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"Cyberspace is a metaphor that allows us to grasp this place where since about the time of the second world war we've increasingly done so many of the things that we think of as civilization."
- William Gibson

Mercy Rifle  
  Device fired slivers of anesthetic as darts.  

The goggled figure in front of the camp tent was cleaning a mercy rifle. By the time we were out of the car, he had closed it up and loaded it with inch-long slivers of anesthetic chemical. The slivers could be fired individually or in one-second bursts of twenty, and they dissolved instantly in anything that resembled blood. One type of sliver would usually fit all the lifeforms on a given world.
Technovelgy from Grendel, by Larry Niven.
Published by Ballantine in 1968
Additional resources -

Compare this idea to the needle pipe from the 1928 novel Beyond the Stars by Ray Cummings.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Grendel
  More Ideas and Technology by Larry Niven
  Tech news articles related to Grendel
  Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven

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