The Gods Look Down (1978)
“Queghan couldn’t understand why no one, especially Dr Francis Dagon, hadn’t thought of it before. The cyberthetic print-out, when it appeared, contained a complete technical specification along with blueprint, operating and maintenance instructions, descriptions of the likely power source, raw material input and average daily output; in fact almost everything they needed to know with the exception of the identity of the intelligence which had designed and built the machine in the first place.
W...hen extended the print-out measured 5.3 metres in length and Queghan was lost in admiration for the ingenuity of the transcriber, Dagon ben Shem Tov, who had been able to write out the specification for a protein fermentation plant from nothing more than an oral tradition handed down through centuries. It was an incredible feat of scholarship, for not only had he included every detail of construction but also the operating instructions: ‘On the Sabbath a trance falls upon microprosopus’ – which when processed cyberthetically came out as: ‘Every seventh day in continuous cycle the unit ceases to function automatically for the purpose of maintenance.MoreLess
W...hen extended the print-out measured 5.3 metres in length and Queghan was lost in admiration for the ingenuity of the transcriber, Dagon ben Shem Tov, who had been able to write out the specification for a protein fermentation plant from nothing more than an oral tradition handed down through centuries. It was an incredible feat of scholarship, for not only had he included every detail of construction but also the operating instructions: ‘On the Sabbath a trance falls upon microprosopus’ – which when processed cyberthetically came out as: ‘Every seventh day in continuous cycle the unit ceases to function automatically for the purpose of maintenance.MoreLess
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