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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
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| SimStim | ||
| Stimulation of the brain and nervous system of one person using a recording (or live broadcast) of another person's experience. |
This is a way of sharing experience, but in the world of Neuromancer, you are reminded of the early comments that the experts had about television: "it's an ideal teaching tool."
| Cowboys didn't get into simstim, he thought, because it was basically a meat toy. He knew that ... the cyberspace matrix was actually a drastic simplification of the human sensorium, at least in terms of presentation, but simstim itself struck him as a gratuitous multiplication of flesh input. |
| Technovelgy from Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
As far as I know, Gibson is the first person to explore both a business use and the extended entertainment version of this idea. Simstim can also be done live.
An earlier reference in science fiction to the idea of using some sort of technology to both read and record a person's thoughts is the espionage machine from Cordwainer Smith's 1958 story No, No, Not Rogov!.
A much earlier reference to the idea that one person can actually experience the transmitted experience of another can be found in the wonderful 1939 story Masson's Secret, by Raymond Z. Gallun. Read about the neuronic receptor-transmitter. See also the Life Chamber from The Chamber of Life, by G. Peyton Wertenbaker., published by Amazing Stories in 1929. Just found the psycho-phone from David Keller's 1928 A Biological Experiment.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Neuromancer
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and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to Neuromancer
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
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news articles:
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- Implanted Biothermal RFID Chips May Warn Of Avian Flu
- Virtual Body-Swapping Tech
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| Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79 |
| Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off |
| Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon |
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'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
