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"Science fiction operates a little bit like science itself, in principle. You've got thousands of people exploring ideas, putting forth their own hypotheses. Most of them are dead wrong; a few stand the test of time; everything looks kind of quaint in hind"
- Peter Watts
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| Penfield Wave Transmitter | ||
| A device that directs some sort of energy wave into a person's brain, allowing them to experience a chosen (dialed) mood. |
This device is the functional part of a mood organ. You could probably find the transmitter you needed at a good hobbyshop; the problem is figuring out how to tune in on the emotional brain.
| Setting down his weapons kit he fumbled it open, got out a nondirectional Penfield wave transmitter; he punched the key for catelepsy, himself protected against the mood emanation by means of a counterwave broadcast through the transmitter's metal hull directed to him alone. |
| From Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1968 Additional resources -
|
This makes for a new kind of non-lethal weapon. You could, of course, project other moods. For example, you could project Obedience to Lawful Authority, Sheeplike Subservience, or even Fawning Admiration of Government Functionaries. According to the novel, the Penfield wave transmitter is capable of generating very specific emotional responses.
The Penfield Wave Transmitter was almost certainly named after Wilder Penfield. He is credited with first establishing (in 1957) that a map of the human body exists in the brain; in other words, specific areas of the cortex process information from different body areas.
Another technovelgy item, the tasp from Larry Niven's Ringworld, a handheld device that causes the affected person to enter a state of ecstatic pure pleasure, may also be of interest. Specialized, but then, it may produce the one state that everyone is guaranteed to like.
Compare to the peeper from Shadow World (1957) by Clifford Simak.
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
