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"...a lot of people find adventure on the Internet. That's their idea of being interactive. My idea of being interactive is going on out and doing it on the street."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Cardioplate | ||
| A device that could take seconds or minutes off your life, one beat at a time (or all at once). |
If you are caught late in this future society, you must answer to the Master Timekeeper - or as everyone calls him, the Ticktockman.
| EFFECTIVE 15 JULY 2389, 12:00:00 midnight, the office of the Master Timekeeper will require that all citizens to submit their time-cards and cardioplates for processing. In accordance with Statute 555-7-SGH-999 governing the revocation of time per capita, all cardioplates will be keyed to the individual holder and -
What they had done was to devise a method of curtailing the amount of life a person could have. If he was ten minutes late, he lost ten minutes of his life. |
| Technovelgy from 'Repent Harlequin' Said the Ticktockman,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Worse yet, if you were found to be consistently tardy, you might be told that as of a particular date and time, you would be turned off.
This idea precedes that of the palm flower from the 1967 novel Logan's Run by William Nolan and G.C. Johnson.
15-Sep-2011: Harlan Ellison is suing the makers of the fall film In Time for plagiarism. The film uses a similar idea; a measurement of life time remaining on the forearm.
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
