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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge
 |
| Famnexdo | ||
| A set of four simulacra, one adult male, one adult female and two children; the family next door. |
Are you concerned about moving to Mars, because it's still so empty; are you leaving your friends and relatives behind?
| ...at the far end, taking up most of the available space, he saw four simulacra seated in silence, a group: one in adult male form, its female mate and two children. This was a major item of the firm's catalog; this was a famnexdo...
A man, when he emigrated, could buy neighbors, buy the simulated presence of life, the sound and motion of human activity - or at least its mechanical near-substitute - to bolster his morale in the new environment of unfamiliar stimuli and perhaps, god forbid, no stimuli at all... The famdexdo were actually not next door at all, they were part of their owner's entourage. Communication with them was in essence a circular dialogue with oneself; the famdexdo, if they were functioning properly, picked up the covert hopes and dreams of the settler and detailed them back in an articulated fashion. Therapeutically, this was helpful, although from a cultural standpoint it was a trifle sterile. |
| Technovelgy from The Simulacra,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Another great example of Dick's wit and vision; this is a sly commentary on the suburbanization of America in the 1960's.
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Famnexdo-related
news articles:
- Japan's Humanoid Robot Moonbase Plan
| Mornine Sales Robot |
| Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking |
| YES!! Remote Teleoperated Robots predicted by Technovelgy! |
| Will Robots Ever Fold Landry? |
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Science Fiction
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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
