Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
 |
| Pocket Edition Law Library | ||
| A complete reference section in the palm of your hand. |
A young woman studying the law has a complete reference section wherever she goes.
| She locked
the door behind her, opened the unpacked valise, took out a pocket edition law library and sat down at the
table with it.
She clicked on the library's viewscreen, tapped the clearing and index buttons. Behind the screen, one
of the multiple rows of pinhead
tapes shifted slightly as the index
was flicked into reading position.
Half a minute later, she was glancing
over the legal section on which Dr.
Droon had based his claim...
Telzey snapped the tiny library shut, fastened it to the belt of her sunsuit and went over to the open window. |
| Technovelgy from Novice,
by James Schmitz. Published by Analog in 1962 Additional resources -
|
In this excerpt, Telzey makes further use of the pocket library:
Her fingers quickly flicked in the
index tape, and the stir of feeling
about her subsided, their attention
captured
again
for
the moment.
Her
thoughts became to some degree detached, ready to dissect another problem in the familiar ways and present
the answers to it. Not a very involved problem essentially, but this
time it wasn't a school exercise. Her
company waited, withdrawn, silent,
aloof once more, while the index
blurred, checked, blurred and
checked. Within a minute and a half,
she had noted a
dozen reference
symbols. She tapped in another of
the pinhead tapes, glanced over a
few paragraphs...
Telzey snapped the library
shut with fingers that had begun to
tremble, and placed it on the ground.
She climbed the bank of the lake
to a point where she was screened
both by thick, green shrubbery and the top of a single immense tree
from the sky, sat down on some dry,
mossy growth, took the law library
from her belt, opened it and placed
it in her lap...
Compare to the powered print-book from Prelude to Foundation (1988) by Isaac Asimov and the runcible from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Novice
More Ideas
and Technology by James Schmitz
Tech news articles related to Novice
Tech news articles related to works by James Schmitz
| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
| Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet |
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
| Jetson Orin Nano Super 70 Just $249 |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
