Technical error
Technical Error is an early short story by Arthur C. Clarke that appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1950 under the title The Reversed Man . In this work, Clarke's fascination with physics and biology merges.
action
For the first time a power station has been built that works with the superconductivity of certain materials; the worker Richard Nelson is twisted sideways in the generator of the plant in the event of a short circuit . He suddenly wears the wedding ring on the left instead of the right and sees everything in mirror image; even a few coins and a small tech notebook in one of his pockets are turned sideways. Nelson begins to wither because his body can no longer process certain substances due to their spatial structure. The chemist Prof. Vandenburg is in a hurry to develop mirror-inverted counterparts of as many of the substances essential for Nelson as possible. Ralph Hughes , the chief theoretical physicist at the power plant, attributes the incident to Nelson having somehow wandered through a fourth spatial dimension , and casts off objections from scientifically interested managing director McPherson , who at a conference of the power plant's board of directors asked that Einstein did recognized time as the fourth dimension. The board of directors persuaded Nelson to take part in an attempt to turn him back on another simulated short-circuit: it would cost five thousand pounds a day to feed him, and nobody knows whether he could actually be supplied with all the substances he needs. Nelson initially disappears without a trace in the second short circuit. Hughes only comes up with the crucial idea in the gray hours of the next morning, when his colleagues are already working to restart the generator for the anticipated morning peak in consumption where Nelson has disappeared. When Nelson was twisted, Nelson's assistant drew his attention to the fact that he hadn't seen anyone there when he looked into the generator. Hughes discovers that Nelson must have disappeared for a few seconds after the first short circuit, he is no longer able to intervene at the power plant because of a conceivable sudden materialization of Nelson in the middle of the generator, and instead experiences from a distance how it suddenly happens at the power plant comes to a gigantic burst.
Individual evidence
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke: Technical Error . In: ders .: Reach for Tomorrow . Ballantine Books , New York 1956, pp. 48-66