[ExI] the fun they had

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Damien Broderick
...
> Subject: Re: [ExI] the fun they had
> 
> On 10/19/2010 1:31 PM, spike wrote:
> 
> > ...There was nothing about arithmetic, nothing 
> > about a lot of stuff I thought was in that story.
> 
> Certainly Asimov wrote one story about calculating without machines. 
> Google takes me to:
> 
> <the 8,600-word short story, "A Feeling of Power," first 
> published in 1958. In the work, Asimov predicted widespread 
> use of a handheld programmable calculator... >
> 
> Could that be what you were conflating with the kid story?
> 
> Damien Broderick

It was indeed, thank you sir.  I read plenty of Asimov and Clarke in those
days, as a lot of us here likely did.  It is entirely possible that both
works were in the same book of short stories.  If I could get back my entire
reading collection I had at age 10, I would likely understand myself better
than I understand me now.

Asimov's conjecture came true long before he envisioned in a way.  If one
collects all those who make change in fast food restaurants, one would
likely find that plenty of them cannot do arithmetic at all, even given a
pencil, paper and time.  The cash register tells them everything they need,
down to giving them the option of just entering which bills and coins were
given them, and having the cash register tell which bills and coins to
return.

I worked a short stint as a cash register operator at Burger King.  I knew
all the dollar complements by memory: if I saw any two digit number, I knew
from memory one dollar minus that number, without having to subtract.  This
was in the late 70s just before the electronic cash register became
universal, when the old mechanical tills were chinging their last kachings.


I didn't stay long, for it caused resentment among my colleagues that I
immediately went up to the counter without having to pay dues flipping
burgers in the back.  I never did learn to actually make a Burger King
whopper.  But hey, I could make change for four hours and have the till
balance to the penny at the end of the shift.  Numbers are my friends.

spike