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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
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| Reciprocal Name | ||
| A nickname or familiar name used to specify a more completely defined full name and telephone number. |
Cell phone companies now offer this service. You can speed dial friends by using a name that is familiar to you ("Sue") to mean a specific data entry for your cell phone ("Susan Smith 777-888-9999").
This is yet another feature of the amazingly prescient Joymaker, the must-have PDA from this same story about a totally networked society.
| To use your joymaker as a telephone: You must know the ortho-name and identification spectrum of the person you wish to reach. Once you have given the information to the joymaker it will be remembered, and you can then refer to the person in later calls by a reciprocal name or any other personal identification programmed into your joymaker. |
| Technovelgy from The Age of The Pussyfoot,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by Ballantine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
I don't think that cellphone companies thought of offering this before the 1990's; can anyone think of an earlier reference?
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