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"I think we're still on that topic, still trying to figure out what computers are, how they change us, why we use them."
- Neal Stephenson

Graffiti-Eating Finish  
  A wall covering that maintained itself, eating any graffiti placed on it.  

William Gibson's environments tend to oscillate back and forth between gritty urban realism and (often computer-generated) perfection. Sometimes, real world objects are given the same degree of perfection as computer-generated objects.

The store on Sunset had a finish that ate graffiti. The gang kids would come and tag it; twenty minutes later these flat, dark, vaguely crab-like patches of dark blue would come gliding out around the corner… They seemed to be embedded, a few millimeters down into the surface, which was a sort of non-glossy gel-coat affair, but able to move around under there. Smart material, he'd heard that called. And they'd glide up to the tag, whatever artfully abstract scrawl had been sprayed there to declare fealty or mark territory or swear revenge… and start eating it.
Technovelgy from All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson.
Published by Putnam in 1999
Additional resources -

Imagine - a clean convenience store! Actually, of course, this is just the Lucky Dragon global chain protecting its brand image.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from All Tomorrow's Parties
  More Ideas and Technology by William Gibson
  Tech news articles related to All Tomorrow's Parties
  Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson

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