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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
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| Pokkecon | ||
| A device tied into a good will network. |
| Tsuyoshi finished transferring the first tape to a new crystal disk. Time for a break. He left his apartment, took the elevator and went out to the comer coffeeshop. He ordered a double iced mocha cappuccino and paid with a chargecard.
His pokkecon rang. Tsuyoshi took it from his belt and answered it. “Get one to go,” the machine told him. “Okay,” said Tsuyoshi, and hung up. He bought a second coffee, put a lid on it and left the shop. A man in a business suit was sitting on a park bench near the entrance of Tsuyoshi’s building. The man’s suit was good, but it looked as if he’d slept in it. He was holding his head in his hands and rocking gently back and forth. He was unshaven and his eyes were red-rimmed. The pokkecon rang again. “The coffee’s for him?” Tsuyoshi said. “Yes,” said the pokkecon. “He needs it.” Tsuyoshi walked up to the lost businessman. The man looked up, flinching warily, as if he were about to be kicked. “What is it?” he said. “Here,” Tsuyoshi said, handing him the cup. “Double iced mocha cappuccino.” The man opened the cup, and smelled it. He looked up in disbelief. “This is my favorite kind of coffee … Who are you?” Tsuyoshi lifted his arm and offered a hand signal, his fingers clenched like a cat’s paw. The man showed no recognition of the gesture. Tsuyoshi shrugged, and smiled. “It doesn’t matter. Sometimes a man really needs a coffee. Now you have a coffee. That’s all.” “Well…” The man cautiously sipped his cup, and suddenly smiled. “It’s really great. Thanks!” “You’re welcome.” Tsuyoshi went home. |
| Technovelgy from Maneki Neko,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by Hayakawa's Science Fiction Magazine in 1998 Additional resources -
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Pokkecon-related
news articles:
- 'Courier Commons' By Tomorrow Lab, From Karl Schroeder (and Bruce Sterling?)
| Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus |
| Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone |
| Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA |
| Will Whales Be Our First Contact? |
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'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
