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
"My feeling is that the chance of our surviving into the twenty-first century as working civilization is less than fifty percent but greater than zero."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Tattletale | ||
| A device is attached to a criminal suspect, ensuring that his whereabouts are always known. |
This is a good prediction of the idea of an "ankle bracelet" - a device that is used to ensure that people on house arrest really do stay in their houses.
| "Mr. Hawthorne and I have decided not to book any of you: there's no direct evidence involving any one of you in the crime. But if we do let you go, you must agree to carry tattletales with you at all times. Inquire of your attorney Mr. Sharp if that will be acceptable."
"What the hell is a tattletale?" Joe Schilling asked. "A tracing device," Hawthorne said. "It will inform us where each of you are at all times." "Does it have a telepathic content?" Pete asked. "No," Hawthorne said. "Although I wish that it had." On the vid screen, Laird Sharp, youthful and active-looking, said, "I heard the proposal and without going into it any further I'd be inclined to label it a clear violation of these people's rights... Don't allow them to hook any sort of monitoring devices to you, and if you discover they have, rip them off..." |
| Technovelgy from The Game Players of Titan,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace Books in 1963 Additional resources -
|
The first officially sanctioned use of ankle bracelets (or ankle monitors) occurred in 1983, under Judge Jack Love in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It's also interesting that Dick mentions the idea of "telepathic content" to find out more about the subject than just location. Ankle monitors today can accurately report alcohol use, by sampling the subject's perspiration; results are reported via the Internet to police monitors. The device is called a SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor), and they've been used in Florida for DWI and domestic-violence cases. They are made by Colorado-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems Inc. and cost $100 each to set up and $12 a day to operate. Much cheaper than jail, for you taxpayers.
It's likely that the actual impetus for the development of the ankle bracelet or ankle monitor comes from the Spider man comic books:
He struck an arrangement with a computer salesman to develop the devices, which were introduced in New Mexico in 1983. They proved to work well, and a similar device was then developed in Florida a year or two later.
Both tests were successful, and the product then went national, leading to the current arrangement today.
Compare to the Wrist Search Display from A Matter of Size (1934) by Harry Bates,
Wireless Wrist Intercom from The Shape of Things To Come (1936) by H.G. Wells,
Reserve Bracelet from Plague (1944) by Murray Leinster,
Wristband Viewer from Changeling (1980) by Roger Zelazny,
Implant-Watch from Cloak of Anarchy (1972) by Larry Niven,
Predator Wrist Display from Predator (1987) by John McTierna,
Wrist Command from Tides of Light (1989) by Gregory Benford,
Tracking Bracelet from Shadowspeer (1990) by Patricia Jo Clayton,
Inertial Bracelet from Psychohistorical Crisis (2001) by Donald Kingsbury,
Command Bracelet from Sagramanda (2006) by Alan Dean Foster and the
Wristpad from New York 2140 (2017) by Kim Stanley Robinson.
A New Mexico district court judge, Jack Love, read a late 70s Spider-Man comic strip in the newspaper, where the villain Kingpin was tracking Spider-Man via an electronic tracking bracelet on Spider-Man’s wrist. Love theorized that such a device would work in real life, as well.
(Via ComicBookResources)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Game Players of Titan
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Game Players of Titan
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Tattletale-related
news articles:
- 'Hug And Kiss' Baby Ankle Monitor
- SCRAM Anklet For Lindsay Lohan
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
| India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking |
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> |
|
|
|
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
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
