"The Programmed Universe" is not a novel. Nor is it a novella, although it is of the length generally belonging to that category. It is a romance in its purest form, and, as such, it is intended solely for entertainment. I have chosen the futuristic narrative as a vehicle for "The Programmed Universe" because, as Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg state in The Nature of Narrative (New York, 1966), the future is the "...true and natural territory..." of the romance. "Just as myth and history belong to the past and mimesis to the present, pure romance really belongs to the future, which is absolutely cut off from any possible reference to truth of fact or truth of sensation" (p. 228).
