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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Directional Ticket | ||
| A ticket that also has the property of glowing while you are going toward what you bought. |
Here's another handy device, one that could be implemented in real life in a variety of ways. For example, how about a theater ticket that actually helped you find your seat. It could be implemented with a system of scanners, with an embedded RFID tag in the ticket itself. Ushers - enjoy your sinecures while you can! The fact that they are lighted would be of help also.
| "Where do I go?" "Follow the light. The ticket will keep glowing as long as you're pointed in the right direction." |
| From Foundation,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Another example of a device that gives you valuable feedback is a battery that has a test strip built-in. I don't know how cheap the test strip has to be before it makes sense to put one on every battery, but I'll bet theater tickets are expensive enough provide the necessary margin. Maybe the ticket itself doesn't light up, but when you pass through a set of gates, a sensor in the gate tells you if you are going in the right direction.
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'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...'
