In the story, set sometime in the future, the young hero is accused of cheating on his A&O exams. The test administrator was described in much the same way as a stereotypical Hollywood nerd is portrayed; overweight, myopic, fingertips turning spatulate due to a lifetime spent at the keyboard.
The evidence for our hero’s cheating was that he had used zero computer time and had a zero percentage error rate. It is revealed that the “A&O” meant Apples & Oranges. The math problems dealt with division and percentages and were meant to be solved with the test computer’s calculator. Our young hero had been taught fractions by his reactionary grandfather and needed no computer time to calculate. Also, because he dealt with fraction through all of the intermediate steps of calculation, he had no rounding errors (i.e 1/3 -0.33333333...)
I would love to read this story. If you (or anyone else) can think of more details that could help me locate it either in print or online (Google has been fruitless thus far), that'd be great!
Sounds very similar in theme to "The Machine Stops" by C. S. Forester: what happens when the technology you rely on, even for your survival, starts to break down?
THE MACHINE STOPS - E.M. Forester (1909)
http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/topics/reading/forester.html
I’ll have to read it.
BTW, C.S. Forester is one of my favorite authors. “The Ship” and “Brown on Resolution” are two of my favorites.
Vashti and her lectures reminded me of the Simon & Garfunkle Song, "The Dangling Conversation".
Verse 3
"Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives."