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"Science fiction is the very literature of change. In fact, it is the only such literature we have."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Interests Profile | ||
| An intelligent agent; a software program with your personal tastes on file. |
The interests profile is the only way to deal with the profusion of goods and services in a worldwide networked economy.
| "...Have you filled out an interests profile?"
"I don't think so." "Oh, do! Then it will tell you what programs are on, what parties you will be welcomed at, who you would wish to know. It's terrible to go on impulse, Charles," she said earnestly. "Let the joymaker help you." He discovered that his own teacup had been replenished and he took a sip. "I don't understand," he said. "You mean I should let the joymaker decide what I'm going to do for fun?" "Of course. There's so much. How could you know what you would like?" |
| Technovelgy from The Age of The Pussyfoot,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by Ballantine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
This is a remarkable prediction from Pohl; the interests profile along with the networked software applications that use it corresponds very closely to what were called autonomous "intelligent agents" in the 1990's.
Knowledge engineering Professor Nikola Kasabov provides the following description of an autonomous intelligent agent's feature set:
This also anticipates the Personal Interest Profile that Arthur C. Clarke mentions in his Fountains of Paradise about a decade later. See also the the personalized news from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911), by Hugo Gernsback, which had the idea of a newspaper printed based on general subscriber interests.
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Tech news articles related to The Age of The Pussyfoot
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl
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- Rity - Sobot Longs To Be Near You
- Web Services Wizard And Frederik Pohl's Joymaker
- Re Google: William Gibson, Read More SF
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You will note that HG Wells also figured out the aspect ratio of the future!
'As though a switch had been turned off, the pain stopped...'
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'
'... he realized that the moving thing inside was - of course - a robot.'
