Comment Related SF: "Souls in the Great Machine" (Score 1) 322
There is an excellent SF novel (first in a series, actually), by Sean McMullen, called "Souls in the Great Machine"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0765 344572
It involves a very large-scale version of "human-component" computing. It is set in Australia in the far future, when there are orbiting satellites that destroy any electrical devices (the satellites are left over from some long-past world war). So to have a "computer", one is constructed of conscripts, each of whom does a small part of the large program.
The whole series is good, and full of interesting extrapolations on this idea- including a "battle calculor", which is a trainload of people to perform calculations on-the-go. A little more cumbersome than a pocket calculator...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/076
It involves a very large-scale version of "human-component" computing. It is set in Australia in the far future, when there are orbiting satellites that destroy any electrical devices (the satellites are left over from some long-past world war). So to have a "computer", one is constructed of conscripts, each of whom does a small part of the large program.
The whole series is good, and full of interesting extrapolations on this idea- including a "battle calculor", which is a trainload of people to perform calculations on-the-go. A little more cumbersome than a pocket calculator...
