Introduction
Those of you in my classes may (will) have discovered that I use many references to Science Fiction Sources: Books, Stories, Movies and Television Shows. These often forecast where technology tends to go. I also often refer to a number of "classical works" (Mark Twain defined a classic as a book everyone owns, but noone reads!) in management, management information systems, strategy and others. I also refer to a number of classical references of a number of religions. Surprisingly, few people are aware of the managerial tips in these sources. I've tried to include full citations for any works that I mention. Some of these are awaiting my finding the books.
Science Fiction Writers
I've read a lot of science fiction. Everyone should have a hobby. Here's
a list of some of my favorite SciFi writers.
Teaching Resource
Are you interested in teaching, especially at the college level? Here's a nifty book on some basics that make sense in the classroom. At UGA, the Instructional Support and Development (ISD) Office uses it in training TA's in a special teaching course. The book is:
McKeachie, Wilbert J., Teaching Tips, 9th edition, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, MA, 1994.
Science Fiction Books
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Series)
This is pretty much an industry by now. Douglas Adams wrote the 5 part trilogy: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you like science fiction and satire, and Monty Python's Flying Circus, this book series is for you. Douglas Adams was a writer for the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV show. He then wrote a radio play, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (originally 6, later 9 half hour shows), that was later made into the excellent book(s), and a campy TV miniseries in England. You really have to like a book where the Earth is destroyed in the first chapter to make way for a galactic bypass. The books are: 1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; 2) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; 3) Life, The Universe, and Everything; 4) The Meaning of Life; and 5) So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
Adams later wrote some Dirk Gently mystery books that are also quite funny: 1) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency; 2) The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul; and 3) Salmon of Doubt: A Dirk Gently Novel (I haven't read this last one yet (8/98)). Exact publication info that I got from the UGA Library and the Library of Congress is (note - all are also in paperback - try the PocketBooks publisher):
Serling, Ron, Various Twilight Zone Books I really enjoyed the one that had the short stories on which the New Twilight Zone TV Series was based (all but 2 of the stories are in the anthology).
Star Trek Books: Some of the Star Trek books are OK. I like the TV shows and movies better.
McCay, Bill, Stargate, and the later books. Cool stuff.
Niven, Larry and Jerry Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer, Playboy Press, New York, 1977: This is a story about a comet that is about to have a near miss with the earth. The only problem they run into is that every time they redo the calculations, the course seems to get closer and closer to the earth and the error margins shrink. I read this around 1995, just before the 2 or 3 comet-striking-earth-disaster movies were started (There were a couple of Made-for-TV movies; and Deep Impact and Armageddon were released in 1998).
Check out:
Rand, Ayn, Atlas Shrugged, Dutton, New York, 1992: ("Who is
John Galt?"). She wrote a few interesting books like The Fountainhead
(Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, IN, 1968), which has her view of the future,
which kind of matched that of 1984 (By George Orwell). In it, there
is a fairly basic society. There is a part where a man rediscovers how
to generate electricity and use electric lights. The real complication
is that the Candlemakers will all be thrown out of work (some time in the
past, the new candlemaking technology put the torch makers out of work!).
Ayn Rand is a fierce capitalist. These books typically expound on economic
matters and the benefits of free enterprise. I haven't read We the Living
(Dutton, New York, 1995) yet.
Hogan, James P., Inherit the Stars, (this is part 1) Ballantine
Books, New York, 1977.
Hogan, James P., The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, (this is part
2) Ballantine Books, New York, 1978.
Hogan, James P., Voyage From Yesteryear, (I think that this
is part 3) Ballantine Books, New York, 1982.
In the first of the series of books, a very old space suit with a body
in it is found on the moon in a cave. Imagine what could happen next!
The Forbin Project: Giant computer is built (Colossus) to run the defense system of the U.S. But, it develops a personality!
