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"I think we're still on that topic, still trying to figure out what computers are, how they change us, why we use them."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| 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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'I'm afraid to tell you this Mr. Quaid, but you have suffered a schizoed embolism...'
'It drew its power from six square yards of sunpower screens on its low curved roof.'
'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters."
'Twenty rocket tugs towed it from its Earth hangar out into space.'
I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.'
