Conference noted::sf

1113.0. "RQ #8: Better leadership through mutation" by TECRUS::REDFORD () Wed Oct 21 1992 01:21

    In the year 2040 you're the Demlican (or Republicrat) nominee for
    President.   It's been a tough campaign.  Your personal digital
    assistant has been over all over the tabloids talking about 
    its love affair with your clone.  You've been dodging questions
    about your teenage war record, when you refused to jack in to the
    virtual reality tanks for the war in Hokaido.  The independent
    candidate, a nanotech entrepreneur from Leoville (the 53rd state,
    Low Earth Orbit), has been hammering you about the federal deficit.
    You wish that you could have one of those powers the SF guys are
    always talking about, like teleportation.  That would sure make
    it easier to get to the campaign stops.
    
    But you're sincere in your desire to be a great leader, and know that
    teleporation wouldn't really make a difference.  Of all the powers
    that SF has talked about, which one would really help?

    /jlr

I was going to say "The ability to predict the future".. but most
political types seem need the power to "remember the past.. accurately"

    re: .-1
    
    Dick wrote a novel on those lines, although I can't remember the
    name.  It was about a man who lived constantly one year in the
    future.  He saw everything one year before it happened, including
    stock market changes, horse races, and his own rise to being
    World President.  He was also a thorough-going creep, as are many
    of Dick's main characters.  His disposition was not improved by
    living through his own assasination, burial, and decay.  Anyone
    else remember it?
    
    /jlr

    
    _The World That Jones Made_. It was reissued a couple of 
    years ago in paperback. I've got it.