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"I just can't be politic. I never learned how to do that and I don't like doing that. I think it's false."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Scramble Suit | ||
| A superthin membrane upon which are projected the characteristics of a million different people, it confers instant anonymity. |
In the novel, narcotics officers wear these suits to disguise their appearance.
"Let's hear it for the vague blur!" the host said loudly...
"Now you will notice," the Lions Club host said, "that you can barely see this individual... because he is wearing what is called a scramble suit...
| The scramble suit was an invention of the Bell laboratories, conjured up by accident by an employee named S. A. Powers... Basically, his design consisted of a multifaceted quartz lens hooked up to a million and a half physiognomic fraction-representations of various people: men and women, children, with every variant encoded and then projected outward in all directions equally onto a superthin shroudlike membrane large enough to fit around an average human.
As the computer looped through its banks, it projected every conceivable eye color, hair color, shape and type of nose, formation of teeth, configuration of facial bone structure - the entire shroudlike membrane took on whatever physical characteristics were projected at any nanosecond, then switched to the next... In any case, the wearer of a scramble suit was Everyman and in every combination (up to combinations of a million and a half sub-bits) during the course of each hour. Hence, any description of him - or her - was meaningless. |
| Technovelgy from A Scanner Darkly,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1977 Additional resources -
|
As it turns out, they have artificial voices as well, leaving "in our minds no characteristics."
Here's an explanation of how this "technology" of Dick's was shown in the movie version of the book:
(Explanatory Scramble suit video from the movie version)
Compare the scramble suit with the optical effects suit from A Plague of Demons (1965) by Keith Laumer, the mimetic polycarbon suit worn by Panther Modern leader Lupus Yonderboy in William Gibson's Neuromancer, the Jodie grid from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson and the abglanz from The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Naylor.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Scanner Darkly
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to A Scanner Darkly
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Scramble Suit-related
news articles:
- PKD's Scramble Suit In A Scanner Darkly Movie Trailer
- Let's Hear It For The Vague Blur!
- Face Recognition Now Sees Through Disguises
- HyperFace Aims To Foil Facial Recognition
- Camouflage To Confound Face Recognition
- RealFace Glamoflage T-Shirt Like PKD's Scramble Suit
- CV Dazzle Anti-Surveillance Make-Up
- Project KOVR Fashion Protection From Infosphere
- Deep Learning Creates New Faces
- Adversarial Pattern Shirts Confound Object Detection Systems
- CGI 'Master Faces' Impersonate Several Identities
| Fabrican Dress Sprayed Directly Onto Model On Coperni Runway |
| Hip'Safe Airbag For Seniors, From Helite |
| iSphere Plastique Fantastique Face Mask Alternative |
| Inkjet-Printed Wearable Solar Cells |
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'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
