"Then I Saw the Cylinders!"

WITH everybody buzzing about Artificial Intelligence (AI) being set up to take over the world, we thought it might be timely to go back ninety years and see what one of our forebears thought of the idea, as a horrified time traveler encounters . . .

"The Mentanicals."

By Francis Flagg (Henry George [or George Henry] Weiss, 1898-1946; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

Illustrated by Morey (1899-1965; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Amazing Stories, April 1934 (cover story).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (40 pages).

Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HERE).

   "They appeared to skim the stone or concrete with which the square was paved, rather than touch it."

THERE can't be too many people who have transformed society, collapsed civilization, and become the object of worship all in a single lifetime, but one of our characters has managed to do just that . . .

Comment: Here we have a story within a story within a story.

Principal characters:

~ The narrator ("I had been drinking, you will recollect, and my powers of observation were not at their best"), Bronson ("I loosened the automatic in its shoulder holster—the small one I always carry—and prepared for emergencies"), Smith ("'The thing,' he said, 'is moonshine, pure moonshine'"), Stringer ("But do you know the idea of an actual Time Machine grew on me?"), Gleason ("a noted surgeon who does not wish his name or description given here"), Morrow ("'Food,' he said, 'it's giving out. I shudder to think what the future holds in store for us'"), and Bane Borgson ("I am that unhappy man").

References and resources:

- "I had read H. G. Wells' 'The Time Machine,' as who has not, deeming it fantastic fiction":

  "The Time Machine is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels approximately 800,806 years into the future. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term 'time machine,' coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE).

  Several ONTOS postings also deal with Wells's "dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella" (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

Artwork by Lou Cameron.

- "and of course I had read the play R.U.R.":

  The "robots" in Čapek's play are radically different from what Flagg has in mind: 

  "The play begins in a factory that makes artificial workers from synthetic organic matter. (As living creatures of artificial flesh and blood, that later terminology would call androids, the playwright's 'roboti' differ from later fictional and scientific concepts of inorganic constructs.) Robots may be mistaken for humans but have no original thoughts. Though most are content to work for humans, eventually [SPOILER!] . . ." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "a sort of Wolf Larsen of a fellow, but more versatile and amenable than Jack London's character":

  "The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American writer Jack London. The book's protagonist, Humphrey Van Weyden, is a literary critic who is a survivor of an ocean collision and who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. Its first printing of forty thousand copies was immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous The Call of the Wild. Ambrose Bierce wrote, 'The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen ... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime ... The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful'." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "Frankenstein must have felt as I felt in those days":

  Whenever a science project goes wrong, it's only natural to think about this story (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "The dream of the Technocrats—a group of pseudo-scientists and engineers who held forth in 1932-33—seemed about to be fulfilled":

  "Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. Technocracy follows largely in the tradition of other meritocracy theories and assumes full state control over political and economic issues.

  "This system explicitly contrasts with representative democracy, the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government, though it does not necessarily imply eliminating elected representatives. Decision-makers are selected based on specialized knowledge and performance rather than political affiliations, parliamentary skills, or popularity.

  "The term technocracy was initially used to signify the application of the scientific method to solving social problems. In its most extreme form, technocracy is an entire government running as a technical or engineering problem and is mostly hypothetical. In more practical use, technocracy is any portion of a bureaucracy run by technologists." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE).

- "the automatic devices go on with the tireless work of repairing, oiling, manufacturing":

  Just a coincidence? In the same year (1934), a self-perpetuating infrastructure appeared in John W. Campbell's short story "Twilight." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE). The same idea showed up twenty-two years later in the motion picture Forbidden Planet. (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "What had been in its inception a device for the coining of myriad plots for popular writers, evolved into a machine-author capable of turning out story after story without repeating itself":

  "Although a chatbot's core function is to mimic a human conversationalist, ChatGPT is versatile. It can write and debug computer programs; compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays; answer test questions (sometimes, depending on the test, at a level above the average human test-taker); generate business ideas; write poetry and song lyrics; translate and summarize text; emulate a Linux system; simulate entire chat rooms; play games like tic-tac-toe; or simulate an ATM.

  ". . . Some scholars have expressed concern that ChatGPT's availability could reduce the originality of writing, cause people to write more like the AI as they are exposed to the model, and encourage an Anglocentric perspective centered on a few dialects of English globally. A senior editor at The Atlantic wrote that ChatGPT and other similar technology make the previously absurd idea of the dead internet theory a little more realistic, where AI could someday create most web content in order to control society." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE and HERE for the big picture).

