Status Updates From لا شيء سوى الظلام

I'm reading this for my Classic Horror square. So far, it reads like a not very thrilling thriller. The most interesting thing about it is how damaged the survived-the-war-and-am-a-little-surprised-to-be-here generation that are the heroes of the story are.

Reading this makes 1968 seem a long long time ago.

The secret service use a computer to analyse their data. We have a male boffin doing the jargon chat and 'girls' (presumably calling them women would make them sound like they were doing a real job) producing the punch cards (remember those?).

It sounds OK until the output arrives and it's sheer sorcery -beyond what an AI today could do - and no one blinks.

This is doing a good job of pressing my prejudice buttons. I'm glad I was still a child in the 60s if this is what the adults were like. So far, I haven't met a single male character worth knowing.