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"We didn't have a telephone and our family until I was about 15, in high school."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| House Voice | ||
| A house-based system that mediates technologies (like phone) with a verbal interface directed to the inhabitants of the house. |
Now here's a customizable interface; no tinkering with "preferences" files for Angela.
| "Angela," the House said, it's voice quiet but compelling, "I have a call from Hilton Swift." "Executive override?" She was eating baked beans and toast at the kitchen counter. "No," it said, confidingly. "Change your tone," she said, around a mouthful of beans. "Something with an edge of anxiety." "Mr. Swift is waiting," the House said nervously. "Better," she said, carrying bowl and played to the washer, "but I want something closer to genuine hysteria." "Will you take the call?" The voice was choked with tension. "No," she said, "but keep your voice that way, I like it." |
| Technovelgy from Mona Lisa Overdrive,
by William Gibson. Published by Bantam in 1988 Additional resources -
|
Clearly, this house voice is a long way from the uninflected artificial speech of today.
Note the differences between this scene in the interaction between the human character and the machine "servant" and a very similar exchange between Jorj X. McKie and the Daily Schedule in The Dosadi Experiment.
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'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
