# Science fiction story where people can't do math in their heads **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316 "2002-05-04T23:20:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/21 "2002-05-05T19:35:16Z")
One interesting point about “The Feeling of Power” – it is the first use of the term “pocket calculator.” ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/22 "2002-05-05T21:06:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\*One interesting point about “The Feeling of Power” – it is the first use of the term “pocket calculator.” \*\* That is interesting. It would be even more interesting if it was true. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/23 "2002-05-05T21:50:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lance Turbo \* > \*\* > > That is interesting. It would be even more interesting if it was true. \*\* Well …OK… if you say so, but aren’t you supposed to point to a link or make a some statement of fact supporting your opposing point at this juncture? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/24 "2002-05-05T21:54:50Z")
Is [this](http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/curta_i.html) what you’re thinking of circa 1948 vs story date of 1958. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/25 "2002-05-05T22:32:50Z")
My favourite line form _The Feeling Of Power_: > [@](#): > > After all, computers have not always existed. The cavemen with their triremes, stone axes, and railroads had no computers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/26 "2002-05-05T22:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\* > One interesting point about “The Feeling of Power” – it is the first use of the term “pocket calculator.” \*\* > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by astro \* > \*\* > Well …OK… if you say so, but aren’t you supposed to point to a link or make a some statement of fact supporting your opposing point at this juncture?_\* Sorry, I should have made myself a little clearer. The term “pocket calculator” does not appear anywhere in the story making it impossible for it to be the first use of the phrase. The phrase “pocket computer” is used twice, but not “pocket calculator”. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/27 "2002-05-07T17:21:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\* > > **Starman Jones** …one of the weirdest milieus ever: FTL travel is almost becoming common, yet pilots have to program each jump with slide-rules and logrithmic tables.\*\* In an early Star Trek episode there’s a great scene of Spock using a slide rule, and of course being ever so serious about it. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/28 "2002-05-07T18:57:56Z")
I recall a story about an administrator of a moon colony or something, and in the office they were using typewriters and carbon paper. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/29 "2002-05-07T19:04:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nightshadea \* > \*\*This reminds me of the story I read of the future when no one could read or write so all the books were on computer and the comp read them to people > > A boy had a old one to he tossed and kicked it around > and the last story it told before it died was how the computers were taking over te humans … > > It was supposed to be one of those stories that warned people not to be dependant on computers > \*\* I think this is an Asimov story as well, titled “Someday”. The children had a robot-like device called a Bard that told stories about fairies and elves, so one kid re-programmed it. Someone more web-savvy will undoubtedly post a link. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/30 "2002-05-10T17:32:00Z")
There is an episode of the newer Outer Limits series about a future where vitrually everyone is attached to something called “The Stream”; it’s a bit like the Internet, but far more vast and powerful. If you want to know what is in a book, you log on to The Stream and it downloads the contents of the book into your memory in a few seconds. If you want to go to a restaurant, you log on, “read” its menu, and place your order before you get there. The hero is a young man who is quite bright but who, due to a childhood injury, is unable to have a connector to The Stream implanted in his head. He is pitied as a freak because he has to use phones, but admired as a genius because he knows how to read a phone book. He has a job transferring books into the data bank of The Stream. I recall that when I was in grade school in the mid-60s my class read a one act play by Isaac Asimov about a computer called “The Bard”; perhaps the play was called Someday, or perhaps it was only based on a story by that name. The main characters were two boys, one of whom is tinkering with an old Bard he played with as a younger child; it is a television-like device which makes up stories. His friend tells him about how a man he knows is telling him how to write numbers. At first the other kid doesn’t understand how a written figure could be a number, and then doesn’t get the point to using written figures since computers can just tell you the answers you need. At the end of the story the kids walk off and The Bard switches on and recites a fairy tale. It is about how people got lazy and spoiled and degenerated into a bunch of dullards without much understanding or imagination. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316/31 "2002-05-10T19:33:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > \*\* > I recall that when I was in grade school in the mid-60s my class read a one act play by Isaac Asimov about a computer called “The Bard”; perhaps the play was called Someday, or perhaps it was only based on a story by that name. > \*\* Asimov also wrote a great short story called “The Immortal Bard” about Shakespeare being brought into the future where he promptly takes a college course in Shakespeare and, predictably, doesn’t do too well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-where-people-cant-do-math-in-their-heads/107316.md?page=1)