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"I think crypto will slowly percolate its way up and people will adopt it gradually as user friendly, cheap products, become available."
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As far as I know, this is the first version of what today's science fiction fans refer to as the "holodeck" - a space in which a virtual (but very realistic) reality can be imposed.
The word "odorophonic" itself reminds me of other product names from the first part of the twentieth century, which combined Greek or Latin root words. At that time, many of the people who used the term (or were sold the device named) had some training in Greek or Latin, and were aware of the meaning of the device from the name alone.
This practice is in marked contrast to company and product names of the late twentieth century, in which the naming of the product is driven by the need to produce a copyrightable name. Company names like Vividence and Aquilent are easily copyrighted (because they are invented). Names like "Pentium" and "Itanium" for computer chips were put into use by Intel because strings of numbers like 386 and 486 are not copyrightable.
The idea of being able to reproduce a wide variety of odors (or scents) with a machine is making a come-back; see the commentary for odalarm a scent-producing alarm clock from The Dosadi Experiment, by Frank Herbert.
This item is taken from "The Veldt", the first story in the collection. Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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.'
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...'
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