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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in Babel-17
by Samuel R. Delany

This novel won the nebula award in 1968. It is a classic story, combining many fascinating characters and an interplanetary war that is ultimately stopped by a famous poet and her intuitive understanding of language and meaning.

(Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany)

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:

Union Of Driver And Vehicle (and Astronaut And Spacecraft?)
   Toyota has announced a concept vehicle that is seeks the union of car and driver. How about the union of astronaut and spacecraft?

Shape-Memory Polymers Temperature Morphing
   Special polymers perform amazing stunts in response to modest temperature changes.

Useful Body Modifications - The Ruler Tattoo
   Do you have a useful body modification? I could really have used a nice ruler tattoo when building decks over summer vacations.

InfoChemistry And Self-Folding Origami
   DARPA is moving right along on their programmable matter project.

Stable Motor Memory For Mastery Of Prosthetics
   There is no limit to the type or variety of prosthetic device your brain could learn to control. Time to start thinking of unique implants - Samuel R. Delany has a few ideas.

Spherical Soft Robots Use Shape Memory Alloys
   These soft body robots move by deforming their own structure - and they're safer for soft humans to be around than those clumsy rigid body robots. Unless they're Rovers.

Fingertip Tracking Interface For Mobile Phones
   Will the multi-touch give way to the multi-gesture? Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Augmented Reality Tattoo Flaps Wings
   Well, if you can't implement it in hardware, maybe you can make it work in software.

eyeSight Gesture Control Of Android Phones
   A wave of your hand controls your phone - and it can be used for gaming, too.

Robotic 'Third Thumb' Rewires Your Brain
   'When he's connected up to your nervous system, you'll be able to make him whistle, hiss, roar, flap his wings and spit sparks...' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

Gesture-Controlled iPads?
   What do you think, you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hands in the air?

NASA's 'Armstrong' Soft Wearable Upper Extremity Garment
   'Exact same articulation as your shoulder joint, and it holds your muscles out of the way...' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

Low-Cost, Implantable Electronics Get Closer
   Better coatings need to become a reality, before science-fictional devices can come into being.

FingerIO Active Sonar Smartphone Finger Tracking
   'Wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope.' - Douglas Adams, 1979.

Will There Be A Digital Afterlife?
   'A quick exchange of energies resulting from the relocation of discorporate states.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1968.

'North Sense' Wearable Piercing From Cyborg Nest
   'The fingers opened from the many-scaled stellarimeter grafted onto his palm.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

Shape-Memory Metal Transforms Millions Of Times
   'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.' - Samuel R. Delany

MIT's aeroMorph Technology
   '... It falls into that structure like a rubber figure returning to shape.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

MSG Sphere Las Vegas, ala Star Wars
   'The smoky globe, hung in the vault, was shot with colored light...' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

How To Encode The 'Memory' Of Materials
   'Just jar it, and it falls into that structure like a rubber figure returning to shape.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

Shape-Shifting Robot From MIT
   '... the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966.

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