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"Cyberpunk worked when the Internet was in its hand-wound crystal radio phase, when you had to be a sort of hobbyist to do e-mail, and it all had a very steep learning curve. Those days are over."
- William Gibson
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| Digital Running Shoes | ||
| Shoes with a digital readout showing performance. |
I can't believe that Nike - or somebody - doesn't make one of these right now. You can buy pedometers that hook onto your belt or even tie onto your shoe, but why not just make it part of the shoe?
| David sat on the floor with limber grace and put Laura's foot in his lap. He unlaced her shoe and glanced at its readout. "That's pretty rotten time. You must have been limping, babe." |
| From Islands in the Net,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by William Morrow in 1988 Additional resources -
|
If people don't balk at paying $150 for a pair of running shoes, the materials necessary to make a running meter couldn't cost more than a few dollars.
The shoe could power the display; see the entry for stillsuit, from the novel Dune, by Frank Herbert.
As it turns out, there was such a thing as a runner's shoe with a digital readout. Called the Micropacer, it was created by Adidas in 1985. A sensor in the toe of the shoe connected to a microprocessor embedded in the tongue, which calculated speed, distance and the caloric output of the person wearing the shoe. The shoe was a failure. I've read that Adidas tried again recently in Europe with a third generation of this shoe.
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Tech news articles related to Islands in the Net
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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...'
