The numbers soft as soap.

[reddragdiva]

I've been researching the phrase "Does not compute." I found (and added) the reference in that Wikipedia article to its origin in My Living Doll in 1964 and popularisation in Lost In Space from 1965. (And I'd just like you all to contemplate a Julie Newmar android fembot servant. Mmm-mmmmm. Probably with corset-mounted laser beams, but anyway.) The original version of the article said it was used from the 1950s ... do any of the science fiction geeks reading know of actual examples from this time?

I appear to be mostly well — coffee made me feel better rather than worse — except my lungs are still crappy. I'm doing bursts of housework interspersed with lying down and recovering. The kitaens are less at loggerheads with Tom; Neo is hiding, Madam is confronting him and trying to nick his senior biscuits, which she likes more than the kitten ones. Neo and Madam are currently having an attack of crack. Liz is *splat* but enjoying the Monopoly game she got for her Palm. I'll be going outside shortly to do a soil test in the front yard.

Update: What is it that makes laptop keyboards so attractive to kittens?

Comments

[baralier.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'm aware of it from any 50s stuff but I shall ask my SG nerd colleagues. I'd be surpised if it was in use during the 50s as that was really only the time computers were starting to appear on the public awareness.

It may have turned up in an occasional piece of literature but I don't think that would count as "pop culture".

[reddragdiva]

Even that would count as a first origin. My Living Doll was hardly popular.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

It was fairly popular in the US. I remember watching it every week as a very young person.

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Get yourself some Chesteze from the chemist. It clears up that congested lung feeling really well. :)

[reddragdiva]

Cool! What is it?

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

It's a type of decongestant like sudofed but it breaks down any gunk and stops that catarrgh rattle in the chest after you have a cold. It's an over the counter tablet.

[reddragdiva]

I just did some quick research and wrote the Wikipedia entry ;-)

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Aww bless. It really is good stuff. Hope your lungs are better soon!

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Do you happen to know if there's a right pondian variant?

[reddragdiva]

Look for the ingredients.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, ephedrine? I doubt that'll be found over here. It seems to be mostly black tea, anyway.

[reddragdiva]

Yeah, that certainly caught my eye. I've been making do with caffeine and pseudoephedrine today, which does help a bit.

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

No, I don't, I'm afraid, sorry!

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Erm, I of course meant my other right. All these damn hurricanes going backwards have me confuzzled.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

Update: What is it that makes laptop keyboards so attractive to kittens?

radiant heat, and easy access to pettins. i've just had Tish, who is most decidedly a cat trying to get onto mine.

[reddragdiva]

Tom is big, fat and ten years old, and Arkady's definitely learnt to shut her laptop's lid every time she leaves it!

[mendel.livejournal.com]

And jealousy -- you spend a few hours scratching the laptop's belly, it's time for some for the cat too!

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Your icon is disturbing on many levels.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-D You can see more by the artist here (http://astrocat.com/samaras/paintings.html).

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I *could*...but do I *want* to?

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Start with The Birth of Ginger (http://astrocat.com/samaras/birthofginger.html), but not from work.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Rats are the same way with keyboards.

Also, do you happen to know offhand what hours places in Camden market are likely to be open on Saturdays? (I'm going to be in London for a matinee show on the weekend and I want to swing by the corset place if at all possible, y'see.)

(And also maybe get my boots. *pokes boot people*)

[reddragdiva]

Basically, everything in Camden is open until 6pm, some shutting 5:30pm. This is the same for weekends or weekdays. Weekdays it's a lot easier to get around, but more stalls and so forth are open weekends.

I shall call Future Designs tomorrow!

[m0rbid-princess.livejournal.com]

Although never expressly mentioning the word "Does Not Compute", the concept of the effects Cognitive Dissonance (which is mentioend further down) when applied to Artificial Intelligences was covered in great depth by Isaac Asimov in his I,Robot series - the 3 Robotic Laws which governed the Positronic android brains existed in a state of equilibrium while the robot was healthy, but as each placed differing and, in some cases, conflicting demands on the robot a situation which caused two or more laws to demand, overwhelmingly, contradictory actions on the robot (such as to both save and not save a human from a potentially life threatening situation) often drove them 'mad'. This tension manifested itself from behaving as if 'drunk', running in circles, to more serious things such as holding humans prisoner or believing itself to be 'God'. The most striking example is in the short story 'Liar' where a telepathic robot who can read minds is forced to lie to humans to avoid hurting them emotionally and transgressing the second law. When one character finds this out she is so angry she punished the robot by deliberately and carefully explaining, repetitively, the inherrant logical paradox of being required to perform two diamterically opposed actions and being unable to perform either. Eventually the robot in question suffers a massive neural breakdown and is left 'brain' damaged beyond repair by the conflict. A stark and chilling literary reference to the concept of "Does Not Compute", if not mentioning the word itself.

Don't know if any of that is suitable for the article but it seems such a shame to leave out some of the most prolific examples of Cognitive Disonance in Sci-Fi...

[reddragdiva]

Oh, yes, good one! "Liar" is definitely on topic!

[reddragdiva]

Added. See what you think.

[m0rbid-princess.livejournal.com]

Excellent! You've got everything as needed there, with nothing superfluous.

It's one of the earliest examples I know of the concept of 'Does Not Compute' if not of the actual words themselves, as it almost pre-dates modern computing itself. I think it was mocked respectfully in a Red Dwarf episode, too, where they cause a robot to self-destruct by telling it there is no silicon heaven to go to when it dies, causing a 'metaphysical dichotomy'. While breaking down, I believe it says "No silicon heaven? Does...not...compute" but I may be wrong.

I just realised I said it was the second law, not the first. Well spotted, there.

[reddragdiva]

See my user page for my style guide. Basically a neutral version of a style as tight as The Economist ;-)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Laptop keyboards are just another form of newspaper. They make clicky crackly noises when you stand on them, they have those funny squiggles on, and people look at them all the time. And they're heated! Internally heated newspaper - what more could a cat ask for?

Bacon, clearly, preferably stolen. But not much else.

[ozjester.livejournal.com]

I had a cat who would sleep on my PC keyboard, so I figure keyboards to cats are like masseur sandals to people. They poke and prod and make things feel oh so good.

[kest]

The local cat is fascinated by the fact the keys *move* when she lies down on them, so then of course she must attack them.