Liu Cixin (刘慈欣). "圆" ["Yuán"]
Divergence: 227 BCE
What if: The life of assassin Jing Ke was spared by the Qin emperor Zheng.
Summary: Challenged to calculate the value of pi, Jing Ke develops the concepts of computer science.
Original in: Chinese.
Translation: English by Ken Liu as "The Circle", in Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction (eds. Ben Bova and Eric Choi), Tor 2014 (0765334305BUY).