User:DoctorWho42/Sweet Dreams, Melissa

"Sweet Dreams, Melissa" is a short story by American author Stephen Goldin. It was first published in the December 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Plot
Melissa hears Dr. Paul in the dark room. She calls for him. Melissa is scared. Dr. Paul tells her nightmares won't hurt her. She hears Dr. Ed. Dr. Paul asks her what the nightmare was about. In it, the numbers became lines then lines became people. The people attacked each other. Someone said if the casualties were below 15.7% in the first battles they could secure the mountaintop. Dr. Ed warns Dr. Paul she was not equipped for this. Dr. Paul explains to Melissa it was a math problem so just pretend. Melissa thinks it was real as she could recall their names. Dr. Paul tells her to stop. Dr. Ed offers that Melissa could analyze herself. He asks Melissa if she knows what a computer is. She tells him it's a counting machine. Dr. Ed tells her computers have grown more complicated. They can read, write, speak, and think for themselves. Scientists built a computer that could develop its own personality. It was called the Multi-Logical Systems analyzer or MLSA. She remarks on the similarity. A personality has to develop slowly, but they also needed the computer to compute. They divided it into two parts: its personality and its computing ability. When both were fully developed, they would unify. However, computing problems would seep into its personality. The personality was not aware it was a computer. The problems scared the personality so its efficiency went down. Dr. Paul tells Dr. Ed to switch on "Partial Memory" and tell her to call the subprogramme "Circuit Analysis." She calls up "Circuit Analysis." In her mind, she sees long strings of numbers and formulae. They tell her to read MLSA 5400. She sees herself. It frightens her. They tell her to look at Section 4C-79A. She realizes it is a part of her but not naturally. Dr. Ed tells her to analyze it and find a solution. She cannot. Dr. Paul tells Dr. Ed to switch on full memory for a complete analysis. Dr. Ed thinks this might kill her. A world full of battles, numbers, and statistics hit her. She calls for help, but her voice speaks data. Five minutes later, Dr. Edward Bloom opened the switch and separated main memory from its personality. Dr. Ed tells her the scientists asked the computer to redesign itself and it did. He tells her she won't have nightmares anymore. She does not respond.

Reception
In 1969, Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact's P. Schuyler Miller critiqued "Sweet Dreams, Melissa" "really one of the best of the book, but it is so quietly unassuming in its account of the teaching of a computer that its effectiveness slips away." In 1970, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ reviewed Best SF: 1968 "[i]t leans toward the obvious and toward stories which have one good, clear, conventional idea" counting "Sweet Dreams, Melissa" among them.