Anne Rice: Check out Anne Rice's books. They are more of a gothic horror genre. I really like her writing, especially the
Though these movies were good, the books were better:
More General, Fiction Books
Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1997. Wow - Civil War time period, but not directly in the Civil War. It's two intertwined stories - Inman and Ada, along with an extended cast of characters. I can't wait for the movie. I hope Clint Eastwood directs it.
Berendt, John, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Random House, New York, 1994; and the movie (Directed by Clint Eastwood). It's based on a true story about a murder and the subsequent trial. I liked the book better than the movie. Yep - that's Savannah so I hear.
Smiley, Jane, Moo, A.A. Knopf / Random House, New York, 1995: Interesting novel about the characters and goings on at a large, midwestern, land-grant university. Look for the pig that's the size of a Volkswagon. Great ending to the book. If you happen to be at a college or university, you've probably met people like most of the characters in the book.
Iakovou, Takis and Judy, So Dear to Wicked Men, St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010. This book is an interesting and smooth, easy to read story in the first person about a murder in a small college town (a little like Athens, GA). Takis and Judy have owned a few restaurants (just like the couple in the book). Other than that, it's just similar to reality. The book made the New York Times Bestseller List. Takis and Judy are neighbors of mine. I believe they took the short course on Writing Mysteries at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, at UGA. Another writer, James Wyrick, wrote a mystery novel after taking this course. Sharon, my wife, is mentioned in the Acknowledgment because she read the manuscript. Marla, my oldest daughter, goes to school with their daughter.
Allen, Woody, Without Feathers, and his other, older books
TV Shows
Star Trek 
The Star Trek TV Shows, including:
In the movie: Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, there is a scene with Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott and a metallurgist. Mr. Scott tries to talk into the mouse. It's a good demo for Introduction to Computers courses.
The Science of Star Trek: This special was aired by PBS around 1996. It explains how they simulated some of the things that scientists are working on now: superlight-speed travel, worm holes, talking computers, high powered laser-type weapons, transporters, voice input/output, natural language processing, artificial life forms, other artificial intelligence, virtual reality (on the newer episodes: The Holodecks) and the like.
Other TV Shows
Twilight Zone: Both the original and the New Twilight Zone (theme music by the Grateful Dead. These shows are amazingly well-written, and well-done. Some are comedies. They are always a neat story. And, the drama is usually what the show is trying to get across. I believe Rod Serling called the episodes "Teleplays." The acting is superb. Many of the episodes deal with some odd quirk or frailty of human nature. They tend to "push the envelope" of human nature for the 1960s. Look for the many stars of TV and screen, before they became big names: Paul Newman, William Shatner, Buddy Ebsen, Donna Dixon, Billy Mumy (Will from Lost in Space), the woman who played Endora on Bewitched, the guy who played Mel Coolee on The Dick Van Dyke Show. My favorite episode is the one where aliens come to earth "To Serve Man." Fred Gwynn may have been the main alien character. The movie is comprised of modern rewrites of 3 of the most famous, original episodes (William Shatner and Billy Mumy were in two of the originals) and a new one. "Wanna see something really scary?" Many of the stories are in anthologies of short stories in science fiction. When I was an undergraduate student at Carnegie-Mellon University (they used the - at that time), I met Rod Serling after a talk.
The Outer Limits: A little more scientific than the Twilight Zone, but just as dedicated to quality, acting and stories. The older one aired in the 1960s. The new version airs on the Showtime Cable Network and later on a variety of independent TV stations across the U.S.A.
Forever Night: A show about a Toronto Police Detective, Nicholas
Knight, who works nights because, well he is a vampire (well, drop all
reality at the door). There is an excellent episode about a virtual reality
game where the main character plays the part of a vampire in the game to
solve a murder. Though a bit gory, it is an interesting demo for a class.
A variety of cable networks (SciFi, F/X, USA) show the series from time
to time.
TV Commercials
Coca Cola Commercials: Around the time of the Olympics
in Atlanta (1996), Coca Cola was using the Polar Bear commercials that
were all digitally created. In August 1998, I saw a Coca Cola commercial
that had many people dancing in a nightclub, say around the late 1920s
with appropriate music. This appears to have been computer generated.
