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"What has allowed so many Psychopathic Personalities to rise so high in corporations and government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Computer Translator | ||
| A computer translator; software that provides automatic translation when jacked into a data port. |
In Idoru, Chia journeys to Japan to meet with the fan club of her favorite musician. She overcomes the language barrier by using her customized computer (Sandbenders) and a variety of software and services.
| Chia used a public dataport in the deepest level of the station. The Sandbenders sent the number they'd given her for Misuko Mimura.. A girl's sleepy voice in Japanese came from the Sandbenders' speakers. The translation followed instantly. "Hello, yes?" "It's Chia McKenzie from Seattle." "Are you coming here now?" The voice began to explain the route. "It's okay," said Chia, "my computer can do it. Just give me your address." "Addresses in Japan are difficult." "I've got global positioning." The Sandbenders, working the Tokyo Telco, was already showing her Mitsuko's latitude and longitude. |
| Technovelgy from Idoru,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1996 Additional resources -
|
She leaves her bag partly unzipped to follow its prompts. As she continues in her journey, her computer translates what she hears around her like station announcements, demonstrating the capacity for speech recognition and translation.
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- LingoPhone Provides Mobile Translation
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| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
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| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
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'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
