Can't find old science fiction story

Google ^ | 8/26/2010 | self

[dr_lew]

Well, that's not it, and neither are any of the other hundreds of hits I've garnered with various searches.

The very short and highly contrived story I remember is this: Some guy is on patrol in space with an alien companion, or sort of a pet, which I recall is described as resembling a dog, maybe an Afghan. It is highly trainable, but has no initiative whatsoever. For some reason, he has to leave it in charge of his ship to respond to some sort of hostile probing, sort of a Turing Test. He get's it to pass the test by instructing him to respond to the probes based on a finite state algorithm implemented by moving colored markers among containers, or something like that, so that his responses are conditioned by experience.

A very simple story, but interesting as these things go, and I always remembered it. My recollection is that I even came back across it maybe in the 1980's or so, but now I can't scare it up, even after extensive browsing in the library and the bookstore.

Anybody remember anything like this?

[GSP.FAN]

“hostile probing” so it’s a sex sci-fi kinda thingy?

[struwwelpeter]

I remember a shortie about an "offdog" that a crew couldn't locate for an inventory, so they sent a message back to fleet that their offdog had fallen apart due to gravitational stress. Fleet grounded everything, since offdog was Navy for "official dog" (mascot).

Seriously, is anyone else sick of browsing through all the books labeled "SciFi" in bookstores and libraries and finding nothing but dragons and swordsman on the covers? What happened to robots and spaceships?

[Smokin' Joe]

Browse here....Baen Free Library

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Sounds E.E.”Doc” Smith-ish.

[atomic conspiracy]

That one I do know: Allamagoosa, by Eric Frank Russell. It won the Hugo for best short story in 1955 and has been anthologized many times. I too am fed up with dragons, fairies, and swordsmen, not to mention the freakish and often brutal psycho-sexual content of much of what passes for "hard SF" these days.

[bootless]

Science fiction ping ... do you know? :)

[dr_lew]

Thanks for the reference, but NOT IT!

It was as I described, with the “trick” of the programming revealed at the end. I looked through the whole Arthur Clarke Short Stories compendium, and many of these are very short and fit the template of a contrived story to illustrate or exploit a simple concept, very much as I recall this one, but none of them came near to the actual story line.

... NOT INSANE!

[IrishCatholic]

It's not that people aren't writing them, it is they can't get published.

Anne Rice gets you Twilight gets you non stop vampires.

Lord of the Rings being made into a series gets you non stop fantasy.

Publishers couldn't give a crap on content anymore. All they want is to push the next product or ride on the coattails of a proven product. There isn't any pride anymore.

There is some sci fi but it is mainly the few tried and true makes and remakes (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.) Not much on the print front.

[ansel12]

Can you remember a line in it? An odd name, a quote? A unique planet name or creature, or vehicle?

[atomic conspiracy]

Er, I was responding to struwwelpeter’s #3 about the “offdog.”

[JDW11235]

I HAte dragons and fairiy stories being passed off as “SciFi,” see, I’m not the only one! :)

[abishai]

Have you tried the Warhammer 40K series?

[dr_lew]

Can you remember a line in it?

Nope. I'm sure the creature had a name, but I can't remember it. I thought I recalled that the colors of the markers were mentioned in the description, so I was searching through Asimov's collected stories on Google Books for "yellow", "red", and "blue". This seemed to be an effective strategy, as the hits were limited in number, but I didn't find what I was looking for.

[dr_lew]

Check.

[struwwelpeter]

Cleaning out my dad's garage after he died, I found a treasure trove of paperbacks. 1940s & 1950s, most with authors I've never heard of. Even those are diamonds.

Every now and then I get one out and re-read it. SciFi smells like paint thinner to me ;-)

[firebrand]

I’ve been trying to find a story about a guy who orders exotic pets from all over the universe. He orders these creatures that resemble humans in many ways but are much smaller. There are four tribes, and you put them in a kind of terrarium. You have to be careful not to let them out, because they grow to fit whatever space they are in. They will eventually fight with one another.

Of course they escape.

Anyone know the author or title?

[shibumi]

Did someone say "Alien Probing?"

[Vendome]

Gawd! That is an awful picture.

Though if I tilt my laptop sideways, she could be hot...

[ArrogantBustard]

I remember a shortie about an "offdog" that a crew couldn't locate for an inventory

"Offog", IIRC. The story was called "Allamagoosa", written by Eric Frank Russell.