>From: PUGH%CCX.M...@LLL-MFE.ARPA
> . . . a great many of the best sentient
>computer stories were of the short variety. Including the first and
>most classic short-short where they fired up the first sentient
>computer and asked it "Is there a God?" and the computer said,
>"There is now!" It was a one page story that I read LONG ago.
<Bibliography isn't my business>, and my memory tends to leak; while I
can't tell you the name of the book I saw it in (it was high school or
earlier) I am quite sure it was written by Frederic Brown (of "Arena"
and _Rogue_in_Space_ fame). A book of his short stories had a two page
short short between each normal length short story and this was one of
them (at the ribbon cutting and powering up ceremony for the latest and
greatest don't-this-beat-all computer, they ask the question "Is there a
God?". As a bolt of lightning fuses the power switch, a great voice
replies . . .).
/JBL
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