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"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
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| Headset | ||
| Wireless headsets provide computer language translation. |
Chi and Mitsuko converse easily in the novel, with the help of wireless headsets and translation software.
| Now they were both wearing wireless ear-clip headsets. The translation was generally glitch-free, except when Mitsuko used Japanese slang that was too new, or when she inserted English words that she knew but couldn't pronounce. [My brother] Masahiko is seventeen," Mitsuko said. "He is a 'pathological techno-fetishist-with-social-deficit,'" this last all strung together like one word, indicating a concept that taxed the lexicon of the earclips. |
| Technovelgy from Idoru,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1996 Additional resources -
|
This is almost as good as a babelfish. One of the biggest limitations to current translation software is the limited vocabulary; how can you make sure you get a good translation for the latest slang? You wouldn't need to be a techno-fetishist to appreciate being able to access the latest information straight from the wireless headset maker's server.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
