Hi Michael,

You opened a grab bag of old memories. I remember the story well. You see, there was a time in my life when I was a SciFi addict. I had something like 50 linear feet of bookshelves packed to the gills with the genre. In fact, once when I and others were ferrying a boat from RI to Florida, one of my companions turned out to be a professor of SciFi at a major university. (I’ll skip the issue of why and how a chair of SciFi could be established at any institution of higher learning.) Anyway, there being little to do on long, night watches, we talked … and talked … and talked. And his mouth hung wider and wider with astonishment as this layman from nowhere lectured him, the professor, in his area of expertise. The result was a long standing invitation to guest lecture at his university. Alas, at the time I had my beautiful wife, three great little boys and a small menagerie of feathered two footed and furry four footed friends, all of whom depended upon me to bring home the bacon.

I’m trying to avoid moving into dissertation mode. However, I think it interesting that Isaac, like all his brethren, failed to properly anticipate the computer revolution. Their record otherwise, in matters technical, sociological and pop pseudo-philosophical, is quite good. Isaac does make one staggering statement in the story, to wit: "But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships”. This is nothing less than the desired, pie in the sky objective of quantum computing.

So what does this have to do with the normal 5doves content? Absolutely nothing. Well, not quite. I could develop some useless theological constructs, not to mention heresies, from the story. But, I will forbear.Thank you, Michael, for restoring some ancient memories.

Maranatha,

Bob