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"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
 |
| Cutoff Switch | ||
| A means of instantaneously switching off an artificial intelligence. |
Switching the Hal 9000 computer back on is not without peril.
| "What is it?" asked Curnow with mild distaste, hefting the little mechanism in his hand. "A guillotine for mice?"
"Not a bad description - but I'm after bigger game." Floyd pointed to a flashing arrow on the display screen, which was now showing a complicated circuit diagram. "You see this line?" "Yes - the main power supply. So?" "This is the point where it enters Hal's central processing unit. I'd like you to install this gadget here. Inside the cable trunking, where it can't be found without a deliberate search." "I see. A remote control, so you can pull the plug on Hal whenever you want to. Very neat - and a nonconducting blade, too, so there won't be any embarrassing shorts when it's triggered. Who makes toys like this? The CIA?" "Never mind. The control's in my room - that little red calculator I always keep on my desk. Put in nine nines, take the square root, and press INT. That's all..." |
| Technovelgy from 2010: Odyssey Two,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Not known in 1982 Additional resources -
|
Here is the quote showing the name used in the novel:
Compare to the electromagnetic shotgun from Neuromancer (1984), by William Gibson and the AI control portal from The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Naylor.
As he floated behind Dr. Chandra in the zero-gravity environment of Discovery's flight deck, Floyd's mind was seldom far from the cutoff switch, installed and tested only a few hours earlier...
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'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
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'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
'Gaines and Harvey mounted tumblebugs, and kept abreast of the Cadet Captain...'
