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Just read "A for Andromeda" by Fred Hoyle and John Elliott. It was a simultaneous novelisation, appearing with the 1961 BBC TV series. The writing was by Elliott; the science and the way the British science establishment works was by Hoyle, a prominent astronomer.
I dimly remember seeing the TV series as a kid, and it was pretty scarey, having a suble air of inevitable doom about it. The book successfully conveys the same atmosphere.
A new supersensitive radio telescope picks up a faint, but unmistakably artificial, transmission from M31, another galaxy far away.
Recorded and laboriously decoded proves to be a 3-part message contained instructions on building a supercomputer, plus its operating system, plus a programme; all being broadcast endlessly into space from somewhere in M31.
One of the people involved in the project realises it's potential danger, and fights a bureaucratic and scientific rearguard action. It all ends badly.
The TV series introduced actress Julie Christie to a wide audience, spawned a sequel, and was even remade many years later.
The book's a great read, had aged well, but only seems to be available as a pbook. Mine is a rather tatty Corgi paperback with a still from the TV series on the cover.
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