Ms Fnd in a Lbry

Ms Fnd in a Lbry

"MS Fnd in a Lbry" (probably intended to be understood as "Manuscript Found in a Library") is a satirical science fiction short story about the exponential growth of information by Hal Draper written in 1961.

Plot

The story is in the form of a report written by an anthropologist from an alien civilization who investigates the remains of our civilization several billion years into the future. It turns out that mankind's fall was brought about by information overload and the inability to catalog and retrieve that information properly.

The title of the short story comes from the fact that all redundancy has been removed from our language in order for the information volume to shrink. Finally the sum of all human knowledge (which was sort of ) was stored away in a drawer-sized box by means of subatomic processes. However the access to that information required complicated indices, bibliographies etc., which soon outgrew the size of all knowledge.

The use of indices grows exponentially, comprising a pseudo-city, pseudo-planet and eventually a pseudo-galaxy of information storage. At this point, a case of circular reference is encountered, and the civilization needs to refer to the first drawer-sized box to find the error. However, this drawer has been lost in the pseudo-galaxy, and soon all of our civilization falls apart while trying to locate the first drawer.

It turns out that the anthropologist's civilization is actually heading down the same path. Presumably, the report was given the name "MS Fnd in a Lbry" after the fall of the anthropologist's civilization by another anthropologist from another alien civilization that is also heading down the same path.

References

This story first appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", December 1961.

External links

* [http://home.comcast.net/~bcleere/texts/draper.html Text of MS Fnd in a Lbry]


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  • Ms Fnd in a Lbry — o pronunciada probablemente, Manuscript Found in a Library (Manuscrito encontrado en una biblioteca) es una historia corta satírica de ciencia ficción, escrita por Hal Draper en 1961. Contenido 1 Trama 2 Influencia 3 Fuentes …   Wikipedia Español

  • MS Fnd in a Lbry — (probably intended to be understood as Manuscript Found in a Library ) is a satirical science fiction short story about the exponential growth of information, written by Hal Draper in 1961. The title is a play on MS Found in a Bottle , the title… …   Wikipedia

  • Ms Fnd in a Lbry — o pronunciada probablemente, Manuscript Found in a Library (Manuscrito encontrado en una biblioteca) es una historia corta satírica de ciencia ficción, escrita por Hal Draper en 1961 …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Hal Draper — (1914 1990) was a Third Camp American socialist activist, Marxist and author, perhaps best known for his role in the Berkeley, California Free Speech Movement. His Third Camp focus differed from that of Max Schachtman in its emphasis on the grass …   Wikipedia

  • Circular reference — A circular reference is a series of references where the last object references the first, resulting in a closed loop. Contents 1 In language 2 In business 3 In computer programming 4 …   Wikipedia

  • Hal Draper — (1914 1990) fue un activista socialista, marxista, shachtmanista de izquierda y autor. Inicialmente miembro de la Liga Socialista Juvenil (Young Peoples Socialist League), fue llevado con esa organización hacia el trotskismo. Junto con la YPSL… …   Wikipedia Español

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