Yay, good reference, I remember the story so well I knew the one you meant before I followed the link (I didn&#x27;t remember the title).<p>However there have been similar ideas in earlier works, as acknowledged by the author himself. And if you asked the authors of those earlier works I&#x27;m sure they&#x27;d say they first thought of it when reading someone else&#x27;s work - it&#x27;s how it goes.<p>For what it&#x27;s worth, the idea is similar to the deadliest joke sketch from the Monty Pythons, that predates most (but not all) the authors cited by Langford as influences:<p><i>Langford&#x27;s later short story comp.basilisk FAQ, [1] first published in Nature in December 1999, mentions William Gibson&#x27;s Neuromancer (1984), Fred Hoyle&#x27;s The Black Cloud (1957), J.B. Priestley&#x27;s The Shapes of Sleep (1962), and Piers Anthony&#x27;s Macroscope (1969) as containing a similar idea. Examples not mentioned include the short story White Cane 7.25 (1985) by Czech writer Ondřej Neff, A. E. van Vogt&#x27;s War Against the Rull (1959), and John Barnes&#x27; Kaleidoscope Century (1996).</i><p>From: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;BLIT_%28short_story%29" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;BLIT_%28short_story%29</a>