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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Logics | ||
| Machines that let you request information, and then display it for you on a screen. |
Everybody's got 'em and we're still findin' out what they can do. At least, that's what Leinster wrote in 1946. Still true today.
| I'm a maintenance man for the Logics Company. My job is servicing Logics, and I admit modestly that I am pretty good. I was servicing televisions before that guy Carson invented his trick circuit that will select any of 'steenteen million other circuits - in theory there ain't no limit - and before the Logics Company hooked it into the Tank-and-Integrator set-up they were usin' 'em as a business-machine service. They added a vision screen for speed - an' found out they'd made Logics...
 (Children watching the logic present animated cartoons) You know the Logics set-up. You got a Logic in your house. I looks like a vision-receiver used to, only it's got keys instead of dials and you punch the keys for what you wanna get. |
| From A Logic Named Joe,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Street and Smith in 1946 Additional resources -
|
This seems like a pretty good description of a web browsing computer for the home. Be sure to take a look at the entry for Tanks, to get a clear idea of what kind of information could be displayed. And don't forget about the Carson Circuit that would let you connect to any of millions of different information feeds.
Thanks to @SMOF for the graphic from the original publication of the story.
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'It's illegal to hold back information during a psyche test,' the machine said peevishly.'
Perfect for exploring ancient artifacts on distant planets.
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs over a slant of steep upland.'
'This was as close as a robot could get to a cop in uniform.'
'Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'They were stylish, with yellow-tinted lenses and hip frames, but the posts were unusually thick.'
