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

[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 ;-)