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The Cosmic Computer (Hardcover, 3rd ed.)
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The Cosmic Computer (Hardcover, 3rd ed.)
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H. Beam Piper's The Cosmic Computer has long been recognized as a
science fiction classic and a major foundation of Piper's
Terro-Human Future History. The planet Poictesme was the
headquarters of the Terran Federation Third Army-Fleet during the
war against the System States Alliance. While Federation commander
General Foxx Travis was preparing for the final phase of the war,
his plans came to a sudden halt when the System States unexpectedly
surrendered. With the fighting over, the Federation Third-Army
Fleet no longer needed to stay on Poictesme and suddenly departed,
leaving behind war ships, fabrication centers, ammunition depots
and supply caches. Almost as fast as the Federation forces
abandoned Poictesme, the economy imploded, resulting in a
poverty-stricken agricultural society with only a few exports,
melon-brandy, tobacco and war surplus, which sold for only a
fraction of its pre-war value. Persisting over the decades after
the Federation's departure was the legend of Merlin, the
super-computer which was credited with having planned the grand
strategy which successfully concluded the System States War. Was
there a real super-computer, one that devised the Terran
Federation's overall strategy against the System States Alliance,
or was it simply a myth? The inhabitants of the ramshackle world of
Poictesme believe it still exists and will save them: "Merlin's a
religion with those people. Merlin's a robot god, something they
can shove all their problems onto. As soon as they find Merlin,
everybody will be rich and happy, the Government bonds will be
redeemed at face value plus interest, the paper money'll be worth a
hundred Federation centisols to the sol, and the leaves and
wastepaper will be raked off the Mall, all by magic." When young
Conn Maxwell returns to Poictesme from Earth, with a university
degree in computer science, he has strong doubts that Merlin was
anything more than a war-time myth. Furthermore, he believes that
finding the super-computer (if by some miracle it does exist) might
be the worst thing that could possibly happen to his home world.
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