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"The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer. Day after month after year after story after book."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Automatic Speeding Fine | ||
| An automated device that not only computes the speed of a vehicle, but registers and then issues an electronic citation. |
Kerry Dale was in a hurry, so he told the gyrotaxi driver to step on it.
| ...out on the street Dale hailed a swift little gyrotaxi. "Gem Saloon!" he snapped. "And never mind the speed limits..."
"Here y'are, buddy." The gyrodriver came to a halt. "The Gem Saloon in four minutes flat. And I got me a fine, too. Doing a hundred an' twenty on a city street. See up there!" Kerry looked obediently at the little oblong screen above the dashboard. On it, flashing neatly, was imprinted a summons for violation of the traffic laws. The photoelectric eyes at each crossing had clocked the gyro's speed. As it passed the legal limit, the automatic mechanism recorded the offender's license, sent out the impulses that printed the summons in the offender's cab. |
| From Old Fireball,
by Nat Schachner. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Being a basically fair guy (the broad-shouldered, straight-talking protagonist of this space yarn), Dale paid the fare and the fine.
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'I had a small can of powdered alcohol disguised as tooth powder...'
'The jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers)...'
'It cut her out of the stream of vehicles and reduced the speed of her car...'
'A planet-wide chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