Some Interesting TV Shows that I Haven't Been Able to Get Into
Many of my friends and family members like these, but I can't seem to get into them:
Science Fiction Movies
The Star Trek Movies: These exhibit many of the features of the shows. In the first one, there were a number of sequences shown on the main viewing screen on the bridge that were digitally created (in 1981 or so, that was pretty amazing). Look for a 10 second sequence that was done with fractals while orbiting a planet. BTW - the even numbered movies tend to be much better than the odd ones.
2001: A Space Odyssey: Great special effects. I saw it in a theater when I was 16 and really enjoyed it then! The main computer HAL (name developed by taking "IBM" and dropping down one letter for each) has innate intelligence and a personality. HAL can even read lips. It pops up on Cable TNT from time to time.
2010: Sequel that was made much later. Nice special effects. Not nearly as good or as much fun.
Independence Day 2 (ID2): Giant ships move to destroy earth. As Joe Bob Briggs might put it: Virus-Fu! Watch for the tribute to 2001 "Good Morning Dave." My favorite line is when Will Smith says: "Welcome to earth!" The videotape version shown on HBO leaves out a word that was used in the theater version.
Mars Attacks: Tongue-in-Cheek version of ID2. This is a parody of all the 1950s and 1960s B-grade SciFi flicks.
Men in Black: Great fun! Some concepts might explain a lot about some people we know! I want one of those neural stimulators.
THX 1138: George Lucas first movie (it is science fiction). I understand that it is based on his Masters Film Project at UCLA. Interestingly enough the THX and 1138 pop up in a number of his other projects like: the Dolby THX movie sound system, the license plate number of one of the roadsters in the drag race scene in American Graffiti (THX 138), and in Star Wars, Princess Leah was held prisoner in Cell Block 1138 on the Death Star.
Dark Star: I believe this was Spielberg's Master's Project at UCLA, but I'm not sure. It's a different kind of movie. There is a crew in a space ship. Their mission is to blow up unstable planets. The bombs are smart (AI-type smart). They have personalities and some degree of free will. In one scene, a member of the crew argues with the bomb about what it should do versus what it wants to do.
The Lawnmower Man: One of the first, well-done, virtual reality movies. I've used a couple of scenes in my classes. Tron is another, but I haven't seen it.
Star Wars - all three, and the next three that are on the way: Cowboy movies set in space. Great effects from Lucas' company: Industrial Light and Magic.
Stargate: Cool concept. Power up a large, ancient ring found in Egypt, and connect to other ones in other places in the Universe. We control the worm holes through a set of combinations used by a slipring on the ring. I've only seen the movie and read a few of the books. Does anyone know how the TV series on ShowTime is?
The Little Shop of Horrors: The musical with Rick Moranis. The music is fun. Rick Moranis plays the lead. Steve Martin plays a sadistic dentist, and Bill Murray his masochistic patient. (The play is also a riot. I've seen it three times.) The original movie (same title) is in black and white, and funny if you take it tongue-in-cheek. Jack Nicholson makes his screen debut in this movie as the sadistic patient. He steals the movie.
Enemy Mine: Story about bitter enemies who discover what the "Universal Truths" there really are.
Twilight Zone: The Movie: Just like the classic series. "Wanna see something really scary?"
Fantastic Voyage: Shrink a bunch of doctors and scientists and inject them inside a scientist to operate on his brain! Why not?
Toy Story: The entire visual part of the movie was done digitally on a large parallel computer made up of several hundred RISC workstations. Look for the sign of the real estate agency called Virtual Realty.
Contact: based on Carl Sagan's book. It has its moments. I thought the book was better. One key difference was that more than one person got to go on the trip.
Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Congo, and Sphere: All based on books by Michael Crichton. I think that the books held together better than the movies, but, I did like the movies somewhat. In the Sphere book, I liked the use of Diet Pepsi instead of a package of almonds (it's in the previews), and the use of "No Step").
