[RTTY] Science fiction RTTY

Ktfrog007 at aol.com Ktfrog007 at aol.com
Thu Nov 17 19:12:55 EST 2016


Hi,
 
In Harlan Ellison's famous sci-fi short story, "I Have No Mouth and I Must  
Scream," sections are marked by punched paper tape images.  In  most 
editions of the story, they are corrupted or meaningless, but they were  intended 
to be in the International Telegraph Alphabet #2 (ITA2) that we  use for 
RTTY.  In correct reproductions, as shown in Wikipedia, (lsb at the  top), the 
tapes read: "I THINK, THEREFORE I AM" and "COGITO ERGO SUM" along with  
leading and trailing CR and LF characters.  The thinking entity is the  story's 
crazed computer which took over the world and killed everyone except a  few 
pet humans to torture.
 
My personal interest in this story is that one evening in 1974 I  read it 
and was horrified (no trigger warning!).  I mentioned it to my  wife, 
wondering how possible it was and wishing I knew more about  computers.  A few days 
later she showed me an adult education flyer from  the local high school 
which was offering a course in computer programming and  suggested I take it 
(for $10).  I did.  The computer was a DEC PDP-8  and I soon exhausted its 
capabilities.  The teacher suggested I take some  real computer programming 
courses at Boston University, which I did (the first  course used punched 
cards!) and went on to a successful career in the computer  industry.
 
I'm still intrigued by artificial intelligence, which is a current  issue 
of concern, 
including its threat to humanity (Computer: I know best and can  think 
faster).  The Internet, connecting almost everything, is already wide  open to 
malevolent human intelligence, let alone AI with unknown potential. 
 
Reading the story changed my life but I never expected it to fold  back to 
my interest in ham radio and RTTY.
 
73,
Ken,  AB1J


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