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
"...in fifty years, do you believe that people will be recognizably human?"
- Greg Bear
 |
| Logics | ||
| Machines that let you request information, and then display it for you on a screen. |
Everybody's got 'em and we're still findin' out what they can do. At least, that's what Leinster wrote in 1946. Still true today.
| I'm a maintenance man for the Logics Company. My job is servicing Logics, and I admit modestly that I am pretty good. I was servicing televisions before that guy Carson invented his trick circuit that will select any of 'steenteen million other circuits - in theory there ain't no limit - and before the Logics Company hooked it into the Tank-and-Integrator set-up they were usin' 'em as a business-machine service. They added a vision screen for speed - an' found out they'd made Logics...
 (Children watching the logic present animated cartoons) You know the Logics set-up. You got a Logic in your house. It looks like a vision-receiver used to, only it's got keys instead of dials and you punch the keys for what you wanna get. |
| Technovelgy from A Logic Named Joe,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1946 Additional resources -
|
This seems like a pretty good description of a web browsing computer for the home. Be sure to take a look at the entry for Tanks, to get a clear idea of what kind of information could be displayed. And don't forget about the Carson Circuit that would let you connect to any of millions of different information feeds.
Thanks to @SMOF for the graphic from the original publication of the story.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Logic Named Joe
More Ideas
and Technology by Murray Leinster
Tech news articles related to A Logic Named Joe
Tech news articles related to works by Murray Leinster
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
| Jetson Orin Nano Super 70 Just $249 |
| Automatic Bot Traffic Is 38 Percent Of HTTP Requests |
| Neuroplatform Human Brain Organoid Bioprocessor Uses Less Electricity |
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
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