Alien (and it's 3 or so sequels): Pretty gory, but interesting technology.
The Fly: Transporter technology run amok. The old version stars
Vincent Price; the new one stars Jeff Goldblum and Gina Davis. There were
also two sequels, one for each: Son of the Fly and The Fly II.
Neither are as good as the originals. I liked the Jeff Goldblum version,
but it's a bit gory.
Management Related Movies
Cheaper by the Dozen: A comedy movie based on the book (see the Book Section). This is a cute story about the life of Frank Gilbreth and his family. Frank was a leading practicing Industrial Engineer in the 1920s - 1940s in the US. He was also known as an "efficiency expert." Frank had 12 children. Watch for the tonsillectomy part. It's pretty amazing. There is a sequel to the movie called With Bells on their Toes, about family life with Frank's wife, Lillian, whose career as an Industrial Engineering literally began after Frank's death.
Disclosure: Lots of virtual reality for handling routine matters. Look for "The Angel."
Other Movies
Three Days of the Condor: From the early 1970s. As far as I could tell, this is the first movie that featured a minicomputer. It was a PDP-8 made by Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) (we used them at Carnegie in the 1970s). It's on screen for a few seconds.
Colossus: The Forbin Project: Based on the book. Really scary. The book explains more.
Sneakers: Stars Dan Ackroyd. These guys like to crack into other peoples' secure systems for a fee by the owners. Watch for the way they get a system password.
The Net: Stars Sandra Bullock. The future could be like this. Many privacy issues come up.
Sleeper: Fun, tongue in cheek view of the future. Kind of like
George Orwell meets Abbott and Costello. Written, directed, starring Woody
Allen, I also like the other, older Woody Allen movies, especially What's
Up Tiger Lilly?
Some Plays
Phantom: Catch it! The music is wonderful.
The Little Shop of Horrors: This is a musical about plants that eat people.
Some Managerial Books
Adams, Scott, The Dilbert Principle, HarperBusiness, A division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1996. Cool, very factual cartoons of modern business life. Adams' comic strip is funny, educational, and unfortunately doesn't just mirror reality - it often is reality. I especially like the strip about holding a preplanning meeting to establish an agenda for the planning meeting that is scheduled to plan for the real meeting.
Drucker, Peter F., The Effective Executive, hardback, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., New York, 1985 (paperback: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY 10022, 1993).
Prichett, Price and Brian Muirhead, The Mars Pathfinder Approach to "Faster-Better-Cheaper": An Employee Handbook on Innovation, Prichett & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 8022889, Dallas, TX 75380-9609, 1998. Interesting paperback on how to overcome obstacles and be creative.
Simon, Herbert, The New Science of Management Decisions, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977. Simon explains much about how decision making is done, and how the whole process of management is decision making.
Rand, Ayn, Atlas Shrugged. See the Science Fiction Books section and check it out.
The Bible: Both the Old and New Testaments are chock full of managerial advice. There is one section of Exodus where Moses is lamenting not being able to judge because every little squabble comes his way for a decision. Jethro, his father-in-law, advises him to appoint a hierarchy of judges to handle cases at various levels, and let him handle the tough cases. So, here is a documented case of a hierarchy in a major organization dating back some 3500 years.
Also check out the Commentaries on The Bible and other Holy Works. In many religions, these are thousands of years old. There is some very fundamental, basic, Universal Wisdom that is captured in many of these documents.
Also have a look at the Buddhist and Hindu Holy Books (I picked one up in Japan in a hotel. There is a Buddhist equivalent of the Gideon Society), and the Koran (Holy Book of Islam). I'm sure that other Holy Books are full of great managerial advice.
