[ExI] lee corbin letter

spike spike66 at att.net
Thu Jun 8 15:47:11 UTC 2017


 

 

Someone on the Lee Corbin Yahoo group found a letter from Lee written to
Asimov's magazine 30 years ago and posted it.  He was thinking Dyson shells
thiry years ago.  As I recall our own Lee Corbin was one of the quiet
participants in the spinoff M-brain group in about late 1990s, when ExI was
spawning spinoff groups for everything.

 

This letter was to Asimov's Fact and Science Fiction magazine, June 1987:


https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v11n06_1987-06



Cool!

 

spike

 

 

Dear Dr. Asimov, 

 

It seems funny writing to a sci- 

ence fiction magazine, but I don't 

know where else to turn. Perhaps 

with your broad and extensive 

knowledge about almost every- 

thing, you can make some sense of 

a puzzle we have here at work. 

 

As you know, the three degree 

blackbody cosmic background ra- 

diation is a standing wave having 

to do with the Big Bang, but parts 

of it are maybe being used for 

something else. We've got hold of 

some very recent Bell Labs moni- 

toring data, and thought that just 

for fun we'd run the sidebands 

through Stanford University's new 

"Semantic-Linguistic Cryptana- 

lysis" (SLICK) programs. Amaz- 

ingly, here's part of what came out: 

$ . . . IT'S THOSE WORLDS 

THAT REVOLVE ON THEIR 

AXES THAT YOU HAVE 

TO WATCH. A UNIFORM 

HEAT DIFFERENTIAL EX- 

ISTS BETWEEN ENERGY 

RECEIVED FROM THE 

PLANET'S PRIMARY AND 

THE ENERGY RADIATED 

INTO SPACE AS THE 

PLANET TURNS. 

 

UNDER THESE CONDI- 

TIONS, SELF REPLICAT- 

ING MOLECULAR 

ACTIVITY CAN GET 

GOING ON THE PLANET'S 

SURFACE. SOMETIMES IT 

EVEN ACQUIRES THE 

ABILITY TO LAUNCH IT- 

SELF INTO SPACE. UN- 

LESS STOPPED, IT CAN 

INFECT AN ENTIRE GAL- 

AXY IN A FRACTION OF 

A GALACTIC REVOLU- 

TION. 

 

RIGHT AWAY YOU CAN 

SEE CHANGES IN A DIS- 

EASED GALAXY. IT AC- 

QUIRES A PINK TINGE AS 

THE VIRUS ENCLOSES 

STARS IN THIN SHELLS. 

FINALLY THE WHOLE 

GALAXY TURNS DEEP 

RED AS THE PESTILENCE 

SOAKS UP EVERY BIT OF 

ENERGY FOR ITS OWN 

USE. 

 

AS YOU'VE PROBABLY 

HEARD, IT IS A TEDIOUS 

JOB TO GO AROUND TO 

EVERY STAR IN A GAL- 

AXY AND STERILIZE IT. 

ESPECIALLY IF IT'S THAT 

NASTY CARBON BASED 

ACTIVITY. SOMETIMES 

YOU'D BE AMAZED WITH 

WHAT TENACITY IT TRIES 

TO HANG ON. 

 

THAT'S WHY YOU 

SHOULD TRY TO SPOT 

ANY INFECTION BEFORE 

IT GETS OFF ITS HOME 

WORLD. 

 

FORTUNATELY, FOR 

SOME REASON, JUST BE- 

FORE IT JUMPS OFF INTO 

SPACE, IT EMITS THE 

STRANGEST LONG WAVE 

RADIATION. FOR EXAM- 

PLE, NOT LONG AGO WE 

PICKED UP THIS ODD 

ITEM: 

 

"HEY, ROCHESTER, 

COME IN HERE!" 

 

OBVIOUSLY, SELF REP- 

LICATING MOLECULES 

ARE SOMEWHERE IN THE 

VICINITY AND NEED TO 

BE ERADICATED. 

 

OTHER THAN THAT, 

EVERYTHING HAS BEEN 

QUIET AROUND HERE. 

 

HOW ABOUT YOU? 

 

GALAXY 8462-6433 E.O.T. 

Well, Dr. Asimov, I have no idea 

what any of that means. Sounds 

like it's about some kind of outer 

space bacteria. Do you think it 

might be dangerous to us, too? 

Should someone be notified? Thanks 

a lot. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Lee Corbin 

Tymshare Inc. 

Cupertino, CA

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