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"It was my preferred entertainment when I was a kid, so when I set out to be a writer, it was perfectly natural that I should write the sort of stories that I used to enjoy reading."
- John Brunner
 |
| Saga | ||
| You become a part of the great adventures of history. |
This is a very early reference to the idea of a virtual reality experience or adventure.
| Of all the thousands of forms of recreation in the city, these were the most popular. When you entered into a saga, you were not merely a passive observer, as in the crude entertainments or primitive times which Alvin had sometimes sampled. You were an active participant and possessed - or seemed to possess - free will. The events and scenes which were the raw material of your adventures mght have been prepared beforehand by forgotten artists, but there was enough flexibility to allow for wide variation. You could go into the excitement that did not exist in Diaspar - and as long as the dream lasted there was no way in which it could be distinguished from reality.
Yet though the sagas seemed to satisfy his companions, they left Alvin with a feeling of incompleteness. For all their color and excitement, their varying locales and themes, there was something missing... |
| Technovelgy from The City and the Stars,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Frederick Muller Ltd in 1956 Additional resources -
|
Clarke continues
Compare to the life chamber from The Chamber of Life (1929) by G. Peyton Wertenbaker, virtual reality from The Theatre and Its Double (1938) by Antonin Artaud, mental phantasmagoria from The Lotus-Engine (1940) by Raymond Z. Gallun, dead-show from Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1974) by James Tiptree, Jr. and the holodeck from Encounter at Farpoint (1987) by David Gerrold.
For adventure and exercise of the imagination, the sagas provided all that anyone could desire. They were the inevitable end product of that striving for realism which began when men started to reproduce moving images and to record sounds, and then to use these techniques to enact scenes from real or imaginary life. In the sagas, the illusion was perfect because all the sense impressions involved were fed directly into the mind and any diverting sensations were diverted. The entranced spectator was cut off from reality as long as the adventure lasted; it was as if he lived a dream yet believed he was awake.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The City and the Stars
More Ideas
and Technology by Arthur C. Clarke
Tech news articles related to The City and the Stars
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur C. Clarke
Saga-related
news articles:
- 'Virtual Cocoon' Virtual Reality Helmet
- Datagrid Model Generation Perfect For Eternal Cities Of Science Fiction
| 'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century |
| Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79 |
| Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off |
| Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon |
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'...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...'
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
