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"The permanent government now is the anchorpeople. They don't get elected, and year after year they're responding emotionally to this or that."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Monobloc Dating System | ||
| A kind of pub with unique hardware and software for computer dating. |
In this story, Niven has created another variation on the theme of extended life. Drugs with true anti-geriatric properties are in common use, but cosmetic options are less well developed. It is hard to know someone's true age; the Monobloc dating system provided a local area network version of online dating.
| "Am I cramping your style?" "No problem. Nobody hurries in the Monobloc. If you see someone you like -" My fingers danced over the lighted symbols on the edge of the table. "This gets you a map. Locate where she's sitting, put the cursor on it. That gets you a display...hmm." I'd set the cursor on the white haired lady. I liked the readout. |
| Technovelgy from The Best of all Possible Wars,
by Larry Niven. Published by Baen Books in 1998 Additional resources -
|
In this era, people in their eighties still date actively; the software just gives them a little bit more information to go on before asking someone out on a date.
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
