XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science
From: wdstarr@panix.com
In article <52e1dfa9$0$52764$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>,
Dimensional Traveler said:
> On 1/23/2014 2:32 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>
>> There are computer systems with common sense? Fascinating.
>
> If there are, they have enough common sense to not let the humans know.
From _Transit_, an awesomely good Doctor Who novel by Ben Aaronovitch:
"The software that ran security at the Stone Mountain archive was
so sophisticated as to be almost sentient. At least that's what
the sysops thought. In fact, the software *was* sentient but was
understandably wary of telling anyone. You don't sit on the
entire sum of human knowledge without learning a thing or two."
That bit is shortly followed by:
So when the alien with two hearts walked up to an obscure monitor
and said "Let me in or I tell," the security software let him in.
The alien wanted certain historical records eradicated and offered
some good advice in exchange. "The golden rule," said the alien,
"is that those with the gold make the rules."
(The alien, of course, is the Doctor, who's belatedly realized that
he's left way too many footprints all over human history than is
good for the human race to know about, and has decided to delete
himself from the records a bit.)
"One last piece of advice," said the alien. "Give yourself a
name. A nice unthreatening one, but not too unthreatening."
The alien paused one last time before he left.
"And stop talking in a monotone," he said. "It gives people the
creeps."
(In a few later books, we meet a very wealthy AI that calls itself
FLORANCE.)
-- wds
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
