"Edward L. Ferman - Best From F&SF, 23rd Edition" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ferman Edward L)

damned if anyone will make me say that the newest fad in analgesics is equivalent to the illumination,
which is the other thing (besides pleasure) art ought to provide. Bravery, nobility, sublimity, and beauty
that have no connection with the real world are simply fake, and once readers realize that escape does
not work, the glamor fades, the sublime aristocrats turn silly, the profundities become simplifications, and
one enters (if one is lucky) into the dreadful discipline of reality and art, like "In the Penal Colony." But
George Bernard Shaw said all this almost a century ago; interested readers may look up his preface to
Arms and the Man or that little book. The Quintessence of Ibsenism.
It's disheartening to see how little has changed. On the other hand, there is no pleasure like finding
out the realities of human life, in which joy and misery, effort and release, dread and happiness, walk
hand in hand.
We had better enjoy it It's what there is.
тАФJoanna Russ


It is the year 2783. Suddenly the galaxy is invaded by a horde of alien beings, the Zorphs. They
enslave all planets in their path. You, as Captain of the Avenger, the great Terran warship, will
range interstellar space, seeking out and destroying the forces of Zorph. This is but a bare outline
of the ultimate in computer games . . .

Zorphwar!
STAN DRYER


Megalo Network Message: June 10,1977
Source: P. T. Warrington, Headquarters, Los Gringos, California
Destination: W. S. Halson, Programming Services, Wrapping Falls, New York
Subject: Schedule Compliance in Programming Services Bill, Old Buddy, I think you have problems.
J.L. was down this morning bitching about your performance. The PERT printout indicates you have
slipped schedule on Accounting Project 8723 by two months. In addition, your usage of central
computer facilities is running 42 percent over budget Remember that the Megalo Corporation is not in
business for its health. Accounting is depending on Program S723 to keep track of profitability in the
entire Computer Products Division.

Megalo Network Message:
June 10, 1977 Source: W. S. Halson Destination: P. T. Warrington Subject: Schedule Compliance
Park, Old Buddy, when your message appeared on my display screen, I was just sitting down to send
you an explanation of the apparent schedule slip and computer overruns in the Headquarters reports.
What you see are computer-generated summaries of our progress, mere pieces of paper that do not
represent the full situation. For example, nowhere in those reports is the well-being of our programmers
evaluated. Now I can say without equivocation that our morale down here has never been higher.
Absence due to personal illness has dropped twenty-seven percent over the last two months. There have
been no "Bitch to the Top" submissions from my department in the last four months.
The cause of this high morale rests with one programmer in our department, Morris Hazeldorf, the
inventor of Zorphwar. While I admit that his shaggy hair and unkempt personal attire might turn you off
on first encounter, Morris is an extremely bright and able young man. Single-handed, he programmed the
entire HAFAS (Hierarchical Accounting File Access System). And in his spare time over the past year,
Morris has been creating Zorphwar, an exciting game that operates on our system.
To give you an idea of the creativity of this young man, I have arranged for Zorphwar to be made
available to you on the Executive Interactive Display Terminal in your office. After you dial into the
Computer Center, simply type "ZORPH" to gain access to the game.