Story title is The Feeling of Power and is available is a book of short stories called Nine Tomorrows. The general conclusion to the story is that space warfare will improve due to not needing huge computers in rockets now that people can do the calculations.
My favorite scene was when the mathematician was asked how much is 9x7. With pencil to paper he answered 16. The generals used their calculators and came up with the same answer and then asked him "How do you know the answer will always be 16?" Alan -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thomas Berg Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 10:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: California's COBOL payroll system ====== Robert A. Rosenberg ====== wrote 2008-08-09 06:29: > At 11:43 AM -0500 on 8/6/08, Rick Fochtman wrote about Re: California's > COBOL payroll system: > > When second-graders are permitted to use calculators for arithmetic > > Something predicted over 60 years ago in a story by Science Fiction > Author Isaac Asimov. In his story, set in the far future, everyone uses > a Hand Calculator and the concept of being able to do arithmetic by hand > is not even imagined until a mathematical genus reinvents arithmetic by > studying the results produced by his Hand Calculator. That story is hilarious ! :) Thomas Berg -- __________________________ Mundus Vult Decipi __________________________ They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. - Groucho Marx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
