
In a future where a colossal supercomputer—known simply as the Calculator—catalogues every person on the planet on massive, hole‑punched “cards,” society leans on its cold logic to steer history. Government officials Jasso and Tern pore over endless probability tables, hunting for a pair whose union could serve a hidden agenda. Their latest assignment pits a flamboyant psycho‑artist living in a glittering New York district against a modest language teacher from a quiet Tennessee town, a match the machine rates as improbably perfect.
Lao Protik, the artist, goes about his lavish life unaware that his name has been flagged by the Calculator for a purpose far beyond his advertising career. When a mysterious job offer arrives, it hints at forces pulling strings behind the scenes. As the team prepares to set the unlikely couple on a collision course, listeners are drawn into a world where data‑driven destiny collides with human desire, and the question becomes: can a marriage engineered by algorithms ever feel genuine?
Language
en
Duration
~51 minutes (49K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2019-12-03
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1917–2007
A veteran newspaperman who also became a prolific science fiction writer, he brought a reporter’s eye for detail to stories about alien worlds, future societies, and human nature. His work ranges from brisk adventure to thoughtful speculation, with a long career that stretched well beyond the magazine era of 1950s SF.
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