[RTTY] Science fiction RTTY

[Steve Carpenter]

Very cool. I've never read the story, but now I'm intrigued.

Steve, K4DXV


On 11/17/2016 7:12 PM, Kermit (aka Ken) via RTTY wrote:
> 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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