Griffith, Samuel B. (translation and introduction), The Art of War by Sun Zu (Tzu), Oxford University Press, London, 1971. The Chinese title is Bing Fa, and Sun Zu is known as "Master Sun" by everyone I spoke with in Beijing. The Griffin version (at one point was known as the first "modern English translation from the original") is my favorite of this 2500 year old strategy text that many business schools use in their curricula. There is even a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode in the first season where the crew of the Enterprise encounters the Firenge people for the first time. In it, Commander Riker mentions that it is part of a War Strategy course at Star Fleet Academy.
There is a translation and commentary of The Art of War by Thomas Cleary, Shambhala Pocket Classics, Boston, MA, 1991 (full text with hyperlinks to the commentaries at http://www.mit.edu/people/dcctdw/AOW/toc.html). There is also a Chinese version on the Web (at http://www.zhongwen.com/bingfa.htm) with each Chinese character linked to its definition and etymology. Apparently, this version is hard to read in Chinese because it is written in an older form of Chinese Characters. There are also translations at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4884 by Lionel Giles in the public domain from the University of Maryland at College Park, and at http://www.ccs.new.edu/home/thigpen/html/art_of_war.html . If any of these links dry up, just do a new search on Yahoo.
Also see The Lost Art of War, Sun, Pin 4th Cent B.C.E. (Ping Fa), translation and commentary by Thomas Cleary. It is cited as: The Lost Art of War (The Recently Discovered Companion to the Bestselling THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu II), HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, 1996. A set of bamboo tablets with this volume written by Sun Zu's grandson (so the experts think) was discovered in the early 1990s. This looks really interesting in that it was written during the "Warring States Period."
Hofstede, Geert H., Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1980. Friends tell me that this work describes the international cultural factors on several scales (originally 4, later 5). The original work was a research paper in an academic journal - I can't recall exactly where and when it was published.
Hofstede, Geert H., Cultures and Organizations: the Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1997.
Machiavelli, Nicco, The Prince: There are many versions of this management text describing political intrigue at the Italian courts.
Blanchard, Kenneth H., and Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager, Morrow, NY, 1982. How to run your office and your life in brief time slices. Not such a bad idea. There are several later derivatives of this book including:
Shim, Jae K., Joel G. Siegel, and Abraham J. Simon, The Vest-Pocket MBA, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (now Upper Saddle River), NJ, 1986 (now in paperback - you'll need a big vest pocket to get it to fit). The cover says: "All the formulas, guidelines, rations and rules-of-thumb needed to evaluate and solve dozens of business problems…
McCormack, Mark H., What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business
School, (pb), Bantam Books, NY, 1984.
McCormack, Mark H., What They Still Don't Teach You at Harvard Business
School, (pb), Bantam Books, NY, 1989.
Both sound interesting. I hear they are good companions to doing an
MBA. Get the certification, and the street knowledge.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow, The Principles of Scientific Management, Norton, New York, 1967. Originally written around 1906. Taylor figured out that it is important to give appropriate jobs to appropriately skilled workers. I like to explain it as "Big Man, Big Shovel; Little Man, Little Shovel." Bosses up to about the turn of the century (1900) liked to just throw more labor at jobs, rather than matching up people to jobs in an efficient and effective manner. Even today, Peter Drucker maintains that the most important activity of managers is to hire the right people for the right jobs, and they do it very badly. I believe he said that they only get it right about 20% of the time.
Gilbreth, Frank G., Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen, T.Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1948. This is a cute story about the life of Frank Gilbreth and his family (co-written with his daughter). Frank was a leading practicing Industrial Engineer in the 1920s - 1940s in the US. He was also known as an "efficiency expert." Frank had 12 children: 11 girls and 1 boy (the youngest). This was made into a comedy movie. Watch for the tonsillectomy part. It's pretty amazing. There is a sequel to the movie (I'm not sure if there is a sequel to the book) called With Bells on their Toes, about family life with Frank's wife, Lillian, whose career as an Industrial Engineering literally began after Frank's death.
Canfield, Jack and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, FL, and its later derivatives. Interesting advice on how to live.
