Title: Computer Friendly
Title Record # 41534
Author: Eileen Gunn
Date: 1989-06-00
Type: SHORTFICTION
Length: short story
Language: English
Current Tags: science fiction (1), personality upload (1), satire (1), children (1), euthanasia (1), computers (1), networking (1), uploaded personalities (1), education (1), dystopia (1) Add Tags
Author: Eileen Gunn
Date: 1989-06-00
Type: SHORTFICTION
Length: short story
Language: English
Synopsis: Seven-year-old Elizabeth gets dropped off at the testing center by her dad. In the lunch break in between tests to assess intellectual skills, personality, and physical skills she meets a boy, Oginga, and a girl, Sheena, the latter of whom is something of a trouble maker, getting the children caught twice in misbehavior. Sheena is aware that her parents expect to be shortly sending her to the "Asia Center", some facility where "you go to sleep". In the evening (after Elizabeth walks home with her dad, whose daily end-of-work mind wipe of sensitive data leaves him confused enough for an hour or so that Elizabeth is the one guiding them to the correct house), Elizabeth's father is happy to report that the results delivered by electronic mail reveal that she did well on her tests. At night however, Elizabeth is disturbed by an overheard conversation between her parents (they converse vocally, although her mom, due to her job, is now a disembodied brain in a computer) regarding the danger of Elizabeth having interacted with an ill-fated child, and Elizabeth grows suspicious that her new friends -- especially Sheena -- may need help. She ventures onto the computer network, in search of help from her dog (who had been requisitioned at some point, and is now a brain wired up somewhere to direct data traffic). However, as a child poking around in sysop-monitored systems, leaving clumsy data trails, she may be in over her head, unless an ancient computer program she's introduced to named "Norton" (whose audiovisual representation references a certain 1950s TV character of the same name) can lead her to someone who can fix things.
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Current Tags: science fiction (1), personality upload (1), satire (1), children (1), euthanasia (1), computers (1), networking (1), uploaded personalities (1), education (1), dystopia (1) Add Tags
Other Titles
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Awards
Place | Year and Award | Category |
---|---|---|
16 | 1990 Locus | Best Short Story |
3 | 1990 Hugo | Best Short Story |
5 | 1990 Asimov's Readers' | Best Short Story |
Publications
Displaying all variants and translations • Do not display translations • Do not display variants or translations
Title | Date | Author/Editor | Publisher/Pub. Series | ISBN/Catalog ID | Price | Pages | Format | Type | Cover Artist | Verif |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1989 | 1989-06-00 | ed. Gardner Dozois | Davis Publications | $2.00?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
196 | digest?Digest-size magazine, including both standard digest size, at about 7" by 4.5", and also large digest, such as recent issues of Asimov's, which are about 8.25" by 5.125". |
mag | Nicholas Jainschigg | ||
Sirius, #163/164 | 1989-12-05 |
ed.
Hrvoje Prćić?Hrvoje Prcic |
Vjesnik | Din 80,000?Din: Serbian and Yugoslavian dinar. ISO codes: YUF in 1945-1966, YUD in 1966-1989, YUN in 1990-1992, YUR in July 1992-September 1993, YUO in October-December 1993, YUG in early January 1994, YUM in 1994-2003, CSD in 2003-2006, RSD since 2006 |
148 | pb?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper. |
mag | Mario Rosanda | ||
Fenix, V1 #3, 1990 | 1990-00-00 |
ed.
Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz?Rafal A. Ziemkiewicz |
Radwan | digest?Digest-size magazine, including both standard digest size, at about 7" by 4.5", and also large digest, such as recent issues of Asimov's, which are about 8.25" by 5.125". |
mag | Alan Gutierrez | ||||
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazin 37. Folge | 1991-05-00 | ed. Friedel Wahren | Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy #4795) | 3-453-04991-8 | DM 12.80?DM: German (Deutsche) mark. ISO code: DEM in 1948-1999 |
271 | pb?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper. |
anth | Karel Thole | |
Alien Contact, Nummer 9 | 1991-08-00 | ed. Hardy Kettlitz | Edition Avalon | DM 3.80?DM: German (Deutsche) mark. ISO code: DEM in 1948-1999 |
68 | digest?Digest-size magazine, including both standard digest size, at about 7" by 4.5", and also large digest, such as recent issues of Asimov's, which are about 8.25" by 5.125". |
mag | Rainer Schorm | ||
The Loch Moose Monster: More Stories from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine | 1993-03-00 | ed. Sheila Williams | Delacorte Press | 0-385-30600-8 | $16.00?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
xv+ 285 |
hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size. |
anth | Joel Iskowitz | |
Isaac Asimov's Cyberdreams | 1994-07-00 | ed. Gardner Dozois, Sheila Williams | Ace Books | 0-441-00073-8 | $4.99?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
212 | pb?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper. |
anth | Peter Gudynas | |
L'universo Cyber 1 | 2001-10-00 | ed. Piergiorgio Nicolazzini | Editrice Nord (Cosmo Collana di Fantascienza #319) | 88-429-1189-5 | Lit 22,000?Lit: Italian lira. ISO code: ITL in 1861-1999 |
288 | tp?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep. |
anth | ||
Stable Strategies and Others | 2004-09-00 | Eileen Gunn | Tachyon Publications | 1-892391-18-X | $14.95?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
xvi+ 206 |
tp?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep. |
coll | John D. Berry | |
The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction | 2010-08-01 | ed. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Arthur B. Evans, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, Carol McGuirk | Wesleyan University Press | 978-0-8195-6954-7 | $85.00?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
688 | hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size. |
anth | ||
The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction | 2010-08-01 | ed. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Arthur B. Evans, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, Carol McGuirk | Wesleyan University Press | 978-0-8195-6955-4 | $39.95?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
xviii+ 767 |
tp?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep. |
anth | Georges Méliès | |
Stable Strategies and Others | 2012-02-01 | Eileen Gunn | Tachyon Publications | 978-1-61696-090-2 | $9.99?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
ebook?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF. |
coll | John D. Berry | ||
The Big Book of Cyberpunk | 2023-09-26 | ed. Jared Shurin | Vintage Books | 978-0-593-46723-7 | $32.50?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
xx+ 1116 |
tp?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep. |
anth | aaronamat , Vitmann , Ociacia | |
The Big Book of Cyberpunk | 2023-09-26 | ed. Jared Shurin | Vintage Books | 978-0-593-46724-4 | $14.99?$: US dollar. ISO code: USD |
ebook?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF. |
anth | aaronamat , Vitmann , Ociacia | ||
The Big Book of Cyberpunk Vol. 2 | 2024-05-02 | ed. Jared Shurin | Vintage (UK) | 978-1-78487-961-7 | £25.00?£: UK pound. ISO code: GBP |
768 | hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size. |
anth |