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"...the elements of cyberpunk have dissolved into the whole SF genre, so it’s hard to find anyone writing who doesn’t owe serious debts to Gibson and his crew."
- Richard Morgan

Screamer  
  An acoustic weapon.  

Before exiting myself I threw a screamer out onto the sidewalk and quickly pushed the stopples into my ears.

The screamer sounded off and everyone began to leave quickly. You have to leave quickly when you hear one of these things. They send out a mixed brew of devilish sounds at the decibel level of a major earthquake. Some are audible, sounds like a magnified fingernail on a blackboard, while others are supersonic and produce sensations of panic and imminent death. Harmless and highly effective. The street was otherwise empty when I walked out to the car that was just pulling up to the curb. My head was throbbing with the supersonics that got past the plugs and I was more than happy to slip through the open door and relax while Angelina gunned the machine down the street.

Technovelgy from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge, by Harry Harrison.
Published by Pyramid in 1970
Additional resources -

Compare to the Garbage-Can Banger from Philip K. Dick's 1965 novel The Zap Gun.

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Science Fiction in the News

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'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'

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'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.

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'A cybercab dogged their heels...'

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'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'

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'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'

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'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'

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