Fulghum, Robert, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Villard (maybe Willard) Books, New York, 1989. This is full of interesting, practical advice about living and treating others. There are several derivatives like:
Hammer, Michael and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, paperback, HarperBusiness/HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1994. My favorite statement is that IT is an enabler of BPR. This edition has some notes about what happens when a company does BPR. I like the idea of starting with a blank piece of paper, and establishing what you want the organization to be. Then working out the details.
Champy, James, Reengineering Management: The Mandate for New Leadership, paperback, HarperBusiness/HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995. More stuff on BPR.
Personality and Learning Styles
(Very important for management, and for teaching!)
Birkman, Roger, True Colors, 1994. Describes personality in terms of 4 colors in a grid: Red/Yellow/Green/Blur, and the kinds of behaviors that each color exhibits under normal conditions and under stress. It explains how each color type relates to the others, and what properties they share. The book also indicates the kinds of environments and jobs that people of the different colors thrive under. Unfortunately it is out of print.
Keirsey, David and Marilyn Bates, Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types, 4th edition, Promethean Nemesis, Del Mar, CA, 1984. An explanation and the short version of the Myers / Briggs Personality Profile test. There are 4 dimensions. The ones I remember best are Introvert/Extrovert. Interestingly enough, Dr. Harvey Brightman at Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) has studied student and faculty profiles in Business Schools. It seems that in undergraduate classes, the students and faculty are typically on opposite ends of most, if not all, scales. Again, I remember that most (about 80%) faculty are introverts, while most (about 80%) students are extroverts. At the MBA level, the students are about 50/50 on the scales.
Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems
I can strongly recommend the following book to people who are interested in learning more about DSS and Intelligent Systems (Artificial Intelligence):
Operations Research / Management Science
I can strongly recommend the following book to people who are interested in learning more about Operations Research and Management Science:
Other Stuff
I'll be adding little tidbits here as I find them. Though I lost the original articles that I read in the newspaper in the latter part of 1997, there were interesting stories on:
1. Particles moving backwards in time were discovered in an experiment
at one of the large cyclotrons (I think the one in Switzerland).
2. Transporter technology has begun. Scientists have transported a
light wave from one location to another about 1 meter away. The beam wasn't
replicated, but transported through a wire.
3. Honda has a new industrial-type robot about the size of a human
being. It can walk, climb stairs, and do many tasks. Unfortunately, the
battery pack only lasts about 15 minutes, so it has to work fast. This
was in the paper around December 1997. Honda has information about it on
their Web site.
Music
Here are some Music Groups that I've been listening to for some time
Comic Strips
Some Notes
What's the point of putting something like this together unless you can put your own stuff in it?
Test Taking Tip: On August 24, 1998, CNN Headline News ran a story about how traffic jams and other events can cause stress, which activates a hormone that blocks short term memory for about 2 hours. I've come up with the following good advice: allow an extra two hours if you're going to drive in heavy traffic to get your short term memory back. There are a few other things you can do, like close your eyes and take deep, really deep, breaths. It's also possible to initiate a form of biofeedback that will reduce stress. You'll have to track that information down on your own. Of course, reducing stress is only important if you're cramming and really need the short term memory to work at its peak performance (and of course, you won't have the time to allow for the extra two hours).
About Technology and Change. "Change is ever present. Change is always with you. You always have change. Unless you need it for the bus!" Loosely quoted from Tim Kazurinsky on Saturday Night Live, in the late 1980s while he portrayed the Indian Guru: Hafinagoodtime Vishinyuverhere.
About Books: Wired Magazine in the summer of 1998 describes some new devices that could potentially make books obsolete. They are basically electronic books, some that simulate a book with one or two pages, and page turning. Almost all can download book text or load via CD-ROM.
Contact Information
To contact me,
Email to: jaronson@www.terry.uga.edu
Snail mail to:
Jay E. Aronson, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Management
Department of Management
Terry College of Business
The University of Georgia
Brooks Hall
Athens, GA 30602-6256 USA
Phone: 706/542-0991
Fax: 706/542-3743