Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!susser.PASA@XEROX.ARPA From: susser.PASA@XEROX.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Paratechnomysticism Message-ID: <12201@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 16:11:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12201 Posted: Tue Aug 7 16:11:00 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Aug-84 02:10:39 EDT Lines: 21 On the subject of paratechnomysticism, A. E. vanVogt has a fairly new book out called COMPUTERWORLD. The book is set in a future where the USA (or moral equivalant thereof) is largely controlled by a vast, central computer with something on the order of eighteen billion peripherals. The entire book is written from the computer's point of view, which is presented very believably. The paratechnomysticsm comes in when the computer is fitted with peripherals that allow it to monitor what I would call people's "auras", but what vanVogt refferred to as "bio-magnetic energies". In response, a group of scientific mystics arises, protesting that the computer is actually draining these energies, much to tthe detriment of everybody's life force. The mystics use the computer's manipulation of these bio-magnetic energies to increase their own power and find a really nifty conclusion to the story. I don't know if this is the kind of paratechnomysticism you were looking for, but I would reccommend it as an entertaining story (if you can ignore the gaping holes in vanVogt's knowledge of computer science). -- Josh Susser