We're wandering a bit off topic here, in that we're moving from Sci-Fi
cartoons to Sci-Fi in general. But this discussion is too interesting to
drop.
Galen wrote:
> The internet ... Asimov's Multivac, which predicted a computer
> over Niagra Falls using the water for both power and cooling,
> and connected to everywhere via TELEX.
> Gerrold's _When Harley Was One_ included the idea of a National
> Data Bank.
> As for a decentralized computer system, I'm not seeing anything
> before Christopher Stasheff's _The Warlock In Spite of Himself_
> (1969) - but that was idea that nearly everyone in a (democratic)
> Galactic civilization would have an AI information manager.
You bring up an interesting point. A huge, globally accessible
electronic repository of information has been forecast in a number of
Sci-Fi stories. But most writers envisioned this repository as being
owned and maintained by some central authority. What is rare is a
depiction of a distributed, decentralized network of computers. Stasheff
is one of the few visionaries to see this possibility.
Check out the book "Orwell's Revenge" by Peter Huber. Huber is a
committed scholar of "1984" author George Orwell. As Huber noted, Orwell
correctly predicted the im****tance of electronic communication. Huber
makes the case that Orwell erroneously assumed that telecommunications
inherently required central control, and hence Orwell worried that the
new technology would facilitate an authoritarian state. "Orwell's
Revenge" analyzes how electronic media ended up being a medium for the
rapid exchange of ideas, and includes a re-write of "1984" where Big
Brother is undermined by the very tele-screens it used to distribute
propaganda.
> -Galen
--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenoba****"
"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Wizard from "Tooter Turtle"
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