Wednesday, April 28, 2010

W W Skupeldyckle's "The Romantic Analogue" (short story, humor, free): When a computer began making passes at its inventor!

An illustration accompanying the online copy at Project Gutenberg of the short story The Romantic Analogue by The Romantic AnalogueOK - description of computers here is very old - this is a 1950s story. And for some additional fun, we're dealing with an analog computer here rather than digital one, because digital ones are "nearly as big as yachts, and cost more".

Story summary.

Norman Venner, a women-shy workaholic, has built this amazing new machine he thinks can get the company some government contracts. A machine that is very good at calculating curves. Only, during testing, the machine has began occasionally making romantic passes at him, using, you know, "curves" of the right kind...

Notes.

  1. This story packs far too much information on a single punched card. I used to think a punched card could hold just 80 7-bit numbers? Can someone familiar with them enlighten? Thank you.

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction about computers, from 1950s.

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