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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons
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| Cardioplate | ||
| A device that could take seconds or minutes off your life, one beat at a time (or all at once). |
If you are caught late in this future society, you must answer to the Master Timekeeper - or as everyone calls him, the Ticktockman.
| EFFECTIVE 15 JULY 2389, 12:00:00 midnight, the office of the Master Timekeeper will require that all citizens to submit their time-cards and cardioplates for processing. In accordance with Statute 555-7-SGH-999 governing the revocation of time per capita, all cardioplates will be keyed to the individual holder and -
What they had done was to devise a method of curtailing the amount of life a person could have. If he was ten minutes late, he lost ten minutes of his life. |
| Technovelgy from 'Repent Harlequin' Said the Ticktockman,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Worse yet, if you were found to be consistently tardy, you might be told that as of a particular date and time, you would be turned off.
This idea precedes that of the palm flower from the 1967 novel Logan's Run by William Nolan and G.C. Johnson.
15-Sep-2011: Harlan Ellison is suing the makers of the fall film In Time for plagiarism. The film uses a similar idea; a measurement of life time remaining on the forearm.
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Tech news articles related to 'Repent Harlequin' Said the Ticktockman
Tech news articles related to works by Harlan Ellison
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
| Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue |
| 'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms |
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'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
