3 ms·

Arthur Clarke made this point in a story about high latency communication half a century or more ago. He made the point that one should simply keep talking rat

Arthur Clarke made this point in a story about high latency communication half a century or more ago. He made the point that one should simply keep talking rather than wait for questions and answers to ping pong back and forth. While one is providing an answer you can be asking the next question. I can't remember the name of the story though. The solution was expressed in slightly sexist terms: speak like to women having a telephone conversation exchanging news.

hanche 1y ago
I could have sworn it was Asimov, but now I’m not so sure. As I remember it, the problem was communication with astronauts in the outer reaches of the solar system.
- ninalanyon 1y ago
  Now you have me wondering too. I'm still inclined to think it was Clarke because he was much more concerned with scientific and technical plausibility. But now I'll have to dig into it to find out for sure.
  - CRConrad 1y ago
    A) Did you find anything? I would also have bet Asimov. (The "slightly sexist" point also speaks for that, IMO; I think Clarke was less so.) B) Á propos another comment[1] by you, too old to reply to now[2]: Betcha you meant Gustavsberg, not "Gustavsen". They're Swedish, BTW, not Norwegian. ___ [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44012715 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44012715 [2]: Yeah, I admit: That's why I came here. But, hey, I found a discussion about two of the Grand Old Three!
    - ninalanyon 1y ago
      Of course you are quite right about the loo. In my defence I was unable to look at it to check as I'm out of the country on holiday. :-) I have been remiss in searching for evidence about the Clarke vs Asimov question. Perhaps I'll try delegating it to ChatGPT. I don't think that it was sexist in a pejorative anti-woman sense, in my (possibly faulty of course) memory it was said approvingly that women had solved a problem that men were struggling with.
    - ninalanyon 1y ago
      I was wrong, not an infrequent occurrence. It was Asimov, as others suggested: Here's the ChatGPT question and answer: Which SF author wrote a story in which communication speed over astronomical distances was made faster by sending messages continually instead of waiting for a reply? In the story it was pointed out that this is how women exchange news on the telephone. ChatGPT said: The story you're thinking of is “My Son, the Physicist” by Isaac Asimov (1962). In it, a communications engineer struggles with the long delays of radio messages to Pluto (about 12 hours one way). His mother suggests what women do on the telephone: “Just keep talking”—transmit continuously rather than wait for a reply—effectively creating a live conversation despite the latency en.wikipedia.org+1tvtropes.org+1 . This clever idea highlights a real aspect of human communication—especially on the phone—where continuous exchange helps bridge delays, and adapts it to an interplanetary scale. So yes, Asimov used that domestic analogy to demonstrate a practical solution to astronomical message delays.

hanche 1y ago

I could have sworn it was Asimov, but now I’m not so sure. As I remember it, the problem was communication with astronauts in the outer reaches of the solar system.

ninalanyon 1y ago
Now you have me wondering too. I'm still inclined to think it was Clarke because he was much more concerned with scientific and technical plausibility. But now I'll have to dig into it to find out for sure.
- CRConrad 1y ago
  A) Did you find anything? I would also have bet Asimov. (The "slightly sexist" point also speaks for that, IMO; I think Clarke was less so.) B) Á propos another comment[1] by you, too old to reply to now[2]: Betcha you meant Gustavsberg, not "Gustavsen". They're Swedish, BTW, not Norwegian. ___ [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44012715 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44012715 [2]: Yeah, I admit: That's why I came here. But, hey, I found a discussion about two of the Grand Old Three!
  - ninalanyon 1y ago
    Of course you are quite right about the loo. In my defence I was unable to look at it to check as I'm out of the country on holiday. :-) I have been remiss in searching for evidence about the Clarke vs Asimov question. Perhaps I'll try delegating it to ChatGPT. I don't think that it was sexist in a pejorative anti-woman sense, in my (possibly faulty of course) memory it was said approvingly that women had solved a problem that men were struggling with.
  - ninalanyon 1y ago
    I was wrong, not an infrequent occurrence. It was Asimov, as others suggested: Here's the ChatGPT question and answer: Which SF author wrote a story in which communication speed over astronomical distances was made faster by sending messages continually instead of waiting for a reply? In the story it was pointed out that this is how women exchange news on the telephone. ChatGPT said: The story you're thinking of is “My Son, the Physicist” by Isaac Asimov (1962). In it, a communications engineer struggles with the long delays of radio messages to Pluto (about 12 hours one way). His mother suggests what women do on the telephone: “Just keep talking”—transmit continuously rather than wait for a reply—effectively creating a live conversation despite the latency en.wikipedia.org+1tvtropes.org+1 . This clever idea highlights a real aspect of human communication—especially on the phone—where continuous exchange helps bridge delays, and adapts it to an interplanetary scale. So yes, Asimov used that domestic analogy to demonstrate a practical solution to astronomical message delays.