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"Evolutionary success ... is going to absolutely require mobility on, at a minimum, an interplanetary scale. We either go or we die out."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Toy Testing Dummy | ||
| A child-sized device used to test suspect toys. |
The Terran Bureau of Import Standards had one essential job; to make sure that toys from those rebellious outer planets and moons didn't try to sneak in some kind of weapon disguised as a toy.
| "Do you believe there's anything in this caution, or is it more paranoia about "alien milieux?"
Pinario said, "It's justified, especially where children's artifacts are concerned." A few hand-signals, and a slab of wall exposed a side room. Propped up in the center was a sight that caused Wiseman to halt. A plastic life-size dummy of a child, perhaps five years old in appearance, wearing ordinary clothes, sat surrounded by toys. At this moment, the dummy was saying, "I'm tired of that. Do something else." It paused a short time, and then repeated, "I'm tired of that. Do something else." The toys on the floor, triggered to respond to oral instructions, gave up their various occupations, and started fresh. "It saves on labor costs," Pinario explained. |
| Technovelgy from War Game,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1959 Additional resources -
|
They force the toys to go through their entire repertoire; experts view the tapes if it becomes necessary.
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| A Remarkable Coincidence |
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'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
