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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in The Diamond Age
by Neal Stephenson

The novel takes place in a future Shanghai. Many different stories are woven together in this novel; the plot centers around a stolen supercomputer in the form of a small book, or Primer, created for a patron's daugher.

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:

VeriChip Provides Emergency ID
   A radio frequency identification (RFID) product called VeriChip is now being used in a controversial pilot program in Mexico to help identify missing children.

Epson uFR Micro Flying Robot
   Epson announced today that it has developed the uFR Micro Flying Robot, a prototype using micromechatronics (hey - and you were looking for a new-word-for-the-day) technology.

Veripay Credit-Card Implant
   Advanced Digital Solutions intends to use its implanted RFID (radio frequency identification) VeriChips as a method of payment at the upcoming ID World 2003 in Paris, France.

Philips Rollable Display (Active-Matrix)
   These remarkable displays are flexible, and can be rolled up and put away when not needed.

Reversible LCD: Two-Sided Electronic Paper
   Mitsubishi has a prototype reversible LCD panel; a two-sided liquid crystal display that can show different images on each side. Like two-sided smart paper!

Poweriser: Extreme Sports Gear from The Diamond Age
   In The Diamond Age, author Neal Stephenson creates a vivid picture of a future Shanghai. The novel mixes "futuristic" devices based on nanotechnology with simpler mechanical devices that are almost Victorian in their simplicity... Imagine my surpri

Toshiba SD-Book: An E-Book With Two Pages
   This unique electronic book has two LCD displays in a very familiar configuration. You have your favorite book open before you, and read it without ever turning a page.

Sony LIBRIe E-Ink Electronic Book Update
   The Sony LIBRie electronic book solves the most serious problems of past e-book hardware. And, in the near future, it may be able to replace parchment copies of The Daily Prophet, the wizard newspaper from Harry Potter.

JewelEye - Innovative Body Piercing Update
   You've seen it everywhere (and lots of places you haven't seen it) - piercings and tatooing. But you'd need to go to the Netherlands to see eyeball jewelry.

COTS Scout: Team Building Robot
   The COTS Scout robot is learning to play well with others - and to work as part of a search and rescue team.

Baja Beach Club Implants VeriChip In Customers
   The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain is the first business to use the VeriChip System to grant customers access to VIP areas and provide an easy payment option.

Combat Feeding: Just Add Water - Any Water
   Soldiers in the field carry their own food; one day's supply weighs about 3.5 kilograms. However, remove the water, and it only weighs 0.4 kg. But where can you find potable water in the field?

uFR-II Micro Flying Robot - (Lighter) Son of Micro Flying Robot
   Micro flying robot enthusiasts rejoice! Now you can revel in the (lighter) son of the uFR Micro Flying Robot - uFR-II.

Self-Cleaning Fabric - Polymer Film Sprinkled With Silver Nanoparticles
   Researchers at Clemson University are trying to make your clothes cleaner - permanently. The secret is a polymer film of polyglycicidyl methacrylate sprinkled with silver nanoparticles.

Nano Quadrotors Form Stephenson's Dog Pod Grid
   If you haven't seen this video, it's a remarkable implementation of an sfnal idea.

Ethiopian Children Learn From Diamond Age Primers
   'The book spoke in a lovely contralto, with an accent like the very finest Vickys.'- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Siemens Working On Stephenson's 'Mediatron'
   Siemens has lowered the price of thin, flexibles displays enough to bring the mediatron, a flexible, updatable newspaper, into reality.

R7 Ridable Robot
   Neal Stephenson, among others, saw this one coming.

Autonomous UAV Surveillance Swarm
   Fascinating realization of work by Neal Stephenson and Roger Zelazny.

Self-Cleaning Sportswear
   Newfangled clothing may never need to be washed - even your old gym socks.

Book-Style Interface For Web, TV, Radio
   Watanabe is slowly working toward a future written by Neal Stephenson and posited by MIT's Media Lab.

A4-Sized Color E-Paper Unrolled By Philips
   South Korea's LG Philips does it again with this amazing full sheet of e-paper.

Skullcandy G.I. Headphones Not Quite Skullgun
   I'm not sure if you can get this one through an airport or not.

E-Paper By Bridgestone: Ultrathin And Supersized
   Your foldable, crushable, tossable e-paper will be ready by 2009; see a sample now.

Digital Billboards Fighting Crime 451-Style
   Digital billboards are being used for more than just pushing consumer junk.

Philips Flexible E-Paper World's Highest Resolution
   LG Philips will be showing this flexible e-paper next week, but you can see it today on Technovelgy.

Self-Cleaning Wool And Silk Fabrics
   Self-cleaning clothing would be great; it would be particularly good for clothes that ordinarily must be dry-cleaned, like wool and silk.

Duroquinone Molecule Nano-Brain
   Absurdly small computer can outperform the typical transistor.

AND The Kitchen Sync
   Interesting idea for a different kind of appliance in your kitchen - a more usable cookbook.

