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"I prefer working by artificial light."
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![]() This is perhaps the first science fiction reference to a hand-held electronic device that emulates some book functions. It comes in the context of a remarkable book.
The first reference that I can find to "electronic book" is in a description of the PLATO II system that ran on ILLIAC in 1961.
![]() (Description of electronic book system, 1961) (From the Digital Computer Newsletter: Office of Naval Research - Mathematical Sciences Division, Vol 13 #4) In practical terms, you can't have an electronic book without electronic text of books - and the first known electronic text of books was made available through Project Gutenberg. This project was started in 1971 when Michael Hart was given a substantial amount of computer time by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab by the University of Illinois. He envisioned the idea that computers could indefinitely store books and retrieve them for as many people who needed them, wherever they were. Speak of the devil - now Google has decided to put millions of books from libraries online - read about the Encyclopedia Googlactica. For an earlier reference, see the entry for the opton from Stanislaw Lem's Return From the Stars. See also the entry for runcible from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson. This item was contributed by Simon Smith. Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Giving Snakes Their Legs Back
Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to 'help them out.'
'Ring Nation' Show Predicted By William Gibson In 1999
'... you had your trademark Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column outside.'
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'It's an Indian Air Force drone; its solar cells could power an entire farm.'
Virtual Co-Embodyment - Two People Control One Virtual Body
'... we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first."
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'We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up...'
Experts Decry Planet-Scale Schemes To Limit Global Heating
'Light from the sun hit those little spheres and bounced.'
NAVER Labs Haptic Device 2.0 Robot vs. IKEA
'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
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