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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Mediatron | ||
| A paper-thin networked computer display. |
Actually, I think they look just exactly like a piece of paper. Displays on a very thin film are available today. A prototype "electronic paper" display screen has been produced by E Ink; the entire display, including the substrate, is just 0.3 millimeters (about half the thickness of a credit card).
| Bud took a seat and skimmed a mediatron from the coffee table; it looked exactly like a dirty, wrinkled, blank sheet of paper. "'Annals of Self-Protection,'" he said, loud enough for everyone else in the place to hear him. The logo of his favorite meedfeed coalesced on the page. Mediaglyphics, mostly the cool animated ones, arranged themselves in a grid. Bud scanned through them until he found the one that denoted a comparison of a bunch of different stuff, and snapped at it with his fingernail. New mediaglyphics appeared, surrounding larger pictures in which Annals staff tested several models of skull guns against live and dead targets. |
| Technovelgy from The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
An E Ink display consists of a thin plastic film on which millions of tiny microcapsules are deposited. The microcapsules are filled with dark and light particles which carry opposite electric charges. This sheet is, in turn, bonded to steel foil. Depending on the direction of an electric field from the steel foil transistor substrate, either the dark or the light particles are drawn to the surface, generating a pixel of that color.
Be sure to see the news story Philips Active-Matrix Rollable Display to see prototypes of this very technovelgy item.
Compare to the palimpscreen from The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Naylor and the memo-voice from War Game (1959) by Philip K. Dick.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Diamond Age
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Mediatron-related
news articles:
- Siemens Working On Stephenson's 'Mediatron'
- A4-Sized Color E-Paper Unrolled By Philips
- E-Paper By Bridgestone: Ultrathin And Supersized
- Philips Flexible E-Paper World's Highest Resolution
- Disposable E-Readers?
- Sony Flexible Color E-Paper
- Interactive Storytelling On iPad
- Flexible E-Paper Finally Coming Out!
- When Do I Get My Cheap, Flexible Touchscreen?
- Store Electricity In Paper - Next Stop, E-Paper!
| Transparent 4K OLED Wireless TV From LG |
| DOTPad Braille Device Offers Live Access |
| Transparent MicroLED Screen From Samsung |
| Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book |
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'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.'
'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
