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Asimov: The Feeling of Power

Seems I've heard this kind of story before: Automated weapons systems versus automated weapons systems.

See:

THE FEELING OF POWER
by Isaac Asimov
Worlds of Science Fiction, February 1958
Copyright 1957 by Quinn Publishing Co., Inc.

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.htm

Reminds me of a funny Isaac Asimov short story in which people completely forget how to do math by hand other than with a calculator and then rediscover the "lost art."

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.htm

Good story and pretty apt with regards to the ephemeral nature of human memory.

Calculators. Google must have caused me to forget about that.

E.g. There's this story I've read several times so far, which is somewhat relevant to both the topic and the post above - but I've never really took time to memorize it's name.
Or the story itself.
And yet, I would be able to retell a very condensed version of it.
Or google for it and find it in less than 30 seconds.
Or link it here.

Google has not yet made me any smarter or dumber than I was before.
But it did provide me with a tool which allows me to augment the use of my somewhat photographic memory to a level that may appear nearly magical to a bystander.
Heck, now you can actually consider a line like "that movie, with that guy, who was in that other movie where he holds a bird, but in this movie he eats candy" a somewhat useful description.

The story is called "The Feeling of Power" by Isaac Asimov. You can find it here Here is the Wikipedia entry Give it a read! It is worth it and very relevant to this subject.

sort of, in his short story The Feeling of Power.

Prior-Prior Art: Asimov's "Feeling of Power" (1957)

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories /feeling.htm

This topic reminds me of a short story by Isaac Asimov: The Feeling of Power. I hope things don't get to that point.

The general was saying, "Our goal is a simple one, gentlemen: the replacement of the computer. A ship that can navigate space without a computer on board can be constructed in one-fifth the time and at one-tenth the expense of a computer-laden ship. We could build fleets five time, ten times, as great as Deneb could if we could but eliminate the computer."
"And I see something even beyond this. It may be fantastic now, a mere dream, but in the future I see the manned missile!"
There was an instant murmur from the audience.
The general drove on. "At the present time, our chief bottleneck is the fact that missiles are limited in intelligence. The computer controlling them can only be so large, and for that reason they can meet the changing nature of antimissile defenses in a unsatisfactory way. Few missiles, if any, accomplish their goal, and missile warfare is coming to a dead end; for the enemy , fortunately as well as for ourselves.
"On the other hand, a missile with a man or two within, controlling flight by graphitics, would be lighter, more mobile, more intelligent. It would give us a lead that might well mean the margin of victory. Besides which, gentlemen, the exigencies of war compel us to remember one thing. A man is much more dispensable than a computer. Manned missiles could be launched in numbers and under circumstances that no good general would care to undertake as far as computer-directed missiles are concerned-"
He said much more but Technician Aub did not wait.

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories /feeling.htm The Feeling of Power

I believe the story that you refer to is Issac Asimov's "The Feeling of Power". http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories /feeling.htm

Isaac Asimov The Feeling of Power

The Feeling of Power

The story is The Feeling of Power

It's called The Feeling of Power. http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories /feeling.htm

There's a short story Isaac Asimov wrote in 1957 called "The Feeling of Power", in which the ability to do arithmetic has been lost by humans, long since completely dependent on machines to do calculations for them. One guy rediscovers this lost art, christens it "Graphitics", and goes on to...well, I don't wanna spoil it for you. Here, read it yourself.

Finished? Good. Of course, the reliance on 1957-level projections of computer sizes, costs, speeds, and so on makes the story seem a little bewildering to modern readers (where modern = almost a whole 50 years later, ooo scary), but still...

The general drove on. "At the present time, our chief bottleneck is the fact that missiles are limited in intelligence. The computer controlling them can only be so large, and for that reason they can meet the changing nature of antimissile defenses in a unsatisfactory way. Few missiles, if any, accomplish their goal, and missile warfare is coming to a dead end; for the enemy , fortunately as well as for ourselves.

"On the other hand, a missile with a man or two within, controlling flight by graphitics, would be lighter, more mobile, more intelligent. It would give us a lead that might well mean the margin of victory. Besides which, gentlemen, the exigencies of war compel us to remember one thing. A man is much more dispensable than a computer. Manned missiles could be launched in numbers and under circumstances that no good general would care to undertake as far as computer-directed missiles are concerned-"