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"...if you want to know what your future looks like, don't waste your time on Analog; read Time magazine. We are already saturated in the future. "
- Peter Watts

Death-rattle File  
  A cache of information set to destroy itself upon the death of its owner.  

"I note everything, Lars. Yes, it's in my death-rattle file." Death-rattle ... the fireproof, Third-World-War proof, Titanian bolecricket-proof, well-hidden file-cases which were rigged to detonate in the event of Morris' death. He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat. Even Lars did not know where the files currently existed...
Technovelgy from The Zap Gun (Project Plowshare), by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1965
Additional resources -

One of the reasons I included this item is that it is a very early reference to the idea of a tag or medallion that performed a medical monitoring function, and then communicated particular events wirelessly to another location.

For us today, this is an old idea; we've all seen the commercials for medic-alert medallions worn by people who say "I've fallen, and I can't get up..."

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Zap Gun (Project Plowshare)
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Zap Gun (Project Plowshare)
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Death-rattle File-related news articles:
  - Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick

Articles related to Medical
BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed
Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System
Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue
'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms

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Science Fiction in the News

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'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'

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I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.

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