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"Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together."
- Ray Bradbury
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| Veridicator | ||
| A device that measured physiologic responses (biometric data) and translated it to a set of colors that unerringly reported whether or not the measured person was telling the truth. |
This forgotten gem of a novel from the 1960's makes good use of a machine that unerringly tells whether or not the person believes what he or she is saying. The notion of dealing truthfully with yourself and your society is an important theme in the novel, and is an important idea for us in our world today.
| There was a bright conical helmet on his head, and electrodes had been clamped to various portions of his anatomy. On the wall behind him was a circular screen which ought to have been a calm turquoise blue, but which was flickering from dark blue through violet to mauve. That was simple nervous tension and guilt and anger at the humiliation of being subjected to veridicated interrogation. |
| From Little Fuzzy,
by H. Beam Piper. Published by Doubleday in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Would you behave differently if you knew that, at need, you could be veridicated? Would you live your entire life differently, if you knew that people could tell, without fail, whether or not you believed what you said? I think that the author believed that a life lived truthfully was a better life, and a more sentient, more civilized life.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Little Fuzzy
More Ideas
and Technology by H. Beam Piper
Tech news articles related to Little Fuzzy
Tech news articles related to works by H. Beam Piper
Veridicator-related
news articles:
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- Cheaters May No Longer Prosper
| Tetraplegics Dominate Avatar Races |
| IBM's Grain Of Sand Computer |
| Can An Entire Brain Be Simulated In A Computer? |
| Illustris: The Next Generation Of Universe Simulation |
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
There's a lesson in this for neural net AI engineers everywhere.
