Successful second round of fusion experiments with Wendelstein 7-X

Re:Successful second round of fusion experiments with Wendel... by btilly on Monday November 26, 2018 @10:20PM (#18539053)

Good example.

Now compare with Franchise, Jokester, All the Troubles of the World, The Last Question and many more stories that feature as a plot device a very powerful centralized computer named Multivac. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivac for a more complete list.)

How the same mind could have come up with the idea of androids with positron brains following the three laws of robotics, and yet missed pocket calculators baffles me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Successful second round of fusion experiments with Wendel... by perl4ever on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @12:47AM (#18539779)

Heinlein predicted electronic calculators shortly after WWII in Space Jockey. The space ship has a little calculator, while the big computer is on a space station. That's more or less in line with late 60s or early 70s tech. I think a lot of science fiction has predicted 20 years out pretty well. It's past that that it usually goes off the rails, only because of the inherent difficulty of predicting the future.

[ Parent | on HN ]