Logic Named Joe
by Murray Leinster · first published 2005
90% recommend10% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short 1946 science fiction story often cited for anticipating the internet, personal computing, and information-access AI; recommended to anyone curious how early ideas about networked information have aged.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Prescient. However the earliest accurate prediction of the Internet and personal computing I've yet come across is still Murray Leinster's 1946 short story "A Logic Named Joe" http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/0743499107___2.htm
on “Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet and PC (1974)” ↗A Logic Named Joe by Murray Leinster - for 1946 was pretty interesting bit on possible consequence of global information and AI. http://www.baen.com/chapters/w200506/0743499107___2.htm
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite short stories?” ↗…an early example of the genre. No programming is involved, but there's no magic explained away as technology, either. For prescience, however, I don't know of anything that beats Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe" (1946) [2]. [1] https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=2506 [2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/19/a_logic_named_joe/
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗…sci-fi legends. Indeed. "The Machine Stops" is a must-read. It's over a century old and is not dated. I've always liked "With the Night Mail". Kipling wrote two SF stories, and this is one of them. "A Logic Named Joe" - the Internet and Google, from 1946. "Ender's Game", the short story, was of course expanded into a series of books and a movie. The original short story is better. That's also true of "Farewell to…
on “50 authors, 50 science fiction stories shorter than novels” ↗Indeed. Read "A Logic Hamed Joe". Think about the implications for Google, Facebook, Siri, etc. Remember that "A Logic Named Joe" was written in the 1940s.
on “Star Trek as a purely symbolic artifact of past times” ↗Ooh! Just yesterday I an old radio performance [0] of the short story, "A Logic Named Joe" [1], which also seems very apropos. Highly recommended! [0] https://www.relicradio.com/otr/2021/12/a-logic-named-joe-by-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Logic_Named_Joe
on “The three million toothbrush botnet story isn't true” ↗…probably isn’t one book that encapsulates the entire Internet today. The first book you mentioned has ideas that parallel YouTube and influencers whereas you have other books like “Neurmancer” and “A Logic Named Joe” that resemble World Wide Web and Wikipedia. “A Logic Named Joe” is probably the closest.
on “The Unpredicted vs. the Over-Expected” ↗A Logic Named Joe should be required reading for Facebook execs...
on “Trailblazing Through Time and Space: The Essential Murray Leinster” ↗…https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/806106.The_Fall_of_Colos... - *Colossus and the Crab* — AI, Sci-Fi https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/806107.Colossus_and_the_... ## Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner) - *A Logic Named Joe* — Golden-Age Sci-Fi, AI Precursor https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16179042-a-logic-named-j... ## David Gerrold - *When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One* — AI, Classic Science Fiction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/865672.When_H_A_R_L_I_E_...…
on “Ask HN: What fiction books would you recommend for programmers?” ↗Murray Leinster's 1946 short story "A Logic Named Joe" (quoting Wikipedia) "is particularly noteworthy as a prediction of massively networked personal computers and their drawbacks, written at a time when computing was in its infancy. The story's narrator…
on “How Isaac Asimov shaped robotics and space exploration and predicted the Internet” ↗A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster, 1946, predicts exactly this. An AI answer-bot's self-censorship circuits malfunction and it begins answering EVERY query, including how to commit untraceable murder, who's sleeping…
on “French AI startup Mistral releases ‘unmoderated’ chatbot via torrent” ↗…"Public Policy Forbids This Service." You hafta have censor blocks or the kiddies will be askin' detailed questions about things they're too young to know. And there are other reasons. As you will see. A Logic Named Joe, Murray Leinster, 1946.
on “Simple ways to find exposed sensitive information” ↗It's time to re-read "A Logic Named Joe" (1946) [1] We're there. [1] https://archive.org/details/logicnamedjoe0000lein
on “Cybersecurity researchers aren't happy about the guardrails on Anthropic's Fable” ↗