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"The way you write science fiction is: you sit down at your writing machine and you open your mind to the first thought that comes through."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Palm Plate | ||
| A device that scanned for a palm print prior to opening a door. |
Nyeeda, the personal secretary to the Matriarch who administered all of Earth, wanted access to Comain, the supercomputer that provided predictions and instructions. Not everyone was provided with unrestricted access to Comain, however.
| An elevator carried Nyeeda deep into the heart of the building and she left the cage at a point three hundred feet below sea level. A metamen, its scanning eyes flaring with ruby light, stepped before her, then, as she gave the password, stood aside and let her pass. A short passage opened into a wide area, and crossing it, the girl pressed her palm against a sensitised plate sunken into the wall beside the thin slit of a closed door. Machinery hummed as the lines of her palm registered on the plate, and, the pattern tripping electronic relays, the door slid smoothly to one side, exposing a small chamber. |
| Technovelgy from The Mechanical Monarch,
by E.C. Tubb. Published by Ace Books in 1958 Additional resources -
|
The palm plate is an early description of what we would today call a biometric identification system.
Compare to the palm lock from Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert.
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
