One of the stories mentioned in the Appleyard article that I had never read before... 

Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut. 
(Fredric Brown, "Answer")

Introduction

Jules Rendard: “Writing is the best way to talk 

                 without being interrupted.”

A Brief Intro to Nurture&Nature 

My name is Athena Knisley, and I am from a small town in Ohio. At this point in time, I am considering majoring in either Anthropology or Art History. However, this is subject to change as I take different courses and discover where my true interests lie. I chose to enroll in this particular course because I have always had an interest in science fiction and fantasy. The requirements for this course include reading and watching different works of science fiction—not unlike what I currently do in my own free time! I hope that Alternative Worlds will help ease some of the anxiety that I feel concerning writing assignments. I frequently find it difficult to structure my assigned papers—therefore, I rewrite them an absurd number of times before handing them in.

I enjoy writing when I am passionate (or at least interested) in the topic of the assignment and can defend it successfully. In essence, I enjoy writing when I feel that I have written something well. I relish the fact that writing gives me the freedom to use vocabulary and grammar that I might not use in everyday speech, and that through writing, I can fabricate an entirely different persona for myself. Writing allows me to closely guard what I say and attempt to avoid embarrassment, which at other times can be difficult.

After the duration of this course, I hope that I will have created a blog that is not only structured and executed well, but one that is interesting and thought provoking. The ability to create such a blog requires skills that are essential for blogging in the business world and are applicable to other forms of media as well. It is also my desire to learn more about my classmates through blogging, and that the classroom itself will develop an interesting, added element through our collective efforts.

I hope that you enjoy my blog, as I know I will enjoy reading yours!