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"The way you write science fiction is: you sit down at your writing machine and you open your mind to the first thought that comes through."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Personal Metallic Record Disc | ||
| A stamped metal record that contains all of a person's data in a convenient form. |
| I sat down in the chair, surrounded by delicate looking apparatus that was meaningless to me. The recorder adjusted a long tube that arched over my head. Suddenly, it glowed dully, and crackled with a high pitched note, continuing so for five minutes during which the recorder tabulated the readings of various instruments arranged in a bank.
 (From The Ancient Brain, 1929) He took the data and typed on the typing machine which in reality was a machine for photoelectrically recording the data on wire. When referred to, it was to be run through a revisualizing instrument which permitted one to see the particular datum desired. Jak explained that this method of filing took up very little room. Next, my examiner placed rings on my wrists and took accurate data on the state of health of my body, as Jak afterward told me. Finally, he handed me a stamped metallic disk. “That is all, sir. Your name has been registered as William 55203NL484 — it is on your stamp here. I found that you possess a large potential intelligence, and that health is excellent. I sincerely hope that you adjust yourself successfully to this world. And it will not be difficult with such wonderful assets." |
| Technovelgy from The Ancient Brain,
by A.G. Stangland. Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the identification ring from Sinister Barrier (1939) by Eric Frank Russell, feeler-planes and the trip-type record from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
