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"I operate by a code that makes me responsible for what I do, makes me definitely, directly, genuinely responsible. I am precisely the kind of person I made myself out to be."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Reality Tape | ||
| The medium upon which the life experience of an electric ant - a robotic person - is presented. |
| "...The punched tape roll above your heart mechanism is not a programming turret but is in fact a reality-supply construct. All sense stimuli received by your central neurological system emanate from that unit and tampering with it would be risky if not terminal..."
If I cut the tape, he realized, my world will disappear. |
| Technovelgy from The Electric Ant,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Mercury Press in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Compare to Life Chamber from The Chamber of Life (1929) by G. Peyton Wertenbaker, the feelies from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), virtual reality from The Theatre and Its Double (1938) by Antonin Artaud, the permanent hookup from Spectator Sport (1950) by John MacDonald, the Saga technology from Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956), dead-show from Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1974) by James Tiptree, Jr. and stimsim from William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984).
Compare also to video glasses from Islands in the Net (1988) by Bruce Sterling, Tru-Vu Lenses from Earth (1990) by David Brin, data goggles from Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson,eyecaps from Starfish (1999) by Peter Watts, overlay specs from Halting State (2007) by Charles Stross and HUD glasses from Daemon (2009) by Daniel Suarez.
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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
