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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Personality Simulator (Virtual Person) | ||
| A computer program that presents the appearance of being a person. |
This is a relatively early example of this idea.
| A pair of glowing eyes set in a coal black head rose briefly from the moat. A second later, the rest of the creature came surging into view, cascading sparks and lava down upon the traveler.
Alan – that was the elemental's favorite name – peered nearsightedly, his head weaving faintly from side to side as he tried to recognize the traveler. "Ah, I do believe we are honored with the presence of Mr. slippery, is it not so?" He finally said. Alan was a personality simulator, of course. Mr. slippery was sure that there had never been a living operator behind that toothless, glowing smile. But he was certainly one of the best, probably the product of many hundreds of blocks of psylisp programming, and certainly superior to the little "companionship programs" you can buy nowadays, which generally become repetitive after a few hours of conversation, which don't grow, and which are unable to counter weird responses... Satisfied, Allen waved a clawed fist at the watcher in the tower, and the gate – ceramic bound in wolfram clasps – was rapidly lowered for the visitor. |
| Technovelgy from True Names,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Dell Binary Star in 1981 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the Adam Selene from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein and the personality simulator in the Dosadi Experiment, a 1977 novel by Frank Herbert.
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| Anna Indiana AI Singer-Songwriter |
| Metaverse Hardware - Run And Flail Like A Maniac, Or Lie Quietly? |
| Virtual Co-Embodyment - Two People Control One Virtual Body |
| Sorry, Futurists! Tamagotchi Kids, Virtual Children Already Predicted By SF Writer in 2008 |
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'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
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'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
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'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