Gina Cloth-Covered Car From BMW
   Watch the video to see how much this prototype car acts like a mammal with skin; I think we need to talk about exactly what sfnal properties the skin should have.

Two Page E-Book Makes Readers Flip
   This is an idea that has been tried before; take a look at the video and then see what Toshiba developed four years ago.

Microgrippers Grab, Cut Tissue Internally
   Interesting new microsurgical technique is uncomfortably similar to a Neal Stephenson device.

Micro Imagers For Sensing On Nano Air Vehicles
   Tiny eyes are needed for tiny surveillance drones - and DARPA's MSI program is designing them.

Courier Tablet Computer - Microsoft's Prototype
   Interesting two-page tablet computer prototype from Microsoft is very similar to a Toshiba prototype from almost five years ago. Does it make you think of a runcible?

Courier Tablet Computer Video Reveals Features
   This short video shows off the capabilities of Microsoft's Courier tablet prototype. Do you see features here that are worth having?

Seawater To Cool Downtown Honolulu
   Water will be pumped from the oceans depths to cool buildings in downtown Honolulu.

Flyfire Micro-Helicopter Display
   Tiny UAVs fly in formation like fireflies, 'self-stabilizing and precise controlling technology' makes a 'spatially animated viewing experience' possible.

Multi-Page E-Book Tablet Roundup
   Did you know that Microsft's innovative design for an ebook was introduced six years ago by Toshiba? Even earlier by Neal Stephenson.

Text 2.0 Smart Text
   Are you reading it, or is it reading you?

Improve MAVs By Studying Bees In Flight
   Nature has solved the problem of flight by tiny machines; let's see how She did it.

Disposable E-Readers?
   E-Readers could be cheap enough to read the content and then throw away.

Largest Micro-Drone Swarm Release Successful
   '... Programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Self-Cleaning SilverSport Gym Gear Uses Nanosilver
   Stinky gym gear now a thing of the past?

Sony Flexible Color E-Paper
   SF writers love the idea of e-paper.

Interactive Storytelling On iPad
   The iPad moves further into a science-fictional future.

Flexible E-Paper Finally Coming Out!
   Finally - the floppy pad! No more hard pads!

Filabot Turns Dull Plastic Junk To 3D Printed Shiny
   'Whenever Nell's clothes got too small for her, Harv would pitch them into the deke bin and then have the M.C. make new ones.'-Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Superomniphobic Fabrics Are Super Clean
   'Most gentlemen's and ladies' gloves nowadays were constructed of infinitesimal fabricules that knew how to eject dirt...'- Neal Stephenson, 1995

Mu-Gripper Microsurgical 'Robots'
   'It took about seven minutes ... for the cookie cutters to be randomly distributed throughout the victim's organs and limbs.'- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

When Do I Get My Cheap, Flexible Touchscreen?
   'Bud ... snapped at it with his fingernail. New mediaglyphics appeared...'- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Electro-Cosmetics Let You Input With Your Face
   Hi, I'm Katia. I'm a superhero.

Race Into The Future With Bionic Boots
   'The tremendous loping strides afforded by such devices... '- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Robot Swarm Performs Colonoscopy And Biopsy
   'There was ... the Seven Minute Special...'- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Synthetic Coral To Clean The Seas?
   'Numberless capillaries arranged in a belt around the smart coral reef...'- Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Store Electricity In Paper - Next Stop, E-Paper!
   'It looked exactly like a dirty, wrinkled, blank sheet of paper.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Drone Catches Drone! In Japan
   'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995

Biggest Drone Swarm Sets World Record
   Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously.

Textiles Self-Cleaning In Sunlight
   'You could thrust your gloved hand into mud, and it would be white a few seconds later' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Drone 100, Coordinated Drone Performance Team
   'The real border was... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

3D Printed Prosthetic Coral
   Be sure to read The Diamond Age - still worth it.

China's Drone Fleet Flies In Formation
   'Programmed to hang... in a hexagonal grid pattern.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Crazyflie Drone Swarm Technology
   '...Programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Slaughterbot AI KIller Quadcopter Drones
   'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones'
   'Royal Security had told the pods to electrocute you or blast you into chum.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Ionocraft Drone Powered By Electrohydrodynamic Thrust
   'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Tiny LEDs Developed For Dust-Sized Computers
   'They use sparkles to talk to each other...' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Finally! Microsoft Surface Neo And Surface Duo Implement Excellent Courier Idea
   'Runcible, whose pages were thicker and more densely packed with computational machinery...' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Surface Film Repels All Bacteria
   'Most gentlemen's and ladies' gloves nowadays were constructed of infinitesimal fabricules that knew how to eject dirt...'- Neal Stephenson, 1995

Magnetically Driven Rotary Microfilter 3D Printed
   '... not really walls but nearly infinite grids of submicroscopic wheels.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces
   'the real border was defended by ...a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats...' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier?
   'The border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

CoulombFly Solar-Powered Micro Aerial Vehicle Weighs 4.1 Grams
   'the monitors - almond-sized aerostats...' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.

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