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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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| Sentenced Man | ||
| A person who commits asocial actions and lives in society, but in reduced circumstances. |
| Then he had seen the bar. Bright lights with a fog of smoke inside, looking cheery and warm. Carl had pushed at the door, and pushed again. While the people inside had stopped talking and turned to watch him through the glass. Then he had remembered the sentence and realized the door wouldn’t open. The people inside had started laughing...
The cabs and buses wouldn’t stop for him and the subslide turnstile spat his coin back like something distasteful... Days came and went after that in a gray monotony, the calendar on the wall of his room ticking them off one by one. But not fast enough. It now read 19 years, 322 days, 8 hours, 16 minutes. Not fast enough. There was no more interest in his life. As a sentenced man there were very few things he could do in his free time. All forms of entertainment were closed to him. He could gain admittance — through a side door — to only a certain section of the library. After one futile trip there, pawing through the inspirational texts and moral histories, he never returned. |
| Technovelgy from Robot Justice,
by Harry Harrison. Published by Fantastic Universe in 1959 Additional resources -
|
Eventually, the sentenced man is able to undertake work tasks that earn him days off from his sentence, returning him to full citizenship sooner:
Compare this to Jack Vance's social credit system, called strakh. See also electronic cash from Heavy Weather (1994) by Bruce Sterling and whuffie from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow, published by Tor in 2003.
"When you finish your first year of sentence — a real year of work at your assigned job — you are eligible for reduction. You may apply then for other work that carries a time premium. Dangerous jobs such as satellite repair, that take two days off your sentence for every day served. There are even certain positions in atomics that allow three days per day worked, though these are rare. In this way the sentenced man benefits himself, learns social consciousness, and benefits society at the same time. Of course this doesn’t apply to you yet.”
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Robot Justice
More Ideas
and Technology by Harry Harrison
Tech news articles related to Robot Justice
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Harrison
Sentenced Man-related
news articles:
- China Social Credit System Like State-Run Whuffie
| Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million |
| California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone |
| Chinese Hospital Tries Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' Cosplay |
| A Remarkable Coincidence |
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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
