I love Hesse, and Siddhartha is one of my favorites! I'll have to
check out _The Glass Bead Game_, thanks for the heads up.

I'll contribute now too:

It should be noted that Eddie is, in fact, a computer with a very odd
personality...

"Now this is going to be your first day out on a strange new
planet," continued Eddie's new voice, "so I want you all wrapped up
snug and warm, and no playing with any naughty bug-eyed monsters."
Zaphod tapped impatiently at the hatch.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I think we might be better off with a slide
rule."
"Right!" snapped the computer. "Who said that?"

-Chapter 19, _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ by Douglas Adams


Best,
Daniel

--- In sliderule@yahoogroups.com, "Ronald Manley" <sliderules@c...>
wrote:

>
> Today I was re-reading "The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse

(1943)

> when I came across the following sentence.
>
> "People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and
> keen, and if respect for the world of the mind is no longer

operative,

> ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's
> slide rule and the computations of bank and stock exchanges will
> forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue."
>
> There have been in this forum a number of reported "sightings" of
> slide rules in books but I wonder how many of them are in literary
> classics like this one.
>
> Regards to all
>
> Ron