Article: 178480 of talk.bizarre
From: andsol@cml.rice.edu (Andrew Solberg)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: SCIENCE FICTION: Pipe Dream 2 (100 words)
Date: 1 Dec 1994 08:07:12 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
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Message-ID: <9412010740.AA11955@cml.rice.edu>
Status: RO

The President was distraught.  "How is this possible?  Is nothing concrete?!"

Dournier sipped at what might or might not be water.  "Sir, I believe the
problem lies in the societal death of absolutism.  We no longer think in 
terms of black and white, right and wrong, night and day.  The strain of
our wishy-washiness has undermined reality."

The President slumped.  "Then we are lost."

"Not necessarily," replied Dournier.  "Computers think, and much faster
than humans."

The President was puzzled.  "Are you saying we need to program computers
to think that this painting *is*, after all, a pipe?"

"Exactly," smiled Dournier.

-- 
HWRNMNBSOL = Andrew J. Solberg, Visiting Prof. at Rice U. from U. of Oslo