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"We [science fiction writers] always wanted to believe in "private sector" space -- hucksters make better characters than a government does."
- Larry Niven
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| Boulder | ||
| A device that homed in on a person's brain wave pattern; a very specific assassination device. |
| The weapon which Herb Lackmore had been provided with contained a costly replica of the encephalic brainwave pattern of James Briskin. He needed merely to place the device within a few miles of Briskin, screw in the handle, and then, with a switch, detonate it.
It was a mechanism, he decided, which provided little if any personal satisfaction. |
| From Cantata 140,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1964 Additional resources -
|
This device is a perfect example of needle-eyeification, a concept that Dick elucidates with gusto in his 1965 novel The Zap Gun.
Compare this device to the mechanical cobra from Roger Zelazny's 1967 masterpiece Lord of Light
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'Give me an old-fashioned tetragon on a central pivot every time.'
