# ID this SF story from the quote **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 12, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785 "2020-10-12T10:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/1 "2020-10-12T10:49:48Z")
I was thinking about a particular scene from a book this morning. It’s quite clear in my mind, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the book was. The book is almost certainly 70s era or earlier. Hard SF. The protagonist and some people are interacting with a supercomputer, and they need to get it to accept a new piece of information as 100% true. Protagonist asks how this is done and the answer is that you preface the new information with the key phrase “I tell you three times” ( which is of course a Lewis Carroll reference, and the fact that I didn’t know this at the time is probably a major reason the scene stuck in my head) Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/2 "2020-10-12T10:57:00Z")
“Chaos, Cordinated”? I tried to find a summary of it via a Google search but al I can find is this, but seems to match up: [Sci fi short story based on Jabberwocky - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/216770/sci-fi-short-story-based-on-jabberwocky?rq=1) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/3 "2020-10-12T11:12:25Z")
Heinlein used the “I tell you three times, and what I tell you three times is true” formula in some of his later novels, but I don’t think it was ever a computer keyphrase. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/4 "2020-10-12T11:20:00Z")
It was in THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/5 "2020-10-12T11:20:06Z")
That certainly appears to be it and your link also includes a link to the story itself. The line in question is on page 55. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/6 "2020-10-12T13:31:50Z")
Yes, that must be the one. I have definitely read NotB. Sadly what I remember most about the book in general is that it was terrible - normally get a scene stuck in my head is a flag for me to reread something , but in this case maybe not… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/7 "2020-10-12T18:22:38Z")
But IIRC, the opening chapters of _The Number of the Beast_ first appeared in serialized form in _OMNI_ magazine in 1980. But, yeah, it was pretty tedious. This nonsense about it being a textbook of how NOT to write was a model for SDMB trolls in the early aughts who claimed that their off-the rails posts and threads were simply sociological “experiments” to see how a population of “test subjects” (that would be us Dopers) would react to a sociopathic proposition. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/8 "2020-10-12T19:45:36Z")
I would have read it between '81 and '84, and I got all my SF out of libraries in those days … hence the assumption of adding a few years. But since Heinlein is essentially a writer of the '60s, it’s not surprising even the later ones have that kind of feel ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-sf-story-from-the-quote/922785/9 "2020-10-12T19:52:13Z")
This year an earlier draft of “Number of the Beast” was published (rather different from “Number” in the last 2/3s) under the title “The Pursuit of the Pankera.” It’s not great - but better than “Number” (still includes the “I tell you three times” bit). I can’t recommend it, unless you want to read Heinlein’s “Lensman” and “Barsoom” fanfic (which take up a sizeable percentage of the book).