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"We were essentially being shell-shocked by rapid change. That was one of the things you needed science-fiction writers for back in the Sixties, because we could cope with the future."
- Peter Watts
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| Focusing | ||
| Psychoactive microbe improves the attention-focusing ability of those infected. |
The mindrot is a plague that was turned to the service of civilization. It "spreads through the brain in a nearly harmless way, infecting about ninety percent of the glial cells. And now we control the release of neuractives."
| "Focusing ennobles. It is the key to Emergent success, and a much more subtle thing than you can imagine. It's not just that we've created a psychoactive microbe. This is one whose growth within the brain can be controlled with millimeter precision - and once in place, the ensemble can be guided in its actions with the same precision."
"Don't you see? We can improve the attention-focusing aspects of consciousness: we can take humans and turn them into analytical engines." She spelled it out in wretched detail. On the Emergent worlds, the Focusing process was spread over the last years of a specialist's schooling, intensifying the graduate-school experience to produce genius... For many days, Reynolt and her technicians had tweaked the virus, triggering genetic expression that precisely released the chemicals of thought - all guided by Emergent medical computers that gathered feedback from conventional brain diagnostics. |
| Technovelgy from A Deepness in the Sky,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Not known in 1999 Additional resources -
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- Optogenetics - Fiber Optic Brain Control
- Remote Control Of Brain Activity
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| Drug Induces Hibernation-Like State In Humans |
| Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans |
| Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI |
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'
