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"I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Junkbot | ||
| An automated email program that specializes in sending junk mail (spam) |
I'm not sure if Sterling originated the term "junkbot" for an automated spamming program, but the label fits.
| "It's pathetic … that's spam from a junk mailbot. I've seen some junkbots that are pretty sophisticated, they can generate a halfway decent ad spiel. But that stuff is pure chain-mail ware. It can't even punctuate!" |
| Technovelgy from Distraction,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by Bantam Spectra in 1998 Additional resources -
|
Note that whether the spam is sophisticated or not, it's still spam.
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Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling
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'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
