Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Latest By
Category:


Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

"I started writing in the 1930's when I was eighteen years old. And deep inside me I'm still eighteen and it's still 1938."
- Isaac Asimov

Hypomatrin  
  A spinal anesthetic that allows the reformation of personality.  

On one occasion I noted that a dog, subjected to hypomatrin at a time when his fellows engaged in an orgy of snarling and fighting, emerged from the experiment with a surly, growling nature he had not displayed before...

The results were unbelievable. One man, who had never sung a note, was made into a devotee of music through being submitted to orchestral strains while his senses slumbered beneath the anaesthetic. Another man, whose dissipated features proclaimed him to be a roue, became as moral as a monk after absorbing the anaesthetic in the atmosphere of a cloister; still another abandoned a life of thievery in favor of philanthropic work; others, again, exchanged hatred for love, or listlessness for ambition, or a wolf-like aggressiveness for the gentleness of the dove.

And so at last my goal had been attained. At last I was able to change human nature at will. What magnificent hopes, what unlimited vistas of advancement this offered!

...Within a few weeks of the establishment of the first clinic, my anassthetic had become widely fashionable; within a few weeks, it was as stylish to change one’s character as to discard last year’s coat.

...business concerns were observing with alarm that their clerks were deserting in order to become musical composers or stars of vaudeville; factory managers were shouting vain appeals to check the drift of their employees toward science and the seven arts; hospital heads were becoming alarmed at the tendency of physicians and nurses to graduate into bond salesmanship and banking; the principals of schools and colleges were making an effort to restrain their teaching staffs from the allurement of the concert stage, the cabaret, and the dance hall ; ministers of leading congregations were startling their flocks by finding that their real calling was in the domain of the night club; bootleggers were becoming politicians, politicians were becoming scholars, scholars were becoming farmers, farmers were becoming captains of industry, and captains of industry were deserting their desks to become professional golfers. All in all, during that first year of hypomatrin, we witnessed the greatest and strangest labor “turn-over” ever known to history.

Technovelgy from The Confession of Dr. DeKalb, by Stanton A. Coblentz.
Published by Astounding Stories in 1934
Additional resources -

Compare to dominator from The End of the Line (1951) by James Schmitz.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Confession of Dr. DeKalb
  More Ideas and Technology by Stanton A. Coblentz
  Tech news articles related to The Confession of Dr. DeKalb
  Tech news articles related to works by Stanton A. Coblentz

Articles related to Medical
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
Brainoware Reservoir Computation Of Biological Neural Networks
Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office
Octopus Suckers Inspire Transdermal Patches

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous
Next>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Science Fiction in the News

Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'

Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'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?'

Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'

Splendid View Of Eclipse From Orbit Visualized And Repurposed By Arthur C. Clarke
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'

Bespoke Environment Music From AIs
'Call 'em Winter Mute," said the other, making it two words.'

Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'

SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'

Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'

NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.