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    Nathaly Munive
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    9 views132 pages

    Fu 1954 11

    Uploaded by

    Nathaly Munive

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
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    FANTASTIC UNIVERSE ~ | Ie SO ae Ue Re SLA) Re ALU aoc en a ane eau Uy SO ecg cua ea Coa ALL STORIES IN THIS ISSUE BRAND’ NEW THE STORY BEHIND THE COVER The giant computer or cybernetic brain fascinates thoughtful minds in a more paradoxically frightening way than any other twentieth century invention of roughly corresponding scope and power. It is the great mystery gadget of our age, the mechanical bugbear that casts a shadow across all ideally conceived Utopias, the symbolic cipher, indeterminate and unknown, which may well decide the course of human destiny for generations to come. Do “big brains” really think? Can they formulate independent judgements? Do their intricate relays and tiers of memory banks give an actual emotional coloration to their replies to the questions put to them? It is most unlikely. The human brain is not a machine, and it does not even remotely resemble a machine in any of its machinations—Machiavellian or otherwise. But consider for a moment what a metal tape recording of a scientifically correct answer to any given question could mean in terms of human happiness, or human misery. A computing machine that is, by its very complexity, as accurate in its replies as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle will permit, can pass judgements—if there are human agents to do the enforcing. It can pass judgements simply by punching out one or more unassailably accurate scientific facts—and letting human nature do the rest. In this month’s dramatically prophetic cover illustration we see a “big brain” of the future which has done just that—condemned two young people desperately in love to a life of enforced celibacy by informing the ruling caste of an easily imagined regimented state that they are biogeneti- cally unfit to marry. Unfit, UNFIT. If the machine had spoken in a voice of thunder it could not have condemned the terrified and despairing young people more irrevocably. Their struggles cannot save them. Human reason, sympathy, compassion must be held in abeyance, for the giant computer has punched out on a two-inch strip of gleaming metal a scientifically accurate reply to the data presented to it. Is scientific accuracy, then, the only yardstick by which the genius of man, with all of its shining, many-faceted explorations of reality, has the right to be measured? Don’t you believe it. It is man himself who decides precisely what data shall be fed into a machine, and human dignity and the skeptical spirit, laughter and joy and grief, are beyond the scope of a machine's computations. FRANK BELKNAP LONG deecccdocsecccece Hiow I foxed the Navy by reer Godfrey he Navy almost scuttled me. I shudder to of it. My crazy career could have ended, ight there. To be scuttled ‘by the Navy you've either got to do something wrong or neglect to do something right. ‘They've got you both ways. For my part, I neglected to finish high school. Ordinarily, a man can get along without a high school diploma. Plenty of men have. But not in the Navy. At least not in thé U. S. Navy Materiel School at Bellevue, D. C., back in 1929. In those days a bluejacket had to have ‘a mind like Einstein's. And I didn’t. “Godfrey,” said the lieutenant a few days ‘after I'd checked in, “either you learn mathe- matics and learn it fast or out you go. I'll give you six weeks.” This, I figured, was it. For a guy who had to take off his shoes to count above ten, it was an impossible assignment. I was ready to turn in my bell-bottoms. But an ad in a magazine stepped me. Here, it said, is your chance to get spevial training in almost any subject-mathematics included. I hopped on it. Within a week I was enrolled with the International Correspondence Schools studying algebra, geometry and trig for all I was worth. Came week-end liberty, I studied. Came a holiday, I studied. Came the end of the six weeks, I was top man in the class. Within six weeks I had mastered two years of high school math, thanks to the training I'd gotten. LC.S. made the impossible—easy! GET EXPERT 2 FREE BOOKS Free, illustrated catalog on career that interests you. Also 36-page, pocket GUIDANCE size guide to advancement, “How to Suoceed.” Just mail the coupon! For Real Job Security — Get IC. S. Training! 1.C.S., Scranton 9, Penna. RETO CULE ey ose BOX 2914-C, SCRANTON 9, PENNA. (Pat at 277 courses) woe ene eligi se a “HOM te SUCCEED” ad the eppartunty bok toute Geld BEFORE wich hie mrhedX: On ‘CIVIL. STRUC: Biitenttttacneleckine © Eustace eusiness. E Contant Ente Beniaic cece Seidel od aoe Peale Cotte Fh Beer tment n re [Era Qusness Masacoment © min Suvi on Beet Sacha Rinee Bier OR CeeR et Show Card ang Sigs Lettering 9 eer Bethania Seen oacet, Aoromorve™ Gost OME acwoor Rareireiiine — SSaS OTR eon, ghvaase pemrene §« BREE Bere, ‘igen Gea Raearaetee SRE Sar sans co bicreal Bieibenaten ENaikernina fis Shel Sits ie 8 TURAL CO RMEROR® oo saat DintetralStoenison |B bueeltaconcive wing FHteaerip 96 Oremanion BCs Enciaee Biemacaatr ios” U Secs fret a a Bieset PoweR GiNeat Treatment Metaborty Bie Sache eres ioe Bearer Shee Sera erker Eiaatbeien Teoeahng ” SC ELLANEOUS TSC RaBIO. TELEVISION o lovee Rieton praca Rader Enero 1 Gama aston Went 6 Shag Sha tty wetig on=Technion 0 Yoepony Ae Nome Bose ‘Canadian irs and Montreal, Canada Spec ohn Hours M ter nate Covrenondece Schon, indian Ud on tales members ah U. & Red Feces FANTASTIC NOV. 1954 Vol. 2, No. 4 Shadow on the Stars

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