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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Data-Retrieval Mode | ||
| A system for getting the thoughts and images out of a person's mind; recovering the data from a brain storage device. |
This is a relatively early reference I for the idea of being able to directly observe another person's mental images through the use of some sort of electronic device.
| ... a man in the bare steel chair ... Tiny adhesive pads held sensors in position at a dozen places on his scalp...throat..heart...solar plexus...From each sensor a lead, fine as gossamer, ran to the ... data-analysis console .. with display screens and signal lights on its slanted top. "...It's done with induced current in the motor senses. I'm going to regress him to the appropriate date and key in the same image... and we'll see what develops. |
| Technovelgy from The Shockwave Rider,
by John Brunner. Published by Harper and Row in 1975 Additional resources -
|
This device precedes others like it in sf, like stimsim in the works of William Gibson and others.
See the comments for earlier references; I also think that Cordwainer Smith used this idea in the mid 1950's.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Shockwave Rider
More Ideas
and Technology by John Brunner
Tech news articles related to The Shockwave Rider
Tech news articles related to works by John Brunner
Data-Retrieval Mode-related
news articles:
- EEGLAB: Independent Component Analysis Reads Your Thoughts
- An 'OFF' Switch For The Brain
- The Claustrum - The Brain's On Off Switch?
| Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts |
| Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick |
| ErythroMer Artificial Blood |
| MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
