Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Home | Dictionary | Timeline | New

Fine-Tune Your Infinite Book The Way You Want It

Science fiction author Doug J. Cooper suggests that artificial intelligence might help us to create stories that are fine-tuned to individual preferences and sensibilities.

SF writer Clifford Simak described a similar idea called a peeper in his 1957 story Shadow World:

...a peeper was nothing one should monkey with.

It was a simple thing to look at - like a lopsided pair of binoculars, with a lot of selector knobs on each side and on top of it.

You looked into it and you twisted the knobs until you had what you wanted and there was a picture. You stepped into the picture and you lived the life you found there - the sort of life you picked by the setting of the knobs. And there were many lives to pick from, for there were millions of combinations that could be set up on the knobs and the factors ranged from the lightest kind of frippery to the most abysmal horror.

('Shadow World' by Clifford Simak)

The peeper was outlawed, naturally - it was worse than alcoholism, worse than dope, the most insidious vice that had ever hit mankind. It threw psychic hooks deep into the soul and tugged forevermore. When a man acquired the habit, and it was easy to acquire, there was no getting over it. He'd spend the rest of his life trying to sort his life out from all the fantasied ones, getting further and further from reality all the time, till nothing was real anymore.

I squatted down beside the roller and tried to make some sense out of the knobs. There were thirty-nine of them, each numbered from one to thirty-nine, and I wondered what the numbering meant...

I pondered over the numbering, but pondering did no good. There was only one way to find out what I was looking for. So I set all the knobs back to zero on the graduated scales, then twisted No. 1 up a notch or two.

I knew that was not the way to work a peeper. In actual operation, one would set a number of the knobs at different settings, mixing in the factors in different proportions to make up the kind of life that one might want to sample. But I wasn’t after a life. What I wanted to find out was what factor each of the knobs controlled.

So I set No. 1 up a notch or two and lifted the peeper and fitted it to my face and I was back again in the meadow of my boyhood – a meadow that was green as no meadow ever was before, with a sky as blue as old-time watered silk and with a brook and butterflies.

And more than that – a meadow that lay in a day that would never end, a place that knew no time, and a sunlight that was the bright glow of boyish happiness...

...the peeper did not operate by virtue of its machinery alone, but by the reaction of the brain and the body of its user – that it was no more than a trigger mechanism to set loose the greatness and the beauty and the horror that lay within the user’s brain.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/11/2025)

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Artificial Intelligence ")

'AI Assistants' Are Actually Less Reliable For News
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1978.

Will AIs Give Better Results If You're Rude To Them?
'I said, "Listen up, motherf*cker.' - John Varley, 1983

Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'

Alexa+ And Its AI Brain Improvements
'What's it do?' he asked. 'It amuses.' Philip K. Dick, 1965.

	Web TechNovelgy.com

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago
'My cars talk to one another.'

Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'

X-Control Janus-1 A Suitcase Aircraft
'You will notice that it... fits the suitcase nicely.'

'AI Assistants' Are Actually Less Reliable For News
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'

YES!! Remote Teleoperated Robots predicted by Technovelgy!
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'

Will Robots Ever Fold Landry?
Where have you gone, Mrs. Robinson?

Will AIs Give Better Results If You're Rude To Them?
'I said, "Listen up, motherf*cker.'

Cybertruck Robotic Arm F10 Drone Launch!
Drone away!

Black Fungus Blocks Radiation
'You were surrounded by Astrophage most of the time'

Liuzhi Process Now In Use In China
'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'

Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'

Will Robots Become Family Caregivers?
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'

Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'

Time Crystals Can Now Be Seen Directly
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'

RoboBallet The Dance Of Cooperative Robots
'...an integrated seven-unit robot team.'

Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories