require only one employee to run it: Joseph Kayden. Located outside of Albuquerque, Kayden lives on-site with his wife Jane, and as the story opens, Jane is in tears after she has heard the news that Joe has been reassigned to a super-secret project in Poughkeepsie, known generally as "The Thinking Machine." * * *
Jane has suggested aping the processes of the human mind by forming basic engrams, simple ones at first, becoming more and more complex until rational thought is possible. After many more months of re-working, [German ex-patriate] Dr. Zander poses a single question to the newly-configured machine: "What hath God wrought?"[2]
Note Jane's effective "horse sense" as opposed to the dead ends run into by the thinking of the men.
Discussed at least briefly in Science Fiction and Computing, which see.
RDE, finishing, 14Jun21
