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"[Science fiction] has become big business, where books are merchandised and promoted and distributed and placed on sale like slabs of bacon or cans of soup."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Recorded Personalities | ||
| Computer firmware that saves a person's characteristics and reactions. |
The idea of a construct, or a recording of a person, was introduced in Neuromancer, by the same author. In this quote, however, the concept is given a delightful form, with more detail.
| There were similar things in her father's study, four of them, black lacquered cubes arranged along a low shelf of pine. Above each cube hung a formal portrait. The portraits were monochrome photographs of men in dark suits and ties, four very sober gentleman whose lapels were decorated with small metal emblems of the kind her father sometimes wore. Though her mother had told her that the cubes contained ghosts, the ghosts of her father's evil ancestors, Komiko found them more fascinating than frightening. Her father sometimes meditated before the cubes, kneeling on the bare tatami in an attitude that connoted profound respect. She had seen him in this position many times, but she was ten before she heard him address the cubes. And one had answered. The question had meant nothing to her, the answer less, but the calm tone of the ghost's reply had frozen her where she crouched, behind a door of paper, and her father had laughed to find her there; rather than scold her, he'd explained that the cubes housed the recorded personalities of former executives, corporate directors. "They're not conscious. They respond, when questioned, in a manner approximating the response of the subject." |
| From Mona Lisa Overdrive,
by William Gibson. Published by Bantam in 1988 Additional resources -
|
Gibson shows his writing ability by seamlessly fitting tomorrow's concept into a way of life that has endured for millennia. Meditating before pictures of people that you respect is common around the world; in this case, getting an answer is easier. Also, ancestor worship is deeply rooted in Shinto beliefs; certainly, a recorded personality has the power to influence the living world.
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'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
Yes, people of the future, robots will dress you.
