Can you identify this SF short story?

Cafe Society
1

Please help me identify this science fiction short story. (No, it’s not The Last Question, nor is it Flowers for Algernon.) :slight_smile:

The story is told from the point-of-view of an artificial intelligence on a mission to another star. The spaceship controlled by the AI is loaded with frozen human and animal embryos, as well as frozen plant seeds. The AI splits itself into three minds shortly after launch to help preserve itself over the millennia-long journey, with at least 2 of the 3 minds needing to agree on any action. Upon reaching its final destination and landing on a habitable planet, it realizes that it has forgotten its mission. At that point, a relay thaws and a backup program activates. The AI then realizes it will know more in 9 months…

I read the story about 20-25 years ago in a paperback book consisting of a collection of short stories. The book probably dates from the mid 1970s, but I could easily be off by a decade either way. I believe the collection of stories in the book were award winners (Hugo, Nebula, or perhaps something else) but am not positive.

Can you identify the story and/or author? Thanks!

2

Sounds like an interesting story.

3

The story is almost definitely “Long Shot.” Both Vernor Vinge and Charles Sheffield come to mind as possible authors; I don’t recall.

4

Long Shot was written by Vernor Vinge with a publication date of 1972. It was most recently republished in “The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge” in 2002.

5

Long Shot seems to be ringing a bell. I’ll check it out.

Thanks very much for the assistance!

6

It was also published in a collection (edited by Asimov, I believe) called Machines that Think, along with a number of other stories about computers and artificial intelligences. Quite possible that’s where the OP read it; it’s where I did (along with numerous other good stories).

7

It’s also in Vinge’s collection True Names and Other Dangers (1981, reprinted Baen 1991).

Thanks for the catch, Dante; I remembered the story but (obviously) not the writer.

8

I just wanted to pop in and say that I like Vernor Vinge’s stories!!

9

So do I; I’ve actually read and liked a number of his other stories, such as the Peace War series.

I’m pretty sure this is the book I was thinking of in which I read Long Shot, though the cover is unfamiliar. I probably had a reprint, or the paperback may have had a different cover.

Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year, Second Annual Collection. ed. del Rey, 1973.

10

By the way, I can’t thank you all enough for coming up with that story title. I’ve been trying to track it down for years, but lost the paperback in which I’d first read it.