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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
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Thanks to Brad Templeton for the tip on this item, and Winchell Chung for pointing me at the right thread.
Another relatively early use of this phrase is in Niven and Pournelle's classic 1974 novel The Mote in God's Eye:
He put the instrument away...
See also this usage from their 1981 novel Oath of Fealty.
Apparently, they also included some sort of wireless link, because (elsewhere in the novel) it says that, when the officers were off duty, they "could always be reached on their pocket computers."
Another early mention of a small "pocket computer" or note-taking device with some mathematical functionality built-in is the calculator pad from Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
Asimov also mentioned a "pocket-computer" in his 1975 story Point of View.
As far as I know, the first pocket computer sold as such was the TRS-80 PC-1 in 1980. It weighed 6.0 oz., had 1.5 kilobytes of RAM, was programmable in BASIC and cost $230.
![]() (Radio Shack Pocket Computer PC-1) I should also mention the handbag computer from The Futurological Congress (1983) by Stanislaw Lem. Comment/Join this discussion ( 15 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
Robots Repair And Modify Themselves
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
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‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
Robots Learn To Install Charged Batteries Into Themselves
This is nothing new for science fiction fans!
LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea.
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
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