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"I do think there is a link in that in both cases, writing fiction or writing a computer program, at any given moment you're focusing on a very specific and particular thing—one word, one line of code, whatever."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Kinagram | ||
| Small print-size icons that presented a moving image. |
| ...tags sewn into the back of the collar. I could see the logo of a company, which I recognized from ten years ago, though they had made it simpler. Below it was a grid of tiny pictures that moved. "Kinagrams. They obsoleted Logotype." |
| From Anathem,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Morrow in 2008 Additional resources -
|
The word "kinagram" is interesting; in the 1920's, "kinescope" was used to describe the CRT in television receivers. The root word "kine" is from the Greek meaning "motion" and "gram" derives from the latin for letter. So, a kinagram is a moving letter or series of letters.
Stephenson fans may think they've seen something like this before; take a look at the mediaglyphics from his 1995 book The Diamond Age.
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'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
