"The Feeling of Power"

[Dave Britten]

I just stumbled across this amusing bit of satire on the hubris of modernization by Isaac Asimov. The math teachers among you will no doubt appreciate the theme.

http://downlode.org/Etext/power.html

I often feel the same way about computer science. Who needs to know how to implement a linked list or hash table when you can just instantiate a List<string> or Dictionary<string, object>?

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

(10-02-2015 02:35 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  I just stumbled across this amusing bit of satire on the hubris of modernization by Isaac Asimov. The math teachers among you will no doubt appreciate the theme.

http://downlode.org/Etext/power.html

I often feel the same way about computer science. Who needs to know how to implement a linked list or hash table when you can just instantiate a List<string> or Dictionary<string, object>?

Dave,

I've always been a big fan of Isaac Asimov, but I had forgotten about this one.

What I find most interesting is that this story was first published in February 1958 issue of If: Worlds of Science Fiction.

There is also a YouTube video of this:

The Feeling of Power


Bill
Smithville, NJ

[Dave Britten]

(10-02-2015 03:25 PM)Bill (Smithville NJ) Wrote:  What I find most interesting is that this story was first published in February 1958 issue of If: Worlds of Science Fiction.

Yeah, part of the story is built upon the premise of "computers" being large, and preposterously cost-ineffective. But these days, we're on the verge of being able to get a fully functional computer system for just $9.

[BobVA]

From the description of the general doing a multiplication problem on his calculator, they apparently used RPN.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(10-03-2015 03:05 AM)BobVA Wrote:  From the description of the general doing a multiplication problem on his calculator, they apparently used RPN.

Yes, that's my feeling too.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-464...l#pid41908

[TASP]

I can't recall the name of the story or if it was a Clarke or Asimov, but the gist of the story was a spacecraft had a computer failure and the crew could not do the necessary calculations to plot a return to earth, otherwise, the ship was fully functional.

The captain divided the crew into 2 teams, and fed each team the relevant data and let them do the math manually with paper and pencil in tandem, with the captain checking their computations for differences from time to time to rule out errors in computing the trajectory home.

And they did make it home.

[Jim Horn]

I first read "A Feeling of Power" in Clifton Fadiman's terrific "Mathematical Magpie" at the local library, circa 1967. That book was a follow-on to "Fantasia Mathematica", also a fun read. You can look up the details of both in Wikipedia.

Many of the stories have aged but are still delightful. Do enjoy!

[EdS2]

(10-04-2015 03:04 AM)TASP Wrote:  I can't recall the name of the story or if it was a Clarke or Asimov, but the gist of the story was a spacecraft had a computer failure and the crew could not do the necessary calculations to plot a return to earth, otherwise, the ship was fully functional.

The captain divided the crew into 2 teams, and fed each team the relevant data and let them do the math manually with paper and pencil in tandem, with the captain checking their computations for differences from time to time to rule out errors in computing the trajectory home.

And they did make it home.

"Into the Comet" by Arthur C Clarke - from Tales of Ten Worlds, one of the first SF books I read.

[TASP]

Thanx.

That would be it.


I have several collections of Clark shorts, including Tales From the White Hart.