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Title: Computer Friendly

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Title: Computer Friendly Title Record # 41534
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

Translations
Year Language Title
1989Translated by Zvijezdana Vlahović
Croatian Sklona kompjutorima
1990Translated by Anna Kraśko
Polish Z komputerem za pan brat
1991Translated by Vincenzo Benestante
German Computerfreundlich
1991 German Computer-freundlich
2001Translated by Alessandro Zabini
Italian Un computer per amico

Publications

Displaying all variants and translations • Do not display translationsDo 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
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 Checkmark
Sirius, #163/164 1989-12-05 ed.
Hrvoje Prćić?Hrvoje Prcic
Vjesnik  
Din 80,000?Din: Serbian and Yugoslavian dinar
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 Checkmark
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
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 Checkmark
Alien Contact, Nummer 9 1991-08-00 ed. Hardy Kettlitz Edition Avalon  
DM 3.80?DM: German (Deutsche) mark
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 Checkmark
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
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
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 Checkmark
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
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
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 Checkmark
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
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 Checkmark
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
688
hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.
anth Checkmark
Stable Strategies and Others 2012-02-01 Eileen Gunn Tachyon Publications 978-1-61696-090-2
$9.99?$: US dollar
 
ebook?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF.
coll John D. Berry Checkmark
The Big Book of Cyberpunk 2023-09-26 ed. Jared Shurin Vintage Books 978-0-593-46723-7
$32.50?$: US dollar
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
 
ebook?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF.
anth aaronamat , Vitmann , Ociacia  
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