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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in Neuromancer
by William Gibson

Remarkable first novel won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award and the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award. The novel kicks off the cyberpunk movement in earnest with the story of Case, a computer hacker unable to practice his trade because his brain was burned out by a former client. He is hired to commit a daring act of computer theft by a new client who is not what he (or it) seems.

Science fiction in the News articles describe real-world events that relate to the ideas and inventions in sf novels and movies. Select a news article:

Vocaloid Voice - Soul Singing Synthesis
   Are you tired of listening to poor quality voice synthesis? Had enough of those monotone recitations of email? Wondering what to do with all those song lyric sites strewn across the Internet? You're in for a treat.

Desktop Manufacturing - 3D 'Printouts'
   Unlike other systems that are more expensive and energy intensive, this machine can work with a relatively low-tech electrical heater filament.

Robovac Visualizes Your Home
   The Samsung robotic vacuum cleaner draws a three-dimensional map of its environment to enable more efficient (both in time and energy) cleaning.

Artificial Cornea Helps Pigs See
   According to the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences, scientists have succeeded in creating artificial corneas.

ThereminVision Sensor: Robot Proximity Detection
   ThereminVision is a robotic sensing system that uses the same basic principle as the world's first electronic musical instrument, the Theremin.

Tooth Bud From Stem Cells Looms Large
   Implanted tooth buds created from stem cells may replace false teeth. This procedure has been shown to work in mice, and may work in humans as well.

Global Water Crisis
   An excellent article from The Scientist provides excellent details about the global water crisis, and some possible solutions.

GlowRing: Light Without Power
   The GlowRing will glow for up to ten years in funky colors. GlowRings do not require any external power source (and no internal source - a battery - either!)

ConeXpress OLEV - Will A Good Tug Save Hubble?
   The ConeXpress Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (CX-OLEV) may be able to serve as a "space tug" that could extend the life of the Hubble telescope.

AgBots: Agricultural Robots Take The Field
   In one memorable scene from the original Star Wars movie, Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen is bargaining for agricultural robots with Jawas. Agriculture has been slow to adopt to robotic technology; however, some new developments are on the horizon.

Data Mining In Three Dimensions
   Graphical representation of information is not new; the first graphs appeared in the late eighteenth century. More recently, Sandia National Laboratories has created a data mining and visualization software suite that is able to accept information fr

Robot Crab: Crustacean Clockwork Automata
   This robot crab is more clockwork than automata, but be sure to see the cool and menacing video.

Chips In Your Head - Artificial Brain Prosthesis Under Development
   In the spirit of works by William Gibson, a silicon chip implant that mimics the hippocampus is under development.

WiFi Hog - Early Xmas For Nihilistic Technofetishists
   Do you long to stake your claim to the wireless wide open spaces? Here's the tool for the bandwidth hog (cybersquatter?) in all of us.

US Company Implants Chips In Workers
   Well, it's finally happened - US workers get chipped like dogs.

Hit Song Science (HSS): Finetune Your Tracks
   A computer program called Hit Song Science (HSS) from Polyphonic HMI, is being used to predict success or failure for music. And it is being used by musicians around the world to "finetune" the music to which every one of us listens.

CSS Skywalker - First Step To SF Orbital Resorts
   CSS Skywalker, an orbital hotel designed by Bigelow Aerospace, will consist of a 22x45 foot inflatable space habitat that can be easily configured for its guests. In the configuration shown below, the top level is set aside as a lounge; the middle le

Smart Buildings And Network Security
   Smart buildings, which use building automation systems (BAS) to put air temperature, lighting and security on a common network, are popping up on college campuses and in the corporate world. So are security problems.

Jack Into A Cat's Brain
   In this study, Garett B. Stanley, Fei F. Li and Yang Dan have literally jacked into the mind of a cat.

WolframTones Cell Phone Tones From Cellular Automata
   Wintermute back on your cellphone, mon.

Implanted Biothermal RFID Chips May Warn Of Avian Flu
   Digital Angel, which makes VeriChips for humans, suggests using its thermal biosensing chips to check chickens for avian flu.

Chameleon T-Shirts With Electrochromic Polymers
   At last, William Gibson's polycarbon suit is starting to take shape - good news for all Panther Moderns.

WT-6 Waseda Talking Robot Head From Neuromancer
   Japanese roboticists are working hard on the talking head from Neurmancer - the one that talks without synth chips.

Chinese Cyberwar Units Prepare For Netwar
   Science fiction authors warned us and gave us the weapon concepts we needed - the Pentagon now tells us about Chinese netwar capabilities.

Mod My Life Site Working On Meat Puppets
   This is a uniquely disturbing site with a truly bizarre mission - to put you in control of another person.

Hexbug Robot Crab
   This little crab would good scuttling around on your desk; its sensors help it avoid the edge.

DoD Computers Penetrated In Cyber-Attack
   Attacks on DoD computers forced military leaders to brief President Bush this week; I wonder if they read to him from Neuromancer to help him understand it?

Virtual Body-Swapping Tech
   Can you accept the illusion of having swapped bodies with someone or something else? Yes you can!

Roadside LED Signs May Not Be Believed
   Got kind of a whiff of Neuromancer from this story; makes me think twice about those signs, though.

Total Health Surveillance Near
   Yes, that's right - 24 hours per day, 7 days per week medical monitoring is coming, whether you want to or not.

Bioengineered Mouse Tooth Bud Successfully Implanted
   As far as I know, this is the first successful creation and implantation of a tooth bud 'from scratch' that grows to full size and full tooth functionality.

WAHHA GO GO Laughing Head
   This baroque device recreates the sound of the human laugh by means of clever clockwork and reconstructions of human pipes and lips. Why make such a thing when synth chips cost nothing.

Emily Howell - The Computer Is The Composer
   Updated with new reference! Keep an eye out for the new CD by an artificially intelligent composer named Emily Howell.

Brain Coprocessor Platform Needed
   Do we need a Brain Implant Operating System?

IEM Pill Microchip Remote Monitoring Of Dosage
   It sends data to a Bluetooth-enabled dermal patch.

TellApart Ads Follow You On The Web
   Can a computer predict that you will be a customer, justifying its pursuit of you across the web?

Teeth From Stem Cells
   This research may someday permit your dentist to grow new teeth for you from your own stem cells.

Musical Robotic Head
   'An anthropomorphic robotic head with a human-like face and a sheet of artificial skin.'

Implanted Glucose Sensor Glows Thru Skin
   This approach may facilitate development of long-term, fluorescent, implanted continuous glucose sensors.

Korean Talking Robotic Head
   Another strange robotic head, that may come to a classroom near you. Some day.

Cyborg Rats Have Digital Brain Parts
   Someday, we'll have reprogrammable brain parts, which will come in handy.

Nicotine 'Vaccine' Under Development
   'You're biochemically incapable of getting off...'

How Smart Should Artificial Intelligences Get?
   '...The real smart ones are as smart as the Turing heat lets them get...'

China's PLA Unit 61398 Working On Kuang Grade Mark Eleven Penetration Program
   'When Kuang's good and bellytight with the Tessier-Ashpool core, we're ridin' that through...'- William Gibson, 1984.

Neurological Engineering - Creating Silicon Substrates For Brain Replacement
   "They all seemed to have carbon sockets planted behind the left ear..."- William Gibson, 1984.

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