Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven
 |
| E-Document Distribution | ||
| A method of wirelessly distributing a document to a large group of people in an ad hoc setting. |
How many times have you been to a conference and heard "I'm sorry, I only made 250 copies of this paper - some of you are going to have to share."
At a conference in the novel, one of the speakers finds an online document. He distributes it to the others live.
| "Aha," Nielsen said. "I just found an interesting paper on continental weathering that supports what Stan says. Here, I'll pipe it to you."
People drew plaques and readers from their pockets and unfolded them to receive the document, drawn from some corner of the net by Nielsen's quick-and-dirty ferret program. Distracted from his recent desire to leave, Stan too began reaching for his wallet. |
| From Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
I'm constantly being promised that I will be able to walk up to a kiosk and hold out my device, and good stuff will be automagically beamed into it. This is a good early description of the electronic alternative to "Xerox the material, and give a copy to everyone."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Earth
More Ideas
and Technology by David Brin
Tech news articles related to Earth
Tech news articles related to works by David Brin
| Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) Workshop |
| Burner Generates Temporary Phone Numbers |
| HushMe Bluetooth Device Reinvents The Hush-A-Phone |
| Ubiquiti FrontRow Camera Records Your Life |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'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.'
