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"I long ago realized that I could reach far more people by writing something, than by walking down the street with a banner."
- John Brunner
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| Green Bullet | ||
| A very compact (for 1950) radio transceiver, worn in the ear like a hearing aid. |
In the near future presented in this famous novel, no one reads anymore; everyone gets their ideas and news from clowns and good-looking news morons on huge television screens in their homes. Obviously a very far-fetched scenario.
In addition, books are illegal and "firemen" exist to set fire to homes with books in them. Guy Montag is one such fireman, who loses his faith in the system and wants to know more about the world of ideas that he is missing. He meets Faber, who offers to go with Montag via a small transceiver hidden in his ear.
| "My cowardice is of such a passion, complementing the revolutionary spirit that lives in its shadow, I was forced to design this." He picked up a small green object no larger than a .22 bullet. "It looks like a seashell radio." "And something more! It listens! If you put it in your ear, Montag, I can sit comfortably home, warming my frightened bones, and hear and analyze the firemen's world, find its weaknesses, without danger. I'm the queen bee, safe in the hive. You will be the drone, the traveling ear..." Montag placed the green bullet in his ear |
| Technovelgy from Fahrenheit 451,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
You might want to compare a very similar treatment (in a literary sense) in Nanotime, by Bart Kosko (see Raisin). Both of these devices carry on the tradition of the wise companion, found in all of the world's literary traditions.
An interesting contrast can be made to the seashell radio from the same novel.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Fahrenheit 451
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Bradbury
Tech news articles related to Fahrenheit 451
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Bradbury
Green Bullet-related
news articles:
- Bradbury's Green Bullet Made Possible With Bluetooth
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| EBS-260 Handjet Free Hand Dot Matrix Printer |
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'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'
''OVERRIDE,' the City Fathers said suddenly, without being asked anything at all.'
'... they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.'
'... 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...'
