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"I can't tell whether or not there's going to be a Singularity. I don't really believe the rapture of the nerds stereotype..."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Electric Brain Stimulator | ||
| A device that coordinated the waves of the brain with an external device to improve performance. |
Once the King of Speed himself, Ben Gleed has been fired for pushing people too far. Now, Ben is just employee SX333; he's determined to prove himself.
| Lunch hour and midday check-up.
"SX333, come into the wave room,"
said a supervisor. "You need more
stimulant than coffee." In the designated room an absent-minded laboratory official made a test of Ben's brain
waves under concentration, explaining,
"This is one of the Speed King's Efficio
devices for converting electrical energy
into brain power."
He fitted an instrument over SX333's head. "Plug it in and work the rheostat to suit yourself. The electrical waves will synchronize with your own brain waves and reinforce them." The King of Speed clamped the electric stimulator over his head, turned the rheostat on full, and poured forth words and sweat. He choked down black coffee, did not stop for lunch, tried not to hear the whisper of "Faster! Faster!" But late in the afternoon when the speed-up whisper bore down and one of the women workers screamed out, "For God's sakes, turn that thing off!" and then slumped over her desk in tears, he wasted five good minutes getting his mind back on his work. "Damn weaklings," he muttered to himself. "They can't take the pace! I'll show them." |
| Technovelgy from Ben Gleed, King of Speed,
by Don Wilcox. Published by Amazing Stories in 1939 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the control helmet from Easy Money (1938) by Edmond Hamilton and the cogitator from The Consolidator (1705) by Daniel Defoe.
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'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
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'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
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