Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Science and science fiction, how do you even distinguish the two?"
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Cyborg Collar | ||
| A device worn around the neck that controls the person for the duration of a working day. |
A Specter is Haunting Texas is a satirical novel set in a future version of Texas, where racial stereotypes are rigidly controlled. Mexican laborers are often required to wear a cyborg collar, allowing them to be controlled remotely.
| Moving about thrice as fast and in numbers a decimal order greater were the Mexicans, all of identical bent-back height and almost all afoot. About sixty percent wore the metal collars and antennae, and these were all furiously busy at various construction and deconstruction jobs; half of our street was torn up, buildings were being dismantled, others assembled, great masts reared, great holes dug. I even thought at first the collared workers could walk up walls - no strange sight to a space-dweller - until I noted that those on vertical surfaces were supported by slim wires, which they swiftly climbed or down-climbed...
Noting my special interest in the collared Mexicans, she explained disdainfully, "They are cyborgs, the estupidos. Their collars feed them orders and happiness - straight into their veins and nerves. From a distance foremen control them - after a fashion." She added the last phrase when two columns of cyborgs collided and instantly began a confused milling aimed at eventual disentanglement, like ants I had once watched in a flatland between grass. "They live like this forever?" I asked with some horror. "Ah, no," she assured me, "only during the working day |
| Technovelgy from A Specter is Haunting Texas,
by Fritz Leiber. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1968 Additional resources -
|
A bit later in the novel, the author provides some additional details on how this virtual slavery is accomplished:
This method had the additional feature of being highly secure, since hypnotics and suggestions could be administered to make sure that workers promptly forgot what they were doing as soon as they were finished.
Compare to cyborg from Cyborg (1972) by Martin Caidin, the cyborg pilot from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein and the cyborg dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic (1981) by William Gibson.
I put in time talking with a grav-topped much bent Mex named Pedro Ramirez, who had been in a cybored work gang for twenty years. He pulled his shirt off his knobby shoulder to show me the puckered scars where deep-probing tubes had once fed tranquilizers, energizers, and hormones from his yoke into artery and vein. He also insisted I inspect the curious callosities in his ears, made by the common plugs that had been housed there daily for two decades...
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Specter is Haunting Texas
More Ideas
and Technology by Fritz Leiber
Tech news articles related to A Specter is Haunting Texas
Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber
| You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic... |
| ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's |
| When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You? |
| MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
