Someone recently pointed to the <b>Technovelgy Site</b> - a very
cool attempt to cite technological predictions made in sci fi novels.
(http://www.technovelgy.com) This is nothing like the systematic
approach to registering predictions that I am urging but it certainly
is a step... though a glance at my own entry seems fairly skimpy,
given that Earth just had its 14th predictive "hit".
<i>(Alert! Danger! Egomaniacal preening is about to begin!)</i>
Right off the bat I can think of plenty of other items that someone
(ahem) might suggest to the site manager. (I think they also want to
cite an actual passage from the book, making this process more
complex and too time consuming even for an egotist like me, alas.)
For example:
Subvocal user-computer interface shown in EARTH (1989) which NASA
reports inventing in 2003.
Personality profiling (SUNDIVER) which is now a hot topic using PET
scanning... though no one is using yet the inherently superior method
of eye-tracking.
Uplift genetic engineering of animals (um....)
WOM or Write Only Memory (Brightness Reef) a recording device that
is required to be carried on all ships or cars, that cannot be read
until the owner releases the information, or for an extended time.
Predictions Registry (EARTH) hey, might as well get credit for this, too.
EMILYPOST viral politeness programs (EARTH) target rude internet users.
Information sieves (EARTH) - programs that sift the Net for content
according to your tastes and priorities, learning as they go. They
can either enhance productivity or be used to exclude all incoming
information that might disagree with your favorite illusions. (Sound
like Rush dittoheads?)
Illusion-<i>breaker</i> programs that pierce these sieves and force
Net users to perceive news or opinions outside their tailor-made
perception range. (EARTH)
Hostage Gas (Uplift War) forces a population to voluntarily go to
internment camps in order to get antidotes to a toxin.
Waldo Whale (Sundiver) lets a human swim like a dolphin or orca.
Waldo walker and tools (Startide Rising) allows dolphins to move and
work outside of water.
Needle-Gym - A simulation-exercise room with needle floor
("NatuLife"). A million needles on the bottom of a tiny, closet-size
"exercise room" rise and fall to simulate any ground or surface, from
a street to forest trail, acting also like a treadmill, so that you
can run and feel under your feet any surface that the computer shows
you in your simulation goggles.
Tether space station. A station in two parts, separated by a 100
mile tether, will orbit the Earth in a way that aligns along a
radius, deriving "gravity gradient" forces that let liquids settle
and provides a sense of up and down. ("Tank Farm".)
A Womb with a View. Intra-utero teaching unit. Installed to help a
fetus learn before birth and get a leg-up on other pre-pre
preschoolers. ("Dr. Pak's Preschool")
Fabricows - cattle and other creatures that create gene-designed
biomachinery in their wombs. Also complex synthetic chemicals
instead of milk. Poor women might also do this, creating
super-advanced organic entities the old fashioned way. ("Piecework").
GAZER or gravity laser (EARTH) uses singularity "mirrors" to tap the
higher energy levels within the Earth and emit tuned, focused,
coherent graviton beams.
I just dashed these off. Any others occur at a thought? Anybody
care to compile and tell these guys? (I guess this topic thread can
be continued here while we move on.) Hey, these days, below a
certain level of fame, you gotta do your own [EMAIL PROTECTED] preening.
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