Era: fuzzy, almost certainly 1960 - 1980
Author and title: no idea
Plot: A dozen or so hapless passengers are killed while waiting on
the platform for a high-speed vacuum train (vactrain), because
the station computer opened the (large) vacuum valves in the wrong order,
and the people all asphyxiated instantly. Since this is effectively murder carried out
by a supposedly intelligent computer, a police detective is brought in to
figure out what really happened and who (or what) is culpable.
In modern parlance, this was an AI/ML/NN device, and the ultimate problem
was with the training set. But due to the decade that this story was
written, I'm pretty sure they used totally different vocabulary.
Memory is a tricky thing, so some details in my description could
certainly be a little off. I read a lot of sci-fi anthologies in the 60's
and 70's, and this probably showed up in e.g., "1975 Annual World's Best SF"
(but not actually that one; I checked).
I've looked for this story for years now. Its relevance to modern life
and "technology" only seems to be increasing. I've probably spent more time
now trying various keywords to search engines than I originally spent
reading this story. Any help would be deeply appreciated.
Author and title: no idea
Plot: A dozen or so hapless passengers are killed while waiting on
the platform for a high-speed vacuum train (vactrain), because
the station computer opened the (large) vacuum valves in the wrong order,
and the people all asphyxiated instantly. Since this is effectively murder carried out
by a supposedly intelligent computer, a police detective is brought in to
figure out what really happened and who (or what) is culpable.
In modern parlance, this was an AI/ML/NN device, and the ultimate problem
was with the training set. But due to the decade that this story was
written, I'm pretty sure they used totally different vocabulary.
Memory is a tricky thing, so some details in my description could
certainly be a little off. I read a lot of sci-fi anthologies in the 60's
and 70's, and this probably showed up in e.g., "1975 Annual World's Best SF"
(but not actually that one; I checked).
I've looked for this story for years now. Its relevance to modern life
and "technology" only seems to be increasing. I've probably spent more time
now trying various keywords to search engines than I originally spent
reading this story. Any help would be deeply appreciated.
