03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Primitive Aliens Encountering a Laptop

“I have a suggestion,” said Scriber. His voice was slurred from the effort of concentrating over Scrupilo’s thoughts. “When you touch the four/three square and say”—he made the alien sounds; they were all very easy to do—“the screen shows a collection of pictures. They seem to match the squares. I think we … we are being given choices.” Hm. “The box could end up training us.” If this is a machine, we need some new definitions. “ … Very well, let’s play with it....
Folksonomies: technology magic
Folksonomies: technology magic
  1  notes

Vinge describes a clan of alien wolflike being with mideval technology encountering a computer carried by a human alien visitor.