Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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
"The immediate problem with our meat brains is that they have no back-up. We can lose the most precious information we have from one bump on the head or stroke. You want a mind system with back-up that can access other databases."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Raisin | ||
| A small device like a hearing aid that fits inside the external part of the ear; combines an intelligent agent and wireless access to the network. |
John uses the "raisin" not just to be his helper, his intelligent agent in completing tasks on the network. He also uses it as his mentor; he relies on it for advice.
| The Jism [JSM] he spoke to was as much in the windshield or dashboard as it was in the small brown "raisin" he wore just inside his left ear.
Jism was the name John used for the nineteenth-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill. Sometimes a Jism image would flash on the windshield. John could glimpse the thin Englishman in his frock coat and see his bald forehead and blue eyes and thick dark sideburns. The tera-flop image still was not perfect on the windshield. And John did not like to think of Jism sitting apart from him or dangling above the Jeep on the highway. John liked to think of Jism as in the raisin. Then Jism lived with John in John's mind. The raisin talked to John and he could still talk to it when he left his Jeep or his desert home. The voice of Jism was always with him. John kept extra raisins in his pocket and wallet and in his desert trailer... John did not know if they had tried to decrypt his raisin. He could only hope that if they did then they would trip the raisin's self-destruct routines. |
| Technovelgy from Nanotime,
by Bart Kosko. Published by Avon Books in 1987 Additional resources -
|
The technology of hearing aids has come a long way since the versions of the 1960's that were the size of a portable cd player; see Digital Hearing Aids - the Way of the Future for more information on the receiving part of a "raisin."
John had trained his raisin using the works of John Stuart Mill. Apparently, the raisin is intelligent on its own, not just in contact with the network.
A sample quote from JS Mill:
"Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained."
An interesting analogue to this idea is the "Green Bullet" from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Nanotime
More Ideas
and Technology by Bart Kosko
Tech news articles related to Nanotime
Tech news articles related to works by Bart Kosko
| Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests |
| Google's Nano Banana Pro Presents Handwritten Math Solutions |
| Woman Marries Computer, Vonnegut's Dream Comes True |
| ChatGPT Now Participates in Group Chats |
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
