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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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| Trace Web | ||
| A small, handheld device that contacts (and even instantiates) the larger network. |
Fascinating early use of the word web for a vast, interrelated data network.
| "Here we go, sir," the robot pilot said. The words startled Rogers and made him look up sharply. He tensed his body and adjusted the trace web inside his coat as the bubble ship started dropping, swiftly and silently, toward the planet's surface...
Rogers' fingers touched the trace web. The web warmed into life. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said. |
| Technovelgy from Souvenir,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Fantastic Universe in 1954 Additional resources -
|
Based on this usage, people should start calling their phone a "web" anytime now.
Compare to the control-face from William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru and of course to the Joymaker from Frederik Pohl's 1966 novel The Age of the Pussyfoot.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
