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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Vision Implant | ||
| Photoelectric cell implanted in the forehead grants some vision to the blind. |
This is an early view of aid to the blind that is surprisingly practical.
 (Vision Implant from 'He Who Shapes' by Roger Zelazny) Dr. Shallot was a woman, somewhere in the vicinity of her early thirties. Her low bronze bangs did not fully conceal the spot of silver she wore on her forehead like a caste mark. Render inhaled, and her head jerked slightly as the tip of his cigarette flared. She appeared to be staring straight up into his eyes. It was an uncomfortable feeling, even knowing that all she could distinguish of him was that which her minute photoelectric cell transmitted to her visual cortex over the hair-fine wire implants attached to that oscillator-converter: in short, the glow of his cigarette. |
| Technovelgy from The Dream Master (He Who Shapes),
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Ace Books in 1966 Additional resources -
|
In the last few years, there have been a variety of attempts to give sight to the blind. Most involve using sensors mounted in glasses and special processing units carried at the side (Robert J. Sawyer uses the clever name eyepod for these). Zelazny uses the idea of the bindu, the red dot worn by devout Hindus just above the eyebrows and centered on the forehead.
Zelazny was probably already researching or writing his Hugo award-winning novel Lord of Light at the time that this book was published; Hindu philosophy was probably on his mind.
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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.'
