（外文电子版资料）George Alec Effinger - The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything.pdf

THE ALIENS WHO KNEW, I MEAN, EVERYTHING George Alec Effinger An interesting thing has happened dur ing the evolution of the sciencefiction genre: many sf stories have portrayed our world being saved-or destroyed-by beings from far stars rather than by God. In essence, God has been replaced in science fiction by creatures from planets orbiting other stars. Perhaps that isnt surprising in our technological era, but George Alec Effingers short story here has some thoughts that may be as new and comical to you as they are to me. George Alec Effinger has written many short stories and novels during the past fifteen years; the latter include What Entropy Means to Me and The Wolves of Memory. I was sitting at my desk, reading a report on the brown pelican situation, when the secretary of state burst in. Mr. President, he said, his eyes wide^ the aliens are here! Just like that. The aliens are here! As if I had any idea what to do about them. I see, I said. I learned early in my first term that I see was one of the safest and most useful comments I could possibly make in any situation. When I said, I see, it indicated that I had digested the news and was waiting intelligently and calmly for further data. That knocked the ball back into my advisers court. I looked at the secretary of state expectantly. I was all prepared with my next utterance, in the event that he had nothing further to add. My next utterance would be, Well? That would indicate that I was on top of the problem, but that I couldnt be expected to make an executive decision without sufficient information, and that he should have known better than to burst into the Oval Office unless he had that information. Thats why we had protocol; thats why we had proper channels; thats why I had advisers. The voters out there didnt want me to make decisions without sufficient information. If the secretary didnt have anything m