Writing the Future: Computers in Science Fiction
نویسندگان
چکیده
Although we cannot be certain that science fiction directly influenced the course that computing technology has taken over the past 50 years, the genre has-at the very least-anticipated the technologies we're using and developing. peculation ahout our future relationship to computers-and to technolngy in general-has limn the province of science fiction for at least a hundred years. But riot all of tbat specS ulation has been as optimistic as those i n tlic computing profession inight assume. For example, in Harlan Ellison's chilling " I Have No Mouth and 1 Must Scream, " ' three political superpowers construct Yast suhterrmean computer cnm-plexes for the piirposc of waging glohal war. Instead of carrying out thcir commands, the computers hnuscd in these complexes grow indignant at thc flaws the h i m " have introduccd into their systems. These sclf-rcpairing machines eventually rcbcl against their creators and unite to destroy the cntirc human race. Collectively calling itself AM-as in " I think therefore I ani "-the spitcful system prcserves the last fivc pco-plc on the planet and holds them prisoner so it can torment them cndlcssly. While cautionary tales like this in science fiction arc plentiful and varied, the genre is also filled with more optimistic speculation ahnut computer technology that will help save time, improve health, and gencrally ben-efitlifeasweknowit. lfwc takca lookatsotmiifthis speculation-both optimistic and pessimistic-as if it were prediction, it turns out that inany scicncc fiction authors 11nve eiivisioncd the future as accurately as Iiis-torians have chronicled the past. Thirty ycars ago, for example, Fritz Licbcr wrestled with the implicatims of a compiiter some day beating humans at chess. hi " l h e 64-Squaw Madlioi,se, " ZLieher offers a fascinatingly detailed expositinn of the first iiiter-national grandmastcr tournament in which an clcctronic computing machine plays chcss. One of the most poignant elements of the story-particularly in light of Deep Blue's victory nver Kasparov-is Lieber's allusion to the grandmaster Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian world Jonathan vos Post Illdepcndcnt Kirk L. Consulrant Kroeker conrpimr 0018-916ZlOOiS10.000 2000 IEEE champion fnr 13 years, who oncc said " Man is limited, man gets tired, man's program changcs very slowly. Cnmputer not tired, has grcat memory, is vcry fast. " ' Of course liction docsn't always come this close to getting it right. Or perhaps in some cases we aren't far enough along t o tcll. It remains to be seen, for exani-plc, whether certain golden-age …
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عنوان ژورنال:
- IEEE Computer
دوره 33 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2000