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Can't find old science fiction story
Google ^ | 8/26/2010 | self

Posted on 08/25/2010 10:46:45 PM PDT by dr_lew

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Well, that's not it, and neither are any of the other hundreds of hits I've garnered with various searches.

The very short and highly contrived story I remember is this: Some guy is on patrol in space with an alien companion, or sort of a pet, which I recall is described as resembling a dog, maybe an Afghan. It is highly trainable, but has no initiative whatsoever. For some reason, he has to leave it in charge of his ship to respond to some sort of hostile probing, sort of a Turing Test. He get's it to pass the test by instructing him to respond to the probes based on a finite state algorithm implemented by moving colored markers among containers, or something like that, so that his responses are conditioned by experience.

A very simple story, but interesting as these things go, and I always remembered it. My recollection is that I even came back across it maybe in the 1980's or so, but now I can't scare it up, even after extensive browsing in the library and the bookstore.

Anybody remember anything like this?

1 posted on 08/25/2010 10:46:47 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew

“hostile probing” so it’s a sex sci-fi kinda thingy?


2 posted on 08/25/2010 10:57:02 PM PDT by GSP.FAN (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: dr_lew
I remember a shortie about an "offdog" that a crew couldn't locate for an inventory, so they sent a message back to fleet that their offdog had fallen apart due to gravitational stress. Fleet grounded everything, since offdog was Navy for "official dog" (mascot).

Seriously, is anyone else sick of browsing through all the books labeled "SciFi" in bookstores and libraries and finding nothing but dragons and swordsman on the covers? What happened to robots and spaceships?
3 posted on 08/25/2010 10:59:05 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
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To: struwwelpeter
Browse here....Baen Free Library
4 posted on 08/25/2010 11:04:08 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: dr_lew

Sounds E.E.”Doc” Smith-ish.


5 posted on 08/25/2010 11:11:31 PM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou (De Oppresso Liber! (50 million and counting in Afganistan and Iraq))
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To: struwwelpeter
That one I do know: Allamagoosa, by Eric Frank Russell. It won the Hugo for best short story in 1955 and has been anthologized many times. I too am fed up with dragons, fairies, and swordsmen, not to mention the freakish and often brutal psycho-sexual content of much of what passes for "hard SF" these days.
6 posted on 08/25/2010 11:11:51 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy (Victory in Iraq: Worst defeat for activist media since Goebbels shot himself.)
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To: Snake65

Science fiction ping ... do you know? :)


7 posted on 08/25/2010 11:20:35 PM PDT by bootless (Never Forget. Never Again. (PursuingLiberty.com))
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To: atomic conspiracy

Thanks for the reference, but NOT IT!

It was as I described, with the “trick” of the programming revealed at the end. I looked through the whole Arthur Clarke Short Stories compendium, and many of these are very short and fit the template of a contrived story to illustrate or exploit a simple concept, very much as I recall this one, but none of them came near to the actual story line.

... NOT INSANE!


8 posted on 08/25/2010 11:21:54 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: struwwelpeter
It's not that people aren't writing them, it is they can't get published.

Anne Rice gets you Twilight gets you non stop vampires.

Lord of the Rings being made into a series gets you non stop fantasy.

Publishers couldn't give a crap on content anymore. All they want is to push the next product or ride on the coattails of a proven product. There isn't any pride anymore.

There is some sci fi but it is mainly the few tried and true makes and remakes (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.) Not much on the print front.

9 posted on 08/25/2010 11:26:46 PM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
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To: dr_lew

Can you remember a line in it? An odd name, a quote? A unique planet name or creature, or vehicle?


10 posted on 08/25/2010 11:37:14 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: dr_lew; struwwelpeter

Er, I was responding to struwwelpeter’s #3 about the “offdog.”


11 posted on 08/25/2010 11:38:08 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy (Victory in Iraq: Worst defeat for activist media since Goebbels shot himself.)
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To: AggieSteph; WillDMac13

I HAte dragons and fairiy stories being passed off as “SciFi,” see, I’m not the only one! :)


12 posted on 08/25/2010 11:39:59 PM PDT by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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To: IrishCatholic; atomic conspiracy

Have you tried the Warhammer 40K series?


13 posted on 08/25/2010 11:41:48 PM PDT by abishai
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To: ansel12
Can you remember a line in it?

Nope. I'm sure the creature had a name, but I can't remember it. I thought I recalled that the colors of the markers were mentioned in the description, so I was searching through Asimov's collected stories on Google Books for "yellow", "red", and "blue". This seemed to be an effective strategy, as the hits were limited in number, but I didn't find what I was looking for.

14 posted on 08/25/2010 11:45:49 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: atomic conspiracy

Check.


15 posted on 08/25/2010 11:46:21 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: atomic conspiracy
Cleaning out my dad's garage after he died, I found a treasure trove of paperbacks. 1940s & 1950s, most with authors I've never heard of. Even those are diamonds.

Every now and then I get one out and re-read it. SciFi smells like paint thinner to me ;-)
16 posted on 08/25/2010 11:48:38 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
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To: dr_lew

I’ve been trying to find a story about a guy who orders exotic pets from all over the universe. He orders these creatures that resemble humans in many ways but are much smaller. There are four tribes, and you put them in a kind of terrarium. You have to be careful not to let them out, because they grow to fit whatever space they are in. They will eventually fight with one another.

Of course they escape.

Anyone know the author or title?


17 posted on 08/25/2010 11:55:04 PM PDT by firebrand
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To: dr_lew; Salamander; Allegra; Vendome; TheOldLady; Markos33; Slings and Arrows; JoeProBono
Did someone say "Alien Probing?"


18 posted on 08/26/2010 12:22:56 AM PDT by shibumi (Pablo is Miley- wily, clever and detractive as all get out!)
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To: shibumi

Gawd! That is an awful picture.

Though if I tilt my laptop sideways, she could be hot...


19 posted on 08/26/2010 12:35:58 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: struwwelpeter
I remember a shortie about an "offdog" that a crew couldn't locate for an inventory

"Offog", IIRC. The story was called "Allamagoosa", written by Eric Frank Russell.

20 posted on 08/26/2010 12:49:38 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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