- "and filled my veins with radiant energy instead of blood. Radium":

  Radium didn't do Marie Curie much good, though, or those factory girls:

  "Handling of radium has been blamed for Marie Curie's death, due to aplastic anemia. A significant amount of radium's danger comes from its daughter radon: Being a gas, it can enter the body far more readily than can its parent radium." (Wikipedia HERE).

  "The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials – watch dials and hands with self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three factories in the United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and one in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s." (Wikipedia HERE).

- Technovelgy acknowledges "The Mentanicals" (HERE).

- "Francis Flagg" produced pure pulp fiction for the SFF magazines for twenty years starting in 1927, many of them enjoying afterlives in reprint publications. So far, in his deluxe reading library Roy Glashan has collected 23 of his works (HERE), with more to come.

- Previously on ONTOS we stumbled across a couple of stories featuring a helpful AI: Martin Loran's "An Ounce of Dissension" and "The Case of the Perjured Planet" (HERE).

The bottom line:

  "This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple."

   — Colossus

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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Hardboiled Niven

YOU might know Larry Niven from his science fiction (some of the hardest out there), but he has also produced engrossing stories of the hardboiled crime fiction persuasion. Here are two, the first one a suspenser that would have made a fine Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode back in the '50s, and the other—well, we're not sure how to categorize it:

   "You're crazy—crazy!"

"The Deadlier Weapon."

By Larry Niven (born 1938; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: EQMM, June 1968.

Collected in The Best of Larry Niven (2010; WARNING! SPOILERS! in linked stories, Wikipedia HERE).

Other reprints (ISFDb HERE).

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 91.)

(Note: Text very faded but legible.)

   "The concrete came at me."

ORDINARY PEOPLE who've been traumatized often express amazement afterwards at what they managed to accomplish in possibly the worst situation they've ever lived through. A good example would be the man in today's story who suddenly finds a knife pressed to his throat . . .

Main characters:

~ The driver ("Two drinks and I began to giggle"), the hitchhiker ("So you didn't have the guts!"), the desk sergeant ("I'd surprised him"), and the girl ("What kind of trouble?").

References:

- "the Santa Monica Freeway":

  "The Santa Monica Freeway is the westernmost segment of I-10, beginning at the east end of the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica and ending southeast of Downtown Los Angeles at the East Los Angeles Interchange." (Wikipedia HERE and PBSSoCal HERE.)

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  "Are you thinking of killing me?"

"16,940.00."

By Larry Niven (born 1938).

First appearance: AHMM, February 1974.

Reprinted in Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology #23, Spring/Summer 1987 (a.k.a. Alfred Hitchcock's A Brief Darkness, 1988).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short short short story (4 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 131).

(Parental caution: Strong language.)

   "When one is handed an ace in the hole, the game may take a new turn."

DON'T look now, but your corruption is showing . . .

Main characters:

~ "Kelsey" ("I need sixteen thousand, nine hundred and forty dollars"), Carson ("That's 

a funny number"), and "Horatio" ("Do you know what the statute of limitations is for embezzlement?").

References and resources:

- "The best made plans of mice and men":

  Often quoted without knowing where the phrase got its start (HERE):

   "But Mouse, you are not alone,

   "In proving foresight may be vain:

   "The best-laid schemes of mice and men

   "Go oft awry,

   "And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

   "For promised joy!"

- "The Biter Bit bit":

  A durable idiomatic expression, "the biter bit" (see The Free Dictionary HERE); Wilkie Collins used it in the title of a story (see Project Gutenberg HERE).

From a 1914 newspaper report.

- "Murder Incorporated":

  By 1974 the term had become generalized to mean any assassin, but it originally had a narrower meaning, most often being associated with a mobster appropriately nicknamed "Bugsy":

  "Following Maranzano's death, Luciano and Lansky formed the National Crime Syndicate, an organization of crime families that brought power to the underworld. The Commission was established for dividing Mafia territories and preventing future gang wars. With his associates, Siegel formed Murder, Inc. After he and Lansky moved on, control over Murder, Inc. was ceded to Buchalter and Anastasia, although Siegel continued working as a hitman." (Wikipedia HERE). There was even a comic book series with the same title. (Comic Book Plus HERE).

- Larry Niven, in his usual role of science fiction author, is no stranger to this venue: "The Soft Weapon" (HERE and HERE), "How the Heroes Die" (HERE), "Dry Run" (HERE), "The Meddler" (HERE), "The Alibi Machine" (HERE), and "The Hole Man" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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UPDATE: "Those Elusive Crown Jewels"

Added cover images and a Luminist Archives story link to Poul Anderson's "The Martian Crown Jewels" (HERE; 2nd story).

