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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear
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| 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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'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...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...'
