Old sci-fi book about testing babies

[Highroller]

Ok I read this in the 1968 to 1972 time frame (I think). It was an older beat-up paperback so was published even earlier I would say. In it the babies were tested and some were "rejected " as being defective. A man doesn't accept that his baby is really defective and investigates and finds the "rejects" are really the best and brightest and they are raised to colonize another World/dimension. He finds that the cyborg which is a human merged with a computer that is in control of the society also was a "reject". I want to say the "rejects" are marked with a visible mark which the cyborg shows the man he has too. I remember the cyborg straining to lift the limb it has the mark on out of the tank he is in...I think the colonization was via a portal of some kind. I believe the cyborg and the portal were both on some sort of space station orbiting the planet. Not sure but I don't think the planet was earth...If anyone else can pin down an author or name of the book I would be so appreciative.

[Nesacat]

I am sorry that I do not know this book but i do hope someone else does. I would like very much to read it.

[thepaladin]

Same here, it rings no bells...but I didn't want you to feel no one had looked...hope some one can help.

[Omphalos]

Ringing no bells here, either. Sounds like something PKD would have come up with though.

[Highroller]

Originally Posted by Omphalos

Ringing no bells here, either. Sounds like something PKD would have come up with though.

Well at first I thought it was by Douglas Mason. I have read 2 or 3 by him that were one person against the whole society so to speak but I checked his list of works and found a thumbnail sketch of most if not all of them that I didn't have a copy of. Then I thought maybe Edmond Cooper same on their work.

Part of the problem is while I remember pretty close to when I read it, it was an old beat-up coverless pb so I have no real clue when it was published. And a lot of the details I remember may be a bit paraphrased. As an example I remember the cyborg ie the human merged with the computer but I am not sure it was called a cyborg. May have been referred to by a title. I know the babies/infants were tested but I don't remember if there was a certain term used for the testing. I don't remember any names of the characters. I have tried every combination I can think of doing searches on google but no luck so far.

I got 4 or 5 message base sites trying to id it so hopefully I'll get lucky. Several people wanting to read it if I can ID it (lol). One person is pretty sure they read it but can't remember title or author either... One of the books I IDed for someone they had been looking for for 2 years so its way too soon to give up )

At worst going through other people's posts I found what sounds like books I would like to read myself so onward !!

Thanks for all those than have tried to ID it.

[Highroller]

Bump. Hope someone can remember this one. Still looking.

[Metryq]

Many of the details do not match, but the general theme sounds like the Asimov short "Profession." Children are tested every few years throughout their school years so that they can be channeled into professions for which they are best suited. At "graduation," they compete in the "Olympics" for the best jobs in the off-planet colonies.

The main character cannot be pigeonholed and is told he is a "reject." He resents the "home for rejects" where he is sent. After running away and trying to take on the world, he learns that the "rejects" are all the people who can think independently and come up with new technologies and advance civilization. The fiction of being a "reject" is best for everyone—those people who can be programmed to carry out known trades feel good about their stature, and independent thinkers must figure it out themselves to be truly worthy of their position.

[Highroller]

Still scratching my head over this one.

[J-Sun]

As Omphalos says, it sounds like PKD - specifically Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970) except that the cyborg/portal bit isn't quite right. But that could be another story creeping in. The part about defectives, the son, the father refusing, the leader being a different sort of weird person, another person arriving from space (in an alien ship), etc. - all that sounds right. If it's not that, sorry and good luck.