"He Didn't Intend To Be Taken"

    "His arms dangled limply. His lips behind the helmet were tight with terror."

"Moon of Memory."

By Bryce Walton (1918-88; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE; IMDb HERE).

Illustration by Luros (1911-99; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Future Science Fiction, November 1950.

Reprinted in Black Cat Weekly #85 (2023).

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE) and Project Gutenberg (HERE).

(Parental caution: Graphic violence.)

   "Barstac found it hard to believe that this girl had helped him escape—until he learned her reason."

A desperate character, this Barstac. On the run for his life, he's more than willing to take any port in a storm. The "port" in this instance, as he discovers to his amazement, is a beautiful blonde. What he doesn't know, though, is that while she might be beautiful as well as a blonde, she has plans for him that definitely don't include a rose-covered cottage in a shady grove somewhere . . .

Principal characters:

~ Karl Barstac ("thanks for the ride"), "a tourist in a dude suit" ("it took off the man's head and helmet in a burst of flame"), Marian Sayers ("I can find life with you, Karl"), and the voice ("This is not a place for the old emotions").

Typos: "Once ['there' is omitted], a man could escape"; "berylium".

References and resources:

- "get to Deimos":

  Little Deimos shows up in S. M. Tenneshaw's "Let Space Be Your Coffin" (HERE; first story). Also see Wikipedia (HERE) and (HERE).

- "Phobos shine":

  Don't expect to get a suntan, though. Phobos reflects only about 7 percent of the light that strikes it (its albedo):

  "Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System, with an albedo of 0.071. Surface temperatures range from about −4 °C (25 °F) on the sunlit side to −112 °C (−170 °F) on the shadowed side." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  Phobos made guest appearances in Poul Anderson's "The Martian Crown Jewels" (HERE; 2nd story), Richard Wilson's "Inside Story" (HERE), Robert Silverberg's "Twelve Hours to Blow!" (HERE), and S. M. Tenneshaw's "Let Space Be Your Coffin" (HERE; 1st story).

- "in Martian atmosphere that meant unconsciousness in a few seconds":

  Or maybe sooner. See Wikipedia, especially under "Atmosphere":

  "Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from a low of 30 Pa (0.0044 psi) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (0.1675 psi) in Hellas Planitia, with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.087 psi). The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22 mi) above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi). The scale height of the atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi), which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's." (Wikipedia HERE).

(Click on image to enlarge.)

- "on its grav-plates":

  If humans want to spend a lot of time in outer space, they're going to need some kind of reliable anti-grav system:

  "Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism and aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. Examples are the gravity blocking substance 'Cavorite' in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's Cities in Flight. 'Anti-gravity' is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields." (Wikipedia HERE.) 

Concept by Mike Winkelmann.

- "In this light gravity":

  Walton gets this one right:

  "The gravity of Mars is a natural phenomenon, due to the law of gravity, or gravitation, by which all things with mass around the planet Mars are brought towards it. It is weaker than Earth's gravity due to the planet's smaller mass. The average gravitational acceleration on Mars is 3.72076 m/s2 (about 38% of the gravity of Earth) and it varies." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "like turning on a cyclotron":

  With the development of atomic weapons and the Cold War on everybody's mind, quite a few laymen knew what it was: 

  "A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. A cyclotron accelerates charged particles outwards from the center of a flat cylindrical vacuum chamber along a spiral path. The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying electric field. Lawrence was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- A movie with a similar character dynamic (but a very different outcome) to "Moon of Memory" is Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944; WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

Walter and Phyllis, together to the end of the line.

- "mining heavy berylium [sic]":

  When combined with aluminum, beryllium could be quite useful in space:

  "Beryllium-aluminum alloy an alloy that consists of 62% beryllium and 38% aluminum, by weight, corresponding approximately to an empirical formula of Al2Be. It was first developed in the 1960s by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, who called it Lockalloy, and used as a structural metal in the aerospace industry because of its high specific strength and stiffness. The material was used in the Lockheed YF-12 and LGM-30 Minuteman missile systems." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "The Martian's thoughts were so calm and gentle, so old and wise":

  With this story it looks as if Walton might be cashing in on Ray Bradbury's version of Mars, very popular at the time (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- The Project Gutenberg Bryce Walton collection is (HERE) and (HERE), and The Pulp Magazine Archive collection is (HERE).

Bryce Walton (left) with Ross Rocklynne.

The bottom lines:

  Marian: "I'll stay with you, Karl, right to the end."

  Phyllis: "And nobody's pulling out. We went in this together and we're coming out at the end together. It's straight down the line for both of us. Remember?"

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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