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"I do think there is a link in that in both cases, writing fiction or writing a computer program, at any given moment you're focusing on a very specific and particular thing—one word, one line of code, whatever."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Stick-Tight | ||
| A general term for surveillance devices that will follow a subject and record speech or video. |
Vance provides an interesting variety of spy devices, both mechanical and animal.
| Suthiro knit his furry brown eyebrows in puzzlement, glanced for the most fleeting instant upward.
Gersen continued, "There is a stick-tight watching us, although I have not yet located it. Its microphone probably registers our conversation... |
| Technovelgy from The Star King,
by Jack Vance. Published by Berkeley in 1964 Additional resources -
|
According to Vance, the stick-tight comes in at least five different variations:
Thanks to an anonymous reader for providing the source and the quote.
You might want to take a look at a tiny modern-day device that seems to be just what Vance was talking about with his servo-optical stick-tight - the uFR-II micro flying robot. It even has image recording capability!
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Star King
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Vance
Tech news articles related to The Star King
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
Stick-Tight-related
news articles:
- Wing-Morphing Micro Air Vehicles
- Aeryon Scout UAV Gets Upgrades
- Eye-bot Lands On Your Ceiling
- Drones Stick Tight, Remember Your Face
| Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion' |
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
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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...'
