Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"This category [science fiction] excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."
- Robert Heinlein
 |
| Extra-Factual Memory | ||
| A "memory" placed in a person's mind by artifice, rather than by real life experience. |
This is a really remarkable idea; in it we find the basis for much of today's experience economy. For example, when you go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, you can experience a safari. Well, not a real safari - but when you try to remember it days later, you have a remarkable and complete set of memories that were all "implanted" by Disney magic: you remember the loud diesel-powered engines (the vehicles are gas/electric, and silent at the right times), the smell of the diesel engine (only once, at the start - nobody wants to go on a 10 minute safari with that smell the whole time) and so on.
At Rekal, Incorporated, they have the technology to really make it work.
| "Is an extra-factual memory that convincing?" Quail asked. "More than the real thing, sir...our analysis of true-mem systems - authentic recollections of major events in a person's life - shows that a variety of details are very quickly lost..." ...Quail said, "Okay...I guess I'll have to settle for this." "Don't think of it that way," McClane said severely. "You're not accepting second-best. The actual memory, with all its vagueness ... that's second-best." |
| Technovelgy from We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Fantasy and SF in 1966 Additional resources -
|
The novel also calls the process of implanting memories "vicarious surrogate retrospection."
This 1966 short story was the basis of the movie Total Recall, with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Research has been done on implanting false memories. One study shows participants a set of 12 words, all of which are closely related to a common, emotional word. For example, you might use words like upset, unhappy, displeased, furious, etc. - every word but the common related word, namely, angry. The studies show that when participants are asked days later to recall the words, about 40% "remember" the word angry.
Compare to the movie pill from Ben Gleed, King of Speed (1939) by Don Wilcox.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Extra-Factual Memory-related
news articles:
- New Technique Detects False Memories
- Northwestern Researchers Can Remember It For You Wholesale
- Russians Enjoy 'Total Recall'-Style Fake Vacations
- Hack Your Reality The Virtual Way
- First Artificial Memory Formed In Animals
| Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine |
| The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On |
| Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones |
| Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
