The Zap Gun (Project Plowshare) by Philip K. Dick:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

"Alien satellites hung In Earth's skies - and Man's solitary hope was a demented comic artist!" Stunningly original book by Dick in which weapons designers enter a drug-induced trance to design outlandish weaponry. The weapon designs are then "plowshared" into harmless civilian applications (this book was originally published as Project Plowshare). Highly recommended. Select an invention:

Autonomic Interviewer - pape's proxy
A robotic reporter.

Battery-Powered 3D Comic Book
A comic book the pages of which were animated by battery power.

Cephalic Pattern Door
A door that only opens for specific people.

Civic Notification Distorter - bit-rot weaponry
A device that subtly damages databases full of government information.

Cog Life
Life in the bureaucracy.

Death-rattle File
A cache of information set to destroy itself upon the death of its owner.

Garbage-can Banger
An elaborate noise-based weapon.

Handicloset - self-organizing
A self-organizing closet

N-e (Needle-eyeification) Weapon - absolute positioning precision
A class of weapons that had the most precise effect imaginable.

Orville
Ask it questions verbally, and this plowshared guidance system will compute an answer, and provide it telepathically.

Sheep Dip Isolator
A non-lethal malodorant weapon.

Thumb Print Phone ID
Verifying identity on a phone call with thumb print.

 

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