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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear
 |
| Websight | ||
| A way of visualizing the Internet internally. |
In the novel, Caitlin is a typical teenager who loves the social aspects of the Internet. The fact that she is blind doesn't seem to slow her down.
Then, she tries an implant to help her see. Unexpectedly, the implant actually lets her internally "see" the Internet.
| "We need a name for what I've got, something to distinguish it from normal vision... "
"...I was thinking we should call it 'websight'" [said Kurooda.] "Website? Oh - websight." She clapped her hands together and laughed. He didn't get it, she realized. |
| Technovelgy from WWW: Wake,
by Robert J. Sawyer. Published by Ace in 2009 Additional resources -
|
Here's another quote that describes what is like from Caitlin's point of view:
This version builds upon previous uses of the idea. See cyberspace from William Gibson's 1982 short story Burning Chrome and portal from Vernor Vinge's 1981 story True Names.
Although each part of the Web she was was unique, it all followed the same general pattern: colored lines representing links, glowing circles of various sizes and brightness indicating websites...
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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.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
