ERRATA SLIP

Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September-October 1978.

Foreword to readers:

We naturally take pride in the preeminence as a reference work of the Encyclopedia Galactica. We are aware that this preeminence rests on a sound and hard-earned reputation for accuracy.

Nevertheless, in spite of our striving for perfection, in spite of our attention to detail, errors are inevitable. Computers, after all are programmed by humans. And to err is…

But this is to inform rather than to excuse. We recognize our responsibility to get our facts right, to present them with precision, and to correct such errors as do occur.

As soon as such errors are discovered or brought to our attention, we rush to set the record straight. This ongoing series of errata inputs may therefore be regarded as part of the continuous updating of the Encyclopedia Galactica, assuring the subscriber of source of facts of the highest relevance and the greatest usefulness. Herewith, then, the latest.

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VOL X—page 684 │→refs│ ADDENDUM

[Elective Affinity of Vestiian Anarchy]

Paragraph 20 reads: “Despite the seeming anomaly of record Voter turnouts, anarchy reigned on Vesti III. Newly elected officials almost immediately became targets for assassination.”

Further research would seem to resolve this anomaly. The Vestiians were voting candidates into office precisely because of the extremely vague laws covering assassinations.

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VOL VI—page 937 │↓drop│ DELETION

[First Contact with Aomrom V]

Entry to the effect that the Galactic Monitor had just received and deciphered warm greetings from the Fhedje, a rising civilization on Aomrom V.

Delete entire entry.

This information is no longer relevant since the nova of the Aomrom sun. It would appear that the reading of the message “warm greetings” as a conversational pleasantry was incorrect; the transmission was, in fact, a mayday signal. That it came across as unurgent and nonspecific at the time of reception illustrates the extreme diffidence of the now-extinct Fhedje.

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VOL VI—page 1076 │↑subj│ CORRECTION

[Figure 63: Typical Mechanization of Murzim VI]

The caption under the noted full-page hologram states “Instructions for assembling a threshing machine.” Receipt of new data amends caption to state “Excerpt from a Murzimi love manual.”

│¶disc│ NOTE TO READERS

We have received several complaints from subscribers in the agribusiness field who have prepared and executed computer simulacra based on the aforementioned illustration. We refer such complainants to the terms of the Encyclopedia Galactica Formal Contract:

¶454. The Encyclopedia Galactica shall not be responsible for damages to life or property resulting from use of the data contained, herein, even when such use is correct as defined by the Encyclopedia.

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VOL III—page 706 │→refs│ ADDENDUM

[Dioznovoz Chronology]

This entry has not been marked with our usual warning as to discrepancies, as the discrepancies are both extremely numerous and extremely obvious. However, the Dioznovoz pretensions seem to have daunted or aroused even some of our older and supposedly more sophisticated clients. More to the point, the Nijjot have found particularly galling the Dioznovoz claim that without the hospitality and assistance the ancestors of the Dioznovoz extended to the Nijjot crew of the starship Iurut on its voyage of cosmic exploration, the journey would have ended in disaster before it had begun.

Therefore, we provide the following impartial tape cull, which all subscribers (with the possible exception of the esteemed Dioznovoz themselves) will wish to append:

│Θroll│ It is clear that the Dioznovoz have bestowed upon themselves their impossible preeminence and imposing pedigree because they do not wish to own up to their true beginnings. Their species originated during the brief stopover of the starship Iurut on Lazecpaa IV. The Nijjot exobiologists found the planet’s ecosystem implacably hostile, and the vessel moved on. A deposit of Nijjot intestinal flora in depleted organic matrix, however, flourished and evolved/mutated into the ancestors of the current Dioznovoz.

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VOL II—page 497 │←thru│ CLARIFICATION

[Nozon, Epic Voyage of the] This entry recounts in vivid self-astonishment how the Nozon people escaped a dying planet, and after an epic voyage of many megaparsecs, arrived at a new and untouched homeworld.

These statements should in no way be diminished by the data which follow; the Nozon adaptation to a new world was a truly epic achievement. Nor should the legends be slighted which put the lost homeworld in a league with Atlantis, Finnegan’s Nowhere, and other gone wonderlands.

But archaeological evidence has discovered the truth. The planet the Nozon set out from (the deteriorating Yadmfadugy) is the same planet they arrived at (the paradisiacal Gilunilcogz.) The Nozon went precisely nowhere.

Rather, they went somewhen. What the then-contemporary technologists placed the natives inside was not a fleet of starships, but a stand of time capsules, that the ecologically mauled planet might have a breathing spell to heal itself.

When the Nozon awakened from hibernation upon “Landing,” several factors reinforced the illusion of an interstellar voyage, first, the constellations had shifted over several millennia. Second, the Nozon had undergone a biochemically induced shrinking process and so faced a larger planet to go forth and multiply upon.

As a final note in this addendum, we report that the Nozon have adapted excellently to their “new” world. In fact, the inhabitants are known to wear space helmets for clean atmosphere, with darkenable filters for privacy.

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VOL XI—page 1543 │↑subj│ CORRECTION

[War of Webster’s Thigh] Paragraph 5 reads: “The visitor to Terra’s Old Earth Amusement Bark took exception to being called a monster. It replied that it had only followed logic in taking a bite from a sandwich man offering free lunch.”

The correct eighth word is “Park,” not “Bark.”

│¶NOTE TO READERS│

In connection with typogarphical errors, allow us to repeat our prediction that we will progressively approach zero incidence. We know full well that we can be ninety-nine point repeater-nine percent sure that to predict accurately one must include the prediction that there will be inaccurate pridictions. But we are constantly upgrading our redundantant safeguards agains error and are confident of ultimate success. We need only point analousgoly to the sarfe and inficient usaaaghs of unclear injury.

│Ωendt│ END RUN