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"[Science fiction is] nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible."
- Gregory Benford

Indestructible Contract  
  Legal document in which can't be easily altered or damaged.  

Fascinating idea for creating a unique, unchangeable document.

"The single sheet he held, and even the words and signatures upon it, were all integral parts of a single giant molecule which in itself was well-nigh indestructible and could not be altered or tampered with short of outright destruction. As for destruction itself- Donal was quite sure that there was nothing aboard this ship that could in any way burn, shred, dissolve, in any other fashion obliterate it."
Technovelgy from Dorsai!, by Gordon R. Dickson.
Published by Ace Books in 1960
Additional resources -

In the Internet age, online documents can be easily altered. Our best defense against a 1984-style attempt to alter the recorded past is to print out thousands of hard copies and put them in homes and libraries all over America. However, even hard copy counterfeiting is easier, thanks to advances in printer technology. One day, we will need technology like this.

Fans of Philip K. Dick might be thinking of truffle skins, PKD's way of dealing with counterfeiting, from his 1965 novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

Thanks to Gatomon41 for contributing this item.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Dorsai!
  More Ideas and Technology by Gordon R. Dickson
  Tech news articles related to Dorsai!
  Tech news articles related to works by Gordon R. Dickson

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Science Fiction in the News

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