What was this story about a knowledge giving hat?

March 14, 2015 9:58 AM

I recall reading a story about a society where you are given a choice between choosing to wear a hat which gives you immediate access to all human knowledge, or having to slave away for years to gain knowledge the old fashioned way. The dilemma is that the hat controls you to some degree. Can anyone identify this? I've tried many times over the years to Google for it, but have always come up empty.
posted by All Out of Lulz to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Not Brian Aldiss' The Long Afternoon of Earth? (Hothouse)
The "hat" is a fungus that sits on top of your head like a wig. It is immortal and knows everything, but controls your thoughts.
posted by bad grammar at 11:21 AM on March 14, 2015

This sounds a lot like the "Stream of Consciousness" episode of The Outer Limits.
posted by cr_joe at 11:30 AM on March 14, 2015

Helm, by Steven Gould?
posted by Etrigan at 1:30 PM on March 14, 2015

Some of the details are different, but it could be Profession by Asimov. In that story the catch isn't that the process controls you, but that it can only be done once (so skills obsolescence is an issue) and you lose the ability to innovate.
posted by PercyByssheShelley at 1:35 PM on March 14, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks folks. The Asimov and Aldiss stories sound the most likely based on the time they were written, I'm going to try to read them. I don't recall exactly when I read the story, but I think it was the mid 80s. I'm thinking the Asimov one might be the one since I remember grabbing a whole bunch of Asimov books from the library when I was that age.
posted by All Out of Lulz at 4:14 PM on March 14, 2015