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"[Science fiction is] nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Interactive Suicide Note | ||
| A last message for the people you are leaving behind - that encourages their participation. |
Victor Apfel receives a phone call telling him to go into the house next door. He finds his neighbor, Charles Kluge, sprawled across the keyboard of his computer with part of his head blown away.
Investigators take a look at his computer.
| PROGRAM NAME: GOODBYE REAL WORLD DATE: 8/20 CONTENTS: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT; MISC FEATURES PROGRAMMER: "CHARLES KLUGE"
TO RUN "Has this console been checked for prints?" Osborne asked. Nobody seemed to know, so Osborne took a pencil and used it to press the ENTER key... As the music played, a little figure composed entirely of squares entered from the left of the screen and jerked spastically toward the center... The little man extended his arms, which jerked up and down like Liberace at the piano. He was typing. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE I MISSED SOMETHING. I SIT HERE, NIGHT AND DAY, A SPIDER IN THE MIDDLE OF A COAXIAL WEB, MASTER OF ALL I SURVEY... AND IT IS NOT ENOUGH. THERE MUST BE MORE. ENTER YOUR NAME HERE: "Jesus Christ," Hal said. "I don't believe it. An interactive suicide note." |
| From Press Enter,
by John Varley. Published by Davis Publications in 1984 Additional resources -
|
If you are thinking that this is a quirky and imaginative story, you're exactly right. Go read it.
I note in passing that this story really nails the early 1980's computer environment; older readers will enjoy the details, and younger ones will gasp in wonder at the large computer fauna that once roamed the Earth.
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'The tiny devices chirped their impulse codes at one another...'
Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to "help them out."
'Improving man by bringing him close to Nature, while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well...'
Um, how about that pension for the humans who serve as the models for robot behavior?
'...used as surrogates in intense dependency cases.'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
