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"Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together."
- Ray Bradbury
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| Sniggertrance | ||
| The state of a person receiving a call mediated by a Taprisiot; interiorized consciousness accompanied by spastic, jerking body movements. |
This item is really a side-effect of technology, not the device itself. You don't want to take a Taprisiot call just anytime. Taprisiots make real long-distance calls possible.
| Furuneo was his name. Alichino Furuneo. He reminded himself of this as he rode into the city to make the long-distance call. It was wise to firm up the ego before such a call. He was sixty-seven years old and could remember many cases where people had lost their identity in the sniggertrance of communication between star systems. |
| Technovelgy from Whipping Star,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1969 Additional resources -
|
A sniggertrance makes me think of the sort of state you get into when making extended telephone conference calls. Your eyes unfocus; your ears get moist (from being held against the phone) and your neck starts to hurt.
There was a lot of interest several years ago about people driving while yakking (DWY); it appears that we have moved on to other concerns. Most of the concern seems to center around the physical problem of handing a car and a phone at the same time (watching the road and dialing a phone, for example). However, it is a fact that you can verify for yourself the next time you are using your cell phone in your car: you are less aware of your surroundings when concentrating on a phone conversation regardless of whether you use a standard instrument or a hands-free arrangement. As Ellen DeGeneres says, "If you need both your hands free, don't you think your brain should be involved, too?"
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'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
