Re: Seeking titles for half-remembered stories


Peter,

Thats not the story but it's a good one - I just tracked down a copy of
'13 Great Stories of Science Fiction (ed Groff Cronkin)' and read it.
The sentiment is spot-on. The story would be intriguing today, to have
this idea in 1953 when computers were still valve (tube) based is
stunning!

Thanks for the pointer.

Regards,

John.

peterwezeman@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> J.W.T.Smith@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've read a lot of SF over the decades and some of the ideas have
> > become part of the way I think (sad, I know :-) ).
> >
> > With increasing age I can't remember some of the titles of these
> > stories :-( .
> >
>
> >
> > I'm also looking for another title but in this case all I remember is
> > the 'nugget'. In this story all scientific research is done by
> > running a computer simulation of the experiment. There are no direct
> > investigations of the world. One day someone realises that if all
> > knowledge is gained this way it is impossible to escape the current
> > theories and invent new ones since the simulations assume the
> > underlying theories are true. I can't remember if this is core or
> > incidental to the story.
> >
> The second story might be _Allegory_ by William T. Powers, first
> published in _Astounding_ in April, 1953. It was anthologized in
> _13 Great Stories of Science Fiction_, edited by Groff Conklin,
> 1960. The viewpoint character is a functionary at the Research
> Guidance Center who turns down an application for a grant to apply
> anti-gravity to transportation. He insists that anti-gravity
> is impossible even when he sees an anti-gravity device hovering in
> front of him, because it contradicts the accepted laws of
> physics which have been derived by the computers from the
> basic facts of the universe. The attempt by the inventor
> of the anti-gravity machine to get funding turns out to actually
> be a way to force selected people to admit that the computers
> might not know everything, thus creating independent thinkers
> who can do real research.
>
> Peter Wezeman
> anti-social Darwinst

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