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"I started writing in the 1930's when I was eighteen years old. And deep inside me I'm still eighteen and it's still 1938."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Universal Card | ||
| A device that mimics every credit card and identification card you possess. |
In the world of Hyperion, hundreds of worlds are open via farcaster portals - a means of instantaneous transportation between worlds. There is no need to make sense of the financial systems in place in these worlds; they all accept the Universal Card.
Note: Be sure to see the Science Fiction in the News item about the Chameleon Card.
| If our society ever opted for Orwell's Big Brother approach, the instrument of choice for oppression would have to be the credit wake. In a totally noncash economy with only a vestigial barter black market, a person's activities could be tracked in real time by monitoring the credit wake of his or her universal card. There were strict laws protecting card privacy but laws had a bad habit of being ignored or abrogated when societal push came to totalitarian shove. |
| Technovelgy from Hyperion,
by Dan Simmons. Published by Doubleday in 1989 Additional resources -
|
In this society, there is almost no off-the-books cash or barter; every transaction is recorded. Surely, this is VISA taken to the logical extreme - and thanks to farcaster technology, it really is everywhere you want to be.
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and Technology from Hyperion
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Tech news articles related to works by Dan Simmons
Universal Card-related
news articles:
- Chameleon Card: Simmons' Universal Credit Card?
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Science Fiction
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
