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"The only real way to maintain privacy is to be uninteresting. It may be that privacy is a passing fad."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Neuronic Whip | ||
| A weapon that stimulated the nerve endings to cause extreme discomfort. |
This is the reference that most (older!) science fiction fans will remember, but see below for an earlier reference.
| And then the guard's gurgle dissolved into words. He yelled, 'I'll get you all!' and the very pale, almost invisible shimmer of the ionized air in the path of the whip's energy beam made its appearance. It swept wide through the air, and the path of the beam intersected Biron's foot. It was as though he had stepped into a bath of boiling lead. Or as if a granite block had toppled upon it. Or as if it had been crunched off by a shark. Actually, nothing had happened to it physically. It was only that the nerve endings that governed the sensation of pain had been universally and maximally stimulated. Boiling lead could have done no more. |
| Technovelgy from The Stars, Like Dust,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
An earlier use of "neuronic" is the neuronic control apparatus from Masson's Secret, by Raymond Z. Gallun, published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1939.
In The Green Girl, a 1930 story by Jack Williamson, we find a very early, maybe the earliest, use of the term "neuronic" in science fiction:
I think the radium had somehow set up neuronic circuits between the cells, like the circuits between the neurone cells in our brains.
And now that I think about it, the first use of neuronic whip is still by Asimov, but a decade earlier, in The Hazing (1942):
“You are going to get out of bed,” replied the apparition stolidly. “Dress, and come with me.”Williams grinned savagely. “Try and make me.”
There was no answer, but the flash beam shifted slightly and fell upon the shadow’s other hand. It held a “neuronic whip,” that pleasant little weapon that paralyzes the vocal cords and twists nerves into so many knots of agony. Williams swallowed hard, and got out of bed.
Readers might also be reminded of the pain box from Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune; it also caused pain by nerve induction.
This item was contributed by Winchell Chung.
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