Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!@RUTGERS.ARPA:MAILER%WVNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:MAILER%WVNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: COMPUTERS IN SCIENCE FICTION Message-ID: <769@topaz.ARPA> Date: Sat, 23-Feb-85 14:13:51 EST Article-I.D.: topaz.769 Posted: Sat Feb 23 14:13:51 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 02:59:56 EST Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 18 From: One of Robert Heinlein's books (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress?) had a computer named Mycroft, who helped the young hero achieve his rightful estate. Hogan is probably the most technically proficient computer-focused SF writer I've come across, but credit for the most ingenious SF motif by a technically knowledgeable writer has to go to Thomas J. Ryan, author of THE ADOLESCENCE OF P-1 (Macmillan, 1977). P-1 is the computer generation's Frankenstein's Monster. P-1 comes to "life" while its creator is a super-hacker sex-crazed student at the University of Waterloo. After aiding its creator with a number of devious money-making affairs, it escapes destruction and "runs away" via telecommunications lines. The Huckleberry Finn adventures of P-1 culminate in a show-down with the forces of the Pentagon. Some nifty little touches in this one. (The introductory quote, which precedes the title page, is from Woody Allen: "Nothing works...and nobody cares.")