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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
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| Ego-Likeness | ||
| An extremely detailed portrait played through a shigawire projector; capable of reproducing minute movements said to convey the ego essence of a person. |
This is a remarkable idea; it is more than a portrait, and more than a recording of a person's mannerisms. It is a portrait which presents a likeness that is evocative of the person himself or herself. It would be a picture that would remain true regardless of how the person changed their external appearance with hair length or color, beard or no beard, and so forth. The impression given in the book is that this is an expensive process; only the wealthy can afford it.
| My father, the Padishah Emperor, took me by the hand one day and I sensed in the ways my mother had taught me that he was disturbed. He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides. I marked the strong resemblance between them--my father and this man in the portrait--both with thin, elegant faces and sharp features dominated by cold eyes. "Princess-daughter,"my father said, "I would that you'd been older when it came time for this man to choose a woman." My father was 71 at the time and looking no older than the man in the portrait, and I was but 14, yet I remember deducing in that instant that my father secretly wished the Duke had been his son, and disliked the political necessities that made them enemies. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
From the standpoint of technology, an ego-likeness is "portraiture reproduced through a shigawire projector that is capable of reproducing subtle movements said to convey the ego essence."
Dune, for all of its action and technology, is a deeply introspective work. Although various forms of consciousness are explored (including transcendent states), the ego of the person is important and is left intact.
See also construct, a kind of artificial intelligence program that comprises the personality of a person.
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and Technology from Dune
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news articles:
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- Motessense - NTT Defines Your Attractive Personality
- Amitabh Bachchan Wins Personality Protection
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| Transparent MicroLED Screen From Samsung |
| Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book |
| TCL CSOT 17-Inch Printed OLED Scrolling Display |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
