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"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Neuro-netsukes  
  A small sculpture containing the personality of a living person.  

This item is very similar to a construct, taken from the work of William Gibson. What I liked about this image is that it takes a traditional Japanese miniature artform and combines it with a miniaturized technology.

"A number of cowardly keiretsu lords could attest to this fact - if only they were able to speak, that is. He had amassed quite a collection of their extracted consciousnesses, utilizing the compression technique that the young master had so expertly developed for him.

Neuro-netsukes, that's what the old man jokingly called them. Brain bonsai! He had a dozen figurines on display inside a glass cabinet....

Each of his former enemies had been transformed into a singularly unique work of art.

Technovelgy from Rim, by Alexander Besher.
Published by HarperPaperbacks in 1994
Additional resources -

A netsuke is a small ivory carving. There were no pockets in Japanese clothing 300 years ago. Women carried small items tucked into their sleeves within the wide obi, a sash around their waists. Men tied a small bag to a cord and pulled the cord up under the obi where it would be kept from slipping by a Netsuke made of stone, gourd or root. The word "netsuke" comes from two words meaning "root" and "fastener."

Netsuke evolved into a collectible form of miniature sculpture; netsukes are often carved in the form of animals and heroes.

Compare to the construct from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Rim
  More Ideas and Technology by Alexander Besher
  Tech news articles related to Rim
  Tech news articles related to works by Alexander Besher

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