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"Real science opens windows for us to look through. We're right at the footsteps of the most interesting scientists around."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Pocket Projector | ||
| A personal device for replaying media. |
| "Yes I've heard that sort of talk; Seldon, Second Empire, and so on. They put kids to sleep at night with the stuff. The young squirts curl up in the spare room with their pocket projectors and suck up Seldon thrillers. But it's strictly non-adult. Non-intelligent adult anyway." The trader shook his head. |
| Technovelgy from Foundation and Empire,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1952 Additional resources -
|
One of the issues that fascinates me about this idea is the question of personal playback devices that were both small enough to fit in a pocket and were inexpensive enough to be given to children. In the modern era, we're used to the idea of the Walkman and the Nintendo game device, but what was available in the 1950's?
The only example I can think of is the Viewmaster, a simple mechanical device that used a circular piece of cardboard with tiny photographs for viewing. The Viewmaster was introduced in 1939.
Here's a sample commercial from the 1980's, thanks to the magic of Youtube:
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
