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"There was a time when one old eccentric guy with a notebook could do something important to science. Now even the resources of a major university are often not enough."
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Preserving Machine | ||
| A device that would create a unique animal from a piece of classical music. |
Doctor Labyrinth despaired of the fate of the world and its music; what would be the best way to make sure that great classical music could survive the end of the world?
If only a Machine could be built, a Machine to process musical scores into living forms.
| ...Doc Labyrinth was no mechanic. He made a few tentative sketches and sent them hopefully around to the research laboratories. Most of them were too busy with war contracts, of course. But at last he found the people he wanted...
Weeks passed. The Machine was coming along fine; in fact it was almost finished. They had given it a trial run, feeding a couple of popular songs into it. The results? Two small mouse-like animals had come scampering out... |
| From The Preserving Machine,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Mercury Publications in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The Mozart G-Minor Quintet came out as a bird "slow and slender with the flowing plumage of a peacock."
Compare to the living book from The World Below (1928) by Sydney Fowler Wright.
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'I'm afraid to tell you this Mr. Quaid, but you have suffered a schizoed embolism...'
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'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters."
'Twenty rocket tugs towed it from its Earth hangar out into space.'
I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.'
