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"This is a predictive tool I've used: There are goals we've sought for ten thousand years, and we'll go on seeking them. Instant transport and travel, immortality (or at least longevity and miracle cures.), instant learning …"
- Larry Niven
 |
| Data-Retrieval Mode | ||
| A system for getting the thoughts and images out of a person's mind; recovering the data from a brain storage device. |
This is a relatively early reference I for the idea of being able to directly observe another person's mental images through the use of some sort of electronic device.
| ... a man in the bare steel chair ... Tiny adhesive pads held sensors in position at a dozen places on his scalp...throat..heart...solar plexus...From each sensor a lead, fine as gossamer, ran to the ... data-analysis console .. with display screens and signal lights on its slanted top. "...It's done with induced current in the motor senses. I'm going to regress him to the appropriate date and key in the same image... and we'll see what develops. |
| From The Shockwave Rider,
by John Brunner. Published by Harper and Row in 1975 Additional resources -
|
This device precedes others like it in sf, like stimsim in the works of William Gibson and others.
See the comments for earlier references; I also think that Cordwainer Smith used this idea in the mid 1950's.
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Tech news articles related to The Shockwave Rider
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Data-Retrieval Mode-related
news articles:
- EEGLAB: Independent Component Analysis Reads Your Thoughts
- An 'OFF' Switch For The Brain
- The Claustrum - The Brain's On Off Switch?
| Purdue Pharma Ready To Profit From OxyContin Use Or Addiction Recovery |
| Organaut! Russians 3D Print Living Tissue In Space |
| MIT Scientists Create 'Peek-a-Boo Prober' From Jetsons |
| Wound Healing With Wearable Nanogenerators |
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'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.'
'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...'
'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
